The Montgomery Advertiser from Montgomery, Alabama • 32

ec COLLEGE FOOTBALL Sunday, October 3, 2010 Montgomery Advertiser TEXAS SOUTHERN 21, ALABAMA STATE 7 Tuskegee routs Miles ASUstra sees Seldom-used freshman running back Christian Newsome led all rushers with 80 yards on eight carries, including a 47-vard touchdown run to nush under center a i i 4i ra Texas Southern receiver Joe Anderson breaks away from Alabama State defender Marcus Soloman during the Hornets' 21-7 defeat Saturday at Cramton Bowl. By George L. Jones Special to the Advertiser TUSKEGEE There wasn't much suspense for Tuskegee against Miles College on Saturday, as the Golden Tigers jumped to a quick start and rolled to a 51-0 win at Cleve Abbott Stadium. Quarterback Josh Harris and receiver Antoine Mitchell had already hooked up for two touchdown plays by the end of the first quarter, and the Tigers (4-1, 3-1 Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference) never looked back. It was Tuskegee's first shutout of the season and their largest margin of victory since beating Clark Atlanta by the same score in 2007.

Defensive tackle Malcolm Crutchfield proudly carried the Wood" across midfield after the game. The defense began the tradition in 2007 when it kept a four-by-four on the sideline of each game. "After each game, when we beat them, we write their name on here," the senior Crutch-field said. "We try to write a new team on here every game. We came out today and won 51-0, so I think that was a great statement.

The offense did their thing. The defense did their thing. We want to just keep it rolling." The motivational tool worked well. Miles (2-4, 2-3 SIAC) only produced 102 yards of offense and had more penalties (eight) than first downs (six). The Golden Bears never got into the red zone.

Harris finished the game 15-of-25 passing for 238 yards and a season-high three touchdowns. Mitchell's touchdown catches went for 10 and 28 yards, and he had five total receptions for 115 yards. Up 14-0, a 44-yard halfback pass from Stephen Freeman to Mitchell put Tuskegee in business again at the Miles 32-yard line. Jonathan Lessa dropped an easy catch in the left flat on third-and-eight, but Tuskegee head coach Willie Slater called for the same play on fourth down. This time Harris hit Mitchell for an 18-yard completion across the middle, setting up Freeman's five-yard touch-down run.

Slater didn't blink when asked why he called the play twice in a row. "It was working," he said. "They hadn't been changing the secondary at all. He was open." the lead to 44-0. 1 1.nM A iU I iilllcuawivei iwuucjr miuio ny recovered a fumble in the end zone with 2:16 to play for the final points of the game.

Miles' quarterbacks combined for 34 passing yards. Rashad Rivers 27 rushing yards produced more offense than any Miles player. Making his mark: Newsome was a late preseason addition to the roster, and touched the ball twice in game situations coming into Saturday's game. But coaches and teammates have raved all along about his speed and his work ethic irj. practice.

Newsome's performance against Miles left little need for embellishment from his "That kid can really run," Slater said. "I like him." Ready to go: Sophomore receiver Philander Browder is already auditioning for a starting spot next season. He made his first career touchdown catch Saturday, a 36-yard reception in the second quarter. He has been an ace special teams player all season, but with three key senior receivers on the roster, he figures to play a more prominent role next season. And he doesn't mind doing the grunt work until he earns his chance.

"I just have to play my part," Browder said. "In high school I played kickoff return, punt return, all that. The coaches brought me here for that, so that's what I try to do." Two left feet The Bears did as much to hurt themselves as anything Tuskegee threw their way. Miles killed its chances on offense continuously with pen- alties, and a flag for roughing the punter extended the sec- ond-quarter drive on which' Tuskegee took a 28-0 lead. j-" In good hands: Free safety Ronald Smith hauled in his 1 team-leading fourth intercep-.

tion and returned it 33 yards to set up a John Pascley nine-yard touchdown run in the third quarter. i Smith entered Saturday's game in a three-way tie for the SIAC lead in interceptions. iulie Bennett Advertiser horribly as Jordan McFadden was tackled after a five-yard gain to the 15 on the first return and for a three-yard loss on his second return after taking the ball from Nick Andrews in the huddle. On the third return, the Hornets went back to a normal kick return plan and McFadden returned Robert Hersh's kickoff 44 yards to the Texas Southern 48-yard line. Riclcerson shines in first start Florida transfer Jacques Rick-erson earned his first start of the year on Saturday and responded with eight tackles.

