By T. Scott Boatright
Second-year Grambling State University football coach Mickey Joseph is taking some different approaches as he prepares his Tigers for the 2025 season opener, which kicks off at 7 p.m. Saturday inside Shreveport’s Independence Stadium against Langston.
As the Tigers conducted their Fan Day workout at Eddie G. Robinson Memorial Stadium wearing only helmets along with T-shirts, many of those sleeveless, and shorts, they did so at a slow, deliberate pace and covered all phases of the game.
“We want to keep them fresh,” Joseph said of the decision to practice without pads. “The NCAA allows you only two (full contract) scrimmages. We did our two scrimmages and took them to the ground (allowing tackling). That gave us what we needed to evaluate these kids, and that’s what our coaching staff did.
“And we’ve got to keep them fresh. I didn’t do that last year and that’s one of the mistakes I made last year. I pushed them and pushed them, and don’t have enough resources to get them back. So, now, we’re doing things a lot differently. We’re having halftime. We give them a five-minute break and then give them an eight-minute break at halftime. We have pretzels and other snacks out here just to refuel them.”
There are other changes Jones has made in the way his Tigers will operate this season.
“On Tuesday and Wednesday, we’re doing something different that we didn’t do last year,” Joseph said. “We’re going from 24-page scripts to 16-page scripts. And all of that is part of just trying to keep the players fresh.”
Joseph stayed close to the team during the workouts, several times calling a player over to the side for a quick talk, sometimes showing specific hand or foot techniques while doing so.
“This kind of day lets us try to make sure we’re all on the same page,” Joseph said. “Because it’s getting to be the time we have to be. It’s about practicing hard but also focusing on the mental part of the game.
Joseph has yet to name a starting quarterback for the Langston game. It’s a two-man race between redshirt sophomore C’zavian Teasett and redshirt junior Ashton Frye.
Frye played in four games for GSU last year, completing four of his seven pass attempts for nine yards with no touchdowns or interceptions.
Teasett played in 10 games in 2024 as a Southern University quarterback, completing 71-of-129 pass attempts for 941 yards and six touchdowns with two interceptions.
While Joseph has indicated it’s likely both will see action in the season opener against Langston, it was Teasett who got the most work with the first-team offense on Saturday.
As that workout ended, Joseph stressed to his team the need for them to focus on and think about Langston and nothing else.
“What you don’t want is for Langston to hear that you’re getting ready for Ohio State,” Joseph said. “We don’t want them to think we’re going to overlook them. I was the head coach there. And we beat (Arkansas Pine Bluff) and Tuskegee while I was there at Langston. And Tuskegee and Pine Bluff both had pretty good football teams.
“I was coaching for a Langston team that came here and nearly beat Grambling (in 2008, when the G-Men won 13-2). We can’t overlook Langston. We can’t let that happen. We’ve made progress, but we still have a way to go. Today was about getting them thinking about all of the little things, because those little things can make a difference in a ballgame. This season is about to start. We need to focus on beating Langston, nothing else.”
