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Columbia, SC -- In a prepared statement, former Gamecock offensive lineman Quintin Richardson announced that he was leaving the University of South Carolina to pursue an education at Hampton University. He called his time as a Gamecock, "the most rewarding experience of my life." Richardson said that he would continue to pursue his collegiate football career at Hampton University.
Here they go. When Monday morning came, full-blown game-week preparations began for the Southern football team, and the players and coaches could almost feel the first kickoff coming. They practically tingled with excitement. Right?
That long-awaited season opener in Orlando, Fla., against Delaware State. That first game under new coach Stump Mitchell. No more two-a-days. No more grunt work. The MEAC/SWAC Challenge is close at hand, and the Jaguars and Hornets play at 11 a.m. Sunday — on ESPN, no less.
Miles football coach Billy Joe has the reputation of an offensive mastermind, built mainly during an 11-year stint at Florida A&M when he employed what he dubbed the "Gulf Coast Offense." It is Joe's version of the spread attack and FAMU had great success running it. The Rattlers were one of the highest-scoring teams in the nation in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision during his tenure.
But in Joe's first two years at Miles, his offense has yet to take flight. The Golden Bears averaged only 10.8 points per game in his first season in 2008 and only 16.4 points in 2009. Predictably, Miles suffered through losing seasons, compiling records of 2-8 and 4-7.
Jackson State released its two-deep depth chart Monday, with the only surprise being B.J. Lee's placement atop the running back position. Lee, a transfer from SMU and a former Ridgeland High star at tailback, beat out a handful of competitors. So why Lee? "Great vision. Outstanding speed, and he's real tough," coach Rick Comegy said. "Speed kills."
The 5-foot-7, 185-pound sophomore beat Alfred Moreland (listed as No. 2), Tommy Gooden, Jewrad Smith, Luther Edwards and Terrence Davis for the spot. "I worked hard all summer," Lee said after Monday's practice. "We've all been working hard. We've got great backs."
GRAMBLING, LA — When Greg Dillon was denied a sixth year of eligibility by the NCAA earlier this month, the quarterback race at Grambling State University became wide open.
Freshman Anthony Carrothers has emerged. Generously listed at 5-foot-10 and 180 pounds, the Independence High (Charlotte, N.C.) product will make his college debut at Independence Stadium on Saturday against Louisiana Tech in the Port City Classic. "He's just made plays," Grambling head coach Rod Broadway said Monday.
Carrothers threw for 4,028 yards and 36 touchdowns for Independence High (Charlotte, N.C.) last year. He finished high school with 10,775 passing yards, second in Mecklenburg County and state history behind former University of ...
What looked like a full-speed effort toward holding the Legacy Bowl has apparently slowed down for now.
On Monday, Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Commissioner Dennis Thomas said the conference's executive council is still involved in the vetting process on the viability of the joint venture with the Southwestern Athletic Conference. It now appears a final vote on whether to participate in the ESPN-sponsored postseason football game will not take place in the fall as Thomas previously indicated, but instead will be pushed to as late as March 2011.
The news comes six days after a teleconference with council members and a week after Thomas sent a response letter to ....
Jeremy Perry, a transfer from Middle Tennessee State, will get his first start at quarterback for Tennessee State in the season opener Saturday against Alabama A&M at LP Field. Perry, a 6-foot-3, 215 pound, junior from Memphis, transferred from MTSU in 2008 and spent last season at TSU backing up Calvin McNairl and Dominic Grooms. He played five games and completed 12 of 36 passes for 142 yards with no touchdowns and three interceptions.
"We feel that Jeremy gives us the best chance to win at this point," Coach Rod Reed said. "He has been the most consistent throughout camp, and he deserves the job. He worked for it and earned it."
McNairl, who started eight games and led TSU in passing (628 yards) and rushing (920), moved to wide receiver in the spring. Grooms, a senior from Tampa who transferred from Missouri in 2008, started three games and completed 22 of 66 passes for 279 yards, with no scores and four interceptions.
Delta State is considered a dark-horse contender for the NCAA Division II national championship.
The 24th-ranked Statesmen can make a huge statement on Saturday at 4 p.m. against Jackson State at Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium in Jackson. The Statesmen are no strangers to facing Football Championship Subdivision teams. The Statesmen (5-5 last year) shocked the Tigers 27-15 in their last meeting three years ago. Jackson State, however, recovered and eventually won the SWAC championship. Delta State reached the D-II quarterfinals.
“We’re excited and ready to go,” Statesmen coach Ron Roberts said. “Last year left a bad taste in our mouths. We have a good nucleus of guys ready to erase that and compete. We’ve got our work cut out for us.”
