By T. Scott Boatright
GRAMBLING — Former Ruston High School standout Ke’Travion “Bull” Hargrove lived up to his nickname Saturday night as he powered his way more than 100 total yards and two score to help lead Grambling State University to a 41-20 win over Jackson State before a crowd of 19,085 at Eddie G. Robinson Stadium.
It was GSU’s third straight win and moved the G-Men to 3-1 on the year.
The way his G-Men came out and played against the rival red-and-blue Tigers wasn’t a surprise for GSU coach Mickey Joseph.
“I knew (the G-Men) had a good week in practice,” Joseph said. “And I knew they battled (last week in a win) at Texas A&M-Commerce. We played 60 minutes then and we needed them to play 60 minutes again.
“We knew it was a really good Jackson State team. We had film on what they did against (Louisiana-) Monroe, what they did against Lane and what they did against Southern, so our antennas were up for them. We knew that coming into The Hole (Robinson Stadium) that we had to defend our home turf. I take my hat off to my coaches, my players, my staff — everybody was pulling on the same side of the rope.”
Grambling middle linebacker Andrew Jones was one of the anchors for GSU’s defense, leading the G-Men with 11 tackles and a sack.
“It was the way we prepared,” Jones said. “I feel like this was our biggest game of the year. This was going to be our biggest competition. They have a very good team. They play well, they’re coached well, they play very smart.
“So on our end it was just about focusing on the small keys to help us get in position to make plays.”
Grambling came out of the gates swinging, winning the coin toss and electing to receive before marching 77 yards to paydirt on eight plays with Hargrove breaking loose on a 36-yard run while adding a 20-yard reception before bulling his way seven yards for a score, diving over the left end zone pylon and making sure the ball was still inbounds to record the touchdown that put the G-Men on top 7-0 only 2:59 into the contest.
GSU pushed the lead to 14-0 on its second possession, driving 49 yards on nine plays with quarterback Myles Crawley hitting JR Waters on a 22-yard scoring strike at the 5:46 mark of the opening stanza.
But Jackson State battled back in the second quarter, scoring a pair of touchdowns but missing their second extra point kick attempt to leave Grambling on top 14-13 with 2:20 left in the first half.
It looked like Grambling had recovered a strip fumble on the preceding play, but after a long video review what appeared to have been a turnover was ruled an incomplete pass, and JSU’s Travis Terrell Jr. broke free on a 34-yard scoring scamper on the next play.
But Grambling stretched its lead to 21-13 57 seconds before intermission as Caleb Lee Collins ran back a 22-yard pick six for the score.
The timing was perfect for Joseph.
“We had to win that middle eight,” Joseph said. “That’s our philosophy here, that the last four minutes of the second quarter you gotta win and the first four of the third quarter we try to win because that’s important.”
Grambling leads the country in interceptions with nine on the season. Joseph credited defensive coordinator Rollins and his staff for that.
“Coach Rollins and his staff do a great job,” Joseph said. “They play multiple players and do a good job with their rotation. They do a good job of ball-hawking and stripping the ball. We do a strip drill every Tuesday and Wednesday, so we do work on stripping the ball, we work on interceptions because we want to get turnovers and we want to get you behind the chains.
“They’ve been doing a good job of it so far. They’ve been very aggressive on the defensive side of the ball.”
Jackson State cut Grambling’s lead to 21-20 at the 3:23 mark of the third quarter when Ja’Nylon Dupree connected with Jacobian Martin on a 66-yard pass, but the G-Men answered with a fumble recovery in the end zone with 42 seconds left in the stanza to push their lead to 28-20
Braden Barley added his third interception of the season on the final play of the third quarter, returning it 25 yards to set up Hargrove’s second touchdown as “Bull” muscled his way through the line from one-yard out to put GSU on 28-20
“I give my coaches credit for everything,” Barley said. “Everything (Jackson State) runs we saw throughout the week. I give it all to my coaches.”
After missing wide ride on a 35-yard field goal attempt midway through the fourth Grambling’s Reed Harradine made good on FG attempts of 29 and 32 yards to cap off scoring for the G-Men.
“Reed pushed one field goal and kicked (a kickoff) out of bounds and we’re going to look at that,” Joseph said. “But kickers are different. Reed’s a little different. So I’ve got to approach him sometimes harshly and sometimes I’ve got to say settle down and make the kick.
“But he can take it any kind of way. He did a good job of coming back. He pushed that one and told me, ‘Coach, I don’t know. I thought I hit it.’ But it worked out fine.”
Hargrove finished with 81 rushing yards and his two scores on 16 carries and added two receptions for 27 yards while Bradford added 27 yards on the ground on 12 attempts.
Joseph admitted it was good to see Hargrove get into
“We’ve been waiting,” Joseph said. “We’ve been waiting. The same thing with Tre (Bradford). We know we have two good backs, We’ve got to get a hat on a hat. Once we do that, our guys are going to go to work. So yes, I’m proud of those two.
“I’m proud of Bull, especially because Bull had a fumble last week that really stuck with him. He came back after that last week and made a big play. I told him, last week was last week, so let’s go this week, so I’m glad he had a good game.”
Crawley connected on 16-of-28 pass attempts for 167 while Javon Robinson led GSU with five catches for 44 yards.
Next up for Grambling will be a game kicking off at 6 p.m. next Saturday at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas against Prairie View A&M, which lost 31-24 in overtime at home against Southern on Saturday to fall to 1-4 on the season.
