Florida A&M wide receiver Xavier Smith put on a show for NFL scouts Monday at the HBCU Combine
Florida A&M WR Xavier Smith was one of the standouts at the HBCU Combine in New Orleans today, following up on years of high production. pic.twitter.com/D2UhIvws7T
This year’s HBCU Combine was another huge success, and the event once again illuminated some talented prospects in the 2023 NFL draft class who are worthy of more attention.
One such name is Florida A&M wide receiver Xavier Smith, who put on a show for NFL scouts with his performance Monday.
Watch the video above to see some of Smith’s highlights from the day, as well as his interview with NFL Network’s Steve Wyche.
#Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes is up for the FedEx Air Player of the Year Award and voting for him can help earn an HBCU a $20,000 donation to their need-based scholarship fund.
Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes is one of the three players up for FedEx Air Player of the Year. He’ll square off with Bills QB Josh Allen and Bengals QB Joe Burrow for the honor.
“Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes led the NFL in passing yards (a career-high 5,250) and touchdown passes (41) while ranking second in rating with 105.2. He had 10 games with at least 300 yards, the most by a player in a single season since 2020. This marks his second-career season with at least 5,000 passing yards and 40 touchdown passes (2018), joining Drew Brees (2011-12) as the only players ever with two seasons of 5,000 passing yards and 40 touchdown passes.”
During the 2022 NFL regular season, the weekly FedEx Air & Ground players each had $2,000 donations made on their behalf to HBCU need-based scholarship funds via the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. FedEx will now donate $20,000 to the HBCU of the FedEx Air Player of the Year’s choosing, also supporting need-based scholarship funds.
Fans can cast their vote for Mahomes through February 9 at 12:00 a.m. ET at nfl.com/fedex, the Twitter poll linked at the top of the page, or via the NFL Mobile App.
NBA champion Darrell Armstrong discussed fellow Fayetteville State alumnus and #Chiefs CB Joshua Williams. | from @EdEastonJr
The Kansas City Chiefs’ 2022 rookie class has played an essential role this season in the team’s first-place standing in the AFC West. Each player’s impact has helped lead to victories on the field, while others have also inspired change off the field.
Darrell Armstrong played 14 seasons in the NBA and has served as an assistant coach for the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks since 2009, winning the championship in the 2010–11 season. He first made a name for himself as a star athlete at renowned HBCU Fayetteville State University, playing both football and basketball.
As an FSU Broncos Hall of Famer, Armstrong has remained in tune with the school’s athletic program. He’s been keeping a close eye on the progress of Chiefs rookie cornerback Joshua Williams, who also played at Fayetteville State.
Chiefs Wire’s Ed Easton Jr. recently sat down with Armstrong to discuss the growth of HBCU Football while he greeted fans at the Glamour Under the Stars event in New York City. Armstrong offered up some advice for the Chiefs’ rookie.
“Just be yourself. Take on every challenge,” said Armstrong. “Head on and not only represent yourself, you’re representing a lot of other Black college players who are looking at you and saying when they get the opportunity to do the same thing. He came from a D-2 Black college, so you know, it can happen. For him, just keep pushing the best thing. I kind of followed him a little bit, and I really didn’t know him at that time, and people kept hitting me in the summertime. ‘We have a guy from FSU that’s gonna get drafted, and I saw him this past summer at the combine, and look at him now; he’s on the field almost every Sunday now. Whether it’s special teams or a guy got hurt, and they put him in the mix, he got his first interception against the San Francisco 49ers, and it was fun to see him and the players run down there (celebrating).”
Armstrong was the kicker while on the FSU Broncos football team at one point holding the team record for the longest field goal. After going undrafted in 1991, he chose basketball professionally and worked his way through minor and international basketball leagues before catching on with the Orlando Magic in 1995. He earned awards for NBA’s Most Improved Player and Sixth Man of the Year in 1999, solidifying his place among the best in the league.
“Like I said, at the end of the day, you know people are watching to see what he’s doing,” Armstrong said. “He’s already done some good things, and he’s going to do more good things.”
Williams was one of four HBCU players selected in the 2022 NFL draft. He has seen more time on the field lately, proving to be a reliable option against bigger receivers due to his size. While the rookie has been a little hard on himself in light of the recent loss to the Bengals, his future in the league is as bright as can be.