Morgan State coach Todd Bozeman will have a lot of new players to work with during the 2010-11 season. Reggie Holmes, the Bears’ career scoring leader, has exhausted his eligibility, along with versatile wing Troy Smith and reserve big men Buford Foote and John Long.
Point guard Danny Smith, meanwhile, is still in school but not on the roster. And sources say guards Sean Thomas and Joe Davis are also off the team. Thomas and Davis are reportedly facing a situation similar to that of former UNLV forward Matt Shaw. Despite those departures, Bozeman has a talented group of veterans returning in addition to a promising group of newcomers. Morgan State has three scholarship freshmen on its roster...
Skeptics are calling this a "lost season" for Savannah State University's football team. The Tigers will not play any games on campus. Of their 11 games, nine will be on the road because of construction to T.A. Wright Stadium. The two home games will be played at Memorial Stadium, school officials confirmed Tuesday. SSU will not play a full Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference schedule until 2011.
But to the players and coaches who have devoted countless hours preparing for this game they love, there is nothing "lost" about this season.
"There are a lot of folks that have low expectations of us," said Darren Hunter, a senior defensive back from New Orleans. "That's what they did with the Saints as well, and the Saints came out and proved them wrong. We at Savannah State University, we're going to come out there and do the same thing."
TUSCALOOSA, AL - Heading into his senior season with the Stillman College football team, Michael Ricks isn’t sure if he can match his touchdown total from a year ago. His main goal is to prevent touchdowns. Ricks, 6-foot-2 and 193 pounds, will start at free safety for the Tigers, who begin their season on Sunday with a game against Miles College. The Labor Day Golden Classic is set to start at 6 p.m. at Birmingham’s Legion Field.
Ricks was a strong safety last season. He tied for third on the team in scoring with four touchdowns, two on fumble returns and two on interception returns. He also ranked fifth on the team with 42 tackles. “I want to get a championship in the SIAC, and I want to get a whole lot of interceptions to make my team better,” said Ricks, who was named to the preseason All-Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference team. "
If you did not get the opportunity to travel to Charlotte, North Carolina this weekend for the first "Sprite Queen City Battle of Bands," we have the entire FAMU Marching 100 show here for your viewing pleasure. Just my informed opinion, the Marching 100 is in mid-season shape both in their musicality and precision marching. Finally, football season is here again!
Tallahassee, FL - During a two-hour football kickoff, Florida A&M President James Ammons declared Saturday afternoon that the Rattlers will return to their title-winning ways. Ammons proclaimed South Carolina State's dominance of FAMU will end.
"They have been around here all summer, they've performed in the classroom, they are working out and they've done everything coach and his staff have told them to do," Ammons said. "Now it's time to shake, rattle and roll."
Through all of the celebration of another season being here, the crowd took 10 seconds to be silent in memory of former band director William P. Foster, who died earlier in the day.
Ammons delivered his pep talk in front a large, sold out crowd in a huge building at the Leon County Fairgrounds....
After three separate recruiting campaigns over the span of nearly five years, Morgan State football coach Donald Hill-Eley finally has his man. Now, running back Jourdan Brooks is out to prove the wait was worth it. Once considered by many to be Ray Rice's heir apparent at Rutgers, the redshirt junior transferred to Morgan during this past offseason in search of a starting job. Hill was happy to oblige.
"He finally came on the third try," said Hill-Eley, who twice recruited Brooks out of Seneca Valley High as a linebacker. Running back, however, is where Brooks made his mark with the Scarlet Knights, racking up nearly 800 yards and 10 touchdowns in his two seasons in the Big East, including three 100-yard games.
GRAMBLING, LA — Although the Grambling State football team has survived fall practices in decent shape and is now headed into game-week preparations, coach Rod Broadway isn't convinced his team is ready for the 2010 season. "We've done a lot of things good, but not good enough," Broadway said on Saturday. "We need more consistency in the things we're doing. We'll be good for a series and not-so-good for a series."
Not that the veteran coach is worried that his Tigers will be ready to play when they open the season against Louisiana Tech at 6 p.m. on Saturday in Shreveport's Independence Stadium against. History awaits GSU, Louisiana Tech
Louisiana Tech University is just a Terry Bradshaw Hail Mary pass away from Grambling State University. And it's a good bet if the Grambling Tiger Marching Band tried hard enough it could rattle the walls at Tech's Cottingham Hall with the rhythm of its thunderous bass and vibrant horns.
But in the football world, the 3 miles that separates these campuses might as well have been 3 million. The schools have chosen to stay clear of each other on the gridiron. History will be made Saturday in Shreveport as the Port City Classic at Independence Stadium features the first battle between "good friends and good partners."
