As Virginia Union celebrated, Maurice Flowers took the Golden Bulls into the locker room. Only one camera was allowed to record what he told them about the loss and the history they could still make.
DURHAM, N.C. — While Virginia Union celebrated a CIAA championship on the field, Maurice Flowers took his team inside. The Johnson C. Smith (JCSU) football head coach usually gathers the Golden Bulls on the field for his postgame talk.
After Saturday’s 15–14 loss at Durham County Memorial Stadium, he took the team back to the locker room, then asked his players to stand up and move closer.
The only camera allowed to record what came next belonged to Brick x Brick with JCSU Football, HBCU Gameday’s all-access docuseries.
Flowers gave the Golden Bulls room to feel the loss. Then he asked them to think about their own mistakes before pointing to anyone else’s. By the time they broke the huddle, he had given them something to play for, too. If JCSU gets the NCAA Division II playoff bid he expects, the Golden Bulls can still win the first playoff game in program history.
Later, at the postgame press conference, Flowers put the lesson from the one-point loss in terms that stretched from the first quarter to JCSU’s final drive.
“Every play is the big play,” Flowers said.
The chances JCSU left on the field
Quarterback Damien Mazil opened the scoring on a four-yard run.
Virginia Union answered with three Gage Miller field goals before Fabian Duncan’s one-yard touchdown with 18 seconds left in the half gave JCSU a 14–9 lead. The Golden Bulls carried that lead into the fourth quarter, but missed a 36-yard field goal with 14:07 left.
Ninety seconds later, Ramon Brown broke free for a 69-yard touchdown. Virginia Union’s two-point attempt failed, leaving JCSU down 15–14.
Duncan finished with 232 yards on 33 carries. The Golden Bulls outgained Virginia Union 347–261, but committed three turnovers, drew seven penalties, and came away empty on two of their four red-zone trips.
Down a point on its final drive, JCSU went for it on fourth and short. Asked afterward if he would second-guess passing up a field goal attempt, Flowers answered immediately.
“Not at all. Not at all. Won’t second-guess it at all,” he said.
Flowers said he weighed the earlier miss and went with the experience of Mazil, his graduate quarterback, and Brian Lane, his first-team All-CIAA receiver.
Asked what lesson he would take from the loss, Flowers went back to the first quarter. A penalty wiped out a first-down catch and left JCSU facing third-and-15. He pointed to drops, a missed assignment on Brown’s touchdown run and kicks that reached the Panthers’ top returner despite a plan to keep the ball away from him.
“We just picked the wrong time to just make a bunch of mistakes,” Flowers said.
Inside the locker room, Flowers had also brought up the turnovers and the chances JCSU still had to put the game away. He asked the players to look at what each of them could fix before they took the field again.
The history JCSU can still make
A year ago, the Brick x Brick cameras followed JCSU through a 45–21 win over Virginia Union that ended a CIAA title drought dating to 1969. On the Monday before this rematch, Flowers showed this year’s team footage from that championship and asked them to watch how the sideline responded even when plays went against them.
The locker-room speech our camera captured Saturday will be a gut-wrenching reminder of how hard it is to win back-to-back championships.
Last year’s Golden Bulls hosted Frostburg State in the program’s first NCAA Division II playoff game and lost 21–7. Flowers expects a second straight bid and a first-round road game this time. JCSU will learn its fate when the NCAA announces the field Sunday, Nov. 15, at 6 p.m. ET.
“The mistakes that were made tonight can’t go with us next week,” Flowers said at the podium. He pointed to how the Golden Bulls had responded to losses before. This season, they followed the Bowie State setback by beating Virginia State in overtime and Livingstone in the Commemorative Classic to earn their way back to Durham.
Duncan, sitting beside Flowers at the presser, said he was grateful to play for a championship. His plan after the loss was to have “short-term memory loss” and get ready for the next week.
Back in the locker room, Flowers told his players he was proud of how they fought. Then he brought them in for the same team call they had used all season. In Durham, with the trophy going home with Virginia Union and the playoff bracket still a day away, they broke the huddle on “Still not done.”
Watch last year’s title run in Not Done Yet, the two-part Season 4 championship event from Brick x Brick with JCSU Football, streaming free on Tubi.