Who do you think wins the biggest matchups this weekend?
The mouth of ESPN is set to join ESPN College GameDay in Jackson, Mississippi to “see me make my picks,” as he so eloquently put it. Stephen A. Smith, one of the biggest personalities in all of sports media, will join the picking crew of Kirk Herbsteit, Desmond Howard, and Pat McAfee to select their winners of week 9 from the campus of Jackson State ahead of their HBCU contest against Southern.
Jetting to Jackson, Mississippi., I am the celebrity guest picker on College GameDay — Jackson State University vs. Southern University this morning. Hanging with my boy Coach Prime aka Deion Sanders. Tune in to ESPN around 11:30a Eastern to ‘see me make my picks.’#HBCUpic.twitter.com/JdsDoa3OJZ
“I think golf has proven itself to be an investment worth investing in for HBCUs, for people, for the culture.”
Historically black college and university athletics have become more prevalent in recent years, largely in part due to NFL legend Deion Sanders and his work with Jackson State’s football team. On the golf side, Howard has shown over just two years what can be accomplished when resources and opportunities are paired with hard work.
According to a Black Golf Directory listing, 31 HBCUs have golf programs spanning NCAA Divisions I, II and NAIA. Eleven schools have both a men’s and women’s program, 19 are men only while Delaware State is the lone school to have just a women’s team.
“I would double that number. If you go back to the early 90s, at least double that amount,” Black College Golf Coaches Association (BCGCA) board member Jamila Johnson said of how many HBCUs used to offer golf programs. After a recession of lost programs over the years, the tide is beginning to turn as HBCU popularity continues to grow. Now the focus is on making these positive changes a movement, not just a moment.
Johnson’s mother, Selina, started the Hollywood Golf Institute, a junior golf program in her native Detroit, Michigan, when she was 6 years old. She played on and was captain of a co-ed team when she was in high school and then became the first female athlete recruited for Jackson State’s women’s team by legendary coach, Eddie Payton, in the early 1990s during the second wave of Title IX. When the government began enforcing the law – which prohibits discrimination in any school or education program that receives federal funding based on sex – one route a number of colleges, not just HBCUs, took to address the inequity was to create women’s golf teams.
Back then, every SWAC school had a men’s and women’s team. Today, seven of the 12 member schools have either a men’s or women’s team, and just three schools have both.
“If you go back far enough, you had so many HBCUs that actually had teams, even though the players were not necessarily welcome to play at some of the local facilities,” said Johnson. “We haven’t recovered yet to the number of teams that we once had, but what I will say is that the quality of the events and the experiences, the quality of the venues, and the experiences that we are able to offer this generation of golfers is definitely trending in the awesome direction. We played nice courses, but this generation of golfers and HBCU golfers, they’re having the opportunity to play better venues, they’re having the opportunity to see what life looks like after golf as far as careers.”
One of those venues is Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, which hosted the Charlie Sifford Centennial Cup earlier this year, an exhibition that featured six top HBCU programs. While discussing what needs to happen for HBCU golf programs to continue to grow, Howard head coach Sam Puryear keyed in on HBCU programs not just recruiting the best black talent, but developing and supporting it.
“Programs systematically and schematically have to be set and sound as it relates to practice, types of practice, leadership, running the programs, and putting the different things in place that will allow them to be successful,” said Puryear. “I think if you do that, and I think if you create competitive schedules, all those programs are going to get better. It’s like the proverb, iron sharpens iron. I think at the end of the day, that will happen.”
“I think to keep driving HBCU golf forward we need to put more out there, show the kids what we do, where we play, give them more information,” said Howard senior Everett Whiten Jr. “I feel like a lot of kids, they only see the big schools, they don’t really focus on HBCUs.”
The Hollywood Golf Institute has introduced over 6,000 children to the game of golf and have sent close to 350 golfers to school on full or partial scholarships, and 41 years later the program is still producing talented players. The BCGCA has created tournaments in various regions around the country so schools don’t have to travel as far for tournaments. While opportunities to play are important, those experiences only last so long.
“For me, it’s just about more opportunities and people actually being present throughout these opportunities, like mentorships,” added Greg Odom Jr. “I have people to talk that are at a different type of level, and that’s helped me grow as a person with these opportunities.”
