Johnson C. Smith (JCSU) football has returned to its winning ways. Now Fayetteville State will help determine whether the defending CIAA champion has truly found itself.
The Golden Bulls enter Saturday’s Eddie McGirt Classic riding a two-game winning streak over Albany State and Winston-Salem State. Those wins have steadied JCSU after a difficult season opener, but head coach Maurice Flowers believes his rebuilt roster is still learning what championship football looks like.
“We’re still developing our identity,” Flowers said during his weekly press conference. “But the thing that we do know is we don’t have to look very far to find our identity.”
That search reaches an important checkpoint against Fayetteville State.
Both programs enter the matchup 2-1 overall and 1-0 in CIAA play. The winner will reach the bye week at 3-1, remain unbeaten in the conference, and carry early control of its championship pursuit into the middle of the season.
For JCSU, the result could also reveal how much progress has been made since a 32-10 loss to Benedict exposed the challenges of replacing a historic senior class.
JCSU football had to return to square one
The Golden Bulls entered the season as defending champions, but this is not the same team that ended JCSU’s 56-year CIAA championship drought in 2025.
More than 30 seniors departed from that roster. Flowers and his staff brought in approximately 60 new players, including nearly 40 freshmen. The defense entered the season with 10 new starters, while only six seniors remain on the entire team.
Flowers admitted that the impact of those changes became impossible to ignore during the season opener.
“After that first game, I really felt 30-plus seniors gone,” Flowers said. “It was not business as usual. We’re back to doing things that we did in year one and year two. It’s just a whole lot more teaching.”
The championship team had become largely player-led. Its veterans understood how JCSU traveled, practiced, watched film and responded to adversity without the coaching staff needing to explain every detail.
This group possesses talent, but Flowers said that talent must be bound together by chemistry, discipline, and a shared understanding of the program’s standards.
JCSU has added smaller classification meetings to reinforce its core values. Coaches are teaching more during practices, on the sideline and inside the film room. Even basic details that had become automatic for the previous roster are being introduced again.
The process has forced Flowers to return to what he called “square one.”
It has also produced visible progress.
Golden Bulls defense responds with dominant stretch
After surrendering 32 points to Benedict, JCSU allowed only 13 combined points in its next two games.
The Golden Bulls defeated Albany State 27-7 in the Black College Football Hall of Fame Classic before opening conference play with a 31-6 victory over Winston-Salem State.
JCSU held WSSU to 191 total yards and did not allow an offensive touchdown until late in the fourth quarter. Jamaris Stevens delivered one of the game’s defining plays by returning a one-handed interception for a 57-yard touchdown.
Flowers credited the turnaround to fundamentals rather than any major schematic overhaul.
“Let’s get in the right stance,” Flowers said. “Let’s make sure our eyes are in the right spot. And after our eyes are in the right spot, now let’s take the first step correctly.”
The staff used film from the Benedict loss alongside successful clips from the previous three seasons to show players the difference between almost executing an assignment and playing what Flowers calls “Golden Bulls football.”
The defense is now swarming to the ball and creating turnovers. Its growth has allowed JCSU to play more complementary football while an evolving offense leans heavily on its running game.
Fabian Duncan has emerged as one of Division II football’s most productive running backs, with Kammarro Edmonds adding another physical option. Damien Mazil has kept the offense efficient since stepping in for an injured Parker McQuarrie before the Albany State game.
Flowers said McQuarrie will continue to play, but Mazil has earned the opportunity to maintain the offense’s current rhythm.
“Damien’s got us in a little groove right now,” Flowers said. “We know that we have two starting quarterbacks, and when you have two starting quarterbacks, I think you have to play them both.”
Still, the victory at Winston-Salem revealed areas JCSU football must correct.
The Golden Bulls approached 300 yards of offense during the first half but produced only 10 points. Two penalties extended WSSU’s lone touchdown drive after JCSU had opportunities to get off the field.
Those missed opportunities separate a growing team from the championship standard Flowers wants it to reach.
Fayetteville State brings a familiar championship test
Fayetteville State is uniquely equipped to test that progress.
The Broncos became one of the CIAA’s most consistent programs by reaching the conference championship game in seven consecutive seasons from 2017 through 2023. They also hold a 29-18-2 advantage in their all-time series with JCSU.
Recent meetings have produced some of the most consequential moments of the Brick x Brick era.
In 2024, JCSU entered its home matchup against Fayetteville State with an 8-0 record and the highest national ranking in program history. The Broncos left Charlotte with a stunning 27-0 victory.
“The last time Fayetteville State was here, they beat us 27 to zero,” Flowers said. “We were 8-0 at the time and number 12 or 13 in the country. We know that we’re going to play a very, very tough team.”
One year later, the Golden Bulls traveled to Fayetteville for a dramatic regular-season finale. JCSU escaped with a 17-14 victory after an emotional late drive, keeping its championship season alive.
This time, the rivalry arrives in Week 4 rather than in November.
The early placement does not reduce its importance. It turns Fayetteville State into the final examination of a punishing opening stretch that has included Benedict, Albany State, Winston-Salem State and the Broncos.
Benedict reached the Division II playoffs last season. Albany State advanced to the third round. WSSU remains one of JCSU football’s most recognizable rivals, while Fayetteville State has spent most of the past decade around the top of the CIAA.
Flowers believes that level of opposition was necessary for a program attempting to defend a championship.
“If you start a season and start trying to ease into it, I don’t believe—with what we’ve done in this program—I don’t believe it helps you,” Flowers said. “The standard hasn’t changed. No matter who we play, the standard of what we call Johnson C. Smith University football, Golden Bulls football, is very high.”
A championship identity hangs in the balance
Saturday will also mark JCSU’s first home game of the season.
The Golden Bulls opened with road trips to Benedict and WSSU, with a neutral-site appearance in Canton, Ohio, between them. They will finally return to the Irwin Belk Complex for the Eddie McGirt Classic and Hall of Fame Weekend.
The home crowd will see a team that is already noticeably different from the one that left Charlotte after Week 1.
But Flowers is not presenting two consecutive wins as proof that the process is complete.
The 2025 Golden Bulls knew how to finish teams. They repeatedly scored 30 or 40 points, capitalized on mistakes, and rarely allowed opponents to regain control once a game began tilting in JCSU’s direction.
Flowers said the current team is still learning how to deliver that kind of performance.
“The ’25 team would step on you and not let you up,” he said. “This team right here is still learning to put people away.”
That is what makes Fayetteville State more than another early conference game.
A victory would send JCSU into its bye at 3-1 and 2-0 in the CIAA after three consecutive wins over tough programs. The defending champions would have survived their opening gauntlet while keeping a firm hand on the conference crown.
A loss would leave the Golden Bulls 2-2—talented, dangerous, and improved, but still searching for the complete identity Flowers knows they will need.
Four games into the season, JCSU will finally get an opportunity to breathe with its bye week.
Before it does, Fayetteville State will show whether the Golden Bulls are merely finding their way—or whether the defending champions are still frontrunners for the CIAA crown.