Willie Simmons has coached in the SWAC in some form or another for close to a decade, so he understands what comes with the territory.
As the Florida A&M Rattlers prepare for what they hope will be a SWAC and Celebration Bowl championship season in 2023, Simmons addressed the elephant in the room recently on The Victory Formation Sports Show, which of course, is the ongoing rivalry on the field – and in the tweets – with Jackson State University.
“I embrace the pageantry that is the SWAC,” Simmons, who was a coordinator at Alcorn State and head coach at Prairie View A&M before taking the FAMU job, told Victory Formation host Jeff Lighsty Jr. “FAMU’s always been the school people love to hate. We have a saying, ‘We Bragg different” and that gets fans riled up.”
Simmons addressed the heat ahead of what promises to be another hotly contested Orange Blossom Classic, which takes place Sunday, Sept. 3 at 3 p.m. EST on ESPN.
A nationally televised game between two of Black College Football’s signature programs already has both fanbases, devoted and loud, squawking at each other on social media, and the coaches are sometimes tagged into the fray.
“Jackson State is one of the most rabid fanbases out there, and the last couple of years, we’ve become an archnemesis,” Simmons explains. “They’re always going to troll us and a couple of people are always clapping back no matter what’s being said.”
I love my JSU trolls! It’s great banter!#IAmSWAC #WeAreSWAC
— Coach Willie Simmons (@HCWillieSimmons) June 1, 2023
Jackson State has beaten Florida A&M the last two seasons, including a 59-3 defeat in 2022.
Simmons admitted that his defense of defensive lineman Kamari Stephens returning to FAMU after a brief stay in the transfer portal could’ve been mischaracterized as being hurtful towards JSU, so he reiterated that it was all in good fun.
“It’s never my goal to tag another school – we’re going to sell FAMU and the things we do,” he said. “We have the utmost respect for JSU as a program. I wanted to give them a lil something, but that’s the furthest I’ve gone and the furthest I’ll go.”
