Celebration Bowl 2015: Alcorn State vs. North Carolina A&T TV Info, Time, More
The Alcorn State Braves and North Carolina A&T Aggies make history Saturday by squaring off in the inaugural Air Force Reserve Celebration Bowl.
The Braves and star running back Darryan Ragsdale enter after winning their second straight SWAC championship a long, long time away from a season-opening 63-point loss to the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in Atlanta.
For the Aggies, the path to the new bowl was a tad more complicated. Tarik Cohen, North Carolina A&T's star running back, led the team to a 9-2 record, but it finished tied with Bethune-Cookman and North Carolina Central in the MEAC.
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These teams haven't met since 2004, but the explosive run-first ways of both offenses make for one of the best possible ways to help kick off bowl season. Here's everything to know.
Game Details
When: Saturday, December 19, at noon ET
Where: Georgia Dome in Atlanta
Television: ABC
Live Stream: WatchESPN
Tickets: ScoreBig.com
Purging Past Demons
Quietly, Alcorn State has experienced one of the quickest turnarounds in the land.
It didn't appear that way to start the season, though, when the program and head coach Jay Hopson took a season-opening 69-6 beatdown at the hands of Georgia Tech in which the defense allowed 476 rushing yards and nine rushing touchdowns while Ragsdale gained 50 yards.
Call it a season of redemption, though, as Hopson and Co. rattled off four straight wins before taking an overtime loss to Grambling State in 35-34 fashion.
The Braves purged those demons to end the season and seize the conference crown with a 49-21 whipping of those same Bulldogs behind 188 yards and a score from Ragsdale on just 15 carries.
Hopson spoke with Jeff Mills of Greensboro.com about what the rematch meant.
“The (SWAC championship) game certainly had a little extra meaning for us,” Hopson said. “We lost the game in overtime, and that’s always a hard loss. It’s something our young men looked at as an opportunity, if we took care of business, we could play them again. They made the most of it.”
Now the Braves have a chance to purge another set of demons in another contest given the national spotlight. It's a tall order, though, considering North Carolina A&T ranks second by allowing just 84.5 rushing yards per game.
Once again the onus of production will go to Ragsdale, who has 1,144 rushing yards this year.
Looking for a Rebound
The Aggies backed into this game via a three-way tie atop their conference and now have to hope their November display doesn't carry over to December.
Coach Ron Broadway and the program rattled off eight wins in a row but slogged through November with outings of nine, 27 and 16 points, the last number low enough to suffer a season-ending loss at the hands of NC Central, 21-16.
"We haven't been able to generate a whole lot of offense in the last weeks, so we've got to try to figure out a way to get this thing going a little bit better than we're going right now," Broadway said, according to ESPN.com.
A combination of the aforementioned elite defense and the ability to keep the ball on the ground with Cohen continues to carry the Aggies. He's the MEAC Offensive Player of the Year with 1,248 rushing yards and seven 100-yard games over his past eight outings.
Saturday, the Aggies have to get a better performance than they did from their rush defense in the loss to NC Central, where the Eagles found room for 193 rushing yards and two scores, neutralizing Cohen's 112.
Prediction
The recent struggles by the Aggies are nothing but good news for the Braves.
Ragsdale has been truly unstoppable this year, and facing a defense coming off a poor performance bodes well for his offense's chances to pull away. Lenorris Footman has also looked good since taking over under center, throwing eight touchdowns over his last five games.
An improving offense against an Aggies team on the downswing will lead to obvious results. Look for Alcorn State to jump out to a lead and ride Ragsdale to a historic win.
Prediction: Braves 24, Aggies 20
Statistics courtesy of ESPN unless otherwise specified.
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