By T. Scott Boatight
GRAMBLING — The G-Men are hoping to enter the game refreshed and ready for the second half of the season as Grambling State University plays host to Alcorn State in a Southwestern Athletic Conference showdown set for a 2 p.m. kickoff Saturday at Eddie G. Robinson Stadium.
Grambling enters the game at 3-2 overall and 0-1 in the SWAC West and while Alcorn State is 3-3 and 2-0 in division play.
The G-Men are coming off a 36-34 loss in five overtimes against Prairie View at the Cotton Bowl two weeks ago while Alcorn State defeated Arkansas-Pine Bluff 38-28 last weekend.
“It was good to get away,” said GSU coach Mickey Joseph about the bye during his weekly press conference on Monday. “It was a good time for a break. You know, it was good, you know, coming off a loss, we like to come off with a win going into the break, but sometimes what you do in September, nobody remembers in October, November. So these two months are very important for the football program.
“We stressed that to them this morning, got out a staff meeting with the coaches, so everybody’s kind of on the same page in that this is a seven-game season (remaining). We can’t drop one. We gotta take one at a time. Like I said, it’s a seven game season and they understand so we can’t drop a game along the way. We already dropped one, that’s an important one, so we gotta finish this thing out pretty clean, especially in the (SWAC) West.”
Alcorn State quarterback Xzavier Vaughn has two touchdown throws and two interceptions through five games, completing 44.7% of his pass attempts for 354 yards while adding 216 yards and two touchdowns on the ground.
Jacorian Sewell has rushed for 251 yards (50.2 per game and one score for the Braves while Alcorn’s leading receiver is Damien Jones, who has totaled eight catches for 116 yards (23.2 per game) and one score.
“Just watching them last weekend, they’re very athletic,” Joseph said. “That quarterback is a very athletic kid. They’re big up front so they try to lean on you and (Alcorn coach) Cedric Thomas does a really good job with their defense and Ced’s doing a really good job with this program.
“They’re a typical SWAC team. They’re very talented, big, so they’re gonna be hard to defend. They’re gonna be hard to, you know, really run the ball at. But we gotta probably get in there and try to mix it up with them a little bit. And that’s what I want to do. I want to mix it up with them. You’ve been seeing a different scheme every week, you know, the scheme sometimes we see during the week is not the scheme you see on Saturday.”
That’s something Joseph and his Tigers faced in their last game.
“Just take the PV case — there was a different quarterback that came out (than GSU expected),” Joseph said. “You know, we had to really figure out who this kid was, but now going into the Alcorn game, we know who this kid is. We know this kid likes to pull it down and likes to run, which is not scrambling for him.
“When he pulls it down, he’s pulling it down to run. The quarterback run game, quarterback power read game — all that’s in effect, we gotta do things that slow him down a little bit. We can’t keep him going, but they are also really good in the backfield also.”
Grambling quarterback Myles Crawley has connected on 94-of-160 pass attempts (58.75%) for 1,048 yards and nine touchdowns with five interceptions.
At running back, the Tigers have a “two-headed monster.” KeTravion “Bull” Hargrove leads GSU with 251 yards and three scores on 59 rushing attempts while Tre Bradford has rushed for 183 yards and three scores on 55 carries.
Sophomore Javon Robinson leads GSU’s receiving corps with 20 catches for 284 yards and one score. But the Tigers like to spread the ball around and have nine different with one touchdown catch each.
Joseph stresses the need to be less predictable on both sides of the ball and is also asking his G-Men to become more physical.
“When you look at college football, when you look at NFL football, everybody’s running the same plays,” Joseph said. “Everybody’s running inside zone, everybody’s running insert, everybody’s running power read.
“Sometimes it’s predictable because you know it’s coming. But even if you know it’s coming, you still have to stop it. So we have to do a better job as coaches of getting our kids to win their 1-on-1’s. But when I say mix it up, no, we gotta get physical with ’em ’cause they’re a very physical football team. But we can’t be as predictable (as GSU has been so far this season) on offense and defense.”
