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FAMU football moving towards SWAC clash versus Southern Jaguars with a renewed motivation
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- FAMU football moving towards SWAC clash versus Southern Jaguars with a renewed motivation
Florida A&M football is taking the good with the bad.
This week, all the Rattlers (3-3, 1-1 in SWAC) are focused on is pumping life back into themselves when they host the Southern Jaguars (4-3, 3-0 in SWAC) for a Week 9 Southwestern Athletic Conference rivalry game.
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FAMU and Southern meet at 7 p.m. on Saturday on Ken Riley Field at Bragg Memorial Stadium. ESPN Plus will broadcast the game, and the Rattler Sports Network will host the audio broadcast on the Rattlers mobile application .
FAMU is fresh off a critical 35-21 loss at Jackson State last Saturday. The loss tumbled the Rattlers to No. 3 in SWAC East standings and moved them out of the Football Championship Subdivision's top-25 polls. FAMU's 17-game SWAC winning streak ended in the process, too.
"We're looking at this game to get our get back to get the nasty taste out our mouths from last weekend," said FAMU offensive lineman Jalen Goss . "We're using this game to help advance us for the rest of the season and use it as building blocks."
Beating Southern won't be an easy feat for FAMU football.
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The Jaguars enter Saturday with an unblemished 3-0 record in the SWAC. Southern has won two overtime games over Prairie View A&M (31-24) and Texas Southern (22-19) and most recently defeated Alcorn State 24-14 last Saturday.
For the Rattlers to be successful, they must shake off past disappointments and look ahead.
"First and foremost, we got to get rid of the frustration we're still feeling from Saturday," said FAMU head coach James Colzie III . "We got to move on and get ourselves ready for a good football team that's feeling good about themselves. We must respond and do what we normally do when dealing with adversity.
"The best way to take care of a loss is to get a win," Colzie added.
Florida A&M Rattlers' quarterback Daniel Richardson (10) passes the ball as Jackson State Tigers' linebacker Ashton Taylor (30) tries to block it during the game in Jackson, Miss., on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024.
Improvement starts from within, says FAMU quarterback Daniel Richardson .
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"We got to get in-house cleaned up and play for one another," Richardson said. "We knew we were better but couldn't come out with the victory. But now we got to move on to the next opponent."
FAMU football still holding on to championship aspirations
FAMU lost to Jackson State on the heels of three turnovers, which played a role in the Rattlers being outscored 15-0 in the second half, which were all tallied in the game's final three and a half minutes of the game.
The Rattlers also committed seven penalties for 75 yards.
Often explained as a perfectionist, Richardson says the FAMU's miscues must stop.
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"Us just getting back to the fundamentals and focusing on us," Richardson said. "We can only worry about what we got going on. What are we playing for if we can't execute our plays?
"We got to be detailed and disciplined," Richardson said.
FAMU football is in a predicament familiar to the elder statesmen of the roster ― losing to Jackson State in the first half of the season and having to play catchup in the SWAC East race during the 2021 and 2022 seasons.
The Rattlers need to run the table in their last six games and hope Jackson State loses two. Jackson State's biggest tests come at the regular season's end versus Alabama State (Nov. 16) and Alcorn State (Nov. 23).
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"I'm telling [my teammates] to keep their heads up," said Kendall Bohler , who's been at FAMU since 2021. "It sucks that we have to depend on a team to lose. We can't just depend on that. We got to depend on ourselves and keep winning moving forward."
Over the past four seasons, FAMU has appeared in the FCS playoffs and won SWAC and Black College Football National Championships.
A winning culture has been set.
So, the Rattlers are still holding on to championship hopes and motivated to prove to the world that they're still the FAMU football teams of old.
"Every day, we break it down on 'Family' and then on 'Champs.' It's just how everybody keeps the mindset," Goss said. "That's the culture that we're used to. We can't have anybody out here thinking that we're sweet. We got to keep going."
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How a FAMU football win over Southern would showcase resiliency
Florida A&M Rattlers' defensive back Kendall Bohler (3) intercepts the ball as Jackson State Tigers' wide receiver Joanes Fortilien (16) tries to catch it during the game in Jackson, Miss., on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024.
It's not about the shortcomings, "It's how you bounce back," says Richardson.
A victory for the Rattlers will restart a SWAC winning streak after over two years without losing a conference game. A successful Saturday also keeps FAMU football's SWAC and Black College title chances within striking distance.
"Winning this weekend against Southern will put some pride on us to keep going," Bohler said.
Gradual progress like a 'crescendo,' says Goss, who credited FAMU assistant head coach and offensive coordinator Joseph Henry for the reference.
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It'll increase the morale in the FAMU locker room.
Florida A&M University left tackle Jalen Goss (61) makes a block on a Southern defender at Bragg Memorial Stadium, Tallahassee, Florida, Saturday, Nov. 5, 2022
FAMU can rebound in the comfort of its own home after two months.
By gameday, it'll be 56 days since the Rattlers last played at home in their Week 1 victory versus South Carolina State.
The Rattlers have won 21 straight games at Bragg Stadium, the second-longest active home winning streak in the FCS behind South Dakota State's 24.
Colzie looks forward to showing Rattler Nation that his inaugural team is still alive and kicking in a likely make-or-break game for SWAC standings.
"When you lose a football game, there's some doubt of how good you may be," Colzie said. "A win allows us to continue to play for our goals, extend the winning streak here, and allow our alumni to see that we're still a pretty good football team."
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Florida A&M vs. Southern ― Week 9, SWAC
When: Saturday, Oct. 26 at 7 p.m. Eastern Time
Where: Bragg Memorial Stadium; Tallahassee, Florida
Broadcast: ESPN Plus, Rattlers mobile app
Tickets: Purchase Here
Gerald Thomas, III is a multi-time award-winning journalist for his coverage of the Florida A&M Rattlers at the Tallahassee Democrat.
Follow his award-winning coverage on RattlerNews.com and contact him via email at GDThomas@Tallahassee.com or on the app formerly known as Twitter @3peatgee .
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: How FAMU football plans to bounce back in SWAC rivalry game vs Southern
