Southern not toying with Allen

The Southern University Jaguars football team (7-1,4-1 Southwestern Athletic Conference) are looking to reboot their winning season when they play Allen University (4-4 National Athletic Intercollegiate Association) on Saturday at 7p.m. in A.W. Mumford Stadium.
Last Saturday, Southern lost a 36-34 dogfight against Alcorn State. The defeat was the demise of the Jags’ run at a perfect record.
“People assumed that Alcorn State did not have a good football team,” said SU head coach Pete Richardson. “They had a number of individuals on that team that had a lot of faith in that football team.”
This is the Yellow Jackets’ first team since 1968 and the largest home crowd they have played before in Columbia, S.C. is only 7,000. But that does not have Jags’ head coach Pete Richardson taking the team lightly.
“You talk about Allen as being a cupcake, I think Allen University has a fine football team there going to come in fired up,” Richardson said.
Last week, AU defeated Paul Quinn College 20-19.
This game will be the first meeting between the two universities.
“I’m looking forward to playing Southern, it’s a unique university and very good for our program,” said AU head coach Sherman Simmons. “Were not going to fear Southern or our ability. I appreciate Southern giving Allen a chance to play. They are a proud team and we are proud also.”
As a former Jaguar defensive backs coach, Simmons knows about the fans and what to expect from Southern’s atmosphere.
Richardson said that part of the Yellow Jackets’ game plan will probably consist of a lot of blitzing, so the Jags will have to try and cut down on turnovers. He added that the main goal is to make it to the conference championships and with a little bit of focus they are can accomplish it.
The Jags have four more games on their schedule and they have learned through their loss to Alcorn State that they can not take their opponents lightly and they can not be complacent.
“We’d just lost, so we have to focus more mentally. We can’t underestimate our opponents,” said Jags’ junior wide receiver Adam Nelson. “In the last game, we were lackadaisical.The Alcorn game was a humbling experience.”