LORMAN &045; Alcorn coaches as of Monday don’t know who will get the start Saturday at Alabama State, but one thing is for sure.

Freshman Tony Hobson may have turned a corner against Langston.

The highly touted Hobson got into the game just before halftime after Oliver Bozeman fumbled a snap and went the rest of the way in the Braves’ 24-7 win. Hobson threw the team’s first touchdown pass of the season to go with another solid outing from the running game.

&uot;One thing we’ve got to do is be able to recognize what Alabama State is doing on the defensive side with our quarterbacks,&uot; Alcorn head coach Johnny Thomas said during Monday’s teleconference. &uot;We might go with either Hobson first or Bozeman. I don’t know at this particular point. We have two quality quarterbacks who are going to be great quarterbacks. They’ve got to get some experience.&uot;

Indeed, and the running game eclipsed the 200-yard mark for the first time since the final game of the 2003 season. That opened up the passing game late with Hobson, who hit Charlie Spiller on a 59-yard pass for the standout’s first deep catch and hit Tabari Lott for a 25-yard pass in the fourth quarter.

Bozeman had success earlier in the contest and led the offense to a score in the first quarter. But he lost the snap on a third-and-long at the Langston 25 at the start of the secoind quarter, and the coaches went with Hobson from there on out.

Hobson was picked off one time, while Bozeman had no picks.

&uot;Tony has done an outstanding job since he’s been here,&uot; Thomas said. &uot;Tony didn’t practice the first 2 1/2 weeks of training camp (because of injury). He didn’t practice at all. He didn’t get any reps and didn’t get in any drills. When we had growing pains at quarterback, we had to go with him.

&uot;In the first game he made some mistakes. Then he got a little feel for the game against Southeastern, and then we went back with him in the second quarter against Langston. He played a much better game. Once he gets everything down, learns the system and learns what we expect him to do against various defensive coverages, he’s going to be I think one of the good quarterbacks in the SWAC.&uot;

That’s not to underscore the running game, which has been the team’s brightest spot &045; opposite each of the last two seasons &045; thanks to Jeremy McCoy and Vernardus Cooper. McCoy just missed 100 yards after putting up a career-high 110 against Southeastern the week prior.

Cooper, however, came through in a big way against Langston with 12 carries for 77 yards &045;

a combination of 170 yards on 23 carries with McCoy.

&uot;We’ll rely on the running game until we feel good about our quarterbacks being able to make good decisions throwing the football,&uot; Thomas said. &uot; McCoy had a big game, and Cooper had a big game. The running game is the best friend of the quarterback.&uot;

On the defensive side, the Braves made improvements containing the run against the Lions Saturday in the second half while struggling more on the first half. Much of it was just poor tackling &045; something Thomas said still needs improving heading into a big game like this week against Alabama State.

Langston finished the game with 176 yards rushing, a week after Southeastern put up 223 on a team that struggled with stopping the run most of the 2004 season.

&uot;We’re not containing the quarterback and playing well on defense,&uot; Thomas said. &uot;About the third quarter on we picked it up pretty good. We’re making some good plays, but then we’re breaking down in some areas. We’ve got to tackle better. We hadn’t tackled very, very well in the last two weeks, although we work on tackling every day. We work on tackling like it’s going out of style. We even worked on tackling during training camp.&uot;

NOTES &045; Thomas said Nate Hughes’ injury includes some ligament damage along with the dislocated shoulder suffered early during the Southeastern game. He’s out for the seasonŠ. Cornerback Taurian Parks will be out six to eight weeks after tests revealed a chipped bone in his ankle and not a bad sprain as earlier indicated.