Since he walked through the door at Prairie View this past January, Panthers head coach Tremaine Jackson has had some words to share and he hasn’t seemed to mind who he might rub the wrong way with those words.
Alumni, inherited players, former players and especially his coaching contemporaries.
It was almost comical last week when North Carolina Central head football coach Trei Oliver sent word through a reporter that he wanted to add Jackson and his Panthers to the schedule. You had to know this one wasn’t about to end anywhere near politically correct.
“As far as scheduling and things of that nature, everybody has got my number. Everybody knows where we are,” Jackson said. “We don’t hide, we’re on social media, we’re everywhere. We want to play whoever wants to play us and we want to play those who might not want to play us.
“Prairie View A&M is not the same Prairie View A&M. We will play anybody in the country. Just don’t make it seem like we’ve got to come to you every time. Come on to this Hill.”
Jackson, the reigning Division II Coach of the Year as a result of how he won at Valdosta State, talks a good game. But right now, the Prairie View administrators and key boosters who were instrumental in moving on from a solid coach in Bubba McDowell and hiring this young and brash-talking coach have to feel good about how he is backing it up so far.
The man, who in his opening press conference boldly promised that he was on the Hill not just to be competitive but win the SWAC West, SWAC Championship and then land in Atlanta to the National Black Championship, otherwise known as the Celebration Bowl, certainly has the attention of his doubters. The Panthers are 4-2 overall, 3-0 in SWAC play, have won three straight games and sit alone at the top of the West Division.
Let’s not get caught up in believing Jackson and the Panthers have solidified anything yet with six games still left. But enough currency has been put up to know Jackson ain’t just talking a good game anymore.
He and the Panthers are playing one.
The encouraging thing is that Jackson isn’t talking like he has won anything yet. He is definitely not allowing his team to feel like it has accomplished much yet, either.
“We’re not where we want to be yet. We are operating at about 65, 70% of where we want to be as a program,” said Jackson, whose team is coming off a bye week before heading to Baton Rouge this weekend to take on Southern. “Our whole program isn’t here yet. It takes time.
“My grandma used to say, the best food is slow-cooked. But we really feel like we can be successful right now.”
That certainly wasn’t what the voters were thinking when the combination of SWAC head coaches and sports information directors picked the Panthers to finish third in the West Division standings behind Southern and Alcorn State. The Jaguars were the overwhelming favorites with 17 first-place votes, Alcorn State had two first-place votes and the Panthers had just one first-place vote. I will give you one guess who that voter was.
However, here is how it has unfolded so far. The Panthers are coming off a one-point win on the road against Alcorn State and they are about to face a Southern team that is in all-out turmoil with a 1-5 overall and 0-2 SWAC record. There are some matchups to be on guard for coming up, like when former Texas Southern quarterback Andrew Body and Alabama State venture into Panther Stadium on Nov.1 or a better-than-expect Arkansas-Pine Bluff hits the Hill on Nov. 15.
“The way we program our guys and the way guys adhere to what we do in our program, has allowed us to be successful in close games. We certainly believe we are on the right track.”
Tremaine Jackson
Southern coach Terrence Graves has the task this week of preparing for the focus that Jackson and his team will bring into the Jaguars’ Homecoming Game, and he knows it will be anything but easy.
“Coach Jackson and his staff are doing a tremendous job,” Graves said. “I’ve known Coach Jackson for a number of years. I know how he works. I know how he prepares. Those guys will be fired up and ready to go.”
Prairie View has notched some impressive, if not overwhelming, victories so far against rival Texas Southern (22-21), Northwestern State (27-24), Grambling State (28-13) and Alcorn State (13-12). As you can see, the Panthers have only one two-touchdown win this season; the others have been nail-biters and won on late-game efforts.
Some of the results have been met with skepticism by fans and alumni who don’t appreciate the idea of winning ugly, a recurring issue with the offense that has been known to sputter at times. Jackson had some words on social media for the fans who aren’t pleased with the ugly wins. He shared them again during a recent weekly SWAC Media Call.
“Some people say that wins are ugly. That came from a person that hadn’t won very much,” Jackson said. “We’ve been fortunate enough to win in a lot of places at a lot of different levels and we value every single one of them. So if we can get out somewhere with a one-point win, which we’ve done twice this year, we take it as a win because that means we won and that person lost. That’s the goal of every game.”
The defense has been solid, with Jackson bringing in some transfers and also having a few guys step up from Valdosta State. The Panthers have the top-ranked overall defense in the SWAC and among the best in all of the FCS. Players like Travor Randle, Darrell Sterling, Sterling Robers, Kennedy Parker, Malik Gucake and Eric Zachery have been huge on the defensive side.
The offensive side of the ball is where the most work still needs to be done. Running back Chase Bingmon and wide receiver Jyzaiah Rockwell have been playmakers all season. But clearly, the quarterback hasn’t been where Jackson wants it to be, which is why Cam Peters and newcomer Tevin Carter have played interchangeably and situationally.
Peters is the best pure passer, while Carter has been more of a dual threat. And for now, it seems that Jackson is comfortable with his two-quarterback approach.
“I like where both of them are, but nobody is great because we’re not sitting here 6-0,” Jackson said. “Quarterbacks are judged off wins, not how many yards did they throw. We are 4-2 as a program. We’ve got a long way to go and we’ve got a tough back stretch of six games that we’ve got to get ready for.
“So everybody gets a D because we are 4-2.”
But overall, Jackson is proud of how his team has started and come together.
“Our guys don’t care what you look like, what school you transferred from. Our guys care about each other,” he said. “That was the biggest thing we wanted to do when we got here: Teach our guys to play a brand of unselfish football, care about one another, love one another and go out and play for the name on the front. When you do that well, the name on the back will get talked about.”
