Hampton University

#18 Wildcats bounce back with 42-12 drubbing of Hampton

/ J Bell / Leave a comment
Dion Hanks

Dion Hanks

A week after losing its first MEAC contest in over two seasons, 18th ranked Bethune-Cookman bounced back in impressive fashion thrashing the Hampton Pirates 42-12  on Senior Day in Daytona Beach.

The Wildcats racked up 557 yards of total offense including 475 rushing yards in the contest.

BCU opened the game’s scoring on an 11 play, 87 yard touchdown drive on its second possession of the contest. The Wildcats ran the ball 10 straight times on the drive with the only pass attempt resulting in a 6 yard touchdown reception from Jackie Wilson to Cary White.

The Wildcats doubled their lead on their next possession but needed just 4 plays this time to hit pay dirt.  Isidore Jackson, who finished the contest with 102 yards rushing on 9 attempts, scampered down the right sideline for 53 yards to set the Cats up with 1st and goal at the 6.  Two plays later, Wilson twisted his way into the endzone on a quarterback keeper.

“We came out focused and ready to play” coach Brian Jenkins stated after the contest.  “We are a good football team.  A lot of people doubted us after last week and that’s okay.”  “We had a talk as a team.  There was no panic; it was just (about) cleaning up our act and we did that.  The approach we took is we’re not going to let it go to the score cards.”

Anthony Prevost successfully converted a 34 yard field goal to give Hampton their only points of the first half.   But the Wildcats would respond immediately needing to travel just 15 yards for their third touchdown of the half. Darian Baker took the ensuing kickoff 82 yards to the Hampton 15 yard line.  3 plays later,  Quentin Williams finished the drive on a 1 yard option keeper.

Brodrick Waters scored on a 2 point conversion attempt and put BCU ahead 22-3 at the half.

Hampton had several chances to get back into the contest early in the 3rd but the Wildcat’s tenacious defense kept the Pirates at bay.  After HU trimmed the lead to 22-6, the BCU offense fumbled on its first two possessions of the 3rd quarter but the defense held firm and prevented the Pirates from capitalizing on either of the turnovers holding them to a missed FG attempt and stopping them on a 4th and 1 respectively.

Freshman running back Michael Jones pushed the BCU lead to 28-6 midway through the 3rd quarter on a nifty 30 yard run.  Jones made a couple of HU defenders miss and outran a few others on his way to the endzone.  “I stretched the play to the right, the defense was over-pursuing, I found a cutback lane and hit it” Jones remarked  in the postgame presser.

Quentin Williams and Drexler Dixon added rushing touchdowns in the 4th quarter for the Wildcats while the Pirates’ Marcus Hampton recorded HU’s only touchdown of the game in the final frame.

“It was good to end my last regular season home game with a (convincing) win ” senior defensive end Tevin Toney stated.  He went on to state, “it goes to show you that the hard work that we put in pays off in games.”

Toney and his defensive mates forced 2 Hampton interceptions and limited the Pirate offense to just 216 yards.

BCU takes on archrival Florida A&M next week in the Florida Blue Florida Classic in Orlando.  A Florida Classic win would grant the Wildcats at least a share of the MEAC crown for the third time in four years.  A win would also secure BCU’s 3rd trip to the playoffs in 4 years as the Cats would be awarded the conference’s automatic bid.

MEAC Roundup – 11/2/2013

/ J Bell / Leave a comment
Credits: DSUHornets

Credits: DSUHornets

MEAC ROUNDUP: Defending champion Bethune-Cookman (8-1, 5-0) continued their dominant play Saturday, bowling over North Carolina Central (4-5, 2-3), 38-14 in a nationally-televised 12 noon bout at Durham, N.C.

The ‘Cats win kept them one game ahead of South Carolina State (6-3, 4-1) in the standings. SCSU rebounded from last week’s head-to-head loss at Daytona Beach, with a 45-9 romp over Savannah State (1-9, 0-6) at Savannah, Georgia.

