Hampton86
November 22nd, 2005, 09:17 AM
Hampton Pirates want to add I-AA crown to booty
By Jack Carey, USA TODAY
When Hampton University's football players walked off the field at the end of last season's NCAA Division I-AA playoff game against William & Mary, they viewed the final score as more of a beginning than an end.
The Pirates' postseason stay had been short, with a 42-35 first-round loss. Hampton had surrendered a 13-0 second-quarter lead and fallen despite 394 all-purpose yards and three touchdowns from senior All-American wide receiver/kick returner Jerome Mathis (now with the Houston Texans).
William & Mary went on to beat Delaware in the next round before losing to eventual national champion James Madison in a nationally televised semifinal. The Pirates went home to stew.
But not for long.
"We all watched the William & Mary-James Madison game, and we said, 'That's supposed to be us on TV,' " says junior running back Alonzo Coleman, who has rushed for better than 1,000 yards in all three seasons and is averaging 6.8 yards a carry this year with 19 touchdowns for the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference champions. "It's hard to watch somebody else play when it's supposed to be us.
"Right after the season, the next day really, we set a goal to get back to the playoffs and go further. Our goal was to win three championships: the MEAC, black college national title and (I-AA) national championship."
The run for the I-AA crown starts Saturday when the Pirates host Richmond in a first-round game. Not only will Hampton (11-0) enter the matchup as the only unbeaten team in Division I-AA, but the Pirates also are ranked second in the nation. It's the highest ranking for a historically black program at the end of the regular season since Tennessee State was No. 1 going into the 1999 playoffs.
Says Coleman: "We're ready to go."
Defense is the rock
The Pirates' perfect regular season has been keyed by a running attack that features a pair of backs with more than 1,000 yards: Coleman, who has 1,292, and Army transfer Ardell Daniels, who has 1,032 and nine touchdowns. They are just the third pair in Division I-AA to run for 1,000 yards each in consecutive seasons.
Hampton features a pair of quarterbacks, Princeton Shepherd and Kent State transfer Antwan Smith, who have combined for 1,540 passing yards and 11 touchdowns with only six interceptions.
But the most critical element, says coach Joe Taylor, is a defense that is giving up just 263.5 yards a game and holding opponents to 11.8 points.
"In any sport, if you can play defense, you've got to be optimistic," says Taylor, who is 120-41-1 in 14 years with the Pirates.
"That's kept us going this year because we had nine (defensive starters) coming back from a playoff team. When you can play defense, you've always got a chance."
Junior linebacker Justin Durant, who was the MEAC defensive player of the year last season, is again a strong candidate for the award after finishing the regular season with 110 tackles, 14½ for loss, and five sacks.
"This year we're more focused, more disciplined on defense," says Durant. "Our mind-set is different. The national championship is what we're talking about.
"We want to go all the way."
Hampton, which is seeded third, is 0-3 all time in the tournament. The school has also made bids to the NCAA to host second-round and semifinal playoff games if it advances.
No historically black school has won the I-AA title since Florida A&M took the crown in a four-team tournament in 1978. FAMU's appearance in the semifinals in 1999 and North Carolina A&T's trip to the second round the same year marked the last times a historically black school got past the opening round.
But Taylor, while proud that his team is best among black schools this year, is aiming higher.
"We feel we should be mentioned with all the top programs, not just the (historically black schools), but across the nation," he says.
Strong support from president
Taylor began coaching in the District of Columbia school system, working as an assistant football coach and head wrestling coach at H.D. Woodson High.
His collegiate career has taken him from Eastern Illinois to Virginia Union to Howard and back to Virginia Union, where he became head coach in 1984.
"Coaching to me is a ministry, because when you're trying to improve the lives of others, that is a ministry," he says. "I always wanted to give back and help make a difference in a lot of young men's lives."
When Taylor took over as coach at Hampton in 1992, the team won three championships in the Division II Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association and made two NCAA playoff appearances.
But bigger things were in the offing.
Hampton president William Harvey, who has guided the school since 1978, had commissioned a study in 1985 on the feasibility of moving to Division I-AA in football and Division I in other sports.
"We took 10 years before we even made the move," says Harvey, who worked closely with Dennis Thomas, then Hampton's athletics director and now commissioner of the MEAC. "We investigated the possibility just to have an honest evaluation. We brought in consultants; we talked to other athletic directors. Our analysis said we could have success. A lot of people don't take 10 years."
