SAVANNAH, Ga. - This is the football game Savannah State University has been eagerly awaiting.
After playing at Oklahoma State and at Florida State to start the season, followed by a bye week, SSU will play its home opener against North Carolina Central at 7 p.m. Saturday at T.A. Wright Stadium. It will be the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference opener for both teams.
SSU (0-2) is encouraging all fans to wear orange as part of its “Armed Forces Night/Orange Out” festivities.
“This game right here, this feels like a Homecoming,” SSU wide receiver
Simon Heyward said after Wednesday's practice. “The student body, you know they're excited for the first home game and they really want to get a win in the new stadium.”
SSU has not won at T.A. Wright Stadium since it was renovated. The Tigers finished 1-10 in 2011, beating North Carolina Central, 33-30, in Durham, N.C. SSU finished 1-10 in 2010, beating NCCU, 28-21. The game was played at Savannah's Memorial Stadium because T.A. Wright Stadium was under reconstruction.
“This is a game we circled on the schedule the minute we got the schedule,” SSU second-year head coach Steve Davenport said. “Obviously, we were excited about going to both of those venues (Oklahoma State and Florida State) but the reality is the No. 1 goal on our goal chart is to win the conference championship, and this is the first opportunity we get to really go about our goal.”
North Carolina Central (1-2) is coming off a 54-17 loss to Duke University last Saturday. The Eagles lost, 34-14, at Elon on Sept. 8. NCCU won its Sept. 1 season opener, 54-31, against NCAA Division II Fayetteville State.
“I think Coach (Henry) Frazier will have his team prepared Saturday night,” Davenport said. “I'm sure they'll come down here with the notion of a little bit of revenge. We're looking forward to it and getting ready for the challenge. We're excited about the field being a little bit more competitively balanced.”
NCCU backup quarterback Jordan Reid worked with the Eagles' starters during practices this week and is expected to start against SSU, the Durham Herald-Sun reported earlier this week. The junior replaced starter Matt Goggans in the first quarter against Duke and Reid threw for a career-high 218 yards and ran for a touchdown.
“Offensively, they like to run the ball but they've got a new quarterback that they're going to start against us,” Davenport said of Reid. “He gives them a little bit more ability to make plays after plays break down. It's more of a concern in terms of having to cage that pocket up. The gentleman (Goggans) that was starting before him was a more prototypical pocket (passer) and you didn't really have to worry about him running around. But this new guy, you've got to worry about him running around so it creates a couple of other issues. He was productive for them.”
Davenport said NCCU's defensive line could present a challenge.
“Defensively, they're tremendous up front,” Davenport said. “Their front four is pretty good. They've got a No. 99 (John Drew, a 6-foot-2, 330-pound senior) who has some NFL potential.”
Heyward happy he chose SSU
Heyward, a 5-foot-11, 185-pound junior, has had success against NCCU. After graduating from Savannah's Beach High School in 2010, Heyward started at wide receiver for SSU as a freshman. He led the Tigers in receptions (56) and yards receiving (423). Heyward finished the season with one touchdown catch, which he made in the victory over NCCU at Savannah's Memorial Stadium.
Although SSU has beaten NCCU in each of the past two seasons, Heyward said the Tigers have found motivation from the chance to win their first game at T.A. Wright Stadium since it was renovated.
“As a team, we sit in the locker room and we talk about it,” Heyward said. “Over the past week, everybody's been putting in the hard work to get it done. These last couple of days we're just polishing everything up, making sure everybody is on the right page. When Saturday comes it's going to be a big party.”
Through two games this season, Heyward has three catches for 29 yards. He said he hopes to have a breakout game against NCCU and produce the way he did as a freshman. As a sophomore, Heyward made 16 catches for 207 yards and a touchdown. He also had 18 kickoff returns for 399 yards, an average of 22.2 yards per return, and he led the team in punt returns with five for 36 yards, an average of 7.2 yards per punt return.
Heyward was a star at Beach High School. As a senior in 2009, he played receiver, running back, quarterback and defensive back for the Bulldogs. He scored a total of 13 touchdowns. Heyward made 41 catches for 653 yards, ran 68 times for 544 yards and completed 30 of 48 passes for 183 yards. Defensively, Heyward intercepted two passes, made nine deflections and had 37 tackles.
Perhaps Heyward's best game as a senior came in Beach's 39-7 victory over Groves High School. Heyward scored five touchdowns. He returned a punt for an 84-yard touchdown, had 110 yards receiving and two touchdowns, and ran for 88 yards and two touchdowns.
When Heyward signed with SSU, he became the first Beach High School player to sign with an NCAA Division I school since 2003. He said he turned down scholarship offers from Alabama State, Tuskegee and South Carolina State.
“In high school, I always told myself I wouldn't ever come to Savannah State, to be honest with you, because they were losing and everybody always talked bad about it,” Heyward said. “But when the opportunity came to me to stay home, I talked to my mom (Rosalyn Evans) about it because I'm a mama's boy. I wanted to stay home. When they offered me the scholarship at the time, I talked to my mom and she said she liked it and she wanted me to stay home so I decided to stay home.
“It was a good decision. There are some good things going on around here. The program, we're coming up. When I talk to local people and they ask me about it, I say (attending) Savannah State was probably the best decision I ever made in my life.”
Davenport said Heyward gives SSU the dimension of a deep threat in its passing game.
“Simon's a tremendous player for us, maybe the fastest kid on the team,” Davenport said. “We've got to find ways to get him the ball. He's the explosive person that's on our offense so we're looking forward to him making some big plays, starting with this week.”
Heyward, who is pursuing a bachelor's degree in behavior analysis, is planning for a career as a counselor and football coach. He said he loves playing football because of the camaraderie and he cherishes representing SSU.
“Our student body wants us to win,” he said. “They've got our back. Our faculty, they've got our back. And our administration. We've got to play hard for ourselves but at the same time you've got to realize that you're doing it for other people, too.”
New helmets
SSU wore its new white helmets for the first time during Wednesday's practice. The helmets feature the SSU letters and the Tiger logo on both sides, and an orange stripe between two blue stripes that run from the front across the top to the back.
“We wanted to kind of get them used to just having them on,” Davenport said. “We're thinking about whether or not we're going to wear them on Saturday. It excites the kids. The little things excite them so you try to keep them going. We'll see how it goes.”
SSU publicly revealed the helmets for the first time in June at the 2012 Peach State Pigskin Preview at the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in Macon.
