Defending Celebration Bowl Champs South Carolina State Opens Title Defense Against Savannah State

South Carolina State opens defense of its HBCU national championship Saturday, hosting Savannah State at Oliver C. Dawson Stadium on Willie E. Jeffries Field. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m., with the game airing on ESPN+.

The Bulldogs arrive off one of the more dramatic finishes in recent HBCU football history. South Carolina State went 10-3 overall and a perfect 5-0 in MEAC play in 2025, closing the year with eight straight wins, and capped the run with a 40-38 four-overtime victory over Prairie View A&M in the Cricket Celebration Bowl at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. The Bulldogs trailed 21-0 before completing what the program has called one of the biggest comebacks in the game’s history, with quarterback Ryan Stubblefield coming off the bench to throw for 234 yards and two touchdowns and add a rushing score, earning offensive MVP honors.

South Carolina State enters 2026 ranked No. 24 nationally under head coach Chennis Berry, who is 19-6 in three seasons at SC State (10-0 against MEAC opponents) and 46-13 overall in his sixth season as a head coach. The Bulldogs bring back a group that helped an offense average 415.9 yards per game a year ago and a defense that produced 31 sacks, and five Bulldogs made the Boxtorow 2026 HBCU Preseason All-America team: running back Tyler Smith, center James Reddick II, defensive tackles Joshua Barker and Ka’Von Chisolm, and linebacker Jordan Franklin, who also picked up preseason MEAC Defensive Player of the Year honors. Wide receiver Darius Thompson, offensive linemen Moses Umoren and Kiande Marsh, defensive lineman Jordan Dollard, linebacker Roderick Kelly, running back Josh Shaw and defensive backs Sharmari Reed and Kwantre Harry round out the Bulldogs’ preseason All-MEAC picks.

Savannah State, meanwhile, begins a new era under first-year head coach Thomas Howard after going 4-6 overall and 3-5 in the SIAC in 2025. The record undersold how competitive the Tigers were: they beat Miles 45-19, Allen 23-20 and Morehouse 24-16, and lost three one-score games, 7-0 to Fort Valley State, 21-18 to Albany State and 16-13 to Benedict. Howard inherits a defense that finished 2025 ranked nationally among NCAA Division II teams, fourth in total defense, fifth against the run, seventh in tackles for loss, ninth in sacks and 10th in red zone defense. “Offensively, we have to do a great job of giving them a lot of looks and making them uncomfortable,” Howard said of Saturday’s opener. “We have to play to our strengths. South Carolina State is big and physical up front, so we have to match their physicality. Defensively, we have to take the ball away and stop the run. We need to win the kicking game.”

Howard has a genuine quarterback competition on his hands and has said he will wait until game day to name a starter among returning signal-callers Christian Burks, Fabian Walker, Rashawn Truell, and Paul Hammond, with true freshman Cayden Benson also in the mix. Arkansas transfer Rodney Hill bolsters the running game, while wide receiver Cinsere Clark, who led the Tigers with 50 catches for 641 yards and four touchdowns in 2025, headlines a receiving group that also includes Valparaiso transfer Carter Payne, freshman Camron Jones and tight end Kevin Cobbs, a transfer from Erskine. Junior Kahleem Murphy leads an experienced offensive line, and the defensive front will rely early on Georgia Military transfer Davion Foster, with linebackers Trevor Strowbridge, Reico Collins and Cameron Leonard needing to grow up fast. Leonard’s path to Savannah State has a personal thread for Howard: the coach once coached Leonard’s father, Calvin, at Allen University before that program shut down, and Calvin went on to lead Savannah State in tackles in 2008 after transferring in. Veteran Emari Napper anchors the secondary, and newcomers Joshua Woodley and Chase Butler will handle placekicking and punting duties, with Jacob Landreth as the backup at both.

The two programs know each other well. Howard was South Carolina State’s defensive coordinator and linebackers coach in 2019 and 2020, and his wife, Kimberly, along with his parents, is an SC State graduate. Berry has his own ties across the field, having been an All-SIAC offensive tackle at Savannah State in 1994. The crossover runs back further still: William “Bill” Davis served as head coach at both schools, leading Savannah State from 1986 to 1992 and again in 2000 and 2001, and South Carolina State from 1979 to 1985; Daryl “Brick” McNeill was an assistant at South Carolina State from 1984 to 1987 before moving to Savannah State and eventually becoming the Tigers’ head coach in 1997 and 1998; and Robby Wells was South Carolina State’s defensive coordinator from 2002 to 2005 before taking over as Savannah State’s head coach in 2008 and 2009.

The series itself dates to 1915, and South Carolina State holds a 20-2 all-time edge. Saturday marks the second consecutive season the teams have met in Orangeburg, and last year’s meeting went the Bulldogs’ way in a big way: South Carolina State won 49-6, outgaining Savannah State 414-206 in total offense while passing for 368 yards and five touchdowns and limiting the Tigers to 41 rushing yards, with a 91-yard interception return for a touchdown by Charles Arnold Jr. among two takeaways. Savannah State actually struck first on a 41-yard field goal from Jimmy Tran, but South Carolina State answered with 21 unanswered points to take a 21-3 halftime lead and pulled away with 28 more in the second half. The Tigers’ defense held its own that day, limiting the Bulldogs to 46 rushing yards, forcing two fumbles and sacking the quarterback twice, with Ameer Phillips finishing with three tackles, 1.5 for loss, a sack and a forced fumble.

Saturday will also be a homecoming of sorts for five Savannah State players who grew up in South Carolina: defensive back Jeffrey Jefferson of Summerville, tight end Kevin Cobbs of Ridgeville, offensive lineman Dakarai Sumter of Hopkins, offensive lineman Jonathan Orr of Hardeeville and defensive lineman Michael Bennett of Cross. There’s history in the family trees, too: NFL Hall of Fame linebacker Harry Carson played at South Carolina State and led the Bulldogs in sacks in 1975 with 17, and his son, Donald, was a two-sport athlete at Savannah State who led the Tigers in sacks 30 years later, in 2005, with 9.5.

Saturday also doubles as Hall of Fame Day and Faculty and Staff Appreciation Day at Oliver C. Dawson Stadium, with SC State calling for a White Out. It is the first of seven scheduled national television appearances for the Bulldogs this season; South Carolina State’s next stop is the Orange Blossom Classic against Florida A&M on Sunday, Sept. 6, in Miami Gardens, Fla., which will air on ESPN.