On college football’s HBCU stage, two champions arrive from different paths

Confetti still clung to shoulder pads and cleats when Prairie View A&M’s football players finally loosened their grip on history. Inside Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium, the celebration pulsed with equal parts relief and restrained joy. The Panthers had barricaded themselves within the team section, savoring the moment without letting it consume them.

Minutes earlier, Prairie View had stunned Jackson State 23-21 to claim its first Southwestern Athletic Conference championship since 2009, a long-awaited, deeply earned triumph that felt as much like reclamation as victory. Into that charged atmosphere walked Tremaine Jackson, wearing something almost unfamiliar in the form of a wide smile. Panther fans, lingering long after the final whistle, greeted him with applause.

They weren’t just celebrating a championship. They were celebrating a promise fulfilled.

Jackson soon made his way to the media room tucked behind the end zone, a space far quieter than the stadium outside but no less symbolic. He sat with the same confidence he showed Jan. 8, when Panthers athletic director Anton Goff introduced him as the program’s next football coach.

That day, Jackson spoke boldly. Prairie View would compete again, he vowed. Eleven months later, the scoreboard made any further declarations unnecessary.

What drew the most attention at the table wasn’t the coach, but the purple bowling pin placed directly in front of him, the official marker of Prairie View’s bid to the 2025 Celebration Bowl. Nearby, Goff stood in a classic Texas cowboy hat, watching the vision he had backed publicly take form in real time.

Jackson, no longer dressed in the black suit and purple tie of his introductory press conference, wore a purple fleece vest over a black thermal long-sleeved shirt. The wardrobe shift mirrored the moment. He didn’t dramatize the achievement. Instead, he rooted it in sacrifice, belief and unfinished business.

“These guys decided to block out what everybody else thought about them,” Jackson said Saturday after the SWAC title win. “Prairie View has never won 10 games (in a season). … That’s bigger than money… whatever couple dollars you might get in NIL. … (But) this is a start.

“The ultimate goal is (Celebration Bowl). … You’re talking to a guy that lost in the national championship game (at Valdosta State) a year ago. All I could think about for a whole year was winning a national championship. Now we just got to finish the job because it’s not done.”

As the reality of Atlanta came into sharper focus, Jackson’s tone grew even more direct.

“If we wake up on Dec. 14 and there’s not a bigger trophy on side of us, it’s just an average year,” he said. “Wake up on Dec. 14, and there’s a (bigger) trophy, then we can judge what kind of football team we had this year.”

That pursuit now moves to the national stage. Prairie View (10–3) and South Carolina State (9–3) will meet Saturday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in the HBCU national championship, a matchup layered with meaning, even as the programs prepare to meet for the first time.

Both head coaches forged their reputations at Division II powers — South Carolina State’s Chennis Berry at Benedict College and Jackson at Valdosta State. Both are members of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc. And both enter Atlanta still chasing their first Celebration Bowl victory.

Berry returns for his second attempt after South Carolina State fell to Jackson State 28–7 in the 2024 Celebration Bowl. Jackson brings Prairie View into uncharted territory, his team surging with momentum and purpose aligned.

“People ask me, what’s the secret sauce (to success)?” Berry said Monday during the virtual Celebration Bowl news conference. “It’s just falling in love with the process of how we do things day-to-day.

“Our mission doesn’t change from trying to go 1-0. Win today. Yesterday is history. Tomorrow’s a mystery. Today is a gift. That’s why they call it the present. We just go to work on the present.”

Like Prairie View’s rise through the SWAC, South Carolina State’s climb to Atlanta required steadiness and resolve. The Bulldogs finished unbeaten in MEAC play for the second consecutive season, clinching their place with back-to-back wins over North Carolina Central and Delaware State.

They arrive behind a balanced, explosive offense that led the MEAC in passing at 286 yards per game while also averaging 134.8 rushing yards. Running backs Tyler Smith, Josh Shaw and KZ Adams anchor a ground attack built for timely, game-changing moments.

Defensively, SCSU brings a bend-but-don’t-break unit that ranks among the conference’s best in total defense and pass coverage, thriving in critical third-down situations. Despite not having played since Nov. 22 — a familiar layoff from last season’s run — Berry said the Bulldogs never stagnated.

“(This game) is like (a) old heavyweight fight,” Berry said. “It’s two big dogs. You’re talking about a championship game. They (Prairie View) got players. We got players. When the ball kicks off, we’re going to get 60 minutes. … We learned from last year (against Jackson State). … We didn’t put our best effort for 60 minutes. … We lost the football game, but we also learned as well.”

Prairie View’s road to this moment was equally dramatic. When Jackson took the job, he rebuilt the roster almost from scratch, bringing in 70 new players and retaining only 30 from a 5–7 team in 2024.

At Valdosta State, Jackson had experienced both pressure and perspective. In three seasons, he led the Blazers to a 30–9 record and two Division II playoff appearances, including last year’s D-II title game. But he also endured a 5–6 debut season in 2022 that nearly cost him his job, a trial that reshaped his approach.

“God had given me a vision, and I negotiated the vision,” Jackson said during Monday’s virtual news conference about his 2022 campaign. “I thought I was doing all of the right things to try to keep players within the program and to make people above me happy. That didn’t work for me. … Football is different today than it’s ever been, and it’s only going to be more different tomorrow.

“… You have to have a unique set of values, the way that you go about your business and the way you prepare your teams, not just for football but in life. … We went back to the prayers of my grandma that I’m living on.”

In just 13 games at Prairie View, Jackson has installed a culture defined by physicality, balance and discipline. The Panthers average 197.2 rushing yards and 233.7 passing yards per game — both among the SWAC’s best — while ranking in the league’s top three in scoring, total offense and rushing. They convert red-zone trips into touchdowns at an elite rate, finishing second in the conference.

The defense has been even more imposing, leading the SWAC in scoring, total and pass defense while allowing the fewest first downs and third-down conversions per game. Prairie View ranks near the top of the league in forced fumbles and sacks, consistently dictating tempo with speed and physicality.

Jackson believes last season’s loss in the Division II national championship helped prepare him — and his staff — for this moment.

“I needed that experience (losing in D-II title game) a year ago,” Jackson said after Saturday’s win. “Our staff needed it. God was preparing us for a moment, and we didn’t know what was in front of us. … You have to earn your way in our program, and that’s a lost art today. A lot of people in here might negotiate with their children. There’s no negotiation in what we do. They do exactly what we tell them to do, and they understand that’s what they need to do (to be successful).”

Now, after a season that began with 18 teams split between the SWAC and MEAC, only two remain.

On Saturday at noon on ABC, Prairie View and South Carolina State will meet for the crown, a collision built on contrasting journeys, mirrored ambition and unfinished business. Only one program will stand atop the HBCU football world when the final whistle sounds inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

And for both, the question is no longer how they arrived but which one is built to finish.

Prairie View A&M (10–3, 7–1 SWAC)