By T. Scott Boatright
Following Grambling State’s 41-20 home victory over Jackson State on Saturday, one of the football program’s biggest wins in years, the Tigers have jumped from unranked to fourth in this week’s BOXTOROW HBCU media poll.
In a split vote, the Florida A&M Rattlers picked up more points than the North Carolina Central Eagles and remained No. 1 in HBCU Media Poll released on Monday. Both the Rattlers and the Eagles received 10 first-place votes while Grambling received one.
GSU was unranked last week but was an unofficial 12th with 23 points.
Grambling, which has now won three straight games including Saturday’s 41-20 victory over Jackson State, received 116 points in this week’s poll.
Hampton moved up six spots from last week’s poll to No. 3 after its 27-20 victory over Howard in Washington, DC.
The HBCU Media Poll is administered by BOXTOROW and in its 18th year, is voted on by media members around the country who cover HBCU football.
GSU also surged to No. 3 in NCAA HBCU power rankings behind only Florida A&M and North Carolina Central
The NCAA had the following blurb to say about Grambling in those power rankings:
“Grambling State could be the top team in HBCU football. I do not think they are yet, but after dismantling Jackson State down the stretch, I can understand those who say so. If the Tigers can replicate their performance in this week’s State Fair Classic, they might move up again.”
First-year head coach Mickey Joseph’s battle cry since taking over the GSU program has been “Restore The Order,” and his Tigers are working hard to make that happen.
“So, my thing was getting back to dominance, dominating people like we are supposed to. Respect — they are always going to respect Grambling,” Joseph said after Saturday’s win over Jackson State. “They are never going to disrespect Grambling. They may say it with their mouth, but when they get on that field, they know it does not matter what Grambling team they are facing this time, they just know they’re going to get the best from that team.
“So, when I say restore the order, I mean bring the dominance back.”
For Joseph, none of it is about polls at this point in the season. Instead, it is about getting his 3-1 Tigers to focus on the next game on the schedule.
“We’re going to take things one game at a time,” Joseph said. “We cannot control how they think about us. We just must be ready when that ball kicks off to be sound in all three phases of the game.”
An opportunistic defense has played a big role in Grambling’s strong start to the 2024 season.
Grambling’s defense scored a pair of touchdowns against JSU with Caleb Collins returning a pick six 22 yards to paydirt, and Patrick Marshall pounced on a fumble in the JSU end zone for another TD.
Defensively, Grambling leads the FCS in defensive touchdowns with four and takeaways with 10 and is tied for second in fumbles recovered with four, and second in interceptions with four.
The G-Men also are atop FCS turnover margin statistics at 2.75 per game.
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