bluphiiijsu
Creative Director
November 18, 2001
For JSU, this never gets old
JACKSON State's Robert Hughes looked like a man at his daughter's wedding or his son's graduation.
That's how proudly he stood at midfield Saturday evening, blue and white JSU cap held firmly over his blue and white JSU heart, as the Sonic Boom of the South played the alma mater after yet another JSU victory over Alcorn State.
T.C. Taylor couldn't have smiled any more broadly if the trophy he clung to was named "Heisman" instead of "Capital City Classic." Twenty minutes after all of his teammates had headed to the locker room, he stayed on the field at Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium, clutching that trophy, smiling that smile, wearing that blue and white uniform he has worn this season as well as any receiver in JSU history.
One look at these men and you realized beating Alcorn never gets old for JSU, no matter how many times the Tigers do it. Saturday's 52-28 game made it seven in a row for the Tigers over the Braves, a streak so long that you might think some of the Tigers would start taking it for granted.
Think again.
Robert "Judge" Hughes got his first victory over Alcorn as a JSU player in 1965 and has relished 20 more victories in 27 seasons on JSU's coaching staff.
He is 3-0 as a head coach in the Capital City Classic.
"Judge has been on us all week about this game, the last home game for the seniors," Taylor said. "I've been here for five years, and I've never lost to them, including my redshirt year."
Most of those games haven't been close. Alcorn hasn't come within single digits of JSU in the seven seasons since Steve McNair stopped being a Heisman candidate and started being an NFL quarterback.
Saturday could have been different.
The men in purple and white weren't the 0-11 Braves of last season. No, these guys were two victories away from clinching at least a share of the Southwestern Athletic Conference Eastern Division championship and a spot in the SWAC Championship Game.
So it shouldn't have been surprising that Alcorn trailed by only two points heading into the fourth quarter.
Hughes knew he had to do something before this game slipped away from him.
"He got on us pretty good down here on the sidelines," Taylor said.
"He got us back on the right track," said running back Tarnaka Counslor, who responded by getting almost half of his 161 yards in the final quarter.
In the end, JSU got a bit carried away. Robert Kent threw a fifth touchdown pass with just 2 minutes, 10 seconds left and JSU already up by 16 points. Chris Jones, the holder for the PAT, ran it in for two, then leapt into a teammate's arms as if he had just won a SWAC championship.
Whoops. Perhaps we should phrase that last sentence differently. Alabama State's victory Saturday over Mississippi Valley State eliminated JSU from the SWAC race.
For the first time since the 1960s, JSU has gone five seasons without winning at least a share of the SWAC championship. No, these aren't the best of times for Tiger football. (IMPRESSIVE)
Perhaps that made Saturday's game all the more important to the men and women in blue and white. For JSU people who think in terms of winning black college national championships, winning black college state championships still means something.
Hughes, who turned 57 Saturday, got the perfect present from his players, a victory over Alcorn, the most important victory a JSU coach can have.
"They wanted to say happy birthday to me," Hughes said. "I'm going to say happy birthday to myself."
For JSU, this never gets old
JACKSON State's Robert Hughes looked like a man at his daughter's wedding or his son's graduation.
That's how proudly he stood at midfield Saturday evening, blue and white JSU cap held firmly over his blue and white JSU heart, as the Sonic Boom of the South played the alma mater after yet another JSU victory over Alcorn State.
T.C. Taylor couldn't have smiled any more broadly if the trophy he clung to was named "Heisman" instead of "Capital City Classic." Twenty minutes after all of his teammates had headed to the locker room, he stayed on the field at Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium, clutching that trophy, smiling that smile, wearing that blue and white uniform he has worn this season as well as any receiver in JSU history.
One look at these men and you realized beating Alcorn never gets old for JSU, no matter how many times the Tigers do it. Saturday's 52-28 game made it seven in a row for the Tigers over the Braves, a streak so long that you might think some of the Tigers would start taking it for granted.
Think again.
Robert "Judge" Hughes got his first victory over Alcorn as a JSU player in 1965 and has relished 20 more victories in 27 seasons on JSU's coaching staff.
He is 3-0 as a head coach in the Capital City Classic.
"Judge has been on us all week about this game, the last home game for the seniors," Taylor said. "I've been here for five years, and I've never lost to them, including my redshirt year."
Most of those games haven't been close. Alcorn hasn't come within single digits of JSU in the seven seasons since Steve McNair stopped being a Heisman candidate and started being an NFL quarterback.
Saturday could have been different.
The men in purple and white weren't the 0-11 Braves of last season. No, these guys were two victories away from clinching at least a share of the Southwestern Athletic Conference Eastern Division championship and a spot in the SWAC Championship Game.
So it shouldn't have been surprising that Alcorn trailed by only two points heading into the fourth quarter.
Hughes knew he had to do something before this game slipped away from him.
"He got on us pretty good down here on the sidelines," Taylor said.
"He got us back on the right track," said running back Tarnaka Counslor, who responded by getting almost half of his 161 yards in the final quarter.
In the end, JSU got a bit carried away. Robert Kent threw a fifth touchdown pass with just 2 minutes, 10 seconds left and JSU already up by 16 points. Chris Jones, the holder for the PAT, ran it in for two, then leapt into a teammate's arms as if he had just won a SWAC championship.
Whoops. Perhaps we should phrase that last sentence differently. Alabama State's victory Saturday over Mississippi Valley State eliminated JSU from the SWAC race.
For the first time since the 1960s, JSU has gone five seasons without winning at least a share of the SWAC championship. No, these aren't the best of times for Tiger football. (IMPRESSIVE)
Perhaps that made Saturday's game all the more important to the men and women in blue and white. For JSU people who think in terms of winning black college national championships, winning black college state championships still means something.
Hughes, who turned 57 Saturday, got the perfect present from his players, a victory over Alcorn, the most important victory a JSU coach can have.
"They wanted to say happy birthday to me," Hughes said. "I'm going to say happy birthday to myself."
