I normally wait until Sunday evening to write my article, just to be sure I’ve had a chance to fully digest the gameday experience. But I can’t wait that long tonight. I need to get this out of my system on this Halloween Evening so here goes…
Who were those ghosts and goblins dressed in Bethune-Cookman uniforms on Saturday afternoon?
Seriously, I know it was Halloween, but ain’t no way that was the same team that beat Alabama State in early October.
I kept waiting for the Wildcats to show up. I kept waiting for somebody to make a play, find some fight, or give us some indication that the team we watched take down Jackson State just a week ago was still in there somewhere.
But they never came.
Instead, we watched a Bethune team that looked completely unrecognizable. The energy wasn’t there. The execution wasn’t there. The fight certainly wasn’t there. Whatever confidence and momentum the Wildcats carried out of their October victories seemed to disappear somewhere between Daytona Beach and Pine Bluff.
This was a full blown Halloween horror show as Arkansas-Pine Bluff handed the Wildcats a humiliating 63-21 defeat, and the nightmare began almost as soon as the game kicked off.
Jaylen Jennings took the first snap from scrimmage 87 yards to give UAPB a 7-0 lead.
Eight seconds later, freshman quarterback Joel Morris took the field getting the start in place of the injured Tyler Jefferson. Morris threw an interception on BCU’s first offensive play.
Pine Bluff converted that turnover into a touchdown in 2 plays covering 22 yards in 22 seconds; 14-0.
On BCU’s next offensive drive, they ran the ball on first down, followed by another Morris interception which was returned for a touchdown on second down. Pine Bluff 21, BCU 0 less than 2 minutes into the game.
You heard that right. 21-0 in under 2 minutes.
The comedy of errors continued in the first half with Pine Bluff scoring 14 more points off of two more BCU interceptions. They added a 6th score to take a 42-0 lead into halftime.
Embarrassing!
By night’s end, UAPB racked up 333 yards rushing and 451 yards of offense.
Meanwhile BCU was held under their season average rushing for 166 yards. They also failed to reach the 200 yard passing mark and have yet to throw for 200 yards in any game this season.
At some point, we have to stop treating these performances like isolated incidents.
To put it bluntly, the road struggles under Raymond Woodie are becoming impossible to ignore. Heck, they are becoming worrisome.
Bethune is now 2-11 in SWAC road games during the Woodie era. Across those 13 games, BCU has been outscored 420–256. The only road victories have come against Mississippi Valley State, which the Wildcats defeated in both 2024 and 2026.
That’s not a small sample size anymore. That’s a pattern. A troubling pattern because you can’t play all your games at home.
What is happening with this program on the road? And why does this team struggle so mightily to carry its success from one week into the next? Are there systematic issues that need to be addressed beyond the usual conversations about fundamentals and attention to detail?
These are legitimate questions, and Saturday only added fuel to them.
The Identity Crisis Continues
Wildcat supporters throughout this season have repeatedly stated they simply don’t know which team is going to show up.
And here we are, nine games into the season, still having the same conversation.
Think about the emotional roller coaster in October alone; BCU has had two signature wins at home against ASU and JSU as mentioned earlier; but they have also had two blowout road losses over these last four weeks against AAMU and now UAPB.
Here is the hard truth, we know exactly who the Wildcats are. They are a 5-4 team sitting one game above .500. They are good enough to beat anyone, but also vulnerable enough to lose to anyone.
That’s not criticism. It’s what the results tell us 3/4ths of the way through the season.
The Clock Is Still Ticking
For all the disappointment, the season isn’t over.
BCU still has three games remaining against three HBCU Bluebloods (Southern, Grambling, Florida A&M). The Wildcats need to win two of those games to secure its first winning season since 2019.
If the Wildcats win all three, they would end the year 8-4 with wins over ASU, JSU, Southern, Grambling, and FAMU.
That would be a pretty impressive year. But you can’t win three if you don’t win the first one.
The first one just so happens to be on the road to face Southern in Baton Rouge. And if Saturday wasn’t frightening enough, Southern just delivered a statement of its own by blowing the doors off Florida A&M 42-14.
The Jaguars appear to be finding their stride at exactly the wrong time for the Wildcats.
Halloween is over. And so is the margin for error if the Wildcats want to change the narrative surrounding this program.
Saturday was ugly. There’s no dressing it up, and no pretending it didn’t happen.
The questions aren’t going away. The only way to quiet them is to answer them on the field.
Put Pine Bluff behind you. Regroup. Refocus. Get back to work. Finish strong.
November is waiting.
