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All eyes are on Florida A&M football.
Some look for the Rattlers to maintain its Black College Football National Championship standard as they achieved in 2023.
At the same time, others view the Rattlers as inferior to last year’s team that claimed the program’s first Southwestern Athletic Conference and Celebration Bowl trophies last December.
The assumption of a championship hangover follows an eventful offseason, including FAMU hiring James Colzie III as its new head football coach.
Colzie replaced 2023 SWAC Coach of the Year Willie Simmons, who left the Rattlers in January to become the Duke Blue Devils’ running backs coach after six years.
FAMU also lost many key players, such as the SWAC’s 2023 Offensive Player of the Year quarterback Jeremy Moussa and 2023 SWAC Defensive Player of the Year Isaiah Major, to graduation and other key players to the NCAA Transfer Portal.
For example, at Tuesday’s SWAC Football Media Day, the league released its divisional predicted order of finish.
The SWAC selected FAMU to place second in the SWAC East, garnering 104 points and six first-place votes. The Rattlers trail the Alabama State Hornets, who got 114 points and 11 first-place votes.
FAMU and Alabama State meet in Montgomery on Oct. 5 for the Hornets’ homecoming football game.
“You fall into that list of possibly being complacent. That happens with every championship team. Then you look at the people we lost,” Colzie said during his SWAC Media Day online Zoom session on Tuesday.
“But I know we have about 88 to 90 guys in Tallahassee, and they all understand that we’re going to get the best from every team we play. And we don’t want to get surprised by any team we will line up against.
“It will be extremely important for our staff to ensure we have them ready to go.”
FAMU opens its 2024 football season in…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/swac-media-day-2024-target-205623628.html
Author : Tallahassee Democrat
Publish date : 2024-07-16 20:56:23
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