Grambling State football coach Doug Williams (center) is ready to play against his cousin’s team. (AP)
It will be a family reunion weekend in Shreveport, Louisiana, when Alcorn State and Grambling State open the 2011 football season in the Port City Classic Saturday night.
Alcorn Coach Melvin Spears and Grambling Coach Doug Williams are first cousins the grandsons of the late Beatrice Matthews of Clinton, La.
Adding to the family atmosphere is the fact that Spears was an assistant coach at Grambling for six seasons during Williams’ first stint as coach of the G-Men, and he was head coach there for three seasons after succeeding Williams. In addition, Alcorn assistants Bruce Eugene and Tramon Douglas played at Grambling, and Braves defensive coordinator Michael Roach had that same title at Grambling when Spears was the head coach.
Williams – the older of the two cousins by four and half years – and Spears are two sisters’ children. They grew up 20 miles apart, Williams in Zachary, La., and Spears in Clinton. Most of their summers were spent together at the home of Ma Bea, as their grandmother was known to everyone.
“Everybody camped out at Ma Bea’s,” Williams says.
And invariably somebody brought out a football, and it was on, with Williams and Spears usually ending up on the same team.
“We had some knock-down, drag-out sandlot games,” says Spears, who would later team up with Williams as Grambling’s offensive coordinator during his cousin’s first stint as coach of the G-Men from 1998 to 2003.
Spears helped Williams guide Grambling to three straight SWAC Championships and Black College National Championships from 2000 to 2003. He succeeded Williams in 2004 and led the G-Men to a 20-14 record from 2004 to 2006 and the 2005 SWAC and Black College National titles.
Williams and Spears say that coaching against each other, in addition to coaching at their alma maters, is highly significant in a number of ways.
“You’ve got to respect and enjoy the fact you got a cousin who has made it to this level,” Williams says, “someone with who y’all spent all your summers together. It’s not only good for me and Melvin; it’s good for the family. It’s good to see two sisters’ kids in this position.”
Spears refers to Williams as his hero and mentor. He spent many nights sleeping on the floor in his older cousin’s dorm room at Grambling during summer school while Williams was an All-American quarterback for the G-Men and Spears was still in high school.
“This is as special as it comes,” Spears says of coaching against Williams. “I get chills thinking about it. It says a lot about our development. It says lot about our family and where we’ve come.”
Spears had hoped to follow Williams to Grambling and continue the long-standing family tradition of G-Men. But his desire for playing time trumped family tradition. With Williams solidly entrenched as the G-Men’s starting quarterback, and Williams’ younger brothers Manzy and Mike waiting in the wings at that position, Spears knew he needed to look elsewhere if he wanted to get on the field as a signal caller.
“All the family went to Grambling,” Spears said, “but with Mike there, and Doug and Manzy, I had to come to Alcorn to compete.”
The cousins don’t see their coaching matchup as a family feud on the gridiron, even though both say the game is important to each of their team’s hopes of winning their respective division titles and ultimately reaching the SWAC Championship Game.
“I’m going to try to take it the way as did in the Super Bowl (against the Denver Broncos and their quarterback, John Elway),” says Williams, who was MVP of Super Bowl XXII as quarterback of the Washington Washington Football Team. “It was the Washington Football Team against the Broncos, not Doug Williams playing against John Elway. I’m not on the field playing. It’s Alcorn against Grambling. Melvin and I happen to be cousins.
“It’s big for the family, no doubt,” Williams says, “but at the end of day, we all know what it’s about. Somebody has got to win; somebody has got lose. His closest family will be pulling for him, and my closest family will be pulling for me. At the end of the day, we all win.”
Williams and Spears won’t be on the field playing, but there are bound to be a ton of their family members at Independence Stadium rooting them on as though they were. How many, Williams says, is incalculable.
“I can’t call it,” Williams says. “There are too many sides of the family. But it’s going to be a bunch of them.”
Throw in friends from Zachary and Clinton who are likely to attend in support of their homeboys, and the game should attract a quite sizable crowd.
Alcorn vs. Grambling in the first game of the season for both was once a rite of fall, as they opened against each almost every year. That tradition began when Eddie Robinson was coaching the G-Men and Casem was coaching Alcorn, and it continued for a number of years afterward. This year is the first time Alcorn and Grambling have opened the season against each other since 2007.
Spears and Williams say this is the way it should be.
“Unfortunately, we’ve got people in certain areas who don’t understand what SWAC was like,” Williams says. “It’s good to make changes, but some things you need to leave alone. This has been a great rivalry. Tinkering with it, you’re messing up. I’m glad it’s like it use to be.”
Robinson and Casem, in their day, contended that by playing each other in the season-opener, the winner had a leg up in the conference race and put everybody else in the position of playing catch up the rest of the season.
“The Grambling game is a barometer,” Spears says. “Grambling has been the marquee program in the conference. This game will show us where we need to go and what we need to work on.”
Grambling is the preseason pick to win the Western Division title. Alcorn is picked to finish second behind Jackson State in the East. Jackson State, however, is ineligible to compete in the conference championship game.
Grambling is 7-3 against Alcorn in the last 10 games between the schools. This year’s matchup is difficult to handicap because Williams and Spears are both in their first seasons and aren’t as familiar with their personnel as they will become eventually.
