It was a game some felt would hopefully begin to right the ship for the SWAC from its disappointing defeats at the hands of MEAC opponents from years past.
With the highly anticipated debut of Isaiah Crowell, the University of Georgia transfer who would play in this year’s MEAC/SWAC Challenge as an Alabama State Hornet, there was reason to be optimistic.
But in Bethune-Cookman’s 38-28 win over Alabama State in Sunday’s contest at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, the ship is still leaning.
After Alabama State managed to build a 21-0 lead early in the 2nd quarter, which included a 2-yard touchdown run by Crowell, the Hornets went cold giving up 38 unanswered points to BCU.
“Whenever you turn the ball over to a good team, especially the way they were running the ball, it’s going to make it hard on you,” Alabama State head coach Reggie Barlow said. “Unfortunately, we turned it over too many times. We didn’t finish. We started off well, but we got a little complacent as a team and got ourselves in a hole.”
For ASU’s Crowell, he finished the game with 9 carries for only 18 yards.
BCU’s win over Bama State extends the MEAC’s winning streak in the MEAC/SWAC Challege to two in a row (BCU defeated Prairie View last year 63-14) and extends the MEAC’s overall series record over the SWAC to 6-2.
