Tuskegee goes for perfect season
LUT WILLIAMS
BCSP Editor
Losses last weekend by MEAC champion Delaware State and SWAC West champ Grambling State have opened the door for undefeated SIAC champ Tuskegee to move to the top of the latest black college rankings.
The Golden Tigers (11-0) can secure their second perfect season since 2000 and likely the
eighth black college national championship in their storied history by knocking off
CIAA runner-up Virginia Union (9-2) in the 10th
annual Pioneer Bowl to be played Saturday (2 p.m.)
at the new Charlie F. Johnson Stadium at
Benedict College in Columbia, S.C.
Tuskegee has been the most dominant team of the 2007 black college season defeating its opponents by an average score of 45-12. The Golden Tigers had not really been challenged prior to their regular season-ending shootout with rival Alabama State (64-58, 3 OTs) of the SWAC at last Thursday's Turkey Day Classic in Montgomery, Al.
The only other team to challenge Tuskegee was SIAC runner-up Albany State, who came from behind to lose by a respectable 40-28 score back on Oct. 20. Tuskegee beat the rest of their opponents by at least 23 points.
Tuskegee will be going up against a Virginia Union squad that was nearly as dominant at Tuskegee, winning its first five games and rising as high as fourth in the BCSP Top Ten before losing to Elizabeth City (23-14) on Oct. 13. The Panthers went on to run the table, claiming the CIAA East Division title before surrendering a 10-point fourth quarter lead to lose a heart-breaking 31-24 double-overtime decision to Shaw in the league championship game. That loss cost VUU an NCAA Div. II playoff berth and landed them in the Pioneer Bowl.
VUU third-year head coach Arrington Jones, III, brings the Panthers to their second Pioneer Bowl appearance. Willard Bailey was the Panthers head coach when they lost to Tuskegee, then under former head coach Rick Comegy, 28-0 in 2001.
Second-year head coach Willie Slater, who has now won back-to-back SIAC titles, returns his team to the Pioneer Bowl. Tuskegee defeated CIAA representative Johnson C. Smith 17-7 in last year's game. It will be their third straight appearance and eighth overall. Tuskegee is 5-2 in its previous appearances.
The annual CIAA vs. SIAC postseason matchup moves to Columbia and Benedict's new stadium after a two-year stop in Charlotte's Memorial Stadium. The game was played one year (2004) in Mobile, Al., four years at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, and began with its first two years at Herndon Stadium at Morris Brown College in Atlanta. The game was not played in 2002.
This year's game will feature two high-powered offenses led by two dynamic junior signal-callers.
Both Tuskegee's Jacary Atkinson and VUU's Lamar Little were offensive players of the year in their respective leagues are equally adept at running or passing the football.
Atkinson, a right-hander, led an offense that averaged 44.0 points per game, throwing for 2,693 yards (244.8 ypg.) with 31 TDs and just eight interceptions while completing 59.3% of his passes. His 188.0 passing efficiency was the best in all of NCAA Div. II. Atkinson rushed for another 514 yards and six TDs.
Little, a lefty, had numbers not as gaudy as Atkinson's but still very impressive. He passed for 1,885 yards (171.4 ypg.) with 22 TDs and only ten interceptions in an offense that averaged 30.8 points per game. He was also prolific as a runner tallying 539 rushing yards and another nine TDs.
And they have other weapons.
VUU senior RB Elihu Smith led the CIAA in rushing with 967 yards in ten games while T. Donaldson racked up 697 yards and nine TDs. The Panthers topped the league rushing for 225.9 yards per game. Richard Fitzhugh, John Pacsley and Stephen Freeman combined to rush for 1,261 yards and 17 TDs to compliment Atkinson in the Golden Tigers' SIAC-leading ground attack (244.1 ypg).
Atkinson's primary target, speedy wideout Jason English, led all SIAC receivers with 13 TD catches. He finished with a league-best 24.8 yards per catch average on 35 receptions and led the league in scoring with 84 points. Phillip Taylor (39 rec., 9 TDs) and Michael Hampton (33 rec., 17.1 yard average) are Little's top receivers.
With so much offense, the defenses aren't bad either. Tuskegee's led the SIAC giving up just 230 total yards per game, just 73 per game on the ground. VUU's defense surrendered 263 yards per contest.
PREDICTION: Tuskegee 38, VUU 20
© 2007 Azeez Communications, Inc.