When the BCGCA was started 35 years ago, Johnson praised the association’s efforts of partnering with high school coaches to educate them on what was needed to help their student athletes reach the next level. While developing players and talent on the course is undoubtedly important, Johnson argued that supporting, empowering and developing the existing coaches is the next step.
“I think golf has proven itself to be an investment worth investing in for HBCUs, for people, for the culture,” added Johnson. “It might be a recession where we’ve lost some teams, but I think we’re seeing a trend where schools are seeing the value and they’re starting to build these teams again and teams are recovering and coming back where they weren’t there before.”
“Did I know it was going to happen in year two? No I didn’t, but I knew it was possible.”
Greg Odom Jr. thought head coach Sam Puryear was blowing more smoke than a chimney when he was being recruited to play golf at Howard University.
“Getting recruited, I thought he was bluffing. I’m on the phone with him, he’s like, ‘Oh, you’re gonna win championships, you’re gonna get this, you’re gonna do this,’” recalled Odom Jr., who was a sophomore at Memphis at the time. “When you actually walk up on the tee of PGA Tour event and you walk to the podium after winning a championship, you look back and it’s just, ‘Wow, everything happened.’”
Sure, they were lofty goals for an upstart program getting its first crack at NCAA Div. I competition thanks to the financial backing of NBA superstar and avid golfer, Stephen Curry, but where there’s smoke, there’s fire. And Puryear believed every single word.
“I’ve been feeling like for the last 30 years I’ve been saying to myself the day is coming where you can put (an HBCU) product on a golf course where it can be competitive if you have the proper things in place,” Puryear said of his vision for the program. “From funding to course access to instruction to the opportunity to compete against the better programs, teams can get better. I knew that was gonna happen.”
“Did I know it was going to happen in year two? No I didn’t, but I knew it was possible.”
Howard’s inaugural 2021-22 season was just five events, two of which were match play duels against local programs Navy and Georgetown. Howard finished T-13 at the Golden Horseshoe Intercollegiate, third (out of four) at the MEAC Championship and fourth at the PGA Works Collegiate Championship, an event that highlights the best minority collegiate golfers across the country.
“I feel like we’ve always had the pieces, we just had to put them together,” said Odom Jr, who individually placed fifth at the conference championship and then won the PGA Works in 2021. “We were close the first year at PGA Works but we fell short, and I feel like that was our drive for the next season.”
The Bison closed out their second season in 2021-22 with a pair of wins at the MEAC Championship and PGA Works and placed inside the top five in five of 10 events. Odom Jr. won the individual MEAC Championship wire-to-wire and then defended his PGA Works title, fulfilling Puryear’s vision.
“We go to every event and try to win and give it our all, so I feel like the expectations haven’t changed,” said Odom Jr of the team’s early success. “If we win, we win, and if we don’t, we learn something so we can win next time.”
“I think the one thing that we have to continue to do is just to realize that we have a long way to go,” added Puryear. “All the guys on my team will tell you, I preach it all the time: don’t get comfortable, because you’re only as good as your last week, as good as your last shot.”
“So we keep it focused, stay in the present, don’t put your mind too far down the road and you don’t lament on where you’ve come from, because you have to keep putting the left foot in front of the right foot.”
The team has worked hard to reach its current status as the top HBCU program in the country, but Puryear and his players will be the first to tell you that none of this would be possible without Curry, who in 2019 announced his commitment to support and establish Howard’s first NCAA Div. I golf program for the next six years. The university also launched a golf endowment campaign to support Curry’s efforts. While Curry’s money has provided the team with tangible benefits, it’s the intangibles his support brings that mean the most.
“To show you the mark of a man, when (Curry) was hurt during the NBA season last year, he was in a walking boot, got in a cart and followed the team when we were playing out at Stanford,” said Puryear. “Most people, 99% of the people would never do that. Some people are comfortable with signing a check. He’s comfortable touching a life. To me, that speaks volumes.”
“I would like to commend that guy. He’s an NBA champion. He’s a superstar. He’s the MVP. He’s everything. But he’s also the guy that started the Howard golf team and helped fund the team. It’s incredible,” added Odom Jr. “For the team, he’s present, and when we need him, he comes. He’s supplied us with everything, and he’s helped us with resources and opened doors for opportunities so we just can’t thank him enough. He’s the guy.”
