Weekend gets season into full swing
29 games include rivalries, ten classics, four TV game, three internet broadcasts and much more
LUT WILLIAMS
BCSP Editor
There's a full schedule of 29 black college games on tap this weekend ready to whet the appetite of rabid football fans. The festivities begin Thursday with two games followed by a schedule of 27 games from Saturday all the way into Monday.
There'll be scintillating and telltale Classic games, games on TV and the internet, fierce backyard rivalries, debuts of new coaches as well as intriguing inter- and intra-conference battles.
There's a little something for everyone as the 2007 season gets into full swing.
Rivalries
Backyard rivalries have become staples for many programs at the beginning and end
of seasons. Among the more intriguing ones to begin the season are Saturday's match-ups
of North Carolina A&T at
Winston-Salem State, Virginia State at
Norfolk State, Grambling State at
Alcorn State and Texas Southern and
Prairie View A&M .
WSSU vs. NC A&T
The A&T/WSSU match-up (6 p.m., Winston-Salem) brings together teams
rekindling their one-time fierce North Carolina I-40
rivalry. The two played last year for the first
time since 1999 and that result, a 41-14 blowout
win by WSSU, only added to the fire. WSSU was in the first year of its move out
of the CIAA to join A&T in NCAA Div.
I-AA but the Rams put a whipping on the Aggies, cutting through the Aggie defense for
282 rushing yards and four TDs. It was the beginning of a winless 0-11 season for A&T
under new head coach Lee Fobbs, the first
winless season in Aggie history.
Fobbs has added key personnel, particularly on defense, that should make the Aggies more competitive. He'll also look for better production from QB Herbert Miller and an offense that averaged only 14 points per game last season. Miller is returning to his hometown of Winston-Salem for the game.
WSSU head coach Kermit Blount returns senior QB Monte Purvis and gets back his top three rushers from last year and former 1,000-yard rusher Jed Bines, who sat out last season because of academics.
Unless the Aggies can stop the run, look for more of what they got last season.
PREDICTION: WSSU by 17
Norfolk State vs. Virginia State
Norfolk State broke a three-game
losing streak with last year's season-opening
29-14 win. The Spartans trail in the series
26-17-1. Virginia State opened the season
Saturday with a 52-21 loss to nationally ranked
Carson-Newman.
Prolific quarterback Casey Hansen will lead the NSU offense along with RB Darryl Jones. Hansen led all MEAC passers with 2,166 passing yards a year ago. Jones rushed for 359 yards last season and led the Spartans with 9 TDs.
VSU was pounded by Carson-Newman for 446 rushing yards en route to its
opening day loss. Three VSU quarterbacks accounted for 274 passing yards and each threw a TD
pass but it wasn't enough. The Trojans could
muster only 35 rushing yards in 29 attempts. VSU quarterbacks were sacked five times.
PREDICTION: NSU by 14.
Alcorn State vs. Grambling State
This is former N.C. Central head
coach Rod Broadway's debut at Grambling
State and he couldn't be stepping into a more
fierce rivalry.
This perennial season-opener was played at the end of the 2006 season and saw Johnny Thomas's ASU squad deliver a 21-14 loss to Grambling which proved to be the coup de grace for former Grambling coach Melvin Spears. GSU finished 3-8 last year after winning the 2005 SWAC title.
Alcorn State is hungry to get back to
elite status in the SWAC and Broadway's young troops at GSU are the first obstacle in the
way. The ASU defense features a quartet of outstanding linebackers led by all-SWAC
standout Lee Robinson. The game also features two
of the SWAC''s top receivers in ASU's Nate Hughes
and GSU's Clyde Edwards. GSU QB Brandon Landers
is the top returning passer in the SWAC.
PREDICTION: Alcorn State by 7.
Texas Southern vs. Priairie View A&M
The Houston-area SWAC rivalry pits teams likely fighting for their coaches' jobs.
Both TSU's Steve Wilson and PV's Henry Frazier are in their fourth years and each has made strides towards making their teams competitive in the SWAC. In the year each is looking to make a breakthrough, they are each other's first hurdle.
Frazier returns eight starters to the
offense and the defense including seven fifth-year
starters. The Panthers' defense was first in total defense in the SWAC last season. Wilson
returns skilled players in Tino Edgecombe
at QB, Brent Wilson at RB and Daniel Davis
at WR. Edge to TSU.
PREDICTION: TSU by 3, in a close one.
Out-of-Conference
There'll be no bigger results watched this weekend than with teams that battle tough
out-of-conference foes.
MEAC favorite South Carolina State has the unenviable task of travelling to Div. IA Air Force in Colorado Springs, Colorado (2 p.m.) It's the first of two IA road matchups for the Bulldogs this season. They play at South Carolina on Sept. 15.
MEAC third choice Delaware State has a tough date off the bat hosting Coastal Carolina (7 p.m.), ranked 23rd in the preseason Sports Network FCS Top 25.
Jackson State, a championship contender in the SWAC, hosts Delta State (6 p.m.), a Div. II power that knocked off BCSP co-No. 1 and CIAA champ North Carolina Central and CIAA runner-up Elizabeth City State in last season's NCAA playoffs.
Four-time SIAC champ Albany State (1-0), fresh off a win over NC Central Saturday, travels to face nemesis Valdosta State (7 p.m.) in a game to be streamed on the internet by CSTV.
CIAA favorite Elizabeth City State kicks off its season hosting South Atlantic Conference contender Catawba (6 p.m.). That game will also be streamed by CSTV.
ESPN Classic will televise the fourth annual SWAC/MEAC Challenge pitting Southern of the SWAC vs. Florida A&M of the MEAC at Birmingham's Legion Field at 2 p.m. Saturday. Southern head coach Pete Richardson is trying to turn around the Jaguars fortunes after back-to-back losing seasons.
First-time SWAC champion Alabama A&M has a tough date as it travels to Nashville to take on a good Tennessee State squad.
NC Central and Fayetteville State, who both lost close openers last week, play Sunday in Durham, N.C. at 4 p.m.
In conference play, Mississippi Valley State hosts defending West Division champ Arkansas Pine Bluff in a SWAC game to be carried on CSTV live at 1 p.m.
Morehouse and Fort Valley State, fresh off conference victories Saturday to open their seasons, tangle in Atlanta (7 p.m.) in another key SIAC game. Miles and Tuskegee meet Sunday in Birmingham in another SIAC match-up at 6 p.m.
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