After many years of wrestle, Prairie View A&M is atop the SWAC. The squad’s new problem? Staying there.
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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Before arriving on the Southwestern Athletic Conference’s the ball media day in July, Prairie View A&M play-caller Tremaine Jackson watched an previous video of the Panthers dealing with Alcorn State.
The quarterback on the display belonged to a different period, however Jackson didn’t want an introduction. The footage was from the early Nineteen Nineties, when Alcorn State, led by Steve “Air” McNair, beat Prairie View 4 consecutive instances by a median of fifty factors — although in these days, it didn’t take a future NFL MVP quarterback to run the Panthers off the sector.
That was the Prairie View of Jackson’s childhood. Born in Houston in 1983, he grew up lower than an hour from campus because the Panthers endured an NCAA-record 80-game shedding streak from 1989-98. Yet someplace inside these years, a former Prairie View play-caller provided a warning that sounded extra like prophecy.
“It ain’t going to always be like this,” the previous play-caller mentioned, based on Jackson. “Eventually, we’re going to get it together.”
Three many years later, Jackson sat beneath the media-day lights as proof. Last year, his first as head play-caller, Prairie View completed 10-4, received its first SWAC top spot since 2009 and reached the Celebration Bowl for the primary time. Though the Panthers misplaced in 4 overtimes, merely reaching the top spot recreation in Atlanta meant that they had achieved one thing as soon as bordering on unimaginable.
“I knew that other Prairie View,” Jackson mentioned. “But it ain’t like that anymore. … This is a different time in our program, a different era.”
The new period carries a special form of burden. Prairie View spent years attempting to flee its historical past. Now the squad should stand up to expectations as defending convention champions and the preseason SWAC West favourite.
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Prairie View athletic director Anton Goff can already sense the skepticism ready behind the reward.
“I think a lot of people don’t think we can do it [win the SWAC title] again,” he mentioned.
Jackson doesn’t entertain the language of defending something. He rejects the notion that the Panthers have change into the hunted — even after declaring post-Celebration Bowl that any squad in search of the convention title must come via Prairie View, Texas.
“There’s no target on our back,” Jackson mentioned. “It might be somebody else who placed it there, but we don’t feel that way. We feel like we’re in the mud. We’ve got to find a way to get ourselves out of the mud.”
That mud is the place Jackson desires his gamers — removed from trophy pictures, preseason votes and reminiscences of Atlanta. Last year’s tradition rested on Jackson’s “DOG” ideas: self-discipline, obedience, grit. This squad inherits the slogan, not the accomplishments.
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Prairie View welcomed 64 newcomers this offseason, together with 58 transfers, replenishing a roster that misplaced 12 starters. Seven departed from a protection that led the SWAC, permitting 17.9 factors per recreation general and 13.4 in convention action. Five starters left an offense that lastly discovered a rhythm late within the year, scoring a minimum of 30 factors in 4 of its final 5 regular-season video games.
Production will be changed on a depth chart. Bonds can’t. Last yr’s squad survived shut calls and the friction of a brand new employees as a result of by year’s finish, their connection had grown stronger than the discomfort round them.
“Us as coaches, we can draw up all the fun stuff in the world, but it doesn’t matter if your players can’t play together,” defensive coordinator Brandon Andersen mentioned. “I think that was where [the defense’s] end-of-the-year success really came from.”
Now, Prairie View should train dozens of newcomers how the final yr’s squad received, and solely then ask them to assist victory once more.
The returners function the bridge. They bear in mind Jackson’s first fall camp from a yr in the past, the blunt corrections and the strain that comes when a brand new employees tears away previous habits. They additionally bear in mind the place the method led.
“Some people might say he is old-fashioned in his coaching,” vast receiver Rodny Ojo mentioned of Jackson. “Some people might be like, ‘Man, he doesn’t actually love you.’ But if he’s not ripping you a new one, if he’s not giving you tough love, he doesn’t really love you.”
Last year, Jackson introduced a number of gamers to Prairie View from Valdosta State, the place he had coached beforehand. They have been veterans of his strategies who gave Prairie View’s holdovers a residing image of his customary. This summer season, Ojo and the returning gamers have assumed that function.
