As far as first-year Prairie View head coach Tremaine Jackson is concerned, it’s his team versus everybody else.
Nobody really believed in the mission the Panthers were on this season, except for the players in the locker room. Not their opponents, not the media, and not even their own university, which will be holding graduation on campus on Saturday at the same time as the Panthers take on South Carolina State in the Cricket Celebration Bowl at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium for the right to the Black college football national championship.
So Jackson’s players who have earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees won’t be making the graduation on the Hill for the ceremony.
The graduating players will instead have their own graduation ceremony in Atlanta.
“Here is the deal to be quite honest: Our school didn’t think we would be playing for the Celebration Bowl,” Jackson said to the Defender. “If they did, they would have moved graduation.”
Spoken like a football coach, who always knew he was coaching a team that was on a mission quite different than what most expected.
Pity those who are late to the Panthers’ party.
There has been something special going on on the Hill since Jackson and his staff arrived on campus almost a year ago, with Jackson boldly discussing that he was here to win the SWAC West, the SWAC Championship, and to get his team to the Celebration Bowl while also putting the Panthers on the FCS map. And it only became clear with every bold step and statement throughout this first season.
First, the Panthers emerged from the predicted middle of the pack in the SWAC Preseason Poll to win the West Division. Then this past weekend, they unseated the defending SWAC and Black college football national champion Jackson State, 23-21, in the conference championship. It’s all proof that a new era has arrived on the Hill.
The Panthers are SWAC champions for the first time since 2009, but this is uncharted territory because this is the first time they are playing in the Celebration Bowl for the national title.
Don’t be disappointed, however, if the Panthers’ demeanor isn’t happy to be in a bowl environment when they arrive in Atlanta this week. The mission is to leave as champions.
“They don’t like the spotlight and all of that. They want to give it to each other,” said Jackson, who was named the SWAC Coach of the Year last week. “They consider themselves a bunch of no-name guys.
“This team right here kind of has a chip on their shoulders about proving themselves right instead of worrying about proving people wrong. They keep it real simple. I’ve been proud of that.”
Jackson is proud because of this collection of players, some holdovers from Bubba McDowell’s coaching regime and about 70 new players who come via the transfer portal, have completely bought into the “it’s them against the world” mantra. Jackson hasn’t allowed his players to speak to the media, except postgame, all season long.
“Some of the lessons that I learned from Valdosta we are carrying over to this year. We made it different a year ago and the way we train our guys, we can’t break their routine.”
Tremaine Jackson
According to Jackson, that’s the decision of the players. And they won’t be breaking any of their routines this week, even in the festive celebration of a bowl game environment.
The team, which arrives in Atlanta on Tuesday and begins its Celebration Bowl obligations on Wednesday, will do what it has to do. But the fun part will have to wait until Saturday evening after the national championship has been decided.
Jackson learned the pitfalls of breaking routine last year when Valdosta State went bowling on a Thursday night in Dallas ahead of the Division II national championship game and ended up losing.
“We don’t bowl on no Thursday during the week. We play football,” Jackson said. “So this week, we have a couple of things we have to do like dinners and all of that. But all of that fun stuff, we ain’t doing that. We don’t have time to have no fun.”
They also haven’t spent much time looking back at last weekend’s impressive win at Jackson State. It’s about looking forward to the tough task of taking down South Carolina State of the MEAC. The Bulldogs, coached by Cleveland, Ohio native Chennis Berry, are the real deal after posting a 9-3 overall and 5-0 MEAC record while stringing together a seven-game winning streak coming into the Celebration Bowl.
Jackson and Berry know each other, and a couple of years ago came within a game of facing each other in the Division II playoffs, but Benedict College lost.
“I’ve always had a lot of respect for them,” Jackson said. “When you cut the tape on, they have some long-body D-linemen, guys that are really active. They do a lot of things on defense. They try to establish a run game on offense, but they are not hesitant to throw it. That is a little different based on what I know what he wanted to do.
“They have really good athletes and a championship pedigree. They’ve been here before.”
Respect aside, Jackson is clear about what the goal is Saturday.
“We still expect for our guys to go and be competitive at a high level and at the end of the day, we expect to be the national champion,” he said.
