The Livingstone College football notebook …
The football release from the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association played a not-so-nice trick on the Blue Bears this week.
On its game report previewing Saturday’s Livingstone-Virginia State matchup, the CIAAlisted senior running back Carlton Jones as one of the players to watch.
In fact, the Blue Bear players, coaches and fans would love to watch Jones run the ball this week and every week. But he won’t play a down this year thanks to academic ineligibility.
“He will have another year to be able to play and we’re hoping next year he will come back and be ready,”Livingstone head coach Greg Richardson said. “We’re hoping that he’s going to focus on his academics, prepare himself physically and mentally to play and next year he’ll be ready to graduate.”
For a Blue Bear squad that ranks last in rushing offense and scoring offense this season, Jones’ presence would certainly be a boost.
Jones provided 145 all-around yards per game last season, including a team-high 68.8 yards per game on the ground. He averaged nearly 6 yards a carry and led the Blue Bears with four rushing touchdowns. His 999 yards of total offense was second only to quarterback D’Andre Hopper, and Jones also played a key role returning punts and kickoffs.
His exploits did not go unnoticed. Richardson said several pro scouts have inquired about Jones this season.
“A guy like Carlton is very versatile. We could put Carlton in the backfield, we could put him on the wing and he can catch the ball,”Richardson said. “It has taken a certain element from our program, but I think as much as anything else, his experience of being in a college football game is the thing we lose more than anything else.
“He’s seen it before, whereas a lot of kids we have right now are doing on-the-job training,”Richardson explained. “When you learn as you go, you’re going to make mistakes.”
CARRYINGTHELOAD: Currently, Blue Bear QBs Joel Ward and Malcolm Weed are getting 62 percent of the team’s carries in the triple-option offense. Freshman Michael Tubolino and sophomore Robert Jordan are the only other two players on the team with double-digit carries.
“It’s too bad he’s not with the team this year,”Weed said. “He was a big void to fill. He’s a great player and all of us have been trying to pick up the slack of what we’re missing at that position.”
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Oh, Canada: Weed, the new Livingstone quarterback, hails from Westminster, Canada, in the western part of the nation in Vancouver.
And he’s not the only Blue Bear with ties to our neighbors to the north.
John Terry, who graduated from Livingstone in 1992, has established himself as one of the top offensive linemen in the Canadian FootballLeague.
When Richardson was asked if Weed was the only Canadian ever to play at Livingstone, he answered to the affirmative, then paused.
“Unless he now claims Canada as his home,”a laughing Richardson said of Terry. “They say he’s probably the best offensive lineman in Canadian ball right now.”
Terry was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys in the 10th round in 1992 and signed with the Chicago Bears a year later. In 1994, he headed to the CFL and played with the Toronto Argonauts before being traded to Saskatchewan in 1996.
Terry, a 6-foot-4, 290-pound tackle, was the three-time Most Outstanding Offensive Lineman for the RoughRiders and earned Western All-Star honors in 1997, ’98 and ’99. He helped the RoughRiders win the Gray Cup — the CFL’s Super Bowl — in 1997.
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home, home on the road: Six of Livingstone’s nine games this year were slated as home contests, but it certainly hasn’t worked out that way.
In the season opener, the Blue Bears let Catawba host the big city-wide event. Then the Sept. 15 home date against Virginia Union was postponed — then canceled when no make-up date could be found — due to the terrorist attacks.
This week’s game against Virginia State will also be only a home game of sorts, as Livingstone extends its tradition of playing inStatesville.
“It’s been good exposure for our program, it’s been good exposure for the people of Statesville to see college football in their town,”Richardson said of the move to Statesville High. “They have responded very well in terms of attendance to our football games and we’re really happy to be able to extend the Livingstone family into that community.”
The Blue Bears have played several CIAAfoes in Statesville since the 1997 season, and Richardson said win or lose, the games have always been exciting.
Special programs and a parade usually accompany the game, although the parade is on a one-year hiatus this Saturday. At 2 p.m., there will be a free youth rally at the Statesville High auditorium, where kids will be entertained, hear guest speakers and receive door prizes and free tickets to the 6 p.m. contest.
Tickets for the game can be purchased in advance on the Livingstone campus for $12, or for $15 at the gate. Children 6 and under are free.
“They decided it was good for them, we decided it was good for us, and they’ve been able to make it happen over there,”Richardson said of the tradition.
And as for losing that other “home” game?
“Our team is so young, I don’t know if they understand the tradition of playing at home, at least on the college level,”Richardson explained. “We’re having things — good and bad — happen to us equally, home and away.”
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being seen: It’s not unusual for teams in the CIAA, as well as other black colleges, to stage games outside of their own college town.
Virginia State, for example, played Hampton in the New Jersey Meadowlands —yes, the home of the Giants and Jets — last weekend.
“It’s more about getting the exposure to areas that don’t have college football: to get them to see college football and to get them to see black college football,”Richardson said. “Our schools try to get that exposure out there so kids can see football at the college level, be exposed to our institutions and what our institutions are doing to educate young people.”
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one change: The Blue Bears said they’ll go ahead with the Blues Classic, the annual event started last weekend between Livingstone and Fayetteville State.
The bands were great, the fans were great, the atmosphere was great —everything but the football went exactly as planned, Richardson said.
“I heard nothing but positive things about it. I’m just hoping next time we have it back here we’ll be able to win it.”
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Contact Steve Hanf at 704-797-4287 or shanf@salisburypost.com
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