The road to success in HBCU football is paved with the milestones of challenges overcome. Great teams spend years accumulating a collection of smaller victories that they hope will ultimately lead to the big one. For the Johnson C. Smith University (JCSU) football program, year three under head coach Maurice Flowers has started with two milestone victories over schools from fellow Division II HBCU conference, the SIAC, beating Tuskegee and Morehouse in the first two weeks of the year.
JCSU football hit the road in Week 0 for a neutral site matchup with Tuskegee University in the Red Tails Classic, gutting out a hard-fought 21-13 win that proved they can take down a good team in a big game. The challenge for the Golden Bulls in week 1, was to show they can be dominant on the road. JCSU football packed up the busses in Charlotte, North Carolina, and headed south to Atlanta, Georgia to take on Morehouse College, a team in a similar position to where Smith was three years ago, rebuilding from scratch with a first-year head coach. And while JCSU’s seven wins in 2023 were more than the school had won in a decade, they were still in search of a dominant signature win on the road that shows the HBCU football world that not only can Smith win, but that Smith can win big.
The first half in Atlanta saw the scrappy Morehouse Tigers sticking close to the Golden Bulls on the scoreboard, countering an 8-yard touchdown pass from Darius Ocean to Brevin Caldwell with a 75-yard passing TD from Patrick Blake to Ajani Williams on the first play of the very next drive to tie the game at 7 in the first quarter. The rest of the half was also played tight until Darius Ocean found Brevin Caldwell in the endzone a second time for a 27-yard score with two minutes left in the half, giving JCSU a 14-7 lead going into halftime.
HBCU Gameday was in Atlanta filming with JCSU football for its HBCU Hard Knocks docuseries Brick x Brick and caught impassioned halftime speeches from not only head coach Maurice Flowers but Sophomore defensive lineman Ari Rodriguez, who gave a similar speech at halftime last season on the road against Fayetteville State that aired in episode three of season one of Brick x Brick.
However, the difference between this year and last, was how JCSU responded on the field in the second half.
The defense made its presence known early in the third quarter with a 38 yard pick six from Shamar Baker, and being in Atlanta the weekend after the passing of Rich Homie Quan, it was only right he ‘hit the Quan’ after scoring, the signature dance of the fallen hip-hop star.
Later in the quarter, Darius Ocean hit Brevin Caldwell for a third touchdown pass. Caldwell, an all-CIAA wideout followed up a 7 catch, 90 yard, two TD performance at the Red Tails Classic with a 9 catch, 140 yard, three TD performance against Morehouse, and is one of the best receivers in DII football after two weeks, leading the NCAA in touchdown catches while being tied for fifth in the nation in receiving yards.
East Carolina University transfer Kamarro Edmonds diced his way to a second solid performance of the year. A dynamic 40-yard run to set up a two-yard score for Edmonds and gave Smith a 34-7 lead early in the fourth quarter.
The attendance at B.T. Harvey Stadium was listed at 2725 and it felt like most of them came from Charlotte to support the Golden Bulls on the road. By the time the clock hit zero, JCSU President Valerie Kinloch was dancing to the band with the rest of the JCSU faithful celebrating the 37-13 win over Morehouse. Giving head coach Maurice Flowers and his team a dominant signature win on the road, as Johnson C Smith continues to build itself into a winning program.
Watch the postgame interviews with coach Flowers and Brevin Caldwell and stay tuned for the next episode of Brick x Brick SzN II with JCSU football. The first two episodes are out now on the HBCUGameday.com homepage and the HBCU Gameday app.