The men’s golf program joined the Northeast Conference as an associate member this season and have six events on the schedule for this fall, including this week’s Howard/USF Intercollegiate at TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm. As the program continues to evolve, the expectations for Odom Jr. and his team remain the same.
“I see no difference. I still see us being the No. 1 seed and having that target on our back,” said Odom Jr, who won the Bison’s first start of the fall at the River Run Collegiate. “We will be at that podium and we will be winning.”
Despite being separated by 20 minutes, Saturday will mark the first meeting between LSU and Southern University.
On Saturday, LSU will face Southern University in Tiger Stadium.
A.W. Mumford Stadium, where the Jaguars play, is a 20-minute drive from Tiger Stadium. Despite the proximity, this will be the first time the programs have met.
Among fans of Louisiana football and within the city of Baton Rouge, this game is being anticipated more than your average SEC vs. FCS game. On the field, LSU will be the heavy favorite, but Saturday will be a significant cultural event for the city.
It will also serve as a chance for LSU to work on some of the issues that plagued the Tigers in the loss to Florida State. Here are seven things to know about the matchup.
ESPN’s broadcast of the season-opening HBCU football game will feature special previews of an upcoming Marvel film.
The first Saturday of college football is just hours away and while there aren’t many traditionally high-profile games on the schedule in what’s being deemed “Week 0”, ESPN’s primetime game on Saturday night will be appointment viewing for fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Disney-owned ESPN is using this year’s MEAC/SWAC Challenge Kickoff game between Howard and Alabama State to promote its upcoming Marvel blockbuster Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, creating some cool opportunities to showcase both the film and HBCU football on a huge stage.
In addition to promising preview clips of the film, ESPN will also be incorporating elements of the film into both the broadcast and the in-stadium experience at Center Parc Stadium in Atlanta, including free posters for the first 15,000 fans at the stadium.
Come for our first new look at the film since that incredible trailer, stay for the uniquely wonderful tradition that is HBCU football.
Deion Sanders spoke about the possibility of a future matchup against the Crimson Tide, but that Jackson State isn’t ready quite yet.
Deion Sanders is entering his third year with the Jackson State football program, and to say he has turned things around would be an understatement. During the Tigers 2021 campaign, Sanders led them to an 11-2 record, the team’s first winning season since 2013.
Not only are the Tigers succeeding on the field, but off of it as well. They have dominated the recruiting game and landed the No. 1 overall recruit in the country, Travis Hunter. Sanders and Jackson State have everything going for them.
Yet, when asked about a potential matchup with the Crimson Tide Sanders said, “We’re not ready for that, we’re not into sacrificing our kids for a check.”
Sanders elaborated and said that he still needs time to improve his offensive line and defensive line before he can truly compete. He believes that the skill positions are similar, but the biggest difference is the line play on both sides of the ball.
If Jackson State and Sanders continue on this path, there may be a day when we see the two legends lined up across the sideline.
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Always-colorful Nate Newton won 3 Super Bowls and earned 6 Pro Bowl nods as an anchoring member of “The Great Wall of Dallas” in the 1990s. | From @ToddBrock24f7
Over 13 seasons wearing the star, Nate Newton was an anchoring member of one the most dominant offensive lines in NFL history, “The Great Wall of Dallas.” And he ended up the most decorated one of the bunch. He played on three Super Bowl-winning teams during the franchise’s greatest run. He earned a trip to six Pro Bowls. He was named a first-team All-Pro twice.
Nate Newton did it all as a Cowboy. But he was granted football immortality for what he did as a Rattler.
The 60-year-old Newton, who last played pro ball in 1999, was inducted into the Black College Football Hall of Fame this past weekend in Atlanta. Several Cowboys teammates- including Troy Aikman, Deion Sanders, Daryl Johnston, Tony Tolbert, and Mark Stepnoski- were on hand to celebrate with him.
— Pro Football Hall of Fame (@ProFootballHOF) June 18, 2022
“I’m humbled. I’m humbled. This is something special,” Newton said, per Clarence Hill of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “What makes me feel good is my teammates were there, my sons, my brother and sister. It was Father’s Day. There was a Juneteenth parade across the street. I had everybody that was somebody to me there. What more can I ask for? How much better could this weekend have been? All I needed was Jesus to come in and resurrect this thing and take us out of here.”