Williams, who returned to Grambling after leaving seven years ago to join the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ front office, gives Spears a slight edge in terms of his knowledge of Grambling’s personnel compared to his knowledge of Alcorn’s and a big edge at quarterback, where sophomore Brandon Bridge returns for the Braves looking to build on an impressive freshman season.
Freshman DJ Williams, Williams’ son, and sophomore Frank Rivers, who sat out the 2010 season, are Grambling’s top two quarterbacks. Doug Williams has said his son will get most of the snaps but both are likely to play.
Spears was offensive coordinator at Texas Southern and Alabama State in addition to being head coach at Grambling over the last seven years.
“I’m back in the fold after seven years,” Williams says. “I’m looking at it like a rookie again. I don’t know the league as well as I did. Melvin has Air Canada (Bridge). When you got a triggerman, you got a heads up; you got a lead. Everybody wants a triggerman. We’re in the business of trying to find that man.”
Bridge was third in the SWAC in total offense (244.3 yards a game) in 2010, fourth in passing yards (2,086) an third in touchdown passes (19).
“We have a outstanding quarterback, and we brought in some pieces to complement what he does,” says Spears, adding that the Braves have also overhauled their defense, which was in the bottom three in the conference in points allowed (29.0 a game), total yards allowed (376.1 a game) and passing yards allowed (232.2 a game).
“It’s going to be exciting,” Spears said, “and very special.”
KEY GAMES
Prairie View A&M vs. Bethune-Cookman: Bragging rights for the nation’s two black FCS conferences will be on the line in the MEAC-SWAC Challenge in Orlando, Florida Sunday. The MEAC has a 4-2 edge in the Challenge, and Prairie View will try to keep the SWAC from losing back-to-back games for the first time in the series. Bethune-Cookman, one the MEAC’s tri-champions in 2010, was the surprise team in black college football in 2010 with its 10-2 record. The Wildcats must replace quarterback Matt Johnson, the MEAC Offensive Player of the Year, who graduated. Coach Brian Jenkins had settled on a starter from among Jamarr Robinson, a transfer from the University of Maryland; Jackie Wilson, Johnson’s backup last season, sophomore David Blackwell and freshman Quentin Williams, the 2010 Mr. Football in Florida. Prairie View enters the season with a new coach in Heishma Northern, who succeeded Henry Frazier III after Frazier left for North Carolina Central. Northern’s biggest challenge is replacing quarterback K.J. Black and running back Donald Babers. Senior Jonathan Troast, who started two games last season when Black was injured, won the starting job. Jeremy Waddy is the Panthers’ most experienced ball carrier, having gained 68 yards on 15 carries.
Southern U. at Tenn. State: These two traditional powers meet in the John Merritt Classic hoping to turn things around under a pair of second-year coaches. Southern was 2-9 in 2010 with the most losses for a single season in school history in Stump Mitchell’s first season as coach. The prospects for a quick turnaround aren’t good. The Jaguars were slapped with a loss of scholarships and practice time by the NCAA because of failing to meet Academic Progress Rate requirements. Tennessee State, 3-8 in 2010, lost their last six games of the season, equaling the longest losing streak by a single coach in school history, and the Tigers were winless in the Ohio Valley Conference for the firs time in 22 years in the league.
Hampton vs. Alabama A&M: These nonconference opponents hope to set the tone for their conference races as they meet in the Chicago Football Classic at Soldier Field. Alabama A&M is coming off its worst record (3-8) since joining the SWAC and was picked in the preseason to finish fourth in the five-team SWAC East Division this year. Their hopes for a turnaround hinge on their quarterback play. Quarterback Duante Mason returns after a injury-riddled 2010 season. David Isabelle, a transfer from Alabama-Birmingham Alabama A&M, also expected to see considerable playing time. Hampton, a darkhorse in the MEAC race, has revamped its coaching staff in hopes of breathing life into the Pirates’ anemic offense, which averaged 17.5 points a game, placing them 103rd out of 117 teams in the FCS. New offensive coordinator Willie Snead III’s high school team in Muskegon, Mich., averaged 45 points a game. The Pirates also have added a new offensive line coach, Jason Eck from Ball State, and receivers coach Lamar Thomas, who set the career record for receptions at the University of Miami, before playing for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Miami Dolphins in the NFL.
OTHER GAMES
Bowie State at Assumption
Lincoln (Pa.) at Cheyney
Concordia-Selma at Jackson State
Catawba at Saint Augustine’s
Winston-Salem State at Elizabeth City State
Delaware State at Virginia Military
Avila at Lincoln (Mo.)
Lane at Edward Waters
Virginia Union at Benedict (Palmetto Kickoff Classic)
West Virginia State at Johnson C. Smith
Virginia University of Lynchburg at North Carolina A&T
Langston vs. Arkansas-Pine Bluff (Literacy Classic, Little Rock, Ark.)
Alabama State at Miss. Valley State
Shaw at Stillman
Albany State vs. Savannah State (Music City Classic, Macon, Ga.)
North Carolina Pembroke at Fayetteville State (Two Rivers Classic)
Fort Valley State at Florida A&M
Virginia State at Norfolk State (Labor Day Classic)
Texas College at Lamar
Howard at Eastern Michigan
Morgan State at Towson
SUNDAY’S GAMES
Kentucky State vs. Central State (Dayton Classic, Dayton, Ohio)
Morehouse at Miles (Labor Day Golden Classic)
