Alcorn State’s championship season very easily could have been derailed by a midseason injury to the Braves’ starting quarterback and an awful half of football in a November conference loss.
Instead, Alcorn State rallied behind its coach and a dynamic backup quarterback to win a second consecutive SWAC Championship, earning a berth in the inaugural Air Force Reserve Celebration Bowl.
On Saturday, Alcorn State takes on MEAC champion North Carolina A&T at the Georgia Dome. The game kicks off at noon and will be broadcast on ABC. It is framed as the national championship game for the Historically Black Colleges and Universities. A Celebration Bowl official told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Thursday that 30,000 tickets already had been sold. Each team received an allotment of 5,000 tickets.
A little over a month ago, Alcorn State looked nothing like a bowl team during a disaster of a first half at home against Prairie View A&M. The week before, senior starting quarterback John Gibbs Jr., the SWAC Offensive Player of the Year last season, suffered a leg injury two plays into a road game at Southern. Sophomore quarterback Lenorris Footman stepped in and made an immediate impact, rushing for 274 yards and four touchdowns in a 48-7 win over Southern. The momentum would not carry over into the Prairie View game the following week, though.
The Braves surrendered consecutive punt returns for touchdowns in the first quarter and trailed Prairie View 40-14 at halftime.
“It was the worst half of football they’ve played in years,” Alcorn State sports information director Herman Shelton said.
But what happened next made coach Jay Hopson believe his team was going to be just fine. Hopson said he didn’t deliver a fiery locker-room speech at halftime of the Prairie View game. He elected to remain calm and poised.
“We addressed what needed to be changed and done like men,” Hopson said of the halftime discussion. “And then we went out and did it.”
The Braves responded to their coach’s message, outscoring Prairie View 20-0 in a second-half comeback as Footman threw two touchdown passes in the second half to lead the rally and finished with four touchdowns in the game. While that comeback came up just short in a 40-34 loss, Hopson said it helped provide a confidence boost and spark a late-season run.
“It just showed a lot about our resiliency,” Hopson said.
Alcorn State won its next four games to end the regular season, including avenging an earlier loss to Grambling State with a 49-21 win in the SWAC Championship.
This week, the Braves will arrive at the Georgia Dome with a prolific ground game. They broke the school record for rushing yards in a game three times this season. They’re averaging 40.07 points per game and rank third in the FCS in rushing, averaging 309.0 yards. Footman and senior running back Darryan Ragsdale have rushed for more than 1,000 yards. Footman also has passed for 962 yards, despite limited playing time for the first six games of the season.
Noting Alcorn State’s offensive capabilities, North Carolina A&T coach Rod Broadway said he prefers a defensive battle over a high-scoring affair.
“Lord, I hope not, we won’t have a chance (in a high-scoring game),” Broadway said. “We got to turn it into an ugly slugfest.”
Gibbs, Alcorn State’s senior quarterback who was injured in late October, is listed as day-to-day.
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