Prairie View A&M football is coming off a season that was nothing short of historic.
First-year coach Tremaine Jackson and the Panthers won the SWAC West, won the SWAC Championship, advanced to the Celebration Bowl in Atlanta, and were within a controversial call of winning the Black National Championship during a four-overtime thriller against South Carolina State.
Naturally, the expectations are high for the Panthers – despite losing some significant players – as they prepare to enter the 2026 season as the defending SWAC champions.
Try convincing Jackson of any of that.
“Each and every season you have to learn from something, so we have taken from last season …. We have this mantra called six seconds. We need everybody’s best play for six seconds. If everybody can give their best for six seconds, then we can win the West championship.”
Cris Dishman, TSU football coach
“I think it’s cool that the media and people around here say we are the defending… We haven’t done anything,” Jackson said during July’s SWAC Media Day. “This team has not made a first down. We’re trying to figure out how we are going to get that done.
“And the way we play football at Prairie View A&M is whatever happened before, that has no bearing on what is going to happen in the future.”
So don’t expect Prairie View’s brash-talking coach to feel any comfort as he heads into his second season with a SWAC championship trophy and armed with on-the-field knowledge of his conference opponents.
“I’m so wired in a different way, to nothing feels different,” Jackson said to the Defender. “It’s always 4th and 1 for us. We’re always trying to seek answers and be better. Just when you think you know the league, the league changes because the players change in the league. So you never can get a bead on it.
“And I think when you start thinking you got it, you ain’t got it no more. When you start getting comfortable, and this feels better… It never feels good to me, and it won’t feel good to me until the confetti falls on me on Dec. 12 with my arms around my guys in Atlanta. That’s the only time it feels good.
“At Prairie View A&M, we don’t seek comfort. We don’t seek good feelings and being told good job. That’s not life, and that’s not how we play football. So I don’t know if it’s ever going to feel any different.”
Whether Jackson agrees or not, the Panthers have ascended to being a member of the hunted after being picked in the preseason conference poll to repeat as SWAC champions. And they are the No.2 team in the country in the inaugural Preseason Black College Football Poll that is comprised of MEAC and SWAC Division I FCS programs.
But unlike years past, Texas Southern has some lofty expectations after breaking through last season with the program’s first NCAA-recognized winning campaign in 25 years in Cris Dishman’s second year at the helm. The Tigers, who finished second in the West behind Prairie View, have been picked to finish in fourth place this season and are ranked ninth in the Preseason Black College Football Poll.
Dishman, however, accepts the increased expectations and believes it’s a sign of what can come.
“It’s astounding that it took 25 years to have a winning season, but we did what we had to do. We’re looking forward to more this year,” said Dishman, whose team came within a walk-off touchdown by Prairie View in last year’s season-opening Labor Day Classic of possibly winning the division and competing for the SWAC Championship. “I keep telling my guys that in six seconds we could have a better record.
“What we are trying to do now is worry about us and make sure we have the best players on the bus to help us win games.”
For Jackson, the motivation is not just about repeating as SWAC champions, but finishing the fight this time as the Black College Football national champion.
“At Prairie View A&M football, if we don’t wake up and we don’t get the confetti on Dec. 12, it was a bad year,” said Jackson, who watched South Carolina State celebrate their championship after a 40-38 win. “We need the confetti to fall on us in the Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Dec. 12, around 4 p.m. Eastern Time. And the confetti falls sideways in Atlanta, so it gets on everybody.
“If we don’t get that, then it was a failed year, regardless of how many games we won. That’s the new mentality here at Prairie View A&M.”
But the nuance is in returning with the proverbial targets now on the back of the Panthers’ program.
“We don’t call ourselves the defending SWAC champions. There is no such thing. There is no defend this title. There is none of that. What last year’s team was able to do was incredible. And this year’s team, just because we were, don’t mean we are.”
Tremaine Jackson, Prairie View football coach
“Prairie View A&M will never be the hunted. We will always be the hunter,” Jackson said. “People felt about us whatever way they felt about us last year, before we even played one snap. The way we carry ourselves, the way we go about our business, the confidence that we play with; it’s different.
“So when you understand who we are and who you are, and what you came to do as a program, then none of that stuff matters to us.”
Both Dishman and Jackson have had to navigate the tricky waters of the transfer portal and NIL to get to this point. They have lost some high-performing players to the transfer portal, gained talented players through the portal, and will be starting new quarterbacks this season.
It’s likely that Tevin Carter will get the first nod to replace Cam Peters at Prairie View. And former Jackson State and Southern quarterback Cam’Ron McCoy landed at TSU in the offseason and is the favorite to replace KJ Cooper after he transferred to University of South Florida.
Dishman says part of the game now is retaining as many of your players as possible while ensuring you reload in the areas vacated.
“If you lose one guy who is very athletic, you have to get one guy in who is more athletic than the guy you just lost,” Dishman said. “That’s what we try to do each and every time.”
Jackson has had to deal with much of the same, losing 1,100-yard receiver Jyzaiah Rockwell in the transfer portal to Western Kentucky. But the Panthers were better insulated with top returning players like running back Chase Bingmon, offensive lineman Calvin McMillan, defensive end Malik Gucake, defensive back Eric Zachery, and tight end Travon Jones – all First Team Preseason All-SWAC members – back for their second season under Jackson.
TSU, meanwhile, did not have a player make the Preseason All-SWAC first team. Dishman isn’t losing any sleep over the omission.
“We want the postseason honors, not the preseason honors,” Dishman said. “You can have anybody make the preseason All-SWAC first team or All-SWAC second team, but it’s about the postseason. It’s what you do in the postseason.
“Plus, our guys don’t get off on individual goals. We get off on team goals. We are trying to win the West, win the SWAC, and be in Atlanta for the championship game. That’s what we are trying to do.”
