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Quarterback hype high in '08
Old and new faces under center should make for intriguing 2008 gridiron season
LUT WILLIAMS
BCSP Editor
There were storylines aplenty as black college conferences completed their preseason football events last week.
There were a few surprises as the leagues unveiled their prognostications of how teams will finish and their preseason all-conference teams.
Not surprising however, was that quarterbacks and
quarterback play created the loudest buzz as coaches and their star players
gathered for the annual late summer ritual that symbols the ceremonial
beginning of the 2008 football season.
From Birmingham, site of Tuesday's Southwestern Athletic Conference confab, to Norfolk, where the Mid Eastern Athletic Conference wrapped up the week's activities Friday, the guys that are the triggers for their team's offenses were on center stage.
That was never more evident than at Thursday's Central Intercollegiate Athletic Associ-ation's media luncheon at Virginia State University's cafeteria where the league unveiled its "Conference of the Quarterbacks" theme with eight of the CIAA's signal-callers the only players on hand to tout their expectations for the 2008 season.
Perhaps no quarterback was more hyped last week than Virginia Union senior Lamar Little, who the league plans to tout as a Harlan Hill Trophy (NCAA Div. II National Player of the Year) candidate.
The exciting 5-11 playmaker, who passed and ran VUU to the CIAA title game and the postseason Pioneer Bowl a year ago, looks to follow up a brilliant junior season that saw him account for over 2,400 yards of total offense (1,885 passing, 539 rushing) and 31 touchdowns (22 passing, 9 rushing).
Little's Panthers were picked by the league's coaches to finish atop the CIAA's East Division. Defending champion Shaw was picked to repeat in the West.
In the SWAC, productive Southern
quarterback Bryant Lee, who passed for 2,326 yards, 23
TDs with only 4 
interceptions as a freshman, is the preseason
offensive player of the year. But there may be more of a national spotlight on
Texas Southern QB Bobby Reid.
The Oklahoma State transfer, once one of the most highly touted high school quarterbacks in the country, has returned to hometown Houston with a one-year shot to rekindle a career that went hay-wire at OSU culminating with a newspaper article questioning his toughness and a nationally publicized postgame tirade by OSU coach Mike Gundy questioning the article and the reporter who wrote it.
All eyes will be on Reid as he joins new head coach Johnnie Cole in the task of trying to turn around a TSU program that finished 0-11 last season.
Defending division champions Grambling State (West) and Jackson State (East) were picked by the league's coaches to return to the SWAC title game won by JSU a year ago.
Despite returning a solid defensive unit and being a solid
contender for the MEAC title over his
six-year career, one 
reason South Carolina State
head coach Oliver "Buddy" Pough's
Bulldogs are picked to win the league's title this year is
quarterback Malcolm Long.
The 6-4, 240-pound Long, a two-time South Carolina High School player of the year, is likely the most-heralded prospect to come into the MEAC since Casey Printers transferred to Florida A&M from Texas Christian in 2002. But Long didn't come via the transfer route. After sitting and learning behind mobile senior SCSU QB Cleveland McCoy last year, the strong-armed sophomore will be handed the keys to the Bulldog offense in hopes of leading Pough's squad to the title that has eluded it thus far.
South Carolina State was picked ahead of two teams that
return veteran quarterbacks that coaches feel are the best in the
conference. Defending champion Delaware
State, led by preseason second-team senior QB
Vashon Winton, was picked second by
the coaches while Hampton, led by preseason offensive player of the
year QB T.J. Mitchell, was fourth. Norfolk State
was the coaches third pick. The Southern
Intercollegiate Athletic Conference did not have
a preseason event but did unveil its coaches picks for 2008 last week
and a quarterback was again at the forefront.
Tuskegee QB Jacary Atkinson who led the Golden Tigers to the SIAC and black college national championship with a perfect 12-0 record last season while leading all of NCAA Div. II in passing efficiency, is back as the trigger man for the top team in the SIAC. Atkinson racked up over 3,300 yards in total offense (2,777 passing, 570 rushing) while accounting for 38 TDs (31 passing, 7 rushing).
© 2008 Azeez Communications, Inc.