The Grambling State University football team held their annual spring Black and Gold Game Saturday at Eddie G. Robinson Stadium. The offense rallied from 19 points down to defeat the defense 49-44. Raven LeDay/The Gramblinite
On Friday, April 12 Grambling State University held its 2019 Spring Football Game at Eddie G Robinson Stadium.
With an offense and defense both with revenge in their eyes for championships the Spring Game was a hard fought match- up.
However, in the end the of- fense was able to overcome a19-point de cit to end up win– ning 49-44.
Grambling’s Black and Gold gave the coaches, the school, the fans and the media a taste of what they will see and who to look for in this upcoming 2019 season.
This was a chance for head coach Broderick Fobbs, defen- sive coordinator Everett Todd and new offensive coordinator Mark Orlando have cooked up.
The game was the public’s first chance to see Orlando’s of– fensive play calling.
The rst need the Tigers haveis at quarterback.
Last year red-shirt sophomore Geremy Hickbottom and red-shirt junior Charles Wright split time as starting quarterback with red-shirt freshman Aldon Clark seeing time as well. Freshman John-Paul Pierce, a 2018 red-shirt from New Orleans native who spent his prep years at BrotherMartin, saw his rst action as theteam’s play caller as well.
All are in the mix for the quarterback battle and fans should expect excitement as the battle wages on. Wright threw for 132 yards and two touchdowns, Pierce threw a 39-yard touch- down to red-shirt sophomore wide receiver Kobe Ross. Hick- bottom also threw for 32 yards in the air for the offense.
“Trying to get back to Atlan- ta,” Hickbottom said in reference to the location of the SWAC Championship.
At running back red-shirt freshman Kevin Dominique, freshman Keilon Elder and Jaka-rie Nichols dominated the eld.
The running backs blew through the defensive line for 273 rushing yards and four touchdowns on the ground giv-ing fans con dence in Gram– bling’s run game.
If the Spring game is any measure, GSU will have a better fall 2019 in rushing.
As for the receivers, senior De’Vante Davis grabbed a 16-yard pass for a touchdown and junior Quintin Guice reeled in a 70-yard in touchdown pass.
“I’m looking forward to us playing Grambling football,” Da- vis said.
“The real fans and those who came before us know what I am talking about.”
On display was Orlando’s implementation of an up-tempo offense that plans to move fast in and catch teams off guard.
“Offensively it was good to see us move the ball,” Grambling head football coach Broderick Fobbs said.
“The offensive line helped put together multiple scoring drives as our running backs had a great day.”
With the defense bringing los- ing pressure to the 2019 season, coach Todd had to make some adjustments. Although the spotscan be eld it’s who will ll them?
With players leaving such as defensive linemen La’Allan Clark, Brandon Varner and Linwood Banks and linebacker De’Arius Christmas, work remains for theteam to ll those spots.
Todd pointed to other players and new players like former
Oklahoma State signee linebacker Brendan Vaughn, a spring transfer from Cisco Community College, as steadily competing and moving up in the charts.
Junior linebackers Deandre McCarthy and Treylan Dunn have also been grinding and competing this spring with ma-jority of the rst team reps in theSpring Game going to McCarthy.
The defense also the black team started with a three and out then had another pulled down a tipped ball for a pick by Anthony Boston Jr.
The defense nished with four turnovers in the rst half,including a fumble return for a touchdown by red-shirt junior defensive lineman Anfernee Muins and interceptions by red- shirt freshmen Armis Stokes and Kenan Fontenot the defense putup a sure ght.
Sophomore linebackers Kevin Victorian and red-shirt soph- omore defensive lineman Martavious Dotson both registered forced fumbles.
Red-shirt junior linebacker Brandon Wiggs recorded a team-leading two sacks, while Vaughn, added one sack.