You saw it coming from three years ago; Prairie View A&M is the champion of the of the SWAC Western Division and headed to its first SWAC championship game.
Saturday’s win added to the amazing turnaround, who were 1-10 and the worst team in the SWAC a season before coach Henry Frazier III took over the reigns in 2004. The Panthers are 34-26 since 2003, including a 23-5 mark over the last three seasons.
“It feels great because these kids have worked extremely hard, and this coaching staff has worked extremely hard,” Frazier said.
“My feeling right now is ‘from worst to first.’ We were worst, and now we’re first.”
Calling the Panthers a “worst-to-first” team does an extreme disservice to the work of Frazier and the class of seniors who built this program, literally, out of the dirt. By name, by sight and by memory, the Panthers were among the worst football teams college football has ever seen. They were the consummate homecoming game invitee; the program that went defeated for over five seasons in the mid-90′s.
And there are no signs of 2009 being a one-season fluke. Three straight seasons with at least seven victories, and two straight seasons of having the best scoring defense in the SWAC indicate a structural staying power that will attract talent and media coverage in the years to come.
That is, unless some other school were able to woo Frazier and his staff away from PVAMU.
A remarkable turnaround indeed for the Prairie View Panthers. The devil can’t be happy with his new winter wonderland.
