“Grambling is the best place to be. If you want to grow as a man, and play football. If you want to grow off the field also…Grambling is the way.”
This week, two more former SEC quarterbacks announced they were taking their talents to HBCUs.
Former Mississippi State quarterback Elijah Staley will be moving to the MEACas he joins Morgan State. Staley played sparingly at Miss. State, throwing just five passes in two seasons before leaving prior to the start of the 2016 season.
Tennessee State looks to have found its SEC signal caller this week as former Florida quarterback Treon Harris’s father said his son will use his final two seasons ofeligibility at TSU. The Miami product played in 21 games at Florida, throwing for 18 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. Like Staley, he also left his former program prior to the start of the 2016 season.
Kincade, one of the top dual-threat quarterbacks coming out of Dallas’ Skyline High School, spent his first three years at Ole Miss before transferring to Grambling last year. He and the team thrived, as he threw for 30 touchdowns and just four interceptions while leading GSU to an 11-1 season, winning the Bayou Classic, SWAC Championship and Celebration Bowl in the season’s final three games, all of which were in front of national television audiences.
Surely Kincade is not the first former SEC player to come to an HBCU to play quarterback. Tarvaris Jackson moved from the SEC (Arkansas) to the SWAC (Alabama State) more than a decade ago and ended up with a long NFL career.
But Kincade’s success, as well as his eagerness to promote the Grambling brand, and by extension the HBCU brand, is likely to have made an impression on both these young men.
For decades, we’ve heard about how the SEC and other FBS conferences have tapped the veins of talent that the SWAC and other HBCU conferences once thrived on.
To be sure, it’s not an exact exchange. None of these players were lighting it up at their original schools, but that’s okay. You don’t need a starting-level SEC quarterback to win at the FCS or Division II level. In any event, though, it looks like talented signal callers are willing to give black colleges a look, at least as a second read.
We’ll have an extended discussion about this on the next edition of the HBCUGameday Podcast this week.
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DHandy
January 8, 2017 at 4:29 pm
Not just as players, but they are coming back HOME where they belong in the first place, just as I predicted when we first got Kincade. No-brainer.
DHandy
January 8, 2017 at 4:32 pm
I also said all HBCUs would follow GSU's lead ( as usual ), and they are doing so.
Brian Harris
January 8, 2017 at 6:23 pm
They next golden era of HBCU football is approaching!!! #GramFam
Warren Shaw
January 9, 2017 at 4:24 am
If we want to go down to D2, Johnathon McCrary graduated from Vanderbilt and came to Clark Atlanta last year with two years of eligibility. So we as HBCU's are trending.
J Smith
January 9, 2017 at 2:58 pm
Texas Southern has been doing this in Football and Basketball since 2010 check the record books remember Bobby Reid who played for OK State then transferred to TSU. If anything Grambling and the rest of the HBCU' s got it from us. #SecondChanceU
Toikus Westbrook
January 9, 2017 at 3:26 pm
Cam Newton's little brother, Caylin, has decided to QB at Howard University. Sports seems to be following academics. Most HBCU's have experienced an increase in #of applications and freshman class enrollment. Why? Because fighting racism at PWI's while trying to get an education is unacceptable and wasted energy.
coachrlm
January 9, 2017 at 11:34 pm
The difference is that TSU is a homecoming opponent
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