I certainly wouldn’t classify Grambling’s season as a failure, and I doubt most people outside of the program would. But it appears that we all would have a hard time convincing GSU head coach Rod Broadway of that sentiment.
“We’re just trying to win a ballgame,” Broadway said. “We’d like to finish this thing out strong. We want to play better and play with more pride. We’re totally disappointed where we are as a football team and as a football program right now.”
The game against Oklahoma State is the moment Broadway and the Tigers will look back on a pinpoint for this year’s loss of focus and execution. Prior to the game, GSU had held opponents to 17 points in two of the three games. After the bodybag show in Stillwater, only Alabama State and Mississippi State scored fewer than 20 points against the Tigers.
Throw in the fact that Grambling had double-digit penalties in all but four games so far this season, and you’ve got a recipe for a tired defense and an offense that was forced to carry the load in one too many contests.
With games against upstart Texas Southern and Southern in the Bayou Classic, it’s up in the air how the Tigers will finish the season. Seven wins is a benchmark for several SWAC teams, but it may be a referendum on a Tigers’ program less than a year removed from one of the dominant single-season performances in black college football in the last decade.
And there are no guarantees that they will reach that mark.
