LUT WILLIAMS BCSP Editor
All eyes will be on Atlanta this Saturday as the 2024 black college football season kicks off with the Cricket MEAC/SWAC Challenge.
The Week Zero game, to be held at Center Parc Stadium in the ATL (7:30 p.m on ABC), will pit Norfolk State of the MEAC vs. defending SWAC and Celebration Bowl champion Florida A&M.
The NSU Spartans, in their fourth-year under head coach Dawson Odums, are coming off a 3-8 mark in 2023, 1-4 in the MEAC.
The FAMU Rattlers finished 12-1 under head coach Willie Simmons last season, 8-0 in the SWAC including a 35-14 win over SWAC West champion Prairie View A&M in the conference’s title game.
Simmons’ troops went on to defeat MEAC champion Howard 30-26 in a tight Celebration Bowl match up at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium to wrap up the season.
The MEAC leads the series 11-6 over the SWAC. Jackson State of the SWAC beat the MEAC’s South Carolina State Bulldogs 37-7 in last year’s game.
The 2024 Match Up
Both the Spartans and the Rattlers will be missing key players heading into Saturday’s showdown.
Norfolk State will be without senior quarterback Otto Kuhns who was voted first team all-MEAC in the preseason by the league’s coaches and sports information directors. Last week Odums confirmed that Kuhns would miss the first four games of the 2024 season because of an unspecified NCAA ruling. Odums said the ruling is due to academics.
NEW TRIGGERMEN: Florida A&M’s Daniel Richardson (l.) and Norfolk State’s Jalen Daniels (r.) will both be leading their teams for the first time in Saturday’s MEAC/SWAC Challenge in Atlanta.
Kuhns, who has started 18 games over the past two seasons, threw for 1,244 yards with 12 touchdowns and seven interceptions in 2023.
On Sunday, Odums named Garden City Community College transfer Jalen Daniels Norfolk State’s starting quarterback for Saturday’s game. Daniels (6-5, 202) threw for nine touchdowns and over 1200 yards in 8 games with Garden City last season
The missing piece for the Rattlers is Simmons who left after last season’s successes looking for a more high profile position. He joined the staff of new Duke coach Manny Diaz as the Blue Devils’ running backs coach.
Along with taking over from Simmons, new FAMU head coach James Colzie III also has the challenge of replacing quarterback Jeremy Moussa, last year’s SWAC Offensive Player of the year. Moussa led the league with 2,893 passing yards for 22 touchdowns and 10 interceptions.
On Monday, Colzie named Daniel Richardson as his Game 1 starter. Richardson (5- 10, 205) is a grad transfer from Miami, Florida. He edged out Junior Muratovic for the role in what Colzie admitted was a tight and tense battle through fall camp. Richardson started his career at Central Michigan where he started 23 of 32 games. At Florida Atlantic last year, he threw for 2,001 yards and 13 TDs with ten interceptions.
Headed to Hawaii?
The only other game on the Week Zero schedule has Delaware State of the MEAC travelling all the way out to Honolulu Hawaii to meet the Hawaii Rainbows Saturday (10:30 p.m. ET). The Hornets were 0-10, 0-5 in the MEAC in 2023. Hawaii finished 5-8 overall, 3-5 in the Mountain West Conference.
Steven J. Gaither of HBCU Gameday reported Tuesday that the Hornets and second- year head coach Lee Hull missed their 10-and- a-half hour flight Tuesday to Honolulu. CBS Sports reported later Tuesday that Delaware State rebooked its travel and is “still scheduled to arrive on time in Hawaii tomorrow (Wednesday).”
Delaware State is the first HBCU team to make the trip to play Hawaii since Grambling State did so during the days of legendary GSU head coach Eddie Robinson. Robinson’s troops defeated Hawaii 34-23 on October 2, 1976. GSU went 3-0 vs. Hawaii between 1972 and 1976, winning 20-6 in 1975 and 46-7 in 1972.