Even on squads that were loaded with larger-than-life personalities, Newton was always among the biggest, in every sense of the word.
Playing at anywhere from 325 to nearly 370 pounds, Newton was nicknamed “The Kitchen” because he was even larger than William “The Refrigerator” Perry of the Chicago Bears.
The team tried to slim him down. Then-Cowboys owner Tex Schramm famously offered Newton an $80,000 bonus if he simply arrived to camp weighing under 310.
“If someone offers you $80,000 to be unhappy, you shouldn’t take it,” Newton would say. “So [expletive] $80,000; I’d rather eat.”
Coming out of Florida A&M, Newton was selected by the Tampa Bay Bandits in the 1983 USFL Territorial Draft but chose to sign instead with Washington in the NFL as an undrafted free agent. He was waived during training camp.
He returned to the Bandits and played two seasons in the USFL. After that league folded, he signed with the Cowboys as a free agent in 1986. He played 37 games under head coach Tom Landry before Jerry Jones bought the franchise in 1989.
Under new coach Jimmy Johnson, Newton saw a position change- from left guard to right tackle- after the nearly-50-year-old coach beat Newton in a foot race. By 1992, though, he was back at left guard. The offensive line that also included Stepnoski, John Gesek, Erik Williams, and Mark Tuinei helped running back Emmitt Smith win a rushing title and led the Cowboys to a 13-3 regular season record.
Dallas went on to throttle Buffalo 52-17 in Super Bowl XXVII to cap off the season.
“It is unbelievable,” Newton said that night in Pasadena. “I am so filled with joy, I can’t even express it. If I could explode, I would. But I can’t, because my insurance ain’t paid up.”
Good thing, too. Newton would play in his first Pro Bowl a week later.
It was the first of five consecutive Pro Bowl berths for Newton, who had become a genuine celebrity in his own right. This is, after all, the player who John Madden once accused of polishing off a Snickers bar on the field in the middle of a live play.
“I was like, ‘Did a damn candy bar just fly from Nate’s body or am I imagining things?'”defensive back Larry Brown recalled.
Stepnoski remembers training camp fast-food runs made on Newton’s behalf.
“Whoever was hungry would take some pieces,” Stepnoski added. “Then Nate would eat the last fifteen or twenty pieces himself.”
Gesek would say later, “Quite frankly, the reason I think Nate went to six Pro Bowls was because his weight was such a joke it got him attention.”
15 Sep 1996: Offensive lineman Nate Newton of the Dallas Cowboys celebrates during a game against the Indianapolis Colts at Texas Stadium in Irving,Texas. The Colts won the game, 25-24. Mandatory Credit: Brian Bahr /Allsport
But Newton was so much more than a punch line. The only Cowboys offensive linemen with more Pro Bowls to their credit are Hall of Famer Larry Allen (10), Tyron Smith (8), and Zack Martin (7). Newton’s six ties him with John Niland and Hall of Famer Rayfield Wright.
“I don’t see myself as some great player,” Newton said last weekend. “I see myself as a good guy and someone you can depend on. Things just keep happening for the good.”
After 13 seasons with the Cowboys, Newton went on to a backup role in Carolina, but his playing career ended with a torn triceps tendon in just his seventh game with the Panthers.
Newton got into some trouble after leaving football, getting arrested twice with large quantities of marijuana in his possession and serving 30 months in federal prison for drug trafficking as a result.
Since then, though, he has become a motivational speaker for student-athletes around the country. He has continued to be a part of the Cowboys’ extended family, working for the team’s media department and website, as well as doing appearances at alumni events.
And now his football life has taken him to the Black College Football Hall of of Fame, alongside HBCU legends such as Walter Payton, Jerry Rice, and Doug Williams. Fellow Cowboys Bob Hayes, Thomas “Hollywood” Henderson, Ed “Too Tall” Jones, Timmy Newsome, Jethro Pugh, Everson Walls, Rayfield Wright, and Erik Williams are there, too.
“I’m living life,” Newton summed up afterward. “I am a Dallas Cowboy. That is where it began and ended for me.”
