Terrance’s Take: Will Prairie View have November to remember?

Prairie View A&M coach Tremaine Jackson tends to have a lot to say about a lot of things as it pertains to SWAC football and his program.

But in all of his prolific orations like “everybody has a plan until they get punched,” what you won’t hear the second-year Panthers coach even indicate is that his team is now in control. And that’s wise, because even riding a three-game winning streak back to the top of the SWAC West Division with two regular season games to go, a lot can still go right for the Panthers. But if they get lax, this momentum they’ve gained could be for nothing.

The Panthers, defending SWAC champions, could be in position to host the SWAC Championship Game next month if they win out in their next two road games at Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Alabama State. A slip-up against either opponent would constitute a failure of a promising season by Jackson’s trophy-hoisting standard.

However it plays out, right now with everything to play for is exactly where Jackson wants his program to be in November.

“We remember November around here. Champions are made in November. That’s when you get the opportunity to do that,” Jackson told the media minutes after his Panthers dominated Alabama A&M, 31-10, in the regular-season finale at Panther Stadium. “You have to understand where we are. Yes, we did whatever we did a year ago. That collective did that. This collective is following what we call Year Two of a championship program.

“And championship programs perform at a high level in November. That’s why we tell them November is to remember.”

If the Nov. 7 dominance of what was then the top SWAC East team is any indication, this could soon be a November this collective of Prairie View players will never forget. Last year, Jackson and his coaching staff pushed the Panthers to heights maybe Prairie View didn’t know it could reach, coming within inches of winning the Celebration Bowl.

This could very well be the breakthrough.

But it won’t be easy. In fact, this may be the toughest two-game stretch the Panthers have had in the SWAC this season. They enter this week in a 4-2 three-way tie for first place in the West with Alcorn State and Arkansas-Pine Bluff, and as luck would have it, the Golden Lions are next up in what is easily the division championship game.

It will be a battle of two Top 10 teams in the National Black College Football poll, with the Panthers coming in at No.3 this week and UAPB ranked sixth in the country. 

Arkansas-Pine Bluff has without question been the biggest surprise of the conference this season and, like the Panthers, is riding a three-game winning streak into this weekend. UAPB coach Alonza Hampton is expecting nothing short of the best from Jackson and the Panthers when they come into town this weekend.

Hampton sees the talent the Panthers have at quarterback, how they can go two or three deep at tight end, how dominant their offensive line is, and the defense’s ability to shut down explosive offenses. 

“Coach has built it the right way. Coach Jackson is a good dude, man,” said Hampton, whose team will be short-handed after nine of his players were suspended by the SWAC as a result of the postgame melee with Grambling State this past weekend. “I’ve only talked to him three or four times, but this man is a program builder. I know a lot of people say, ‘he’s cocky, he’s this, he’s that.’

“He’s a man of faith, No.1. That’s what I see. He is a man of his word. When you watch his team play, that’s what you see. Those guys play with a lot of confidence.” 

Whatever happens will happen. But for Jackson, it’s about keeping his team dialed in and focused on the task at hand. 

What could happen at the end of these next two weeks doesn’t matter to Jackson, especially with such a big one coming up this weekend.

“We really haven’t talked to them about the next two weeks,” Jackson said to me. “We’ve been too busy talking to them about this week. We haven’t forecasted what could happen. But our kids are human; they are on social media, so they see … It’s some really good graphics out there on what needs to happen, what can happen.

“For us, when you walk into this building, it’s about the matter at hand. The matter at hand is University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff. That is all it’s about. What we understand is that if we do the things we need to do, then none of the forecasting and the graphics none of that matters because we are on the quest to figure out if we are any good or not. If so, how good we are.

“We haven’t touched base with them very much about any of that. We are just talking about UAPB right now.”

That’s what Jackson talked to his team about after the easier-than-expected win over Alabama A&M. During the bye week that fell between the East Texas A&M win and the Alabama A&M game, Jackson didn’t take it easy on his team, which would have seemed wise given the point in the season and what was at stake in the last three games.

That week and continuing to demand more when the players would have rather taken it easy was the difference this past weekend. And it just might prove to be the difference going forward.

“Things were hard for them,” Jackson told the media. “They didn’t have a fluffy bye-week where we didn’t do anything and just weight lifted, guys got some sleep, and watched cartoons. These guys had to get after it. They had to go.

“I just wanted to let them know that hard work– that standing on the line after practice, running 110s– we out-physicalled that team; we out-programmed that team. We were in better shape than that team, and it showed in the end.”

Everything seems to be lining up for the Panthers in a way it didn’t seem to after back-to-back losses to Mississippi Valley State and Southern left them at the bottom of the West and searching for answers. Jackson then did the unthinkable: Replacing his offensive coordinator and secondary coach mid-season, not during a bye week when there is time to adjust to such a drastic pivot.

But riding a three-game winning streak with destiny back in his control, Jackson clearly made the right call at the right time. Things have slowed down for the offense, and the defense is limiting explosive plays, as was evident this past weekend when Aeneas Williams Award semifinalist cornerback Eric Zachery and the secondary all but locked down one of the best passing offenses in FCS football.

“We made a change on the offensive staff during the middle of the season. That’s a huge change,” Jackson said. “I keep going back to that because normally that change is made during the bye week. We couldn’t wait that long, so we made it during a game …. Not just a game week but one of the biggest game weeks of the year versus Alcorn State.

“During the bye week, we got a chance to slow things down a lot to get some things caught up.”

A reporter was in the process of asking Jackson if he felt his team was playing its best football of the season, and he interrupted her mid-sentence.

“I think our best football is to come,” Jackson said. “It’s like climbing stairs in November. When you get one step, there is another one, and the stairs get a little deeper and deeper as you go. You got to keep fighting yourself out.”

While Jackson will never be satisfied, he does seem pleased with the continued growth of this year’s team.

”I’m extremely proud of those dudes because y’all don’t know what they go through,” he said. “People outside of our building; y’all don’t know what them guys go through. Them guys go through a little bit during the week before they see a football game.

“When guys have done a good job, you need to let them know that. But it has no bearing on moving forward.”