By T. Scott Boatright
Now it gets real.
After a 2-1 start and a bye week, Grambling State opens Southwestern Athletic Conference play Saturday with a 6 p.m. showdown against Prairie View A&M at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.
Grambling State coach Mickey Joseph has spent the week trying to get his team, which is coming off a bye weekend, to not overthink things until the opening play against the Panthers.
“I want to see calm before the storm,” Joseph said. “So I want us to stay calm, but when it’s time to roll, it’s time to roll. We don’t want to unleash it until 6 p.m. Saturday. So right now it’s the calm before the storm. I’ve been there before. I’ve got to act like I’ve been there before. We won’t get too high.”
Joseph feels the bye week before the conference season opener was a good thing.
“It was a good week because it gave us the chance to get some kids healthy after a hard-fought battle against TCU, a very good team,” Joseph said. “I think we took a step forward as a football team because that was a measuring stick after playing two Division II teams.”
Joseph said he plans to simplify his game plan against the Panthers.
“We have to have a solid game plan in all three phases, but it’s gotta be what our kids can execute, not what our coaches know. It starts with me. I have to control it, and I will. Some of them are not going to be happy, but I don’t care.
“It’s what they can execute. And I said this in the beginning to my coaches, ‘Less is best.’ I’ve sat in the meeting rooms the last two years and said, ‘OK. This is too much,’ and been convinced that it’s not too much. But you’re not going to get me three times. I’m going to control the offensive side of the ball about what we’re going to do. Nobody is going to control it but me. And I’m a little upset right now because we had too much on the menu. With this (Prairie View’s) defense, it looks like you can do everything against them. No. Look at the numbers. They’re going to stop you when it comes to SWAC play. They drop eight. That means you should be trying to do something else if they’re dropping eight. I’m going to fix it and we’re going to put together a great game plan.”
A simplified game plan at that.
“When you play a team like this, you’ve got to do to them what hurts them,” Joseph said. “And sometimes as coaches we have a whole bunch of ideas. So, I’m sticking to my guns and going back to what these kids can execute. Not what my coaches think the players can do but what the players can execute.
“So, it’s a different mindset going into this year with this team on what we do on the offensive side of the ball and the defensive side of the ball. So, we’re going to simplify things and try to clean things up and put together a solid game plan. You should look at Prairie View like they’re 1-3. They’re 1-0 in the games that count — conference games.”
Joseph knows that a focus this week will be trying to contain Prairie View quarterback Kevin Carter.
“He’s a good quarterback,” Joseph said. “I knew him when he was at Memphis. He was there with my brother. He’s a big, strong kid with a dynamic arm. So, we need to make sure that we’re trying to keep him under control. But sometimes it’s hard to contain kids like that. Sometimes you’ve got to say, ‘You know what? Let him get his but force them to try to go to somebody else to beat us.’ But we’ve got to make sure we try and slow him down.”
