by T. Scott Boatright
Coming off a loss at No. 1 Alabama A&M, the Grambling State Tigers will be looking to get back on the winning track when they play at Texas Southern at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at W.W. Thorne Stadium in Houston.
Grambling (4-3 overall, 2-2 in the SWAC West) will be looking to bounce back from a loss two weeks ago at Alabama A&M in a game the G-Men led 17-3 early in the second quarter before heading into the locker room trailing 19-17 at halftime.
By the time Grambling scored again late in the third quarter, the Bulldogs had built a 47-25 lead on their way to a 61-31 victory.
“We took the loss and had to use the bye week just to get mentally recharged and get charged up emotionally after a crucial loss. You take your hat off to Alabama A&M,” Joseph said. “Shade had them ready to play and I didn’t. We had some soul-searching to do this week and we did it, and hopefully we can get a game plan this week and we can go 1-0.”
Joseph admits his defense has to tighten up after allowing Alabama A&M to roll up 660 yards of total offense, including 443 through the air and 236 on the ground.
That left Joseph wishing he could have more than 11 players on the field at once.
“We can’t play with 14, so we couldn’t do that,” Joseph quipped. “We just had to find some things they can execute and execute at a high level. We had to figure out the game plan and what they’re capable of doing and not capable of doing and get input from our assistant coaches early on in the week instead of later in the week.
“What we need is some disagreement in that (defensive) room, and I expressed to them that’s what I wanted them to do. They had a good middle week last week as far as the staff and the players, and hopefully we can do the same going into this week.”
Joseph knows Texas Southern (2-5 overall, 1-3 in the SWAC West) will be looking to establish its running game, which averages 171.6 yards per contest, as its first order of attack. But TSU also features a balanced offense led by quarterback Cam’Ron McCoy, who wears No. 0.
McCoy has completed 57.7% of his passes for seven touchdowns while averaging 30.3 rushing yards per game and adding four scores on the ground.
“You always want to stop the run (defensively) and establish the run (offensively),” Joseph said. “TSU is very athletic on defense. They get off the blocks well. With (former NFL defensive back Cris Dishman, who is now Texas Southern’s head coach) being a DB guy, he’s always going to protect his DBs, and we understand that.
“And on offense, Zero’s probably the fastest kid in this league. I haven’t seen anyone catch him yet. He’s running away from people. He’s a big-time quarterback. And they’ve got two big tackles that make it hard to get around them, and when they get you on a train, they’re going to move you. It’s a good football league. You can’t look at their record because they’ve battled throughout the season, and they won last weekend over Southern, who’s a really good football team.”
Joseph said developing a solid game plan will be crucial in Saturday’s contest.
“It’s another challenge, going on the road and trying to finish on the road,” Joseph said. “We talked about that last week as a team, and I also talked to the coaches about that — about finding out what we can do this week to go 1-0.
“And it’s a very competitive league. You see week in and week out and teams getting upset. It’s an unpredictable league because these kids are going to play hard, and you’re going to need your ‘A game’ when you lace up on Saturday. And we’ve got to make sure we have the right game plan to fit what we have on the field and make sure that the kids understand the game plan and that we’re only doing what they can execute.”
Starter Jakobe Robinson played most of the game at quarterback for Grambling against Alabama A&M, while Hayden Benoit took some snaps in relief.
Joseph hopes redshirt senior quarterback Ashton Frye can return against Texas Southern after missing the Alabama A&M game because of an injury he suffered in Grambling’s sixth game against Jackson State.
“If you know Ashon, he’s going to do what he needs to do to make himself better and get ready for Saturday,” Joseph said. “We’ll have to see, but you know he’s going to try.”
