A&M claims first SWAC grid title
LUT WILLIAMS
BCSP Editor
BIRMINGHAM, AL _ The fourth time in the SWAC Championship Game was the charm for Alabama A&M as the Bulldogs (9-3) shut down the high-powered Arkansas-Pine Bluff offense to secure a 22-13 win in the eighth edition of the game before a crowd of 30,213 at historic Legion Field Saturday.
It was fifth-year A&M head coach Anthony
Jones' lucky third championship trip and his
troops came through this time, holding the SWAC's top rated offense to a
title-game low 122 total yards. UAPB (8-4), in its first championship
game appearance, got 44 of those yards on an early second-quarter TD
pass from back-up QB Jonathan Moore to all-SWAC wideout
Jason Jones that put them up 7-6. They
would not mount another scoring drive until the game's final two minutes.
A&M would cash in on three field goals by freshman placekicker Jeremy Licea and control the ball by racking up 189 rushing yards of a total offensive output of 346 yards to snap the Golden Lions' seven-game winning streak and claim the school's first-ever SWAC football title.
"I can't describe this feeling," said a teary and Gatorade-drenched Jones on the field after the win. "I've been a champion in the NFL (Washington '87), but this here is a very, very special moment."
Jones lost to Grambling twice in the title game, 31-19 in 2002 and last year's 45-6 thumping. A&M also lost to Grambling in the 2nd SWAC title game in 2000 under then head coach Ron Cooper.
After getting doused on the field with his second Gatorade bath, a jubilant Jones shouted, "That don't bother me 'cause we're SWAC champs," as he raised both hands in victory.
In a more subdued postgame press conference Jones praised the defensive effort.
"We basically shut them down in the first half. Except for one play, their offense really didn't exist. They come back in the second half and get their offensive player of the year, and our defense played great. We put tremendous pressure on them. We never gave them an opportunity to get in rhythm."
Basically, in a matchup of the SWAC's best offense (UAPB) against its best defense (A&M), the defense won.
"Today was a bitter end to a great season," said UAPB head coach Maurice "Mo" Forte whose team was picked to finish fourth in the West Division but knocked off perennial division kingpins Southern and Grambling to finish the regular season on a seven-game win streak that included a 23-21 decision over A&M on Oct. 28.
"When you can't muster any offense, when you can't generate any kind of continuity in our offense, this is what happens," said Forte. "They had a great game plan coming in and they were able to shut us down almost completely on offense."
That A&M pressure started early when Moore was sacked by defensive tackle Christopher Traylor, one of six Bulldog sacks on the day, in the game's first possession forcing a UAPB punt. A&M got the ball and drove 43-yards in 12 plays but Licea's 28-yard attempt was blocked by A&M defensive back Kelvin Moore.
They kept up the pressure on the next UAPB possession as A&M outside linebacker Antonio Nelson sacked Moore at the UAPB 15 and forced him to cough up the ball. Avery Moland pounced on it at the 14. Four plays later Licea got the game's opening points on a 28-yard field goal with 1:54 left in the first period.
Moore, playing in place of starter Chris Wallace who was suspended from playing in the first half of the title game for fighting in the Golden Lions' last regular season game vs. Texas Southern, redeemed himself and gave Pine Bluff a 7-3 when he connected with Jones on the first play of the second quarter. A&M would again mount a long march before halftime, going 74 yards in 13 plays before Licea connected from 35 yards out to send them into the break trailing 7-6.
The second half would see the debut of Wallace, the SWAC's offensive player of the year, but he got off to an inauspicious start. His first pass of the game, on his fourth play from scrimmage, was picked off by Nelson at the UAPB 41.
Four plays later, aided by a 15-yard personal foul penalty for an out-of-bounds late hit that knocked A&M starting QB Kelcy Luke from the game, RB Tamar Scott scampered 14 yards around the left side to give the Bulldogs a 12-7 lead. Back-up QB Stanley Allen was stopped on a two-point conversion attempt.
"That's what makes this moment so special," said Jones of how his team rallied behind Allen, who would go on to lead the Bulldogs for the rest of the game.
"We get to the point where you count on a guy like Kelcy, who's your leader on the field. But Stan jumped in there and finished that drive. The guys on the offensive side got energized, and our defense, as impossible as it sounds, took it up to another level. They were already playing exceptional football, but when Kelcy went down, they stepped it up to another level and Arkansas-Pine Bluff's offense could not match that level."
Allen. who had not taken a snap from center all season, led them to Licea's third field goal with two minutes left in the third quarter and then engineered a six-play, 53-yard fourth quarter drive, including a 32-yard completion to Kevin Francis, that led to their final score, a five-yard Scott run with 8:35 left that all but sealed the win.
Wallace was intercepted for the second time in UAPB's next possession, but after stopping A&M, the left-handed senior led them to one final push. He hit Jones with a nine-yard TD strike to get the Lions within 22-13 with 1:37 left. His pass attempt at a two-point conversion failed as did the ensuing on-side kick and A&M ran two plays to run out the clock.
Scott, who rushed for 53 yards on 11 carries and had the two scores, was chosen as the game's most outstanding offensive player. A&M linebacker Johnny Baldwin, a three-time all-conference defender, took home the outstanding defensive player award after amassing 11 total tackles including two sacks.
NOTES: The attendance of 30,213 was the championship game's
fifth largest crowd and fifth to top the 30,000 mark. Almost two-thirds
of the fans seemed to be on the UAPB side of the field.
GOING OUT A WINNER: The title for A&M
comes on the last radio broadcast for veteran Bulldogs'
radio play-by-play announcer, Ike Rooks. The
75-year old 1950 A&M graduate has been
handling broadcasts of Bulldog football since 1960, a
total of 458 games. He has called the games for 11 different
A&M coaches. "The powers that be said it's time for a change," Rooks said.
© 2006 Azeez Communications, Inc.