“I think we’re more player-led this year, and I’m glad we went through what we went through last year,” Ojo mentioned. “There’s a majority of us that have already went through it to know what it takes to win in Atlanta. Now, we just have to get everybody on board.”
Jackson received the SWAC top spot final fall in his first year at Prairie View, however he rebukes the concept this yr’s squad is “defending” something.Justin Ford / Getty Images
Every newcomer begins camp as a anonymous squad member, stripped of the outward privileges that always accompany popularity — no jersey quantity, gloves or socks. Not even a full declare to being a Panther.
“You’re just the basic default player [as] if you were playing a video game,” mentioned Trent Earley, affiliate head play-caller and co-defensive coordinator.
The gear returns in phases. A athlete who suits throughout the the ball program earns his quantity and equipment.
“Once we know that you’re fully invested, your teammates are following you and you’ve shown leadership qualities, there’s no doubt that you’re one of us,” Earley mentioned.
Jackson’s employees manufactures pressure earlier than opponents can present it. Bodies ache via the lengthy days of camp. Patience thins. Players compete for roles, confront errors and reveal themselves when fatigue makes pretending troublesome.
“We’re not afraid of failure,” Andersen mentioned. “You need to go through some bumps and some bruises to get better. If the first time you go through adversity is on game day, you’re going to be in trouble.”
Prairie View realized that lesson in public final year.
The squad began 2-2, surviving Texas Southern on the ultimate action of the Labor Day Classic, shedding to Texas Rio Grande Valley and Rice, and narrowly outlasting Northwestern State. The Panthers then received 4 straight video games earlier than a Nov. 1 loss to Alabama State uncovered how far they nonetheless needed to climb. The recreation was tied at halftime, however Prairie View managed solely seven factors within the second half and finally misplaced 31-28.
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For Goff, that find victory grew to become the turning level.
“He’s [Jackson] an incredibly smart football guy,” Goff mentioned. “I had to block out all the noise, trust myself, live with and be comfortable with the decision I made [to hire him]. After the [Alabama State] loss, we started rolling.”
Now, others see Prairie View in a different way, too. The squad entered final year projected to complete third within the SWAC West. This summer season, the Panthers have been picked to victory the division. Inside the convention, they’ve change into the usual they as soon as chased.
Beyond it, although, Jackson believes previous perceptions linger.
In July, Jackson publicly questioned why members of his employees weren’t invited to talk on the Texas High School Coaches Association’s annual teaching college and conference after Prairie View was the one Texas squad to action for a nationwide top spot final year. He seen the omission as proof that some nonetheless decide this system by what it as soon as was fairly than what it’s now.
“You thought Prairie View was something that Prairie View A&M is not anymore,” Jackson mentioned in a video posted on social media. “Prairie View A&M plays real ball. We play real ball. We coach real ball. We recruit real football players.”
Prairie View’s schedule this year provides extra proof of Goff and Jackson’s imaginative and prescient for this system. Among its first 4 opponents are Tarleton State, Stephen F. Austin — two groups that completed among the many FCS’ prime packages final year — and Baylor, all video games that can take a look at the roster and form recruiting battles throughout Texas.
Goff desires elite opponents as a result of he desires Prairie View judged as an elite FCS program. Jackson is much less diplomatic.
“I don’t care if it’s the 1985 [Chicago] Bears,” Jackson mentioned. “When Prairie View shows up in the stadium, we plan to win.”
Prairie View not seeks respect for surviving its historical past. The Panthers need it for what they’ve constructed and what they imagine they will change into.
“Ultimately, we fell short in the Celebration Bowl, so we didn’t finish the job,” Earley mentioned. “But more importantly, this year’s team hasn’t done anything yet.”
The job awaits on the finish of the year in Atlanta, and Jackson has already imagined the scene at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, from kickoff to the ultimate whistle.
“About 12 o’clock on Dec. 12, they’re going to kick the ball off,” Jackson mentioned. “Prairie View A&M plans to be there. And at 4 o’clock, the confetti is going to fall on us.”
Wilton Jackson, a 2024 APSE Diversity Fellow, is an award-winning journalist with expertise protecting the whole lot from breaking information to sports activities. He is a local of Jackson, Mississippi (TheSipp, #601), an Allen Iverson fanatic, an HBCU and girls’s sports activities advocate and a longtime New Orleans Saints fan.
