Jackson State's Tony Hughes ready for big opportunity

JACKSON, Mississippi -- Jackson State's Tony Hughes spent his 31-year coaching career as an assistant waiting for an opportunity to be a head coach, something he’ll achieve Thursday night against UNLV.

Although the enormity of the moment hasn’t hit him yet, he believes his 10 years in the Southeastern Conference will help him through any nerves.

“I’m prepared mentally, physically, spiritually, because I’ve coached in tough environments for the last 10 years,” Hughes said. “Some of those environments, I would go out there on a Saturday and say, ‘What the hell am I doing here? Oh, my God.’”

The challenge for road teams playing in UNLV’s Sam Boyd Stadium isn’t as much as it is in Alabama’s Bryant Denny Stadium or LSU’s Tiger Stadium, two venues Hughes is familiar with during his time at Ole Miss (three seasons) and Mississippi State (seven seasons).

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Alabama State’s Jylan Ware never far away from home

MONTGOMERY, Alabama -- Alabama State senior offensive lineman Jylan Ware doesn’t have many long road trips left in his Hornet career.

The 6-foot-8, 295-pound redshirt senior is a three-year starter on a line that has produced three consecutive seasons of more than 2,000 rushing yards while twice leading the SWAC in rushing (2013, 2014).

Ware, a native of Valley, Alabama, will once again be an important piece of an experienced line that hopes to once again carve out enough holes for a running game that has become the staple of the Alabama State attack.

“You can’t do anything if you can’t run the ball,” Ware said. “You can’t pass. You can’t set up screens. We’ve made the run a huge part of our offense and we have to be able to do it consistently.”

Valley might be a smaller town compared to Montgomery in terms of population, but Ware says Alabama State football has a very strong presence in the community.

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'Canes DE Trent Harris expected to play vs FAMU despite broken hand

MIAMI, Florida -- The Hurricanes defense – already reeling after this weekend’s dismissal of two top players – will have to deal with another challenge now that one of its projected starters is hurt.

Junior Trent Harris, listed as one of the Miami’s starters at defensive end, broke his hand and went to see a doctor for the issue on Tuesday, his mother Betsy Harris told the Orlando Sentinel. She also said the expectation, though, is that Harris will be able to play Saturday when the Hurricanes open their season against FAMU on Saturday at Hard Rock Stadium.

That would be a positive development for Miami, which will be without defensive end Al-Quadin Muhammad and linebacker Jermaine Grace for the season after the school determined the pair committed NCAA violations in their dealings with a local luxury car rental agency.

Muhammad was projected to start at defensive end ahead of Harris after leading the Hurricanes with five sacks last year. Grace, meanwhile, was Miami’s leading tackler with 79 stops in 2015.

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S.C. State readying for Central Florida, tough early schedule

ORANGEBURG, South Carolina -- South Carolina State head football coach Buddy Pough held his first press conference of the 2016 season on Monday as he begins his 15th season in charge of the Bulldogs program.

He made it clear that the coaches and players are fully focused on what may be the toughest opening four-game road schedule of any S.C. State team in the program’s history. It includes three consecutive Football Bowl Subdivision opponents.



The Bulldogs will open the season on Saturday at 7 p.m. inside Bright House Networks Stadium (a 44,000-seat venue also known as The Bouncehouse) in Orlando, Fla., against Central Florida. From there, S.C. State will spend much of September on the road, playing at Louisiana Tech (Sept. 10), Clemson (Sept. 17) and MEAC opponent Florida A&M (Sept. 24).

It looks to be the toughest early schedule in the Pough era, ranking as a bigger challenge than the 2012 season when S.C. State opened with a 33-6 win against Georgia State before losing to Bethune-Cookman (27-14), Arizona (56-0) and Johnny Manziel's Texas A&M team (70-14).

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Sneak Preview of What's Ahead This Season in HBCU Football

GREENSBORO, North Carolina -- This should be an exciting year in black college football. It seems like just about every historically black college conference has some great teams and players. All the better to attract a tremendous amount of interest from the fans around the country.

North Carolina A&T State University is the team to beat in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC). The Aggies are ranked No. 1 in the preseason SBN Sports Network Black College Football Poll. N.C. A&T is also ranked No. 25 in the STATS FCS Media top 25 Poll and the NCAA FCS Coaches Poll. The Aggies earned a share of the MEAC title last season. They won the Celebration Bowl, defeating Alcorn State University, 41-34. In that game, N.C. A&T running back Tarik Cohen rushed for 295 yards and scored three touchdowns.

Cohen, a 5-foot-7, 179-pound senior, led the conference in rushing with 977 yards. He was the conference leader in rushing yards per game (122.1), all-purpose yards per game (141.1) and nine touchdowns. He is the MEAC preseason offensive player of the year.

Bethune-Cookman University is also expected to ...

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Alcorn State ready for Bethune-Cookman in MEAC/SWAC Challenge

LORMAN, Mississippi -- Alcorn State is just 5 days away from playing in the national spotlight. I had a chance to watch the Braves work out this afternoon.

Fred McNair's crew are in the MEAC/SWAC Challenge. The matchup with Bethune-Cookman is dubbed the Battle by the Beach. Purple and gold are thrilled to have another chance on the national stage.



QB Lenorris Footman had a big 2015 as Alcorn won their 2nd straight SWAC championship. He said playing on ESPN is "very exciting. Growing up, you always want to see yourself playing on TV, let your family see you playing on TV. It's just a very humbling experience. All the glory goes to God."

Marquis Warford will play all over the field, the versatile RB/WR wants to make a statement. "Too excited that we get to go out there and show what we can do. Last time we wasn't about to show what we could actually show because we started off slow. But this is the year that we're going to be ready."

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Morgan State hoping to get pass rush back on track this season

BALTIMORE, Maryland -- The Morgan State football team's defense finished 2015 ranked in the upper half of the 11-team Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference in total yards and first downs allowed per game. But if there was one aspect that rankled defensive coordinator Mike Fanoga, it was the unit's inconsistent ability to pressure opposing quarterbacks.

"Last season, that was one of our weakest areas, and we've got to get better at it," said Fanoga, who has been working with new defensive line coach Antonio James on improving the pass rush. "We were young last year, and we still have the same group. And now that we've got Coach James, he's doing a tremendous job with the guys on the field working on the pass rush. We're focused on and concentrating more on getting to the quarterback."

The Bears managed just 23 sacks in 10 games last fall, a total that ranked sixth in the MEAC. They still ranked second in the league in pass defense, giving up just 164 yards per contest and 11 touchdowns through the air. But the unit's production in the sacks department was a dramatic drop from the program-record 33 sacks the 2014 squad posted.

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