WHAT: Port City Classic WHO: Grambling vs. Louisiana Tech WHEN: Saturday, 6 p.m. WHERE: Independence Stadium TICKETS: $20-$32; $10 (Groups of 20 or more)
Amid the many wins and losses of a season - any season - we're so often reminded that the results take a bad seat to the people playing the game.
That has been demonstrated in the Football Championship Subdivision in recent days. Amid the many announcements of who's in at quarterback and who will or won't be available for the fast-approaching season-opening games came uplifting news from Princeton and sobering reality at Grambling State involving a pair of Tigers.
Savannah, GA - The Savannah State Tigers will rely on Senior Justin Babb to provide an offensive spark for the offense. Babb is back after leading the team in rushing a year ago. The Tigers open up the season September 4th at Georgia Southern.
Tuskegee begins its 2010 season on the heels of unprecedented success. From 2000 to 2009, the Golden Tigers have won seven Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championships, including the past four in a row. They have recorded two undefeated seasons and won two black college national championships.
Tuskegee has beaten its biggest rival, Alabama State, six straight times and 10 of the past 11 in the annual Turkey Day Classic. The Golden Tigers have won 23 straight games at home, the last home loss coming in 2004. The bad news for Tuskegee chasers is that this domination is expected to continue. Coach Willie Slater's 2010 squad returns 57 letter winners and is picked by coaches to win the SIAC for a fifth straight time.
South Carolina State coach Buddy Pough and his football team have been in this situation before, looked upon as lambs about to be led in for slaughter. The Bulldogs, however, do not look the part. Georgia Tech’s season-opening opponent may be a Football Championship Series program, but the Bulldogs have a chip on their collective shoulders. Those are big, veteran shoulders.
Senior quarterback Malcolm Long is 6 feet 1 and weighs 262 pounds. His offensive line goes 310, 330, 280, 290 and 310. Just as importantly, that line includes two fifth-year seniors, a senior and two fourth-year juniors. The Bulldogs have won 19 straight conference games and back-to-back titles in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, were named black college champions last season and again rest atop that poll. They have big plans for Saturday in Bobby Dodd Stadium.
Southern’s football season will begin Sunday in Orlando, Fla., against Delaware State at Citrus Bowl Stadium — the same place where LSU’s 2009 season ended. When the Jaguars arrive, however, they’ll find the playing conditions to be much, much nicer. LSU’s game, a 19-17 loss against Penn State in the Capital One Bowl on Jan. 1, was best remembered for the sloppy, muddy field conditions, caused by heavy rain and freshly planted sod that didn’t have time to take hold.
On Sunday, Southern won’t have to worry about any of that. Thanks to newly installed artificial turf, the Jaguars will play on a clean, even, mud-free surface. During the offseason, the city of Orlando paid to remove natural grass from the stadium and replace it with GameDay Grass 3D, a modern version of plastic grass manufactured by AstroTurf.
It is only four days away, so if you don't have tickets (or aren't planning on getting them) for the Hurricanes' home opener Thursday against Florida A&M, make sure your computer is ready. The 7:30 p.m. game will not be televised, but will be carried on the Internet at ESPN3.com , formerly ESPN360.
The Hurricanes recently unveiled a new ticket package for the FAMU game, called the ``Michael Irvin 4-for-$47 Deal.'' Irvin wore No. 47 when he played for the Hurricanes. The four-ticket package is available online only at HurricaneSports.com or Ticketmaster.com . The offer is available through Wednesday. Fans need to enter the code `Irvin47' when prompted for the package. UM season tickets and individual game tickets are still available at HurricaneSports.com or by calling 1-800-GO-CANES.
FAMU Marching 100 at Charlotte, North Carolina's Sprite Battle of the Bands 8/28/2010.
HUNTSVILLE, AL - Alabama A&M's football program was at a crossroads nine years ago. The athletics director at the time, the late Jim Martin, convinced that A&M had outgrown NCAA Division II and the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, led the Bulldogs to NCAA Division I-AA in football and Division I-A in all other sports and into the Southwestern Athletic Conference.
He hired Ron Cooper, a local product who virtually grew up on campus, played at Jacksonville State and later coached at Notre Dame and Louisville, to put A&M's football program on the map. Cooper did a good job, but could have done better had it not been for all of his off-the-field projects. When he left after going 22-23 from 1998-2001 and leading A&M to a berth in the 2000 SWAC championship game, Martin needed someone that could improve what Cooper had built.
As promised folks, take a spin around Norfolk State’s schedule from Rutgers in Week 1 to Savannah State in the finale.
