Rattlers look to get third straight Classic win

By St. Clair Murraine
Outlook Staff Writer

When FAMU and Bethune-Cookman University meet in the Florida Classic on Saturday, it won’t be about clinching a divisional title. The Rattlers have already done that.

It won’t even have any effect on the Rattlers date in the SWAC championship game on Dec. 2.

And, that’s not because FAMU (9-1, 7-0) is coming into the game as the top-ranked FCS program and the Wildcats are 3-7. A win would be the third straight in the Classic for the Rattlers.

This game has become so monumental that the outcome historically has proven to have significant affect on the winning program. Take for example when the Wildcats won the last time in an eight-game streak in 2019.

The reaction that FAMU’s head coach Willie Simmons remembers seeing from then B-CU athletic director Lynn Thompson should be sufficient explanation. Thompson was in tears after the Wildcats took a 31-27 victory at Camping World Stadium.

It came at a time when B-CU was struggling with fund-raising and the university was experiencing other issues.

“He literally looked at me and said ‘this game might have saved our school,’ ” Simmons recalled Monday during his weekly press conference. “With everything that was going on, in his mind, winning the Florida Classic saved their school. That just shows you how important the game is.”

The classic has become so big that there is documented history of FAMU terminating head football coaches for losing in what has become the biggest rivalry among HBCU programs.

“To a Rattler; you don’t lose in the Classic and that’s something that we stand on and guys that have been here understand that,” Simmons said. “It means everything.

“Anyone who is a FAMU fan understands the magnitude of the Florida Classic. There has been a lot riding on it like championship ramifications and those types of things (and) post-season play.”

So much is being made of a game that two friends – Hansel Tookes at FAMU and Tank Johnson at Bethune-Cookman – started as a fund-raiser for their athletic programs in 1978. The game was played in Tampa until business owners there forced the move to Orlando in 1997.

All that time, Simmons was growing up in Quincy and watching the Classic from a distance. Family ties kept him close to all that the game has come to mean.

“It’s something that we’ve all come to know and respect,” he said. “But just to coach in it has a different feel because I’m a vital part of it now. I just want to continue to make my family, Rattler nation proud. Quite frankly the first two years were painful, very painful to walk off that field defeated.”

The Wildcats’ first-year coach Raymond Woodie Jr., knows the significance of the game, too. He played in it when he was a linebacker for B-CU from 1992 to 1995. He is bringing his team into the Classic on a two-game winning streak, including last weekend’s 31-14 win over Alabama A&M.

At the same time, the Rattlers were shutting out Lincoln University 28-0 to extend their home winning streak at Bragg Stadium to 18.

B-CU racked up 412 yards of total offense, most of it on the ground with three players rushing for over 100 yards each. Woodie knows the focus will have to be on fundamental against the Rattlers.

“We are just going to have to be technique and fundamentally sound, attention to details and disciplined because they have guys all over the place,” Woodie said during the SWAC coach’s call. “Coach (Simmons) has done a good job in getting those guys ready to play.”