JC Smith coach Flowers admits: ‘You’ve got to finish strong’

DONALD WATKINS | THE CHARLOTTE POST

Johnson C. Smith running back Kamarro Edmonds scored a pair of touchdowns and accounted for 142 yards, including 102 yards on 11 carries in the Golden Bulls’ 24-15 win against Winston-Salem State on Oct. 26. JCSU started the season 8-0 before closing with a pair of losses to miss the CIAA title game and NCAA Division II playoffs.

Johnson C. Smith football has its motivation for 2025.

Despite missing the Division II playoffs after going 8-2, the Golden Bulls tied the school record for wins and set a new mark with eight straight victories to start the season. Two season-ending losses sank their postseason chances, but JCSU with a pair of winning seasons in coach Maurice Flowers’ three years on the job, is a relevant program for the first time since the 1970s.

“An 8-2 season, it’s an improvement from last year” when the Golden Bulls went 7-4, Flowers said. “We didn’t go to the [CIAA] championship game. But for … us to have the best overall record in the conference and … to have beaten the two teams that played in it, it’s really a sense of accomplishment. At the same time, still some more building to grow, and so that’s what we’ll be focusing on.”

Part of the building process is handling expectations. JCSU shook up the CIAA with signature wins against Virginia State and Virginia Union, the preseason picks to make the title game. The Golden Bulls were ranked as high as 16th in the national Division II coaches’ poll and topped the Division II Black college coaches’ poll – both school firsts. Over the final two weeks, though, the season took a dramatic turn for the worse with losses to Fayetteville State Livingstone. By not taking care of business down the stretch, berths in the CIAA title game and Division II playoffs evaporated.

“You’ve got to finish strong,” Flowers said. “We look forward to just taking care of business for the entire season because what we do know is that we were in uncharted territory, and things were new. [We’ve] never been that situation before, with all the attention, being ranked and those things. I’m sure when you go through it another time, you handle it better. You always find ways to handle things better after you’ve had the experience of going through some things.”

Those experiences, Flowers believes, are the launchpad for a new set of goals as the Golden Bulls transition from curiosity to serious CIAA contender. The element of surprise – and lower expectations assigned to a traditional also-ran – are gone.

“You go from being the hunter to the hunter, that’s a different role,” Flowers said. “That’s a different role that Johnson C. Smith University has had, and you have to play differently. That was something new for our team – to go from being a team that was hunting the better teams to being the team that’s looked at as the best team and having people come at you.

“It’s something we have to adjust to and what we know is it’s a process to building a winning program.”

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