But Braves remain focused as they resume SWAC play

By

ADAM DAIGLE

LORMAN &045; There’s some solace to be taken out of that gut-wrenching 40-28 loss Saturday night for Alcorn.

For starters, the near-25,000 fans for Saturday’s game with Grambling on the Lorman campus were not watching a contest that counted in the Southwestern Athletic Conference standings. And no one can hide the fact that for two quarters and most of the third the Braves played with the Tigers, the team Sports Illustrated tagged the best in the nation in its preseason I-AA poll.

&uot;We could have won the football game, as you very well know,&uot; Alcorn head coach Johnny Thomas said Monday. &uot;We collapsed in the end. We weren’t opportunistic in the very beginning when we had a chance to put them away. That’s something we can learn from and continue to grow and get better. We have to do that this year because these (seniors) are not going to be back next year.&uot;

The loss hurts, but Saturday’s game against Alabama State is bigger since it is a SWAC game. The Braves are still 1-0 in conference after opening the season with an impressive 34-10 win at Arkansas-Pine Bluff, and Week 2 was an off week of conference &045; blame that on the strange SWAC scheduling where last year’s Alcorn-GSU game counted in the conference standings.

But there’s no arguing there would have been significant ramifications on both sides had the Braves come out the victors Saturday.

&uot;I think earlier in the week somebody mentioned to me Coach Thomas mentioned this was the biggest game of his coaching career,&uot; GSU head coach Doug Williams said Saturday. &uot;It wasn’t the biggest game of my coaching career, but I couldn’t feel sorry for Coach Thomas because we were playing him. I’ve got to pull for Grambling.&uot;

The Braves, however, move on. They must if there are any thoughts of playing in Birmingham in December &045; which, of course, there are.

&uot;If it had been a conference game, it would have been a more devastating loss than it was,&uot; Thomas said. &uot;I don’t like losing, but we would be worse off winning the Grambling game but losing to Alabama State. The big thing we need to do is forget about Grambling, although we wanted to beat Grambling. We have an opportunity to pick that up in the championship game when we play them again.&uot;

&uot;I’ve got to give Alcorn some credit,&uot; Williams said. &uot;I would not be surprised if Alcorn is the team we play in Birmingham.&uot;

The Braves go into the Alabama State game with all three of their running backs healthy for the first time perhaps since early last season. Robert Lester, Andrew Burks and Sidney Dumas combined for 24 carries for 124 yards with Dumas leading the way with 11 carries for 62 yards.

It was Burks who shouldered most of the load in the season opener at UAPB, but the three-back rotation as indicated Saturday night is the ideal situation for the Alcorn offense since each one brings something different to the offense.

&uot;Lester was hurt the first game,&uot; Thomas said. &uot;The very first play he was hurt, and we had to go with Burks and Dumas. Then Dumas cramped up against UAPB. When Lester came back Saturday, Dumas didn’t cramp up and Burks was OK, we had a pretty good running game with the three. And that’s by design.&uot;

This week will also have the Braves’ punt team unit going back to the drawing board of sorts after the two bad snaps late in the game. Also areas that need to be corrected were the 15 penalties for 178 yards Saturday &045; including a pass interference call that kept a Grambling scoring drive alive, a holding call that wiped off a touchdown and a flag for 12 men on the field on GSU scoring drive in the second half.

On the first botched snap officials flagged punter Shane Phillips for an illegal kick, a call Thomas said came after officials ruled he kicked the ball twice.

&uot;We didn’t kick the ball twice,&uot; Thomas said. &uot;On film we kicked the ball once.&uot;

The Braves came out of the game relatively injury-free. Linebacker Dwan Wilson remains out with a strained MCL from the UAPB game and will miss three to six weeks.