Teams in the SWAC either stayed the same or got worse. Expect a repeat of last year. The only difference will be the performance of Southern and Mississippi Valley State. These two team pose as the two major threats to challenge the east and west champions.  MVSU has to thank the Alabama State athletic director for opening up the East division. Southern, with the help of schedule placement, should do a lot better than last year. 

The Eastern division is up for grabs this year. That is why my choice for the eastern representative will be MVSU. The Delta Devils had the second best defense in the SWAC last year and look to improve on that. Head coach Willie “Satellite” Totten has taken over the offense and this will mean trouble for opposing teams.  The one game they will have to win is the game against Alabama A&M. This could later prove as a tiebreaker to get into the SWAC title game.  

A&M's defense will not be as good as last years, but the stats will be the same due the overall decline of the SWAC this year. The Bulldogs offense will need to improve on their ability to throw the football in order to have another good season.  

Jackson State fired coach Hughes last year and hired James Bell, an unproven coach. Bell promises to give the tiger fans a balance offense to forward to. This should take some pressure off Kent, who returns along with all his receivers.  The problem is that due Bell inexperience has a head coach the tigers will lose two games to getting out coached.  The Tigers defense is still a little suspect. 

Alcorn shocked a lot people last year in beginning but fell off when defenses caught on to the wide-out screens. That happens when you run the play more than 15 times a game.  Head coach Johnny Thomas will have to get creative with QB Donald Carrie in order to win games. Their good defensive backs will keep the score from reaching out of hand but will the offense be able to score? 

Alabama State has been going through turmoil this off-season with the program being investigated. The morale of the Hornet nation has suffered as well as the teams. At press time of this article head Coach L.C. Cole is still the head coach for the Hornets but don’t be surprised if a change happens before or after the season starts. 

Some one once said that the West was won in the Bayou Classic. If that is the case then pencil in Southern University to dethrone the reining SWAC Champion Grambling. The west will be boring this year until the Classic.  

Southern is a solid team everywhere except at quarterback. Coach Richardson showed us last year that this could be fixed when you have Kenneth “Black Jesus” Peoples carrying the ball. Peoples only played in ten games and rushed for over 700 yards with a suspect offense line. The o-line this year is improved and so is the running game. The passing game is a whole another story. It is rumored that the QB’s are still over and under throwing the receivers in voluntary workouts during the summer.  

Grambling returns this year locked and loaded but no solution for the lack of run defense. This didn’t get exposed in any SWAC games until the classic. Outside of the SWAC teams like Langston put up good numbers and gave the Jags the key ingredient to beating the Tigers.  Grambling will have to out score every team this year in order to win. The dynamic duo of Bruce Eugene and Tramon Douglas, aka Batman and Robin, will be the key focal points of the Grambling attack against the SWAC.  One thing that needs to be improved is the people protecting the duo, the offensive line. They gave up a lot of sacks last year and caused a 250-pound QB to run and throw.  

Texas Southern is the best of the worst in the West division. They return mostly everybody but didn’t get any better. They are more experienced this year but it’s a year too early. Next year is their year. The once accountable defense might show signs of it’s return. 

UAPB’s program is asleep…zzzzzzzzzzzzzz. One may ask if it even has a pulse? Coach Hardmon seems to waiting for the AD to give him the axe along with rest of the alumni. Once the Lions go 1-5 in the first half of the season, expect Hardmon to get fired.  

At the bottom is P.V. with a new coach and same losing attitude. Only time will tell if the program will climb out of the cellar. 

The SWAC is ready for a East champion and this year might be the year. In an upset the Delta Devils shock the world by playing tough defense and decent offense to beat Southern in the SWAC championship game 28-17.