Florida A&M University has become a traditional powerhouse since starting college football in 1907. The Rattlers’ résumé includes over a dozen HBCU national titles plus the 1978 NCAA championship in Division I-AA.
On Saturday, FAMU will honor a legendary alum while hosting another historic program. The University of West Florida wasted no time in establishing itself among elites. The Argonauts won the NCAA Division II national title in 2019 – just their fourth season of play. They’re still good, too, ranked fourth in the Division II coaches’ poll with a pair of 35–3 victories on the season.
‘”We’ve got our hands full,” FAMU head coach Willie Simmons said this week during his news conference. “We know they’re a really good football team, and we look forward to the challenge.”
The Argos want to limit celebrations as FAMU (1–1) plays its first game on the newly renamed Ken Riley Field at Bragg Memorial Stadium. Riley, who last month was posthumously inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, quarterbacked the Rattlers to three Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference crowns. He later served as FAMU’s head coach and athletic director after 15 seasons at cornerback for the Cincinnati Bengals.
“One of my highlights as a coach is to run out of the tunnel and lead our team onto Ken Riley Field,” Simmons said Monday during the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) media session. “Not only defending the nation’s second-longest home win streak [15 games], but playing our first game at home on Ken Riley Field means the world to us.”
“We know West Florida wants to be a spoiler of that great moment, and we’ve gotta prepare ourselves mentally to be ready to play our best game to prevent that from happening.”
They didn’t play their best in committing five turnovers and 12 penalties last week against the University of South Florida. Despite those miscues, the…
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