Black college football to be live in '05
LUT WILLIAMS
BCSP Editor
The start of the 2005 black college football season is just two shorts weeks away and it begins this year with a bang!
The
rousing sendoff is the SIAC matchup of
Benedict and Morehouse in Atlanta on
Thursday, August 25 at 7:30 p.m. to be carried
live on ESPNU. It is the first nationally televised game of
the 2005 college football season and the kickoff of a new package
of a confirmed 11 games and possibly 10 more from
the SIAC, MEAC and SWAC
to be carried live on ESPN's new college network.
The ESPNU package includes six Thursday night games, one on a Friday afternoon, another on a Sunday afternoon with the bulk of the games on Saturday evenings (see TV Schedule).
But, unless you have Direct TV or start calling your local cable operator demanding that they put it on now, the telecasts may be hard to see. ESPNU is fighting an uphill battle for national distribution since its launch in March and is currently has 4 million subscribers, according to Clint Evans of the Symmonds Synergy Group who is marketing the package.
ESPNU's wider distributed sister station ESPN2, in about 60
million homes, will carry the much-anticipated new
SWAC/MEAC Challenge pitting defending SWAC
champion Alabama State against MEAC co-champion
South Carolina State on Saturday Sept. 3, live
from Birmingham's Legion Field (3:30 p.m.). ESPN Classic, broadcast
to some 50 million homes, will carry both the Pioneer Bowl
and SWAC Championship Game live.
The new deals with the ESPN networks, along with what is now a new four-game package with College Sports Television (CSTV), joins with traditional carriers BET (6 games), NBC (Bayou Classic) and the CIAA (3 games) to bring the total number of nationally televised black college games this year to 35, with the majority of them to be carried live.
But that's not all that'll be live about the 2005 season. Great teams, intriguing stories, shifts in and out of conferences and in the power rankings should keep us on the edge of our seats all season long.
Here are some examples of what to look for.
Returning Favorites?
From a talent perspective, three teams appear to be head and
shoulders above the rest: defending MEAC champ
Hampton, defending SWAC champ Alabama State
and Grambling State.
MEAC
Hampton finished at 10-2 last season tied atop the final
BCSP Top Ten with SIAC champ, 11-1
Albany State. Joe Taylor's Pirates ended
their season on a sour note however, losing in the first round of the I-AA
playoffs to William & Mary. Loaded with weapons on both sides of the ball
and on special teams, the Pirates are looking for more this year and are
the BCSP preseason number one team (see next week's edition). Their
chief competition is expected to come from South Carolina
State, who tied for last year's title with Hampton at 6-1
in conference play but lost to the Pirates in their head-to-head matchup.
SWAC
The Hornets of Alabama State broke through last year to end the
West Division's seven-year stranglehold on the SWAC title.
Charles Coe returns key players, especially at the
skill positions, that should get them back to the title game but they'll have to
battle rejuvenated teams in the East.
All-American QB Bruce Eugene suffered a season-ending knee injury in Grambling's first game last year. His return to a young, talented team that finished 6-5 last season without him makes Grambling the SWAC West favorite.
SIAC
Tuskegee came within a Hail Mary pass of spoiling Albany
State's perfect regular season a year ago. The Golden Tigers enter this year as
the coaches pick after the Golden Rams suffered heavy losses to graduation.
CIAA
Few picked Shaw to win the 2004 CIAA title and even fewer to knock
off Tuskegee in the Pioneer Bowl, but that's exactly what
Deondri Clark's troops did.
On the heels of those shockers the Bears are picked to repeat in the East with three-time defending champ Fayetteville State the choice in the West. But expect the CIAA to have black college football's most wide-open race.
Dynamic Duos?
Hampton's potent backfield tandem of
Alonzo Coleman (1,133 yards) and Ardell Daniels
(1,048) both topped the 1,000-yard rushing
mark last year, and are back for an encore. But
they are not alone.
The Winston-Salem State tag-team of
Martin Hicks (1,148) and Jed Bines (1,137) actually topped
the Hampton duo by 54 yards and will lead the Rams in their final year
of CIAA football.
Just behind these two pairs are Keldrick Williams
(1,167) and Robert Randolph (750) at
Alabama State and Antonio Atkins (744) and
Antwaan Andrews (758) at Albany State.
In total, eight 1,000-yard rushers return in 2005 led by the 1,191-yard total of Jason Jackson of Morgan State. Greg Pruitt (1,103) of North Carolina Central and DeShawn Baker (1,009) of South Carolina State round out the club.
Air Apparents?
If you're going to make a run at a title in black college football you
need talent and experience at the quarterback position and most of the
favorites, and a few others, have it.
Hampton has preseason all-MEAC QB, junior Princeton Shepherd at the controls. Alabama State features preseason SWAC Offensive Player of the Year, senior Tavaris Jackson running the show while Grambling has Eugene and sophomore Brandon Landers, who shined in his place as a freshman. Tuskegee boasts preseason all-SIAC signal-caller, senior Kevin Huff under center (see STAT CORNER).
But look out for Mississippi Valley State
junior QB Aries Nelson, who head coach
Willie Totten says can be as good as any in
SWAC history. North Carolina Central senior QB
Adrian Warren could be the catalyst for the Eagles rise to the top
in the CIAA. Last year's SIAC Freshman of the Year,
Willie Copeland will shoulder the load for
Fort Valley State's run.
Scheduling Quirks?
No one this year has a killer schedule like Florida A&M
had a year ago, but that doesn't mean some don't have tough
rows to hoe.
North Carolina A&T opens the season playing three games in ten days. The Aggies face NC Central in Raleigh on Monday Sept. 5, then battle Norfolk State at home on Saturday Sept. 10 before coming back to host conference favorite Hampton on Thursday, Sept. 15.
St. Paul's gets the title of Homecoming Queen for the 2005 season. The Tigers, entering CIAA play this season for the first time in 17 years, are the patsies teams looked to put on their homecoming menus. Of their ten-game schedule, Willard Bailey's troops are in three homecomings and three Classics.
Mighty Grambling's big date (Sept. 17) at Div. I Washington State is offset by the Tigers Nov. 12 matchup with tiny Concordia, playing its first year of football ever.
Comings and Goings?
While the CIAA is welcoming St. Paul's to the fold, it's saying
goodbye to Winston-Salem State. The Rams are moving up to Div. I status (I-AA
in football) and will not be eligible for the CIAA title after this season.
Stillman becomes the tenth football-playing member of the SIAC this season. Lincoln (Mo.), Claflin and Langston are SIAC "scheduling partners," meaning selected games on their schedules with SIAC schools will count in this year's conference standings. Rumor is, all are on their way to SIAC membership.
New head coaches are in at thirteen (13) programs and in every conference except the SWAC. Rubin Carter, the man who emerged after the recent shake-up at Florida A&M, is probably the most notable. Johnny Cole is the new man at Lane and brings with him his brother, former Tennessee State and Alabama State head man, L.C. Cole as defensive coordinator.
© 2005 Azeez Communications, Inc.