Southern, Alabama State to wrap '04 season
LUT WILLIAMS
BCSP Editor
SWAC East Division champion Alabama State needed some late-game heroics from their starters but took care of Arkansas-Pine Bluff Saturday to set up a showdown with West Division champ Southern in the league's Championship Game at Birmingham's Legion Field this Saturday.
Second-year head coach Charlie Coe's Hornets (9-2), already in as East Division champ and needing to knock off UAPB to prevent meeting the Golden Lions again at this Saturday's title game, found themselves trailing 14-0 just before halftime of Saturday's game. That's when Coe summoned starting QB Tavaris Jackson from off the bench.
Coe was attempting to rest Jackson, SWAC rushing leader Keldrick Williams, who did not even dress for the game, and others but had said he would not hesitate to use them if the Hornets were in danger of losing the game. Well, they were.
Jackson threw two second-half TD passes to wideout Reginald Glover and then put the cap on the comeback by running in from 21 yards out with just six seconds left to earn the Hornets a 21-14 win and set up the rematch with Southern, the only SWAC team to beat them this year. It will be the final game of the 2004 black college football season.
Southern beat Alabama State two times last year, once during the regular season and again, 20-9 at last year's championship game. They were the team that Coe and the Hornets wanted to play.
"I didn't want to enter the title game with two losses in a row," said Coe, whose team dropped a 27-17 Thanksgiving Day decision to Tuskegee.
"We wanted Southern because they've beaten us three times in a row. They're the champion and they say to be the best you've got to beat the best."
In their Oct. 2 meeting this year, Southern came from 20 points down (34-14) in the second half, scoring on a 31-yard pass with two seconds left in the game to pull out a 42-41 victory.
Southern will be going for its second straight title and the sixth straight in the championship game for the West Division. Southern won the first title game in 1999 before Grambling State under Doug Williams won the next three.
Southern head coach Pete Richardson is the dean of SWAC coaches now in his 13th year leading the Jaguars.
Both teams will come in with a host of injuries to key players. Southern will likely be relying on a fourth-string running back and has other key losses on defense. Alabama State's secondary was missing three starters for the UAPB game and has at least four other defensive starters who are questionable.
"It's a matter of which team can paste a team together," said Richardson.
The Jaguars will have signal-caller Thomas Ricks, picked last week as the SWAC's offensive player of the year. Ricks threw for 407 yards completing 24 of 38 passes with no interceptions and for five touchdowns in the earlier meeting this season. He also led all Jaguar rushers with 61 yards.
ASU's all-conference tailback Williams, who ran for 111 yards and touchdowns of 42 and nine yards in the first game, is expected back for the title game. He was nursing a sore ankle. Jackson, who threw for 248 yards (17 of 30) and two touchdowns with no picks in the first game will return to his starting role.
ASU linebacker Ronald "Rock" Dillon, chosen last week as the SWAC's defensive player of the year, was told by doctors this week that there was not break in an ankle he injured Saturday. He is probable for the title game.
© 2004 Azeez Communications, Inc.