Mark Braboy
Staff Writer
This Saturday, the Jackson State University Tigers will be declaring war in Baton Rouge, La. as they battle against the Southern University Jaguars in their long awaited and intense rivalry game.
Hot off their victory against Texas Southern last week, they hope to decimate the Jaguars in a game which may decide which of the two teams will make it to Houston, Texas for the 2013 Southwestern Athletic Conference Championship.
Previously in 2012, JSU lost against an upgraded and well balanced SU at Veteran’s Memorial Stadium in Jackson, Miss. with the score 28-21. Expecting a hard fought battle this time, Head Coach of the Tigers, Rick Comegy sees this game as something much bigger than a rivalry.
“This game here is very important. It’s an important game not just as a rivalry, but for us to get to Houston. And they’re (Southern’s) a good football team. They’ve got a great quarterback and they’ve got a good defense who gets after you pretty good. I can see why they’ve beat some people and they seem polished. They’ve created a good football team and recruited well. But I think if we go in there playing good sound football and not make too many turnovers like we did last week against Texas Southern, we ought to be able to be okay and hang in there with them. I think we can hang in there with the best and edge them out,” said Comegy.
Despite the win last week, Comegy plans on improving the offense to cut back on the turnovers they have been making during the season.
“We shut down on our pass game a little bit last week and we didn’t throw as much to hurt ourselves. We found out that we could run the football a little bit last week, but I think our quarterback Clayton Moore is getting much, much better with his reads and his progression on who to throw to. I think he may have been a bit gun shy throwing the ball last week only because of what happened, but he’s got to get out of that; we’ve got to play football,” said Comegy.
“We’ve got to be mistake free and we’ve got to play a good football game in all three phases. Especially special teams, they’ve blocked one on us last year and now we’ve got to make sure those things don’t happen. And we’ve got to fight for field position. I think field position’s going to be important,” he added.
The JSU vs. SU football game has been a long and intense rivalry since they first met in 1929.
With both of their 2013 season records standing at 2-2, this appears to be a make or break game as both are favored in the SWAC East and SWAC West respectively to win the SWAC Championship. The current record for the series stands at 29-28 with SU leading.
While Tiger fans expect a very tough battle this weekend against Southern they remain optimistic that Jackson State will be victorious
Kennard Brown, a freshman criminal justice major from Miami, Fla., and a member of the Tiger football team, said: “Me, I’m a diehard Jackson State fan and we’re going to win this game. We got to prove a point because we’re on the road to a championship to Houston right now so we got unfinished business. Southern is in our way right now so we got to go through them and just keep going. This train got to keep on rolling.”
Jovonda Flowers, a junior physical education major from Jackson, Miss., said: “I feel that this game is going to be really intense and everyone should go and support the Jackson State Tigers in their game against Southern.”
Lakita Brown, a senior elementary education major from Baton Rouge, La., said: “I expect that Southern is going to be in for a rude awakening when Jackson State comes and they bring that awesome defense and that strong offense. I saw how they played against Texas Southern and they had a lot of good plays that lead them to their 35-7 victory.
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