FAMU's win over Jackson State was much more than 'the next game on the schedule' | G. Thomas

All offseason, the Florida A&M Rattlers indicated their season opening game against the Jackson State Tigers was just another game.

No matter how many times I asked FAMU head coach Willie Simmons and players prior to Sunday's showdown in Miami Gardens, they all had the ‘it’s the next game’ response.

You know, cliché.

Refraining from providing JSU with bulletin board material. Which is smart.

FAMU's (1-0, 1-0 SWAC) 28-10 win over two-time defending Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) Champions JSU (1-1, 0-1 SWAC) at Sunday's Orange Blossom Classic was much more than just another game, though.

It was a chance at redemption for the Rattlers' 59-3 loss to the Tigers last year — the program’s worst lost to a fellow HBCU — alongside an ongoing four-game losing streak to JSU (2014, 2018, 2021, 2022).

For 728 days, Simmons was the butt of TheeILove’s jokes after dropping two consecutive OBC, SWAC East divisional games to JSU. Tigers fans even monikered the annual contest, synonymous with FAMU (Rattlers played in the OBC from 1933-1978, then 2021-2023) as the ‘Blue Blossom Classic.’

Finally, after nearly two years, Simmons broke his silence about the social media trash talk's impact and how much he wanted to claim victory over JSU.

"I don't follow the chats or message boards, but I know there's some back and forth banter," Simmons, who coached FAMU to its first win over JSU since 2003, said at Sunday's postgame press conference.

"There's this one particular JSU fan ― I don't know who it is. But every time I look up and see 'JSU by fawty (forty),' it boils my spirit. That's the one person that I really want to see right now.

"It's part of bragging rights ― that's what happens when you play rival games. But I enjoy the back and forth. That's what makes the SWAC what it is."

FAMU flips the script, owns bragging rights after years of suffering to Jackson State

Everyone remembers when FAMU lost by 50-plus points to JSU last season.

I always reflected on that game as one that was 'hard to watch' as I sat in the Hard Rock Stadium's pressbox and witnessed the Rattlers struggle to get any momentum.

But that game had the biggest impact on the players that endured the loss.

In January, FAMU starting quarterback Jeremy Moussa told me that he's never been beat that bad in a football game throughout his career.

JSU basically halted FAMU's possibility of winning the SWAC the last two years, which in part ends its HBCU Celebration Bowl chances. And that 2022 historic loss possibly played a role in the Rattlers being left out of the 2022 Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) playoffs.

By Moussa's standards, he didn't play his best ball on Sunday. The Preseason SWAC Offensive Player of the Year acknowledged that, finishing with 12 of 22 completions for 150 yards and two touchdowns.

But he knew the magnitude of Sunday's win versus JSU.

"We talk about what our goals are this season. It's no secret that we're trying to get to the Celebration Bowl in Atlanta," Moussa, who's on FAMU's 11-man leadership committee, said.

"[JSU] were the guys holding us back from that. So, we were really motivated to come out here and play hard football, play clean football. We knew coming in what the task was. It didn't have to be spoken. So, I think the leaders on our team did a good job of setting what the standard is to come out focused.

"I feel like we won pretty handily and didn't play anywhere near our best game."

Marcus Riley wasn't at FAMU during last year's loss to JSU.

Instead, the transfer wide receiver was at fellow SWAC school Bethune-Cookman, which had two blowout losses to JSU in 2021 and 2022.

But Riley, a Rickards grad, is Tallahassee through and through.

He has lifelong friends that have played for FAMU and relatives that have graduated from the institution.

So, after losing to JSU twice at B-CU then seeing how the Tigers troubled his hometown school FAMU, Sunday was personal for Riley.

You saw him bring some extra juice Sunday. It only took the first 11 seconds of the game to show it as Riley cut on the burners for a 96-yard kick return touchdown to open the football season.

"It meant a lot to come home and beat Jackson State," Riley said as he sat alongside Simmons and Moussa at Sunday's postgame press conference.

"Them boys been riding high for the past two seasons. They've basically been the Alabama of HBCU's. So, we had to calm them down a little bit."

Willie Simmons is humble, but wants to cement himself in FAMU football lure

Simmons is already well-respected by Rattler Nation.

And rightfully so.

He restored FAMU's football program's winning ways with four-straight winning seasons after six consecutive losing seasons prior to his 2018 arrival.

But what eludes Simmons in his nine-year head coaching career is a conference title and Celebration Bowl championship.

Simmons has a realistic shot to secure both this season.

Furthermore, the Rattlers are scheduled for 11 games this season. But Simmons says that his team has 13 games on its itinerary with the addition of December's SWAC Championship Game and Celebration Bowl.

"Right now, our feet are celebrating a huge win for this program ― with a long season to play," Simmons said after beating JSU. "Our plan is to play 13 games. This is one of 13. So, we don't want to look too far ahead.

"This group is hungry and we want to be the best. We talked to the guys about the chance to have a season for the ages this year.

"Our standard is excellence here at FAMU."

Simmons wants to truly cement himself with FAMU's great line of coaches, led by Jake Gaither (1945-1969), who claimed twenty Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) titles and eight Black College Football National Championships.

He'll have a chance to follow Gaither's footsteps in beating a Tampa-based football team as underdogs when FAMU faces NCAA Division I-FBS South Florida (USF) this Saturday.

In 1969, the Gaither-led Rattlers defeated the University of Tampa 34-28 at the old Tampa Stadium before a sold out crowd of 46,477.

The FAMU-UT matchup was the first-ever interracial football game played in the South.

There's a good chance the Rattlers can pull off the upset on the struggling Bulls (0-1), who went 1-11 a season ago.

"We talk about how I'm chasing the ghost of Jake Gaither everyday," Simmons said. "Jake Gaither made history by taking FAMU down and beating a PWI.

"If we take care of all those little things that comes along with playing your first football game, I think we have a chance to [go to USF] and do something very special.

"[The 1969 FAMU-UT game] is definitely in our minds."

Gerald Thomas, III covers Florida A&M University Athletics for the Tallahassee Democrat. Contact him via email at gdthomas@gannett.com or on Twitter @3peatgee.

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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: FAMU Football: Rattlers reserved before JSU game. But knew the importance