The bye week couldn’t have come at a better time as SU is nursing injuries on the O-line with Ramon Chinyoung (groin) not 100 percent, Chris Browne (knee) out for the season and Byron Jones, a junior-college transfer recently leaving the team.
The week is also key because SU gets to catch its breath before facing SWAC foes in seven of its remaining eight games, and provides two weeks to prepare for Alcorn, a team the Jaguars beat on a goal line stand last season, 14-10. Alcorn had upset SU10-26 in 2006 and 16-38 in 2005. It’s also SU’s first SWAC contest counting toward the standings this season.
“I think it’s good for us because we’ve been going pretty hard,” SU coach Pete Richardson said of the bye.
“We had some injuries going into the game against Valley and we tried to masquerade with it but we got some more. We lost one of our starting left tackles (Browne), his knee is gone.”
Blasted by University of Houston, 55-3, and outlasted by Tennessee State, 34-32, SU bounced back routing Mississippi Valley State 49-7 in A.W. Mumford Stadium Saturday.
“We needed that (win headed into bye) for this football team,” Richardson said. “We’ve been through so much, and a lot of them are still enamored as far as families and situations like that.”
But, will the confidence from that win carry over to the game against Alcorn?
With added rest, this year’s early bye week could be just what SU needs to get by Alcorn and a tough October schedule that pairs the Jaguars with Jackson State Oct. 4, Texas Southern Oct. 11, Florida A&M Oct. 18 and emerging Prairie View Oct. 25.
“We just have to take it in and get some players back,” Richardson said.
The past three Octobers have been rough on SU as the Jaguars have gone 1-2 in 07, 0-3 in 06 and 1-2 in 05. The last time SU had a winning record in October came in 2004 when SU went 5-0 and returned to the SWAC Championship game, losing to Alabama State, 35-40.
SU practiced Sunday, Monday and Tuesday before taking the remainder of the week off so players could focus on rehabbing injuries and academics. Richardson said the SU coaching staff would use its off time recruiting.
Richardson spent time Monday in Mobile, Ala., in a news conference to publicize the Gulf Coast Classic against Alabama State on Nov. 15.
In Richardson’s previous 15 seasons at SU, the Jaguars have had only three other bye weeks in September. The last came in 2003. That year SU won SWAC and Black College National Championships.
“We want to get to the championship,” Richardson said. “We have to play one game at a time and just get focused. Hopefully we can our people back and get ready to go.”
That journey starts now.
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