When Alabama State travels to Baton Rouge this weekend, the trip won’t just be another road game for head coach Eddie Robinson Jr. It will be a return to the place where his college football journey began.
“My first ever college football game was playing at Southern,” Robinson said Tuesday during the SWAC’s weekly coaches’ press conference. “That’s when they still had the dorms right on that walk going to the stadium. It was an eye-opener for me.”
Now leading the Hornets into one of the SWAC’s most intimidating environments, Robinson knows what awaits his team on Saturday evening at A.W. Mumford Stadium: the noise, the pageantry, and the passion of Jaguar fans.
“It’s a great atmosphere if you’re the home team, but as a visiting team, it’s tough,” Robinson said. “We’re going to have to go down there and just settle into the game and execute early, try to take the crowd out of the game. That’s going to be hard. We know how passionate the Jaguar fans are.”
The Hornets enter the matchup looking to build on a strong offensive showing in last week’s 52-49 loss at UAB. Quarterback Andrew Body threw for 431 yards and five touchdowns in his Alabama State debut, offering a glimpse of his potential to elevate the program.
Defensively, Alabama State will need to shore up its tackling after surrendering too many big plays in the opener. Robinson says the challenge is as much mental as physical for a unit that leaned on several first-time starters.
“We had about five guys who were starting their first college football game,” Robinson said. “Now everybody has to settle down and just play football.”
As for Southern, Saturday’s contest will be the Jaguars’ home opener following a 34-29 win on the road last week at Mississippi Valley State. Despite both teams being SWAC members, that game did not count in the conference standings.
Likewise, Alabama State’s matchup at Southern will not count toward the league standings.
Kickoff is set for 6:00 p.m. at A.W. Mumford Stadium.