Clearly the game of the day had to be Delaware State’s last gasp 22-20 win over visiting Howard at Dover, as Mitchell Ward booted a 26-yard field goal as time expired to lift the Hornets (4-5, 4-2) into sole possession of third place, while Howard (2-4, 3-7) had its’ two-game winning streak snapped, to drop into 10th place.

In other MEAC action, Morgan State (3-6, 3-2) bolted to a big lead, then withstood a Hampton University comeback to sink the Pirates (3-6, 3-2), 30-27 at Baltimore, leaving the two squads tied for fourth place in the standings.

North Carolina A&T (5-3, 2-3) crushed visiting Virginia University at Lynchburg, 59-12 at homecoming in Greensboro, N.C., while another homecoming didn’t go so well, as visiting Florida A&M (3-6, 2-3) scored a fourth quarter touchdown to spoil the day for Norfolk State (2-7, 2-3), 16-6 in Dick Price Stadium at Norfolk, Va.

How Things Stack Up Now
Bethune-Cookman (5-0), South Carolina State (4-1) and Delaware State (4-2) make up the top three in the MEAC standings…. Hampton (3-2) and Morgan State (3-2) are tied for fourth place, just ahead of a four-team, sixth place logjam featuring North Carolina A&T, North Carolina Central, Florida A&M and Norfolk State at 2-3….. Howard (2-6) and Savannah State (0-6) round out the group after the first week of November.

Next Week’s slate features 10 of the 11 schools in action in five conference bouts: Norfolk State at Bethune-Cookman (4:00); Florida A&M at South Carolina State (1:30); North Carolina Central at Hampton (1:00); North Carolina A&T at Morgan State (1:00), and Savannah State at Howard (1:00).

2013 MEAC FOOTBALL STANDINGS
Through November 2
Team …………………… Conference …….. Overall
Bethune-Cookman ……. 5-0 1.000 ….. 8-1 .888
South Carolina State …. 4-1 .800 ….. 6-3 .667
Delaware State ………… 4-2 .667 ….. 4-5 .444
Hampton ………………… 3-2 .600 ….. 3-6 .333
Morgan State …………… 3-2 .600 ….. 3-6 .333
North Carolina A&T …… 2-3 .400 ….. 5-3 .625
North Carolina Central .. 2-3 .400 ….. 4-5 .444
Florida A&M ……………. 2-3 .400 ….. 3-6 .333
Norfolk State ………….. 2-3 .400 ….. 2-7 .222
Howard …………………. 2-4 .333 ….. 3-7 .300
Savannah State ……….. 0-6 .000 ….. 1-9 .100

MEAC WEEK 10 SCORECARD (November 2)
Bethune-Cookman 38, North Carolina Central 14
North Carolina A&T 59, Virginia-Lynchburg 12
Morgan State 30, Hampton 27
Florida A&M 16, Norfolk State 6
Delaware State 22, Howard 20
South Carolina State 45, Savannah State 9

NEXT WEEK’S SCHEDULE (November 7-9)
North Carolina Central at Hampton, 1:00
North Carolina A&T at Morgan State, 1:00
Savannah State at Howard, 1:00
Florida A&M at South Carolina State, 1:30
Norfolk State at Bethune-Cookman, 4:00
Delaware State, bye

GAMES OF NOVEMBER 14-16
Delaware State at Florida A&M
Norfolk State at North Carolina Central
Morgan State at South Carolina State
Savannah State at North Carolina A&T
Hampton at Bethune-Cookman
Howard at Texas Southern

GAMES OF NOVEMBER 21-23
Bethune-Cookman vs. Florida A&M (Orlando)
North Carolina Central at North Carolina A&T
South Carolina State at Norfolk State
Morgan State at Delaware State
Howard at Hampton
Savannah State, bye

Top 10 HBCU Chants, Taunts, and Rally Calls

/ J Bell / 3 Comments

After watching the Crimson Tide roll LSU in the BCS title game, I watched 30,000 Alabama fans unleash the Rammer Jammer taunt on the Bayou Tigers.

