Saturday, August 1, 2015

In quarterback race at NSU, then there were two

NORFOLK, Virginia  -- The competition at quarterback remains open at Norfolk State.

First-year coach Latrell Scott said Friday that sophomore Terrance Ervin, who started nine games as a true freshman, will have to stave off newcomer Greg Hankerson to keep the job. Hankerson, a junior transfer, appeared in 16 games over two seasons at Florida Atlantic.

Asked whether he had a quarterback controversy on his hands, Scott didn't hesitate.

"I think there's a controversy in everything," he said, speaking before the MEAC's annual media luncheon in downtown Norfolk. "It's not so much controversy, it's competition."

Ervin, a Richmond native, completed 54.3 percent of his passes last season for 1,310 yards, eight touchdowns and nine interceptions. Hankerson passed for 647 yards and four scores in two seasons at FAU.



CONTINUE READING

Jay Gruden: Redskins decision-makers deemed Junior Galette worthy of a second chance

RICHMOND, Virginia – Jay Gruden said an impressive body of work, plus the contrite and grateful attitude that he observed in Junior Galette, sold him on the free agent linebacker.

Galette, released Monday by the New Orleans Saints after he fell out of favor with the organization in the past year, met with Gruden on Thursday and told the coach he was eager to redeem himself and repay the Redskins for believing in him.

“Talking to Junior, he’s very thankful for the opportunity New Orleans had given him, very remorseful about what happened, just being in the situation he was in,” Gruden said on Friday, relaying his conversations with Galette, who spent the first five seasons of his career with the Saints.


The Washingotn Redskins signed Galette to a one year contract worth $745,000.  He played his final college season at Stillman, after being dropped by Temple. 

“And he was really excited about a second chance. … He said he’d do everything in his power to make sure we wouldn’t regret it.”

The 6-foot-2, 258-pound Galette posted 22 sacks in the past two seasons. His pass-rushing expertise will help a Redskins defense that struggled to get to the quarterback while plagued by injury last season.

CONTINUE READING

T.J. Wisham earns Southern, Nicholls State, Grambling offers, ties Episcopal weight-lifting record

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana  -- A scholarship offer Friday evening from Southern marked just the latest development in an impressive summer for T.J. Wisham.

The highlights for the standout Episcopal 2016 running back include three scholarship offers — from Nicholls State, Grambling State and Southern — as well as tying a school weight-lifting record.



"I feel really good about the (summer)," he said. "My main goals were to get better and help my team get better, and I did both. I went to a few camps and felt they were very productive. I've picked up a lot of interest, and things going into my senior year are looking well.
 
"(I'm) really excited about the season with the way the team has grown the last two months. We've been working hard, spending a lot of time together and are really a solid family. I think we have a special season in front of us."
 

New Mexico State, Harvard, Southern latest offers for Zachary quarterback Lindsey Scott

ZACHARY, Louisiana -- Lindsey Scott reported scholarship offers from four SWAC programs in a span of eight minutes Friday afternoon via Twitter.

The rapid-fire announcement of Grambling State, Alcorn State, Texas Southern and Southern University was enough for former NFL wide receiver JJ McCleskey to jokingly ask if the Zachary quarterback had just attended the conference's media day.

Southern offered Scott on Friday, just weeks after Harvard, but the other three SWAC schools did so earlier in the growing list on the under-recruited standout's phone.



Under-recruited for now, anyway.

New Mexico State offered Scott a scholarship as he discussed the SWAC schools with NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune, and other notable programs may not be far behind.

CONTINUE READING 

Southern football training camp preview: After sitting out spring practice, Jaguars have extra work to do

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana -- The start of preseason football practice is supposed to be an opportunity for a team to pick up where it left off at the end of spring practice and for the coaches to start figuring out who’s going to assume roles vacated by the previous season’s seniors.

But when Southern reports Sunday and practices for the first time Monday, those challenges will be greater than normal.

The Jaguars didn’t have spring practice; they were banned from the workouts, finishing the final sanction from NCAA punishment relating to subpar academic progress rates. Additionally, 11 players who had remaining eligibility after last season are no longer on the active roster.

Six of those players are academically ineligible: defensive backs Bryan Anderson and Justin Bethancourt, offensive linemen Brandon Thibodeaux and Neako Jones, linebacker Jordan Taylor and punter Paul Randle Soden. Some of the academic casualties have appealed and could be reinstated, but Southern officials won’t say who falls into that category.

Four others left the team: running backs Jamarcus Jarvis and Tyre Bracken, offensive lineman Clayton Sylve and defensive lineman Gerald Brent. Also, kicker Kyle Yonke was dismissed.

CONTINUE READING

Soaring with the SeaHawks: Former Southern U. standout working his dream job, mixing football and people, with NFL team

Maurice “Mo” Kelly
Courtesy: Seattle Seahawks
ORANGEBURG, South Carolina -- It’s not every day that you run into someone who loves his job and cares about the people with whom he works.

Well, if you see Orangeburg, South Carolina native Maurice “Mo” Kelly the next time he is visiting family in the Garden City, you will quickly realize he is one of those people.

Kelly -- a former Orangeburg-Wilkinson High School football player who later played in the Canadian Football League and the NFL – has been promoted by the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks to the position of vice president of player engagement.

Although Kelly says the title is mostly all that’s changing from his former position as senior director for player development, he appreciates the executive level of the title that Coach Pete Carroll and General Manager John Schneider decided he deserves. And it’s a bit more executive-like than the nickname he carried during his professional playing days as a defensive back/linebacker: “Crash Kelly.”

“It’s really a title of a job to go along with ...

CONTINUE READING

HU coach Connell Maynor senses greater comfort level in second year

NORFOLK, Virginia — Connell Maynor knows his players better, and they have a firmer grasp on his goals and schemes as Maynor enters his second year as Hampton University’s football coach.  There aren’t any more unknown feelings — Maynor knows what to expect out of the Pirates this season.

“The biggest adjustment has just been showing patience,” Maynor said at the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference’s annual media day Friday. “I had to understand that I didn’t have all of my players. I have to have a couple recruiting classes to get my players in there and get them to understand our system and to learn what championships are all about. That’s a process.

“Hopefully, we’ll get a little bit better next year. This was our first full year of recruiting. That’s going to help us out tremendously. We got the guys from last year to understand what we’re looking for, and hopefully that makes us a lot better.”

HU (3-9 in 2014) returns seven starters on offense and eight on defense. The defense, which ranked 10th in the MEAC in scoring defense and ninth in total defense, went through some changes with new coordinator Mike Ketchum, formerly of Delaware State.

CONTINUE READING