PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas-- Prairie View A&M Panthers delivered a dominant performance in front of a national audience, and coach Tremaine Jackson believes it's time the college football world respects his program on The Hill.
Prairie View routed Texas Southern 52-14 in the 41st Labor Day Classic at Panther Stadium. Kick returner Jahbari Kuydendall stunned the Tigers, scoring on the opening kickoff. Tough rattled, the Tigers fought back in the 2nd quarter, but miscues and a tenacious Panthers defense thwarted their challenges.
Following an extended weather delay and lethargic response to the break, Prairie View A&M broke open the SWAC West rivalry game with 28 unanswered points in the third quarter.
The Panthers improved to 1-1 overall and 1-0 in the Southwestern Athletic Conference ( SWAC ). Texas Southern fell to 1-1 and 0-1 in conference action.
The 52 points were not warmly received by athletic director Anton Goff and Coach Tremaine Jackson. In a succinct response to congratulations, Goff told HBCU Legends that the team could have played much better.
Jackson was much more vocal with the media and did not treat the victory as a breakthrough, just as it is at Prairie View A&M: sheer and unadulterated dominance.
He opened his postgame field interviews by directing his frustration beyond the Prairie View locker room, aiming at the media, pundits, and analysts who underestimated his program.
"I'm a little irritated right now because I don't think our guys get the respect that they should get," Jackson said.
He returned to that message several times in interviews with multiple media outlets.
"This didn't happen by chance," Jackson said to HBCU Legends. "So when you write the story, don't write the story like something miraculous happened. This is normal. This is how we play football here, and we told you that a long time ago. We just hope now you're listening."
Jackson gave his team one word for the week: DOMINATE.
"That's to take somebody's will real slow and like you want to," he said. "That's how we define that."
Tremaine Jackson: Nothing Miraculous About Prairie View A&M's Dominant 52-14 Win Over Texas Southern | CREDIT: Kyle T. Mosley, HBCU Legends on SI
Jahbari Kuykendall returned the opening kickoff 90 yards for a touchdown, giving Prairie View a 7-0 lead only 15 seconds into the game.
Tevin Carter followed with a 24-yard touchdown pass to Damien McDaniel, and Ethan Eddins made a 37-yard field goal to extend the lead to 17-0 after the first quarter.
Texas Southern cut the deficit to 17-7 on Cam'Ron McCoy's 17-yard touchdown run in the second quarter. That was as close as the Tigers came.
Prairie View scored four touchdowns in the third quarter and carried a 45-7 lead into the fourth. The Panthers finished with 398 total yards, averaged 7.4 yards per play and won the turnover battle 2-0.
Prairie View A&M quarterback Tevin Carter; Sept. 6, 2026; 41st Labor Day Classic | Mandatory Credit: Kyle T. Mosley, HBCU Legends
Carter completed 16 of 22 passes for 217 yards and four touchdowns. He also scored on a 24-yard run and did not commit a turnover.
On his performance, Carter said: "I'm kind of hard on myself. I could have played better. We got the win, that's all that mattered."
Through two games, Carter has passed for 526 yards without an interception. Jackson pushed back on the idea that his quarterback is a new commodity in the SWAC.
"People think Tevin Carter is a new starter. Tevin Carter started for us last year. So it's not like he's new like this," Jackson said. "We've been seeing this for a long time."
Jackson said Carter would be quick to redirect the praise.
"If you talk to Tevin Carter, he'd probably talk about the O-line play and the run game and guys catching the passes and guys that he goes against on defense throughout the week and how we sharpen each other up."
Chase Bingmon rushed 10 times for 60 yards and a touchdown. He also caught four passes for 59 yards, including a 46-yard score on a swing pass from Carter.
"We saw some isolations on the defense end, so we took advantage of that," Carter told HBCU Legends.
Travon Jones caught three passes for 36 yards and two touchdowns, while Rodny Ojo added three receptions for 68 yards.
Bingmon credited the offensive coordinator for designing his receiving touchdown.
"He drew that up," Bingmon said. "He watched film the most. We just execute what he put out."
Asked what the victory meant after Prairie View A&M also beat Texas Southern last season, 22-21, Bingmon kept his attention on the current team.
"Really not thinking too much on last year," he said. "Just trying to prove who we is now to ourselves, not to nobody else."
Prairie View A&M athletic director Anton Goff (left) and head football coach Tremaine Jackson (right) holding the Durley-Nicks traveling trophy, presented to the winners of the annual Labor Day Classic; Prairie View, TX; Sept 6, 2026 | Mandatory Credit: Kyle T. Mosley, HBCU Legends
Prairie View A&M sacked Texas Southern's quarterbacks seven times and recorded 11 tackles for loss. Malachi Williams led the pressure with three sacks and six tackles. Safety Kamrin Canterbury recorded a game-high 11 tackles.
Texas Southern running back Athean Renfro entered the rivalry game after rushing for 163 yards in the Tigers' season-opening win over North Carolina Central . He gained 85 yards on 17 carries Sunday, but only four yards came after halftime.