Harvey wanted to make sure the school had the right foundations in place in both facilities and finances for academics and athletics before the move was made.
"I knew we had to enlarge our revenue base," he says. "We started a campaign to raise $30 million and actually raised $44 million. Then we had a campaign that raised $140 million. In a campaign a couple of years ago, our goal was $200 million and we raised $264 million."
Alumni, foundations, corporations and "people of wealth," Harvey says, have been the key contributors. "We've built 18 new buildings on the campus and expanded our academic offerings."
The move to Division I athletics has been a rousing success. The men's basketball team put Hampton on the nation's sports radar screens in 2001 with a stunning upset of second-seeded Iowa State in the NCAA Tournament.
"A lot of people were surprised, but we weren't," says Harvey. "We had put the facilities in place and wanted to be one of the best mid-major programs in the country. My job is to make sure we have the resources you're going to need to be a top mid-major in basketball and a top I-AA football team — not middle of the pack."
Hampton's football program is fully funded with 63 scholarships, and Taylor's assistants are employed on a full-time basis.
Double duty for coach
This season has found Taylor tackling double duties after Harvey asked him to become interim athletics director last summer. He has reserved Mondays during the season to work on administrative tasks.
"From Tuesday to Sunday, though, it's football," says Taylor, who jokingly relates that his jobs now take "only 13 months out of the year" to perform.
It will be all football this week, too, as the Pirates attempt to break through and put the memory of that William & Mary game behind them.
"We feel more optimistic this year because we've gone through it now," Taylor says. "There's no magic in what we do here. The resources, both financial and human, must be in place so that we can succeed. And we have that."
Hampton University
Location: Hampton, Va., about 75 miles southeast of Richmond.
Founded: In 1868 as Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, designed to educate newly emancipated African-Americans. Booker T. Washington was an alum.
Enrollment: 6,156.
Faculty members: 400.
Educational ranking: No. 3 by Black Enterprise magazine among leading colleges and universities for African-American students.
Culture: The University Museum, founded in 1868, is the oldest African-American museum in the USA.
Started football: 1902.
All-time record: 496-354-34.
NCAA playoff appearances: Three tournaments in Division II — 1985, 1992, 1993 (record 1-3); three tournaments in Division I-AA — 1997, 1998, 2004 (record 0-3).
Source: Hampton University :deadhorse
By Jack Carey, USA TODAY
When Hampton University's football players walked off the field at the end of last season's NCAA Division I-AA playoff game against William & Mary, they viewed the final score as more of a beginning than an end.
The Pirates' postseason stay had been short, with a 42-35 first-round loss. Hampton had surrendered a 13-0 second-quarter lead and fallen despite 394 all-purpose yards and three touchdowns from senior All-American wide receiver/kick returner Jerome Mathis (now with the Houston Texans).
William & Mary went on to beat Delaware in the next round before losing to eventual national champion James Madison in a nationally televised semifinal. The Pirates went home to stew.
But not for long.
"We all watched the William & Mary-James Madison game, and we said, 'That's supposed to be us on TV,' " says junior running back Alonzo Coleman, who has rushed for better than 1,000 yards in all three seasons and is averaging 6.8 yards a carry this year with 19 touchdowns for the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference champions. "It's hard to watch somebody else play when it's supposed to be us.
"Right after the season, the next day really, we set a goal to get back to the playoffs and go further. Our goal was to win three championships: the MEAC, black college national title and (I-AA) national championship."
The run for the I-AA crown starts Saturday when the Pirates host Richmond in a first-round game. Not only will Hampton (11-0) enter the matchup as the only unbeaten team in Division I-AA, but the Pirates also are ranked second in the nation. It's the highest ranking for a historically black program at the end of the regular season since Tennessee State was No. 1 going into the 1999 playoffs.
Says Coleman: "We're ready to go."
Defense is the rock
The Pirates' perfect regular season has been keyed by a running attack that features a pair of backs with more than 1,000 yards: Coleman, who has 1,292, and Army transfer Ardell Daniels, who has 1,032 and nine touchdowns. They are just the third pair in Division I-AA to run for 1,000 yards each in consecutive seasons.
Hampton features a pair of quarterbacks, Princeton Shepherd and Kent State transfer Antwan Smith, who have combined for 1,540 passing yards and 11 touchdowns with only six interceptions.
But the most critical element, says coach Joe Taylor, is a defense that is giving up just 263.5 yards a game and holding opponents to 11.8 points.
