2005 SWAC Preview
8/1/05 by SWACFootball.com

The SWAC has cleared up a lot of confusion this year by counting all nine conference games played by each team. This will give us the best two teams playing in the SWAC Championship Game without any dispute. This is the one good thing that came out of UAPB's scheduling foul-up and winning season.
    
This year the SWAC will be very interesting at the top of both divisions. Last year's champions Alabama State and Alabama A&M will battle for the east title. Same can be said about Southern and Grambling in the west. What makes these teams interesting is the ability of either team to win the SWAC title.  With that being said, we need to examine what sleeper teams could make some noise this year like UAPB last year.

First let’s look at the top four teams. Alabama State (ASU) is returning most of their team from last years’ championship team. The team looks unstoppable when you look at last year’s stats for offense and defense. The offense rang up 33.9 ppg (1st) and 423.8 ypg (1st) while the defense held their opponents to 19 ppg (2nd) and 325.9 ypg (3rd).

Southern's offense stats was on ASU’s heels last year in the offensive category, but they will have to break in new quarterback Joseph Lewis. Tailback Steel Adams returns to relieve some of that pressure. The Jags will have to improve defensively if they want to be in mix at the end of the year.

Grambling took a big blow last year when Bruce Eugene was injured. It took backup QB Brandon Landers a couple of games to get his groove. When Landers did, the offense got on track by the end of the year. Eugene is back and looks to take the SWAC title again. He will get some help from the defense which has arguably the best defensive line in the conference.

AAMU has a defense that most programs dream about. Finishing first in yards allowed a game (18.2) and points allowed a game (275.9). What makes the Bulldogs scary is the ability of the offense to improve. If the bulldogs ever get the offense in the top have of the SWAC statistically they will run away with the title. AAMU's running game will do it’s job helping QB Kelcy Luke find his groove in the offense. This might take a couple games but it will happen this year. Look for the Bulldogs to have a nine game winning season.

The remaining teams in the SWAC are rebuilding. Alcorn is the top sleeper team this year even though the Braves are starting a new era without QB Donald Carrie. Leading candidate for QB is Oliver Bozeman will have all the weapons Carrie had last year. Leading receiver Charlie Spiller will want to improve on numbers from last year but getting him the ball might frustrating.

The sleeper team from last year was UAPB and due to scheduling conflicts really didn’t get to show off their skills against the top teams of the league. This year will be hard for the Golden Lions to repeat the success from last year. The good news is the program is going in the right direction. The bad news the record will not show it. The team is young and the Golden Lions will takes its lumps this year.

Texas Southern and Jackson State can’t say the same thing but, Prairie View can. I commend JSU for giving head coach James Bell one more year to get thing turned around. The Tigers improved last year and the team could actually turn the corner this year. The question is will it be enough for Bell to keep his job? TSU looks like they will have a repeat of last year and another coach by 2006.      

Prairie View looked like a college team last year and they will improve on that again this year. Look for four to five wins this year from the Panthers.