Rutgers primer Here’s a look at all you need to know about Rutgers heading into Thursday’s opener. In summary, the defense could be one of the best in Division I, they own an incredibly dangerous wide receiver (and a bunch of questionable ones) and the major question for their season seems to be how quarterback Tom Savage will operate without any training wheels. From the Newark Star-Ledger.http://www.nj.com/rutgersfootball/index.ssf/2010/08/looking_ahead_to_the_2010_rutg.html
North Carolina A & T working through penalties Seems like none of the big-boy papers cover A&T, but this is a pretty nice job by the school’s student paper. The program is working through some limitations placed on its program through poor academic performance. Depth will be an issue, but likely not against the Spartans, who play A&T before the injuries should be a problem.http://www.ncatregister.com/mobile/aggie-football-moving-forward-from-penalty-1.2307661
Dr. William P. Foster arrived at Florida A&M University a year after World War II ended and spent the next half-century building the school's marching band into a world-famous phenomenon. Under his tutelage and baton, the Rattlers' "Marching 100" wowed crowds during hundreds of halftime shows, marched at President Clinton's inaugural parades and was the only American band invited for the French bicentennial celebration in 1989.
Foster, whose musical talent blossomed early, died Saturday in Tallahassee. He was 91.
"I can attest to the fact that what he created was magical," said FAMU President James H. Ammons. "It was the marching band, at an Orange Blossom Classic in Miami, that sparked my interest in attending FAMU. "The band was dynamic, larger than life and something that I wanted to have access to even though I was not a musician," Ammons said in a statement.
Anthony Foster said his father had his students memorize the music rather than read it off sheet music attached to their instruments. That freed them up to perform precise dance routines while they played or marched in elaborate formations.
The announcer is the late Mr. Charles S. Bing, Associate Director of Bands and my lower brasswinds professor of music at FAMU. I will share some of my experiences with Doc Foster and the Marching 100 next month. Take care Rattlers everywhere...
Jackson, TN - First-year Lane coach Derrick Burroughs said last week that if the players buy into the new system and attitude, the Dragons will have a chance in the fourth quarter. The Dragons appeared to buy in and had their chance in the final period, but an old bugaboo surfaced — turnovers.
Clark Atlanta score two defensive touchdowns in less than a minute, changing a 6-6 tie into a 20-6 lead, which was the final score of Burroughs' first game as a head coach Saturday night at Lane Field. Redshirt freshman quarterback Tahj Dent threw an interception to Michael Bradshaw, who returned the pick 51 yards for the score to give the Panthers a 13-6 lead with 10:34 remaining. Dent rebounded with a 28-yard run to place the Dragons in Panther territory at the 37-yard line. But a Panthers' defender blew up an attempted handoff, causing a fumble that Andre Wicker returned 63 yards for a touchdown and a 20-6 lead.
ELIZABETH CITY, NC- Elizabeth City State held off an upstart Johnson C. Smith football squad for a 45-27 win in their season opener at Roebuck Stadium Saturday evening.
After holding a 24-7 lead at the intermission, the Golden Bulls seized the momentum in the second half reeling off 14 unanswered points via two touchdown tosses from Golden Bull quarterback Ryan Carter. The Vikings got some much needed breathing room on the Golden Bulls' next drive when an errant Carter pass was picked off and returned 33 yards for a score by Devon Price with and 3:40 remaining in the third quarter the Vikings led by ten, 31-21.
ECSU extended their lead in the fourth quarter when Cedric Blacknall's first of two rushing scores capped an 11 play, 82 yard drive with 12:29 left in the contest. JCSU (0-1, CIAA 0-1) broke the scoring plane again on a 3-yard touchdown run by Archie Barrow at the 7:32 mark. However all hopes of a late comeback were dash when Billy Wiggins returned the ensuing kickoff 65 yards to the Golden Bull 30 yard line, setting up a 3 play drive which Blacknall finished with his second 3-yard TD of the evening for the final point spread.
FAIRFIELD, Ala. — With its starting quarterback, running back and left tackle all injured for the season opener against Miles, Fort Valley State knew its defense had to dominate. Miles quarterback Carlton Hill can attest that the Wildcats did just that.
A relentless Fort Valley State defensive front seven kept Hill under pressure all game and helped limit the Golden Bears to 141 yards of offense in a 24-3 road victory Saturday. “Offensively, we knew we were going to struggle,” Fort Valley State head coach Donald Pittman said. “Defensively, we knew we were going to control the game.”
Hill never could get comfortable in the pocket while completing 16-of-33 passes for 135 yards. The Wildcats entered halftime with only 36 yards passing, couldn’t sustain scoring drives in the final two quarters and finished the game with minus-3 rushing yards.
Columbia, SC -- In a prepared statement, former Gamecock offensive lineman Quintin Richardson announced that he was leaving the University of South Carolina to pursue an education at Hampton University. He called his time as a Gamecock, "the most rewarding experience of my life." Richardson said that he would continue to pursue his collegiate football career at Hampton University.