More importantly, Rickerson shut down Texas Southern receiver Joe Anderson, considered one of the best in the league. With Rickerson guarding Anderson, Texas Southern quarterbacks Gino Simoni and Arvell Nelson spent their time looking in the opposite direction. Anderson caught just two passes in the first half and neither were against Rickerson. He finished with three receptions for 91 yards, including a 51-yard catch in the second half, but none came with Rickerson standing on the opposite side of the line from him. "We knew later on in the game we wanted to get him on their best receiver and he did a good job for us," Alabama State coach Reggie Barlow said.

was exactly where my receiver was going to be. I didn't have enough time to do anything else with it." In addition to the four interceptions, the Hornets (3-2) also had four rumbles, losing one. "Whenever you get bad quarterback play, on any level, you're not going to have a chance to win," Barlow said. "Their punter did a gDod job pinning us back, but oil in all, we still had opportunities. The thing that disappointed me is we had two personal foul penalties after turnovers that hampered us from getting anything going.

"So it was a combination of a lot of things." The Hornets drop to 3-2 in Southwestern Athletic Conference play heading into next week's game at Grambling State, but Barlow said the good news is the game doesn't count in the SWAC standings. "The good thing about it is Texas Southern is a game that doesn't count," Barlow said. "Only seven (of the nine SWAC games) count so the goals are still intact. It's a game to learn from." No huddle returns: Alabama State unveiled its new kickoff return plan on Saturday, getting the four deepest players to huddle together after fielding the kickoff. The plan backfired By Tim Gayle tgayleegannett.com Alabama State's game Saturday against Texas Southern looked a lot like August practices at Hornet Stadium.

Three quarterbacks shuffled duties. No one appeared to want the job. When the musical chairs ended, it was Texas Southern who left Cramton Bowl singing, claiming a 21-7 victory over the Hornets. Devin Dominguez, Demetric Price and Rashard Burkette took snaps for the Hornets and each struggled to find any rhythm in an offense that generated just 149 total "The only thing I can suggest is we tone some things back formation wise and play wise and try to simply it a little bit more for them," Alabama State coach Reggie Barlow said. "We're just trying to find one that can go out there and not turn the ball over and make good decisions and run the team.

Dominguez did it early in the season so there's no reason why he can't do it. We just have to keep coaching them up, love up on them and show them where they're making mistakes and go from there." The two offenses struggled through six turnovers in the first half, battling to a 7-7 tie. The Hornets had been badly outplayed for most of the first 30 minutes. They still salvaged a tie after Burkette, the third quarterback in the game, hit Nick Andrews at midfield and Andrews turned a missed tackle into a 67-yard touchdown reception for Alabama State's longest play of the season. It was Burkette's only completion of the night and one of only three for the Hornets.

"That's a tough one to swallow," said Alabama State linebacker Nigel Carr, who had eight tackles. "You can't blame it on the offense. It's a team sport. I didn't do everything I was supposed 'to do. We just nave iu iveep geumg Lrcuei, push on through it.

"Every game we've lost, it's because we beat ourselves with OiCH BO I 1 ill Ml a mental mistakes. We have to get more disciplined." The outcome was still in doubt until midway through the fourth quarter when Texas Southern (2-3) scored back-to-back touchdowns in a 23-second span, but the Hornets were facing an double-edged sword. In addition to their troubles moving the ball on offense, the Hornet defense was on the field for a staggering 37 minutes against a Tiger rushing attack that generated 210 yards on the ground. "When you can run the football and we knew we could run the football and with the defense we have, I never felt the game was getting out of hand," Texas Southern coach Johnnie Cole said. "I knew a ball would tip and they would score, but we were able to get it going in the second half.

It was just a matter of time. We knew we were wearing them down in the first half because we were running the ball successfully." Dominguez completed just three of his seven passes in the first half and two were to Texas Southern players. Backup Demetric Price threw just two passes and one resulted in a pass interference penalty against the Tigers. The other was a horribly executed play that resulted in an interception. Burkette entered the game at that point, with 11:37 remaining in the first half, and stayed in the game because he avoided critical mistakes.

When he finally made one, it sealed the fate of the Hornets. Trailing 14-7, he threw a pass toward the right sideline for Andrews. Andrews wasn't looking, but Curtis Thomas was and the Texas Southern safety returned the interception 59 yards for the game-clinching touchdown. "The pressure came from the inside and he just jumped the route," Burkette said. "It looked like he knew what the route was going to be and he G2i? 1 1 0 'a OT 0 til S' -l 1 i 4- i ii I i "A i ,1 'o A 1 ii j.

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