The final yard of Andrew Body’s Alabama State legacy
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More than 23,200 followers watched Alabama State cap a historic 2025 the ball campaign with a 58-21 triumph over in-state rival Tuskegee within the Turkey Day Classic final November.
Alabama State completed the campaign 10-2, securing its first 10-win campaign since 2004, the identical 12 months this system captured its most up-to-date Southwestern Athletic Conference crown. Still, the celebration rang hole since Alabama State had failed to succeed in the SWAC crown contest.
“Ten and two sounds great from the outside, but without a championship being attached [to the wins], it didn’t mean nothing,” Alabama State quarterback Andrew Body stated.
Body felt that vacancy from a distance. He had spent the Hornets’ closing 4 video games of the campaign rehabilitating his proper shoulder, which he injured for the third time in his faculty profession throughout a Nov. 1 victory over Prairie View A&M.
Through eight video games, Body accomplished 70.6% of his passes for 1,770 yards, 20 touchdowns and one interception. He rushed for 518 yards and 4 scores. Even after lacking one-third of the campaign, he earned SWAC Offensive Player of the Year and Stats Perform HBCU National Player of the Year honors.
While the awards confirmed what Body had achieved, they might not full what he had began. Now, in his closing faculty campaign, Body carries the duty of turning Alabama State’s breakthrough into the crown that has eluded this system for 21 years.
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The 6-foot, 205-pound dual-threat quarterback started his profession at Texas Southern earlier than transferring to Alabama State in January 2024. After two seasons with the Hornets, the Corpus Christi, Texas, native introduced in December 2025 that he deliberate to enter the switch portal and formally did so in January. Then got here the whirlwind.
About 50 packages expressed curiosity. Calls and textual content messages arrived so relentlessly Body stated he generally wanted a second telephone to trace them. He communicated with Vanderbilt and Penn State and visited North Texas, Missouri State, Memphis, Florida International and Delaware State.
While Body had choices, he additionally had unfinished enterprise. After practically a month within the portal, he withdrew and returned to this system he calls his second residence.
“That was the biggest reason I came back,” Body instructed Andscape.
His return offers Alabama State a confirmed playmaker.
“It’s one thing to be a great player,” Alabama State head the ball leader Eddie Robinson Jr. stated. “He’s come again to the SWAC, HBCU the ball and Alabama State for yet another 12 months. My problem to him has been, ‘What’s going to be your legacy?’
“You’ve got to take the next step to cement your legacy, not just as a great player but as a great team leader who can lead a team to a championship.”
That problem extends past Body’s repaired shoulder. The Hornets are returning 55 gamers however misplaced 41, leaving 4 returning starters on offense and 4 on protection. Robinson should mildew a contender across the veteran quarterback whom he has entrusted to carry the squad collectively.
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Body additionally should be taught one other offensive language. Tony Hull, whom Alabama State employed in January, is Body’s second offensive coordinator in three seasons at Alabama State.
When Hull and Body first spoke, their dialog stretched past formations and move calls. Hull gave Body a candid analysis, requested about his NFL aspirations and defined what reaching them would require.
Hull didn’t arrive with a inflexible system; as a substitute, he studied Alabama State’s personnel and formed the offense round its strengths. Body’s position is much less gunslinger than conductor, diagnosing the protection, distributing the ball and realizing when restraint can matter as a lot as brilliance.
“He’s basically the point guard of the offense, and his teammates hold him to that standard,” Hull stated. “Whatever the defense gives him, he’s going to take advantage of it. His approach is not, ‘I want to make everything happen myself.’ The work he puts in when no one is around ultimately makes him special.”
The partnership has not all the time been comfy. Body considers that the purpose.
“He challenges everything, my mental, my physical, my emotional and my spiritual,” Body stated. “A coach is there to take you to a place where you can’t take yourself. So, I keep telling him to push me as hard as he can.”
Body as soon as performed as if each possession required a rescue. Robinson likened Body to a basketball athlete accustomed to taking 50 photographs. According to the leader, Alabama State wants fewer photographs and extra assists from Body, choices that elevate everybody round him.
A landing can nonetheless reveal the flawed learn. A 20-yard scramble can electrify a crowd whereas concealing the better opening Body missed.
“There have been times when he’s thrown a touchdown and everybody’s cheering, and I’m like, ‘Come here. That was not a good decision,’” Robinson stated with amusing. “Love the result, but that was not the right decision. It takes a lot of different ingredients to make good gumbo. In football, it’s no different. Consistently good equals great.”
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Body understands that distinction now – his accidents helped him be taught it.
“I realized I had to do some different things to get a different result,” Body stated. “I couldn’t just be out there playing backyard football.”
The margin between spectacular and sound will be as slender as a yard. Alabama State is aware of as a result of 1 yard outlined its complete 2025 campaign.
On Oct. 11, the Hornets trailed Jackson State 38-34 within the closing seconds of a contest at Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium.
Alabama State designed a run for Body towards the brief aspect of the sector. Jackson State closed the opening, forcing him to improvise and flip a last-second go to carry blocker Jamarie Hostzclaw. Jackson State stopped Hostzclaw on the 1-yard line. The loss would in the end function a tiebreaker for management of the SWAC East and maintain Alabama State from reaching the convention crown contest.
“It’s always a handful of plays that you look back at and know could have been the difference in a game,” Body stated. “We carried that hurt with us because we didn’t want to feel that pain again. We’re not going to feel that pain this year.”
Body has tried to make that urgency contagious. Defensive again Ta’Shaun Sims normally prefers to work quietly and permit his instance to talk for him. Body has challenged Sims to develop into extra vocal.
“Player-led teams win championships,” Sims stated. “Now, his leadership is rubbing off on me.”
Alabama State will open its campaign Saturday towards Southern within the inaugural Birmingham Football Classic at Legion Field. The symmetry is tough to overlook. Robinson and first-year Southern leader Marshall Faulk have been gamers on reverse sidelines in Super Bowl XXXIV, a contest immortalized when the Tennessee Titans, Robinson’s squad, completed 1 yard in need of the top zone towards Faulk’s St. Louis Rams. Twenty-six years later, the 2 New Orleans natives will meet as head coaches.
For Alabama State, the historical past carries a contemporary sting. The Hornets should face Jackson State and reigning SWAC champion Prairie View — the opponents that formed their unfinished 2025 campaign — on consecutive November weekends.
Crossing the ultimate yard would require greater than Body’s arm or his legs. It would require stronger judgment, uncomfortable accountability and a willingness to make the unusual move when each intuition requires the extraordinary.
“Being a leader, sometimes you have to be OK with not being liked,” Body stated. “You may need to be the villain in some cases to get your level throughout. … In order for us to get what we wish, that is what it’s going to take.
“When I got injured, I couldn’t feel sorry for myself. God makes no mistakes. I can never trip because God gave me another opportunity to play again. Anything worth having is never easy. This time, we’re leaving no doubt.”
Wilton Jackson, a 2024 APSE Diversity Fellow, is an award-winning journalist with expertise protecting every little thing from breaking information to sports activities. He is a local of Jackson, Mississippi (TheSipp, #601), an Allen Iverson fanatic, an HBCU and ladies’s sports activities advocate and a longtime New Orleans Saints fan.
