Bowling at the beach: JCSU football earns berth in Florida

TROY HULL | THE CHARLOTTE POST

Johnson C. Smith cornerback Xavier Hill returns a blocked field goal attempt for a touchdown in the Golden Bulls' 35-31 win against Winston-Salem State Oct. 28 at McGirt Field. JCSU, which finished the regular season 7-3, accepted an invitation to the Florida Beach Bowl against Fort Valley State Dec. 13 in Ft. Lauderdale.

A berth in the inaugural Florida Beach Bowl is Johnson C. Smith’s reward for a football revival.

The Golden Bulls, who will play Fort Valley State Dec. 13 at DRV PNK Stadium in Ft. Lauderdale, went from 2-7 in coach Maurice Flowers’ first season to 7-3 in his second, which stamped JCSU as a program on the rise.

“Personally, it feels it just really feels like a sense of accomplishment like we’ve done something,” Flowers said Monday after accepting the invitation. “And to know that the plans that we put in place and the culture that we’ve created it’s taking shape, and this really is moving toward where we wanted it from the beginning.”

The Golden Bulls were one of five CIAA schools to qualify for the showcase with at least six regular season wins. Virginia Union (10-1), the conference champion, earned an automatic berth to the NCAA Division II playoffs, leaving Fayetteville State (8-3) and Virginia State (8-2) with more wins than JCSU and Bowie State (6-4). Bowl organizers, however, cited the Golden Bulls’ five-win improvement and alumni support in Florida as keys to extending the berth.  

“There’s some other causes that goes into it for us, like traveling and picking the right teams to make sure it’s a competitive game,” Florida Beach Bowl CEO Victor Robinson said. “We just want a good matchup, two good teams to come down here so we can get this Florida Beach Bowl going so people can see the work we’re putting out here is to not only benefit the student athletes but also the universities and to bring funds in and bring more visibility in different parts of the country.”

While there’s sure to be debate about why bowl organizers passed over FSU and VSU, Flowers defended his program’s qualifications, which include a seven-win season for the first time since 2012.

“My response would be ‘why not us,’” he said. “Look, those are great programs and then you look at our body of work. Our team’s 7-3, and just look at what we’ve done and how far we’ve come in such a short period of time. … Johnson C. Smith is a school that’s not known for having football success, you go 2-7 and all of a sudden you turn around to 7-3, you know those guys must be doing something right.”

Seven SIAC schools qualified for the game, but 11-0 Benedict, like Virginia Union, earned a spot in the playoffs. Fort Valley State, Tuskegee and Miles each won seven games while Albany State, Allen and Edward Waters – the lone Florida program to meet the standard – won six. Upholding the CIAA football brand, Flowers said, is an incentive for the Golden Bulls. It was 12 years ago when he was JCSU’s offensive coordinator when they beat Miles in the now-defunct Pioneer Bowl.

Adding spice to the game is Flowers’ ties to both schools. He spent two years as FVSU’s head coach before taking the job at his alma mater and many of the players he recruited are still there as well as assistant coaches from his former staff.

“Oh, that's definitely a factor and a great opportunity for us to show that the CIAA is not just a basketball conference,” he said. “That was some of the thought process we had in 2011 when we were playing a Miles team that was 11-2 and Johnson C. Smith came in, I believe, 5-5 and they really thought they had a pushover basketball school.

“We were glad to go in and show that we could play a little bit of football in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Johnson C. Smith. I was glad to have that (opportunity) and we’re looking forward to the same. I’m sure that they’re looking to show they’re the superior football conference, but we know the CIAA plays very good football also. We’re looking forward to showing that on December the 13th.”

Robenson, a Florida native and an alumnus of Alabama State, a Division I HBCU, said the Florida Beach Bowl, whose corporate backers include Inter Miami, the Major League Soccer franchise and DRV PNK Stadium’s main tenant, is an opportunity to spread the Black college gospel, especially at the Division II level.

“There's a lot of different parts of the country where HBCU alumni or HBCU fans don't get to see the HBCU brand all the time,” he said. “I think if we continue to try to grow it, I think people will be more receptive of it because being in Florida, you have one of the most rich [football] recruiting areas of the country and some of these student athletes don’t even know what HBCU stands for or ever stepped foot on an HBCU campus.”

Flowers agrees, adding that the game is an opportunity for JCSU to create links to potential recruits in Florida and beyond as well as reward current Golden Bulls for putting in the work to turn the program around.

“That’s why this experience for the program is just so big,” he said. “Not just the program but for the university because it’s everyone and I’m just so glad that we can experience this together. To be the first school to play in this bowl, to be the first school to take its band down from the CIAA. Of course, we’re representing Johnson C. Smith University, and the community and Charlotte, but we're also representing the CIAA [as a] conference. This is the CIAA versus the SIAC. So, we’re very, very happy to represent all of these different entities and we want to represent them the right way.”

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