Top match-ups open grid season
LUT WILLIAMS
BCSP Editor
It won't take long to find out how some NCAA Div. II black college football teams measure up this year. As the 2005 season kicks off this weekend, three teams jump right into the fire taking on 2004 playoff teams that are traditional Div. II powerhouse programs.
Fort Valley State, picked as one of the top
three teams in the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic
Conference (SIAC), has probably the most challenging
task as they head to Macon, Ga., to tackle the defending
Div. II national champion, Valdosta State.
Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) champion Shaw tests its reported mettle when it hosts Carson-Newman, the South Atlantic Conference champion who fell to Valdosta State in the second round of the 2004 playoffs. And Winston-Salem State of the CIAA, playing its last season of Div. II football, hosts SAC playoff participant, Catawba.
FVSU finished 7-4 a year ago and is hoping to duplicate what SIAC champ Albany State did a year ago and knock off Valdosta State, perhaps the nation's premier Div. II program. VSU, ranked first in the nation in several preseason polls and at least in the top three in all of them, leads the series 12-3 and has won the last five meetings including a 32-6 win in 2002. The 6:00 p.m. game, the second time the teams have met at Macon's Henderson Stadium, is billed as the Inaugural Gridiron Network Classic.
VSU head coach Chris Hatcher has compiled a 59-7 record in five years at his alma mater and made two appearances in the Div. II championship game. The Gulf South Conference champion Blazers, who also made it to the title game in 2002, broke through last year to win their first-ever national title with a 36-31 win over Pittsburg State. En route, they came from 24 points down at the half to beat Albany State 38-24 in a quarterfinal round rematch, avenging their only loss of the season, a 24-22 decision in the regular season.
Third-year FVSU head coach John Morgan, who has posted back-to-back 7-4 seasons, heads into Saturday's game minus his most potent offensive weapon from last season, running back Derrick Wimbush, now in the NFL at the Jacksonville Jaguars camp. Wimbush led all black college rushers last year with 1,840 yards, scoring 22 TDs, averaging 7.4 yards per carry and 167.3 yards per game. VSU's big losses include QB Fabian Walker (417-299-8, 71.7%, 3,062 yards, 23 TDs) and RB Tyran Robinson (213 car., 1,267 yds., 17 TDs).
SIAC Freshman of the Year, QB Willie Copeland (194-98-6, 50.5%, 1,291 yards, 12 TDs) is back to lead the Wildcats, who return 16 starters. Copeland has been battling back spasms recently and may play behind fellow sophomore Zedrick West Saturday. His VSU counterpart, Barrett Wilkes, sat out as a redshirt last season but threw for 3,269 yards and 26 TDs leading the Blazers to the playoffs in 2003. The Blazers return 12 starters but took key hits on the offensive line.
Coming off an excellent 10-2 campaign, their first CIAA football championship in 47 years, a Div. II playoff snub and a Pioneer Bowl victory over Tuskegee of the SIAC, head coach Deondri Clark's Shaw Bears are looking for more and they'll get it with their 1:00 p.m. matchup in Raleigh (Garner High School) against Carson-Newman. The Eagles finished 9-3 a year ago, losing to Valdosta State 38-12 in the second round of the D2 playoffs after beating CIAA representative Fayetteville State (35-14) in the opening round.
Clark has said his goal is to turn Shaw, playing only its fourth year since returning to the gridiron, into a national power. Going up against CNU, ranked 14th in one preseason poll, will tell him how far he is along in that process. Clark certainly has the horses to make a run at it.
The Bears return a whopping 20 starters, ten on offense and nine on a defensive unit that ranked as the nation's best in 2004. Junior QB Jermonty Kimbrough (237-97-10, 1,465 yards, 10 TDs) returns to lead the offense and will be aided by 2004 1,000-yard rusher Dion McIver and Byron Cary, who sat out last year after rushing for 914 yards in 2003. The defense is led by all-American free safety Torrance Nunnally and two-time all-CIAA cornerback Shawn Woodard.
With ten players selected to the preseason all-SAC team, Ken Sparks' Carson-Newman squad is again picked to win the conference title. RB Kiel Angry (626 yds., 5 TDs) is the leading returning runner on an offense that racked up 345 rushing yards per game last season, second best to Pittsburg State in Div. II. Linemen Shaji Jackson and Norris Wood key the Eagles' defense.
Any discussion of Winston-Salem State this year begins with its impending move to Div. I, I-AA in football, and the return of head coach Kermit Blount's two 1,000-yard rushers, 5-10 senior Martin Hicks (1,148 yds. 9 TDs) and 6-0 junior Jed Bines (1,137 yds., 12 TDs). Their play will be key to turning around the Rams' 4-6 record from last year which included losses to Carson-Newman and Tusculum of the SAC. The Rams take on Catawba at 6:00 p.m. at Bowman-Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem.
Catawba finished 7-4 last season falling in the first round of the playoffs to Arkansas Tech. The Indians are picked behind Carson-Newman in both the coaches and media polls in the SAC. RB Mario Crowe and WR Corey Ready are the offensive stars with DL Kolby Fisher and Marcus Huntley and LB Samario Houston anchoring the Indians' defense.
Amongst the key intra-conference games, in the SIAC, Albany State begins defense of its crown on the road at Miles (6:00 p.m.) while conference favorite Tuskegee opens at home vs. Stillman. Benedict and Morehouse hook up on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. in the first game of the season and the first nationally televised game to be carried by ESPNU.
The Golden Rams began their march to the 2004 title and an undefeated 11-0 regular season last season with a close 17-13 win over the Golden Bears. Miles regrouped after losing three of its first four games to run off six straight wins to end the season at 7-3.
Tuskegee's only losses were to Albany State and Shaw a year ago and looks to give Stillman a rude introduction to its first year of SIAC play.
In other games, two new coaches will hook up in the season's first classic game, the Capital City Foundation Classic in Topeka, Kansas that will pit Central State against Lincoln (Mo.). Head coach Theo Lemon will lead the Central State Marauders back into action after an eight-year layoff. Former NFL all-pro Lemar Parrish takes the reins at Lincoln after serving the past few years as an assistant.
© 2005 Azeez Communications, Inc.