11-0 Hampton gets No. 3 seed, hosts Richmond
LUT WILLIAMS
BCSP Editor
Mid-Eastern Athletic Confe-rence champion Hampton completed the only undefeated season in NCAA Div. I-AA football Saturday with a 44-6 win over Savannah State and was awarded Sunday with one of the top seeds in the national playoffs.
The two-time MEAC champ Pirates (11-0), received the MEAC's automatic bid and will host the University of Richmond (8-3), the Atlantic 10 co-champion, in the first round of the NCAA Division I-AA playoffs this Saturday (Nov. 26) at Armstrong Stadium. The Pirates earned the No. 3 overall seed in the field-of-16 championship field announced Sunday.
Two-time MEAC runner-up South Carolina State, who finished 9-2 for the second consecutive year, was again left out of the playoffs.
Hampton or Richmond will face the winner of the Furman-Nicholls State game in the quarterfinals. If Hampton wins the first round game over Richmond it would also host the quarterfinal game.
This marks the third time a MEAC team will play at home in the first round. Florida A&M played host to Troy State in 1998 and Bethune-Cookman was host to Florida Atlantic in 2003.
Hampton captured its second consecutive MEAC title and fourth overall while going undefeated (8-0) in conference play. This marked the second time the Pirates were undefeated in league play. They were 7-0 in 1997 when they won their first MEAC title. The last team to go undefeated in conference play prior to this season was N. C. A&T, who finished 8-0 in 1999.
Richmond bounced back from a 1-3 start to win its final seven games and earn a share of the Atlantic 10 championship with No. 1 seed New Hampshire. The Spiders finished 7-1 in the A-10, including Saturday's 41-7 victory over William & Mary.
The Pirates finished the season with a dominating performance in thrashing winless (0-11) Savannah State. In the game, senior RB Ardell Daniels rushed for 142 yards to join junior RB Alonzo Coleman topping the 1,000-yard mark for the second year in a row. Daniels finished the season with 1,015 yards and nine TDs while Coleman, the MEAC's top rusher, had 104 yards and two TDs Saturday to finish the season with 1,309 yards and 19 scores.
Rushing defense is the strong suit for Richmond. The Spiders give up just 115.8 rushing yards per game, second best in the A-10 and 18th best nationally.
The RB duo will lead a Hampton offense that averages 33.2 points per game and a rushing attack that is eighth best in the nation at 251 yards per game. QB Princeton Shepherd (126-70, 1,018 yds., 8 TD, 5 ints.) will start for the Pirates but has been spelled in each game by Antwan Smith.
Hampton has excelled defensively, leading the nation in scoring defense (11.82 ppg.) while finishing fifth in total defense (263.5 ypg.), second in pass efficiency defense (83.78) and fourth in pass defense (139.36 ypg.). The Pirates will have to contend with a Richmond offense led by QB Stacy Tutt, who has passed for 1,964 yards and 14 TDs and run for 665 yards and another 10 scores, both tops on the team.
Hampton senior Andrew Paterini and Richmond junior Joseph Fore are two of the top placekickers in the nation. Paterini has hit on 19 of 27 field goals and 43 of 44 PATs while Fore has converted 15 of 19 field goals and 29 of 32 PATs.
Three Classic games all but finish out the regular season _ Thursday's Turkey Day Classic in Montgomery, Al., Friday's re-scheduled Labor Day Classic and Saturday's Bayou Classic on NBC moved from New Orleans' Superdome because of Hurricane Katrina to Houston's Reliant Stadium.
© 2005 Azeez Communications, Inc.