The resurgence of Grambling football continues.
After two dreadful, drama-filled seasons, and even three consecutive losses to start this season, Grambling is now the toast of the Southwestern Athletic Conference after knocking off a powerful Alcorn State squad 28-21 Saturday.
The Tigers are now undefeated at 4-0 in the SWAC, 4-3 overall, and sit in first place in the SWAC Western Division.
They are part of a topsy-turvy FCS Top Ten poll from ADDS HBCU SPORTS REPORT which saw four of the top six teams lose Saturday.
Top-ranked Bethune-Cookman solidly defeated Howard Saturday while No. Texas Southern was idle Saturday. But Alcorn State (second), Alabama State (third), Tennessee State (fourth) and sixth-ranked South Carolina State all lost this past weekend.
The result, Grambling moves up.
The Tigers scored twice what Alcorn State, the league's leading scoring defense, had been allowing to SWAC squads and they held them to nearly half of what their offense, the SWAC's leading scoring offense, had been scoring all season.
Grambling is the first team to score more than 16 points on Alcorn State this season.
"I think it sends a message that Grambling is a team that has a chance, but just like any other week, this is one hurdle," Grambling head coach Broderick Fobbs told The News Star (La) newspaper. "There's several hurdles with several other really good teams that we have to play."
Grambling scored early and then held on to get the win Saturday with three touchdowns in the game's first 18 minutes. Johnathan Williams, who started his second consecutive game for injured starter D.J. Williams, rushed for 65 yards and two touchdowns and threw for 222 yards and another touchdown to lead the Tigers.
Alcorn State's top three rushers - quarterback John Gibbs Jr along with running backs Darryl Ragsdale and Anthony Williams III - were all held under their season averages.
It all means that the G-Men are back and that is all because of Fobbs, senior linebacker Steve Orisakwe told The News Star.
"He's our heart and soul. We play for him. We play through him," said Orisakwe, who had seven tackles and recovered a fumble against Alcorn State. "People don't understand. When they say it's new, we really believe that he's going to be the guy to come change Grambling's culture and change it back to what it used to be."
In Division II, the top four remained in their spaces, but Morehouse dropped after being routed by Tuskegee 49-0 Saturday. Virginia State and Morheouse swap spaces after the Trojans convincingly won their fourth in a row Saturday over Elizabeth City State.
Here are the ADDS HBCU SPORTS REPORT Top Ten FCS and Division II football polls for this week:
FCS
1) Bethune-Cookman
2) North Carolina A&T
3) Alcorn State
4) Tennessee State
5) Alabama State
6) Texas Southern
7) Grambling
8) South Carolina State
9) Southern
10) North Carolina Central
DIVISION II
1) Winston-Salem State
2) Virginia Union
3) Tuskegee
4) Livingstone
5) Virginia State
6) Albany State
7) Fort Valley State
8) Morehouse
9) Stillman
10) Miles
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