JC Smith football coach: ‘We’re going to be a talented team’

TROY HULL | THE CHARLOTTE POST

Johnson C. Smith linebacker Vincent Hill, who earned All-CIAA honors after leading the Golden Bulls with 85 tackles in 2025, returns to lead one of the top defenses in Division II. JCSU won 10 games for the first time last year in winning the CIAA title and earning the school’s first NCAA playoff berth.

Spring football at Johnson C. Smith is an opportunity to measure up or, perhaps, level up.

Five months after closing the best season in school history, the Golden Bulls are focused on doing better in 2026. The early results are promising.

“We’re going to be a talented team,” said coach Maurice Flowers, who earned CIAA coach of the year for leading JCSU to a 10-2 record, the conference title and their first Division II playoff berth. “We’re going to be physical. Just really, really pleased with the competition going on.” 

The Golden Bulls took major losses at quarterback and receiver yet return depth from 2025’s roster and transfers that are expected to keep JCSU among the CIAA elite. The same scenario holds on defense, which the Golden Bulls lost nine players who started games.

“You lose a lot of guys the way that we did, you expect to see the next group of guys step up and you can really see it,” Flowers said. “It’s great to see the competition for the young men just fighting for open spots that’s on offense, on defense. I see great competition everywhere. It also speaks to how we’ve recruited over the past years. We got some good guys up here that have just come through the ranks, waited their turn, and now they’re getting an opportunity to compete for real playing time.”

It’s also an opportunity to seize attention. Last year, it was running back Bobby Smith who went from fourth on the depth charter at the start of spring drills to starter at its conclusion followed by an All-CIAA campaign.

He wasn’t alone.

“Spring practice is the time where guys take big strides, and you look to see it,” Flowers said. “You look at Brian Lane, the number five wide receiver, you look at [receiver] Reggie Daniel, they were true freshmen and redshirted, but they made a total commitment to the weight room, to just getting better in every kind of way. And they stuck out in the spring.” 

Lane is JCSU’s top returning receiver with 46 receptions for 676 yards and five scores last year while Daniel added 18 catches and six scores.

The most-watched development of spring is at quarterback where Josh Jackson, a transfer from FCS Central Connecticut State is competing against Andrew Attmore, who backed up All-CIAA Kelvin Durham last year. Neither has extensive playing time, but Flowers is confident both can succeed.

“There’s definitely competition,” he said. “We don't tell anyone to come in and they’re going to start. If someone could just walk into a program … and start, then we haven’t done something right. We told Kevin Durham the same, and he won the job before spring was out and we told Josh the same. He’s going to have an opportunity to play for the starting position, and he’s doing it now. Andrew Atmore is having a good spring also. This is the place to do it. You’re playing against one of the best defenses in Division II, so they’re not going to give you anything.” 

In addition to Lane and Daniel, the new quarterback has other capable targets at receiver in Reggie Brigman, who caught 11 passes for 165 yards and two scores as well as transfer JaQuan Albright, who caught 64 passes for 895 yards and five touchdowns in 2025 as a redshirt junior at UNC Pembroke. 

“A guy that came on as the season was ending was Reggie Brigham, a transfer from Tuskegee University,” Flowers said. “He was hurt early in the season, but he’s a guy that just stayed positive, came off his injury and really provided some a big spark force late in the season. … And we brought in a transfer from UNC Pembroke, their leading receiver, JaQuan Albright. He's doing a great job. We feel like we’ve got a lot of great competition at the receiver spot.”

The defense is in transition, primarily in the secondary. The top returning player is linebacker Vincent Hill (85 tackles, 12.5 TFL, 2 sacks), who earned All-CIAA in 2025, his first season with the Golden Bulls after transferring from Tuskegee.

“He’s the quarterback” on defense, Flowers said. “He’s one of the reasons why the defense is looking so good right now. He’s one of the reasons that (defensive coordinator Barry) Tripp is putting in a lot more things now than we have in the past is because you have a guy that’s an All-American caliber football player in Vincent Hill. You don’t often meet a guy that’s been all conference every year he’s played college football, and Vince is a guy that’s a student of the game. 

“What we say is you either like football, you love it, or you live it. Vince is a guy that lives football and in his production on the field, you can pretty much see it.” 

While Jay Jackson, Jamarius Jackson, Kevin Thompson, and Jalen Gaskins are competing to play next to Hill, the defensive line returns several rotation players who can step in as starters.

“You could say we lost nine starters, but really, it’s really probably about three or four, because we played so many people,” Flowers said. “Our defensive line, we’ve had a rotation of six defensive tackles and six defensive ends. We’ve had that rotation the last three years. We did lose some D-linemen, but we’ve got another bunch of guys that were just waiting in the pipeline, and then we have a number of guys that transferred in.” 

The secondary may be the most open defensive group after five starters graduated.

The secondary is wide open, but we’ve got some guys,” Flowers said. “Rossie Grimes is a mid-year transfer. He was at Tuskegee, then transferred to Eastern Kentucky, and we’re just getting him this semester. He shows why he was an All-SIAC type performer. Marque Vereen, a West Florida transfer cornerback, he’s doing an outstanding job. [Cornerbacks coach Robert] Massey, what he’s doing with the cornerbacks, it’s showing right now.”

Comments