College Hoops
GSU dominates A&M to win SWAC Championship
Eugene throws 6 TD’s and earns MVP Honors
Legion Field - Birmingham, AL
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| GSU QB-Bruce "Al Mighty" Eugene torched A&M with 6 TD passes. |
At 6-1, 250lbs Grambling State quarterback Bruce “Al Mighty” Eugene looks like anything but a college quarterback, but just like that old saying “You can’t judge a book by it’s cover”, well that best describes Eugene when you see him in his uniform. All Eugene did on a cold afternoon in Birmingham, AL was torch the Alabama A&M “Bulldogs” for 6 TD’s and 473-yards to lead the GSU “Tigers” to their 4th SWAC Championship.
To say that GSU Head Coach Melvin Spears and his “Tigers” were beaming with confidence as they hit the field for the 2005 SWAC Championship Game against an Alabama A&M team that they had destroyed 44-0 in the 2nd week of the season was an understatement, even through they got off to a chilly start.
Grambling received the opening kick-off and started marching down field but they fumbled near mid-field and Alabama A&M LB-Johnny Baldwin recovered the ball.
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| A&M QB-Kelcy Luke hands off to RB-Jacques Pyant as OL-Antonio Regist pulls out. |
Behind QB-Kelcy Luke the “Bulldogs” did a little stomping of their own. Luke completed passes to three different receivers; WR-Emmanuel Edwards, WR-Anthony Mitchell and WR-Timothy Robinson as the “Bulldogs” moved the ball inside the GSU 15-yard line. A few plays later Luke ran a quarterback sneak to give the “Bulldogs” an early 6-0 lead. The PAT was blocked.
Eugene and the high-powered “Tigers” attack didn’t waste anytime coming back. A nice gain by RB-Ab Kuuan moved the ball out over the 40-yard line. WR-Clyde Edwards made a nice run after a catch to the “Bulldogs” 34-yard line. Eugene them connected on his 1st TD pass to hometown star WR-Henry Tolbert tying the game at 6-6. The PAT was wide.
Alabama A&M looked like they were ready to put up some points of their today as RB-Jacques Pyant busted loose for 45-yards to the GSU 16-yard line. A few plays later Luke was stripped of the ball by GSU DB-Jermaine Mills and it was recovered by his teammate DB-Greg Fassitt.
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| GSU WR-Henry Tolbert hauls in 1 of his 4 TD passes. |
The “Bulldogs” defense led by DL-Fred Solomon, DE-Malasta Hill (Stephenson H.S.), DL-Kevin Lockhart put all kinds of pressure on Eugene and forced the “Tigers” to punt. GSU lined up for the punt but they faked it and RB-Ab Kuuan took off down the field for a huge gain and 1st down to the Alabama A&M 32-yard line as the quarter drew to an end.
At the start of the 2nd quarter Eugene hit Tolbert for a big 1st down to keep the drive alive. A “Pass Interference” call on the “Bulldogs” FS-Antonio Nelson moved the ball to the 4-yard line. Kuuan would score a few plays later to give GSU a 12-6 lead, which is how the half would end.
At the half Coach Spears must have given the “Black Clad Tigers” from Grambling some “Crunk Juice” because they hit the field in the 3rd quarter and played at a “whole nother’ level, baby!” …ahhh I know you feel on that one.
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| Luke is stripped of the ball by GSU DB-Jermaine Mills. |
In the 3rd quarter Eugene went to work as he dissected the Alabama A&M secondary throwing 4 touchdown passes, 2 to Tolbert and one each to WR-George Piggott and WR-Reginald Jackson as the “Tigers” dominated taking a 39-6 lead into the 4th quarter.
Eugene a senior finished off his last game as the GSU quarterback with his 6th touchdown pass, his 4th to Tolbert as the “Tigers” beat Alabama A&M 45-6 to win their 4th SWAC Championship. On the day Bruce “Al Mighty” set SWAC Championship records by completing 30 of 47 passes for 473 yards. By the way Eugene didn’t throw one interception in all of those attempts and he broke the NCAA career record for touchdown passes with 140 and tied the NCAA single season record for TD’s passes with 56.
Eugene’s favorite target WR-Henry Tolbert who finished the game with 11 receptions for 184 yards and 4 TD’s. Tolbert’s performance set a new GSU school record for touchdowns in a season with 20, surpassing Eric Gant who held the record (19) for the past 13 years.
The MVP of the game for Alabama A&M was WR-Emmanual Edwards. Edwards caught 6 passes for 77 yards. QB-Kelcy Luke was 18 for 34 for 187 and 2 interceptions.
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| Alabama A&M Trainers (l-r) tisha Roberts, Alison Lee and Jessira Holcomb pose with recording artist Jaged Edge before the game. |
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