Leading up to this week’s annual Southwestern Athletic Conference Media Day, TSPN Sports will forecast our preseason predictions for the upcoming 2014 season.
SWAC West Champion – Prairie View
Prairie View scored at least 40 points in their final five games to end the 2013 season.
They also gave up an average of 31 points per game during that stretch.
Their porous defense was the culprit in keeping them from the SWAC championship game.
In the offseason, head coach Heishma Northern — in an attempt to improved the battered defense — signed 21 defensive players, including more than a dozen on National Signing Day.
His biggest addition might be the hiring of Cliff Yoshida as defensive coordinator from Georgia Southern. Yoshida will be expected to turn around a defense that was near the bottom in most statistical categories a year ago. The longtime veteran assistant was a big part in Grambling State winning SWAC championships in 2008 and 2011.
If the defense can provide some resistance, it will go a long way in complimenting an offense that was the best in the SWAC in 2013 led by quarterback Jerry Lovelocke and the running back tandem of Courtney Brown and Johata Herbert. The backs rushed for 1,946 yards and posted double-digit touchdowns.
All the pieces are seemingly in place for Prairie View to make a serious run at their second championship in six years.