It’s juvenile, opposing fans hate it, but it’s completely awesome.  That got me to thinking about the best chants, taunts, and rally calls in the HBCU world.  Admittedly, I have not visited every HBCU’s home stadium/gym so I am sure that there are a ton of chants, taunts, and rally calls that are worthy of Top 10 consideration but not included in the list below.  The only prerequisite needed to make the list below is that the chant, taunt, or rally call must have words attached to it.  So without further ado and in no particular order, here are my Top 10 HBCU chants, taunts, and rally calls.

In no particular order:

I’m So Glad –Tennessee State’s “I’m So Glad” is the granddaddy of HBCU chants.  It’s not an original composition but it was TSU that first introduced this arrangement to the band world.    And if imitation truly is the highest form of flattery then TSU should blush constantly as nearly every HBCU band play a version of this tune these days.

Get Up for the Bulldogs – Adopted from P-Funks “Get up for the Down Stroke”, South Carolina State’s “Get Up for the Bulldogs” is everything that you want in a college chant.  The words are easy to grasp, it get’s the Bulldog faithful energized, and it’s extremely catchy.  I have even had to make myself stop chanting this tune more than a few times in matchups between SCSU and my beloved Wildcats.

 Aggie Pride – …two simple words that say so much.  North Carolina A&T alums are an extremely proud bunch and for very good reason.  The institution is rich in academic, cultural, and athletic history.  This rally call serves as both public praise to a fellow Aggie for his/her accomplishments as well as a reminder of NCA&T’s rich history.

 J-S-U Rock the house  – Okay, so Grambling claims to be the first to jam the “G-S-U rock the house chant”, but it was Jackson State who rocked it best!  Sorry Grambling but the Sonic Boom wins.

Chew Tobacco Spit – Winston Salem

Chew Tobacco, Chew Tobacco, Chew Tobacco Spit;
if you aint a Ram; then you ain’t $#!+. 

I hate everything about this taunt but by definition, that’s what makes a taunt great. It’s suppose to get under the skin of the opposition.

Hail Wildcats – This Bethune-Cookman chant is sometimes used to promote crowd participation, sometimes used as a taunt, and sometimes used as a rally call to offer praise to fellow BCU alums.

Hail Wildcats (echo),
Hail Wildcats (echo),
Hail Wildcats (echo),
Hail (insert opposing team’s name); Hell No!

Behold – “Behold the Green and Gold” is heard at the conclusion of the opening fanfare of the Spartan Legion’s halftime shows.  But this rally call makes the list for its usage as an at-a-boy to fellow Norfolk State supporters.

We Beat that A$$ – One of the lesser known taunts in the HBCU world yet one of the best.  In fact, I’m not even sure that Hampton still uses this taunt.  But back when Joe Taylor and his Hampton Pirates were mopping up the HBCU world, the HU band and student section were sure to let you know about it.  Once victory was certain, it would begin:

We Beat that Asssssssss
We Beat that Ass
We Beat that Ass
We Beat that Ass.

It’s crude I admit but to the victor go the spoils.

Strike, Strike, and Strike Again –We’ve all heard the FAMU faithful making that hissing sound while someone recites some poem at the end of which we’re all reminded that a Rattler will Strike, Strike, and Strike again.  It’s pretty frustrating, but pretty cool too.  Here’s the full text to the Rattler Charge:
When the dark clouds gather on the horizon,
When thunder and lightening fill the sky,
When fate is but a glint in the eye of a fallen Rattler,
And hopes are lost friends,
When the sinew of the chest grows weary,
From those hard charging line backers,
And the muscles and the legs grow tired,
From those hard charging running backs.
You must always remember that the
RATTLERS WILL STRIKE, AND STRIKE AND STRIKE AGAIN!

Let’s Go Wildcats – Not much needs to be said, just take a listen.