Tuskegee trying to extend SIAC dominance
LUT WILLIAMS
BCSP Editor
There's nothing better than two football teams going to battle with something
to prove.
That will be the scenario Saturday (1:30 p.m.) when Tuskegee (10-1)
and Virginia Union (8-2), winners respectively of the Southern Intercollegiate
Athletic Conference (SIAC) and Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association
(CIAA) regular season football titles, take the field for the fifth annual
Pioneer Bowl in Atlanta's Georgia Dome. 
Tuskegee, under head coach Rick
Comegy, is the defending black college champion and has a chance
to repeat with a win and quiet the critics who said last
year's 12-0 mark was not good enough to merit the
national crown over their I-AA black college brethren.
VUU, left out of this year's Div. II playoffs
despite two wins over two-time defending CIAA champ
Winston-Salem State, has another axe to grind.
VUU head coach Willard Bailey has been
quite vocal since his team's 31-24 win over WSSU on Nov.
10 in the CIAA title game. It wasn't long after that
Bailey started railing against the Div. II selection process
that snubbed his title-winning team while granting SIAC
co-champ Fort Valley State a spot in the 16-team field.
Included in Bailey's complaints, is the argument
that Tuskegee, who eschews the playoffs for a
Thanksgiving Day date with in-state rival Alabama
State, should not appear in the regional rankings that determine
playoff participants. That comment has caught the ear of
Comegy who has in turn shared it with his players. It's safe to
say the perceived slight has ratcheted up the intensity in
a matchup that didn't really need it.
The SIAC has a 3-1 advantage in the four-year
old bowl game matching teams from the two NCAA Div.
II black college conferences. Tuskegee is making its
fourth straight appearance in the game and has a 2-1 mark.
Virginia Union is making its first appearance in the
game and its first postseason appearance since 1991.
Additionally, Bailey, a 29-year coaching veteran and the
all-time leader in CIAA victories, is seeking his 200th career win.
Tuskegee is led by senior quarterback, Aaron
James, who has led the Golden Tigers to 46 victories during
his four-year career. Running back Bobby
Wilson, a transfer from Morris Brown, earned the SIAC Offensive Back
of the Year award after rushing for a school-record,
1,771 yards, tops among black college rushers.
Virginia Union relies on the legs and arm of
senior signal-caller Jason Thompson, MVP of the CIAA
title game, who has thrown for 13 TDs and run for three
scores. Freshman Larry Edwards has 941 yards yards on
the ground and seven TDs to lead the Panthers' ground attack.
VUU safety Ralph Hunter and Tuskegee
linebacker Kelvin Powell are all-America caliber players at
their respective positions. Hunter has ten interceptions and
blocked nine kicks this season. Powell, a two-time
SIAC defensive player of the year, had 98 total tackles.
© 2001 Azeez Communications, Inc.
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