LORMAN &8212; All the potential for a momentum during the off-season was there for Alcorn State Saturday had the Braves pulled off a win over Bruce Eugene and a tough Grambling State squad.

But they didn&8217;t, and it didn&8217;t happen.

No momentum, and it put a damper on a season that turned out to be not as bad as everyone have feared earlier in the season. The Braves still finished with a 6-5 record for their fifth straight winning and a 5-4 mark in conference for their third straight winning mark in SWAC play.

But the season ended for everyone on a sour note and ended the careers of the team&8217;s eight seniors. They&8217;ll take that into the off-season despite the fact that nine starters will return on offense and eight on defense in 2006.

&8220;For me now, it&8217;s no longer football,&8221; said senior All-SWAC offensive tackle Jonathan Lowe. &8220;It&8217;s about going to the workplace and moving on with my life. For the young guys, it&8217;s motivation for them. Grambling beat us 46-19, and they get Grambling the first game of the season next year. That&8217;s their motivation, which it should be.&8221;

The seniors will leave holes to fill for next season &8212; Lowe and Chris Seymour on the offensive line and Quentin Sullivan, Ken Bradford and Brandon Brown in the secondary along with punter Shane Phillips. But those losses will leave the coaches with a short list of holes to fill compared to recent seasons where nearly entire units were gone.

It may make for a short list on national signing day in February, but you&8217;ve got to appreciate the fact that 22 starters will return from a 6-5 team.

&8220;It&8217;s very difficult to do an evaluation coming off a loss,&8221; ASU head coach Johnny Thomas said. &8220;I&8217;m very serious about that. When you come off a loss, it&8217;s very difficult. Things didn&8217;t happen the way they were supposed to happen, and we didn&8217;t play the game we ought to have played or should have played.&8221;

The Grambling game was the wrong time to play such a tough opponent with key starters out, too. Sullivan, who was supposed to take part in Senior Day festivities prior to the game, did not suit up due to what Thomas called &8220;a team policy.&8221;

Tight end Tabari Lott did not play due to a sore ankle, and defensive lineman JoJuan Johnson was sidelined with an elbow injury.

But maybe that was a fitting end to a season that was filled with bad breaks. The first game of the season wasn&8217;t even in the books, and the Braves were down two starters when cornerback Taurian Parks injured an ankle and receiver Nate Hughes separated a shoulder.

And it wasn&8217;t until the fifth game of the season that there was visible progress at quarterback.

&8220;We just know all the adversities we faced at the very beginning of the season,&8221; Thomas said. &8220;With losing people to season-ending injuries and having to deal with a freshman quarterback to playing some inexperienced sophomores and red-shirt freshmen on defense, it still was a winning season.&8221;

The biggest adversity, however, may have been the 17-7 loss at home to Arkansas-Pine Bluff to put their record at 1-3 on the season. The offense was lackluster in a game that standout receiver Charlie Spiller didn&8217;t catch a ball, and the Braves didn&8217;t appear to be on track for a winning season.

But the Braves reeled off four straight wins &8212; including a wild 38-36 win over Mississippi Valley &8212; to leapfrog into contention for the Eastern Division title before losing to Alabama A&M.;

&8220;When that was happening, Coach Thomas was saying take it one game at a time and get better,&8221; running back Jeremy McCoy said. &8220;We got better and better and jelled as a team. We had to get it together. We really didn&8217;t change anything. All we did was practice what we were doing, and we got better at what we do.&8221;

The biggest improvement on the season was freshman quarterback Tony Hobson, who had four solid games where he showed what kind of potential he has. But he threw 14 picks to 10 touchdowns while the powerful ground game gave the offense a boost.

McCoy topped 1,000 yards as the Braves finished the season as the top ground game in the SWAC.

The offensive line will have to replace the entire right side.

&8220;We&8217;re not where we want to be nor where we need to be,&8221; Thomas said. &8220;You want to be going to the SWAC Championship, and we had that opportunity against Alabama A&M.; A couple of guys were out (Saturday), but y&8217;all know me well enough I don&8217;t use that as an excuse.&8221;

Thomas said his staff will pursue medical red-shirts for Parks and Hughes.

Both will be welcomed back in the spring along with running Vernardus Cooper, who suffered an ACL injury.

They may return to be impact players, but if there&8217;s anything to be learned from this season, it&8217;s that you just never know.

&8220;I&8217;ll put it this way &8212; if we can get by the injury bug, we&8217;ll be all right,&8221; Thomas said.