Jackson credited his assistants for adjusting.
"I got really good coaches, man," he said. "They coach really good players. When our players execute and play with high levels of enthusiasm, good things happen. They went into halftime, made an adjustment. I didn't sit in there for the adjustment. I said what I need to say at halftime. We dispersed. Those coaches start coaching and they didn't stop coaching."
McCoy completed 10 of 19 passes for 81 yards and ran for Texas Southern's first touchdown. Ri'Jon Hammond scored on an 8-yard run with five seconds remaining. The Tigers finished with 318 yards but committed 14 penalties for 76 yards and lost two fumbles.
The weather again interrupted another Labor Day Classic. Sunday's stoppage lasted 57 minutes, but Prairie View's players said the staff had prepared them for the possibility.
"We went through this during the week, during practice," Bingmon said. "So when it came up, we weren't shook, we weren't nothing. We just prepared, stayed down and just stayed ready."
Jackson was less satisfied with how his team came back into the game after the weather break.
"I didn't like the warmup after the delay," Jackson said. "I thought the way we warmed up after halftime was the way we needed to warm up after the lightning delay, because obviously you see the difference between the two. We try to identify all issues and not leave any stone unturned."
He also pointed to a mishandled field-goal attempt and Texas Southern's late touchdown as examples of a finish that fell short of Prairie View's standard.
RB Chase Bingmon (left), Coach Tremaine Jackson (center), and S Kamrin Canterbury; Sept. 6, 2026; 41st Labor Day Classic Postgame Press Conference | Mandatory Credit: Kyle T. Mosley, HBCU Legends
Prairie View steps away from SWAC competition for its next two games. The Panthers visit Baylor at 7 p.m. CT Saturday at McLane Stadium before hosting Stephen F. Austin on Sept. 19.
Jackson made clear that he does not view the Baylor game as a payday or an exhibition.
"We're not going to Baylor to pick up no checks. So don't write that story," Jackson said. "Don't write no story about, oh, we're just going to have a good showing. We're going to Baylor to go win. That's how we do things. That's how these guys prepare."
Jackson said Prairie View chose to play Stephen F. Austin and inherited the Baylor game. He believes both opponents can help prepare the Panthers for another championship run.
"There's a different style of ball when you're talking about top five FCS," he said. "The play style is different, the way it's coached is different, the body types are different. There's no knock on our conference, but when you're trying to be elite, you have to go play elite. You can't just keep playing the same folks over and over again."
Prairie View opened the season with a 49-30 loss at then-No. 5 Tarleton State in the inaugural Chancellor's Cup. Jackson said that result, and the demanding week that followed, shaped Sunday's response.
"Our players had a rough week," he said. "We did have an extra day, and because we were on them after the game that we played first, our players had a rough week. I'm excited that those guys came out and got to take their frustrations out on somebody else, because we've been doing it against each other all week."
Coach Tremaine Jackson and Prairie View A&M Panthers await introductions at the 41st Labor Day Classic; Sept. 6, 2026; Prairie View, TX at Panther Stadium | Credit: PVAMU Athletics
Prairie View won the 2025 SWAC championship before losing 40-38 in four overtimes to South Carolina State in the Celebration Bowl. Jackson said the program's destination and expectations have not changed.
"At Prairie View A&M, we play 14 games and we win all trophies. That's just what we do now," he said. "Some people talk about going to Atlanta. We're going, and we know how to get there. Not only do we got to get there, we got to win there."
Sunday's victory gave Prairie View an early advantage in the SWAC West race and the head-to-head tiebreaker over Texas Southern. Coach Mickey Joseph and Grambling State have a 2-0 record this season. The Tigers will meet the Panthers at the State Fair Classic in two weeks for a divisional showdown.
"We don't ever want any help from anybody else, because we can't rely on other people," Jackson said.
He also refused to dismiss Texas Southern, who finished 6-5 last season for their first winning record since 2000 and opened this season by rallying from 14 points down to beat North Carolina Central 42-30.
"Texas Southern has a really good football team and they're going to beat a lot of people," Jackson said. "We're going to have to try to keep winning to keep them off our heels now."
For all Prairie View accomplished Sunday, Jackson said the performance still fell short of his standard.
"We made them tap out. It ain't no secret about that. We forcefully, we dominated. We took their will and we still didn't play in the manner that we wanted to play," Jackson said. "So I'm excited about where we still can go, because these guys will tell you, we got a long way to go still. We're not going to know where we are until the end. And the end ain't nowhere near yet."
Jackson acknowledges there's plenty of football left to be played. Today, he and the Panthers made a statement at the 41st Labor Day Classic. The scary part is that through two games, Prairie View A&M will improve and close the gap.
Just how dominant is this Prairie View A&M Panthers football team? Will they earn the respect Jackson believes is missing?
We shall see in the battles to come.
This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/hbcu as Tremaine Jackson: Nothing Miraculous About Prairie View A&M's Dominant 52-14 Win Over Texas Southern .
