Going for a championship

Simmons could solidify his legacy with a second win over Prairie View in SWAC title game

By St. Clair Murraine
Outlook Staff Writer

Since the FAMU football team beat Bethune-Cookman University in the recent Florida Classic, coach Willie Simmons’ name keeps coming up in comparison to the likes of Jake Gaither and Rudy Hubbard.

Both Gaither and Hubbard took the FAMU football to a plateau that no other Black college football teams can say they’ve attained. That standard is where Rattler faithful believe that Simmons has reached by guiding the team to a 10-1 record.

A 10-win season hadn’t been achieved by the Rattlers in two decades. Now he has the team on the verge of winning the program’s first SWAC championship Saturday to secure a berth in the Dec. 16 Celebration Bowl against Howard University.

Such an accomplishment will certainly cement his name next to Gaither and Hubbard.

“What those men have been able to accomplish in their careers, the impact they have had on young men’s lives throughout their time is unprecedented,” is how Simmons responded to the comparison. “It’s great to be mentioned with those guys, but the difference is they finished. So we haven’t finished it yet.  We are in the middle of a historic run, we are having an amazing football season but it’s not finished. 

“For us to continue to have our names mentioned, not only me, with other great teams here at FAMU we have to finish things off the right way. That means taking care of business this weekend so I’m not really worried about my legacy at this point; not worried about the rankings (and) the stats; any of those things. Our only focus is preparing these young men to be ready to play our best on Saturday.”

FAMU is going into the conference title game on Ken Riley Field at Bragg Stadium ranked No. 5 and winners of the SWAC’s East Division title. A 17-game home win streak will also be on the line and the game will be the first post-season contest at Bragg since FAMU beat Troy State in the 1998 FCS playoffs that the Rattlers won 27-17.

Eddie Jackson, a former sports information director during the Gaither era, is perhaps the biggest Simmons supporter. Simmons clearly is coaching and winning at the same level that closely resemble the Gaither and Hubbard eras, he said.

Before this season, Simmons led the Rattlers to consecutive 9-2 seasons and a 2021 appearance in the FCS playoffs.

“He has brought it back,” Jackson said, referring to FAMU’s winning era. “Whether he wins the Celebration Bowl or whether he gets to the Celebration Bowl that is going to be a major, major achievement. If he wins that’s everything. Our football program will change.

“He is a winner. He has won every place he’s coached, but he is not your average winner. You have a sense around him that the big game is coming and he is going to win it all. I’m impressed with the special relationship he has with his players.”

Hubbard, who coach at FAMU from 1974 to 1998, said Simmons deserves every accolade. 

In fact, Hubbard said Simmons will dominate the SWAC “for quite a while,” adding that “there is nobody out there that’s close. He has a system going on.”

Hubbard has the credential that makes him an authority on how things could play out in the conference title game. His team won the Black national championship in 1977, going undefeated. The following year Hubbard led the Rattlers to winning the first FCS championship playoffs in 1978, a feat that no other Black college program has duplicated.

FAMU will be facing a Prairie View team that it beat 45-7 in Octobers. Since then, the Panthers went on a three-game winning streak that includes beating Alabama State 21-14 to finish with a record of 6-5, 6-2 to claim first place in the West Division.

But the overwhelming question has been can the Rattlers beat the Panthers twice in the same season.

“I have a feeling that coach Simmons will have his group together and they will take care of business,” Hubbard said.

Since the season started, Simmons said, its goal has been to control its destiny by winning. They also focused on playing a 13-game season, including two in the postseason.

Preparation for the Panthers won’t change from what the Rattlers have done all season, Simmons said.

“We are going to continue to do the little things we’ve done so far to get us to this point and go 1-0 this week. Our guys are creatures of habits. They’ve developed a habit of how we do things and we are going to keep that schedule this week. Hopefully it will translate to us playing our best game this weekend.”

Albert Chester, who played quarterback for Hubbard’s team, hopes to see FAMU play its most complete game this weekend. That will require Isaiah Major and Gentle Hunt playing their best game on defense. 

Chester said he is also looking for a breakout game from quarterback Jeremy Moussa.

“What we do offensively is going to go through Moussa,” Chester said. “Where we end up when it’s all over it’s going to be because Moussa took us there.”