"In any sport, if you can play defense, you've got to be optimistic," says Taylor, who is 120-41-1 in 14 years with the Pirates.
"That's kept us going this year because we had nine (defensive starters) coming back from a playoff team. When you can play defense, you've always got a chance."
Junior linebacker Justin Durant, who was the MEAC defensive player of the year last season, is again a strong candidate for the award after finishing the regular season with 110 tackles, 14½ for loss, and five sacks.
"This year we're more focused, more disciplined on defense," says Durant. "Our mind-set is different. The national championship is what we're talking about.
"We want to go all the way."
Hampton, which is seeded third, is 0-3 all time in the tournament. The school has also made bids to the NCAA to host second-round and semifinal playoff games if it advances.
No historically black school has won the I-AA title since Florida A&M took the crown in a four-team tournament in 1978. FAMU's appearance in the semifinals in 1999 and North Carolina A&T's trip to the second round the same year marked the last times a historically black school got past the opening round.
But Taylor, while proud that his team is best among black schools this year, is aiming higher.
"We feel we should be mentioned with all the top programs, not just the (historically black schools), but across the nation," he says.
Strong support from president
Taylor began coaching in the District of Columbia school system, working as an assistant football coach and head wrestling coach at H.D. Woodson High.
His collegiate career has taken him from Eastern Illinois to Virginia Union to Howard and back to Virginia Union, where he became head coach in 1984.
"Coaching to me is a ministry, because when you're trying to improve the lives of others, that is a ministry," he says. "I always wanted to give back and help make a difference in a lot of young men's lives."
When Taylor took over as coach at Hampton in 1992, the team won three championships in the Division II Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association and made two NCAA playoff appearances.
But bigger things were in the offing.
Hampton president William Harvey, who has guided the school since 1978, had commissioned a study in 1985 on the feasibility of moving to Division I-AA in football and Division I in other sports.
"We took 10 years before we even made the move," says Harvey, who worked closely with Dennis Thomas, then Hampton's athletics director and now commissioner of the MEAC. "We investigated the possibility just to have an honest evaluation. We brought in consultants; we talked to other athletic directors. Our analysis said we could have success. A lot of people don't take 10 years."
Harvey wanted to make sure the school had the right foundations in place in both facilities and finances for academics and athletics before the move was made.
"I knew we had to enlarge our revenue base," he says. "We started a campaign to raise $30 million and actually raised $44 million. Then we had a campaign that raised $140 million. In a campaign a couple of years ago, our goal was $200 million and we raised $264 million."
Alumni, foundations, corporations and "people of wealth," Harvey says, have been the key contributors. "We've built 18 new buildings on the campus and expanded our academic offerings."
The move to Division I athletics has been a rousing success. The men's basketball team put Hampton on the nation's sports radar screens in 2001 with a stunning upset of second-seeded Iowa State in the NCAA Tournament.
"A lot of people were surprised, but we weren't," says Harvey. "We had put the facilities in place and wanted to be one of the best mid-major programs in the country. My job is to make sure we have the resources you're going to need to be a top mid-major in basketball and a top I-AA football team — not middle of the pack."
Hampton's football program is fully funded with 63 scholarships, and Taylor's assistants are employed on a full-time basis.
Double duty for coach
This season has found Taylor tackling double duties after Harvey asked him to become interim athletics director last summer. He has reserved Mondays during the season to work on administrative tasks.
"From Tuesday to Sunday, though, it's football," says Taylor, who jokingly relates that his jobs now take "only 13 months out of the year" to perform.
It will be all football this week, too, as the Pirates attempt to break through and put the memory of that William & Mary game behind them.
"We feel more optimistic this year because we've gone through it now," Taylor says. "There's no magic in what we do here. The resources, both financial and human, must be in place so that we can succeed. And we have that."
Hampton University
Location: Hampton, Va., about 75 miles southeast of Richmond.
Founded: In 1868 as Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, designed to educate newly emancipated African-Americans. Booker T. Washington was an alum.
Enrollment: 6,156.
Faculty members: 400.
Educational ranking: No. 3 by Black Enterprise magazine among leading colleges and universities for African-American students.
Culture: The University Museum, founded in 1868, is the oldest African-American museum in the USA.
Started football: 1902.
All-time record: 496-354-34.
NCAA playoff appearances: Three tournaments in Division II — 1985, 1992, 1993 (record 1-3); three tournaments in Division I-AA — 1997, 1998, 2004 (record 0-3).
Source: Hampton University :deadhorse