State Fair Classic Football
The G-Men take to the road in Texas Saturday riding a three-game winning streak. Photo by Marcus Plummer
GRAMBLING - Momentum is palpable with Grambling State ahead of its conference opener against Prairie View A&M at the State Fair Classic Saturday at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.
Winners of three straight games, including last week’s 41- 20 blowout of Jackson State, GSU ( 3- 1, 0- 0 SWAC) officially opens SWAC competition with another opportunity to flex its defensive muscles against a Prairie View team struggling to find itself.
The Panthers (1- 3, 0-2 SWAC) have given up the third most sacks in the league (16) and have the 8th scoring offense (17.5 points per game) and 10th rushing offense (83.8 yards per game) in the SWAC as well. On paper, it screams opportunity for Grambling to feast on a poor offense, with the Tigers leading the FCS in interceptions (9), defensive touchdowns (4), and total takeaways (15) after four games.
But GSU head coach Mickey Joseph, as well as defensive coordinator Jason Rollins, won’t hear how this week sets up to be a cake walk. Yes, the Tigers are off to their best start since 2017. But coaches aren’t about to let the success stop here, not at the expense of the Tigers thinking wins are a given now. Dominant teams show up the same every time. And Joseph has worked all week with his team to have them prepared just like it was last weekend’s showstopper against JSU.
“We have the 24-hour rule on our team, win or loss. So, we’ll get them refocused and back to work and move on to the next stop sign,” Joseph said. “And this stop sign is like last week where it’s got a lot of noise around this game. We gotta block all that out and not get caught up in the sideshow.”
GSU may have the edge in overall record, but Prairie View has shown recently to have the G-Men figured out, beating the Tigers in five of the last six matchups.
Joseph knows in HBCU Classics, throwing out records is usually the best approach.
“Their record doesn’t reflect how good of a team they have. They’re well coached. I think Bubba ( McDowell) is doing a good job. Some things just haven’t gone their way yet,” Joseph said. “But we respect them, and we’ve got to stay humble in a classic that’s been played for a long time. We gotta be ready to play and treat every opponent the same.”
GSU looks to carry over its high level of play against Jackson State to this weekend, starting on the ground after Ke’Travion “Bull” Hargrove rushed for 81 yards and 2 touchdowns — both career bests in college. He finished with 108 total yards, the most by a GSU tailback this year. Prairie View comes in allowing 162.5 rushing yards per game.
When GSU doesn’t have the ball, Tiger fans shouldn’t fret because they can get it back in the blink of an eye. The G-Men forced Jackson State into 5 turnovers — the most in the series since 2014 — to put them over the edge in a second half that remained close in the early goings. The Tigers have made stark improvements on the defensive side since last year, going from just 14 interceptions in 11 games in 2023 to nearly 10 in four games this fall.
The turnaround has come thanks to high level play at each level, particularly at linebacker, led by Brenden Barley, who leads the FCS with 3 interceptions alone. Fellow linebacker Andrew Jones leads the SWAC in tackles ( 38) and has a team-best 6.5 TFL as well.
Jason Rollins, GSU’s defensive play caller, isn’t surprised by the number of takeaways for his unit this early in the season.
“ You get what you emphasize. We talk about it every day,” Rollins said. “We chart every strip attempt. Every time we touch the ball, it’s charted. We have drills set up for takeaways. Coach Joseph has certain segments of practice designed for protecting the football and taking
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the ball away. It’s what we emphasize and we’re getting a lot out of it.”
Kickoff for Grambling State against Prairie View A&M is scheduled for 6 p.m. The game will be streamed live on ESPN+.
