Howard Takes On Alabama A&M in Nationally Televised MEAC/SWAC Challenge

Howard and Alabama A&M open their season in Atlanta tonight! The Bison and Bulldogs will face off in the Cricket MEAC/SWAC Challenge at Center Parc Stadium in Atlanta. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. Eastern (6:30 p.m. Central), with the game airing nationally on ABC.

It is a rare meeting between these two programs. Howard and Alabama A&M have played only once before, and it has been 34 years: Howard won 28-7 in Huntsville, Ala., in 1992, a game started by Bison quarterback Jay “Sky” Walker, who picked up the first win of what became a Hall of Fame career. Walker now works on the broadcast side, serving as a color commentator alongside play-by-play voice Tiffany Greene for Saturday’s game. The matchup is also the 20th edition of the MEAC/SWAC Challenge, an event launched in 2005 at Legion Field in Birmingham, Ala. The MEAC holds a 12-7 all-time edge in the series, though the SWAC has won three of the last four meetings. Howard is making its second appearance in the event, having fallen 23-13 to Alabama State in 2022, while Alabama A&M is also playing in it for the second time, having dropped the 2014 edition 47-13 to North Carolina A&T in Orlando, Fla.

Howard enters the opener under new head coach Ted White, a Howard alumnus taking over the program for the first time after the Bison went 5-7 (2-3 MEAC) in 2025. “For us to win this game, we’ve got to be consistent in our preparation,” White said. “Offensively, we got to take care of the football. Defensively, we must force turnovers and play our best brand of football. We must be disciplined, play smart, and just give ourselves an opportunity to win the game.” White has personal history with the setting, too: he played in the 1996 Heritage Bowl, the game now known as the Celebration Bowl, in Atlanta, and he coached in the 2018 SWAC/MEAC Kickoff Classic at Prairie View. He also arrives with some familiarity with Howard’s roster from a previous stint as quarterbacks coach at Maryland, when his path crossed with the program before he took the head job.

White opened fall camp without naming a starting quarterback, and the competition is still unresolved with kickoff days away. Isaiah Friedman, Ja’Shawn Scroggins and TJ Russell are all in the mix, with a decision expected closer to game time. Whoever wins the job hands off to running back Eden James, who ran for 422 yards and three touchdowns on 97 carries and added 23 catches for 146 yards in 2024, while Scroggins brings starting experience of his own after completing 123 of 231 passes for 1,262 yards and nine touchdowns that season. Cincinnati transfer Antonio Hunter adds another weapon on offense. On defense, the Bison are led by senior defensive back Kedrick Green, a Preseason All-MEAC First Team selection out of Winston-Salem, N.C., who is also on the watch lists for the Aeneas Williams Preseason Award and the Deacon Jones Black College Player of the Year Award, along with linebacker Ishaun Abdul-Ali, who logged 29 total tackles in 2024. Howard’s specialists carry plenty of hardware into the season too: placekicker Matt Conord, a Preseason All-MEAC Second Team pick who made 7 of 13 field goals and hit the game-winner against Florida A&M, and punter Liam Allen IV, who averaged nearly 41 yards per kick with nine punts of 50-plus yards and nine pinned inside the 20 and enters the year on the FCS Preseason Punter of the Year Watch List. On the other side of the ball, White has already zeroed in on Alabama A&M’s own quarterback as the game’s biggest challenge, pointing to graduate Cornelius “Quad” Brown IV’s arm strength and knack for making plays once a called play breaks down.

Alabama A&M, meanwhile, is looking to build on the finish to Sam Shade’s first season on the Hill. The Bulldogs went 4-8 overall and 1-7 in the SWAC in 2025, Shade’s first year after arriving with a 43-29 overall coaching record built at Pinson Valley High School and Miles College. Shade has likened this offseason to his second year at Miles College, when a full recruiting cycle and improved team cohesion helped that program take a step forward, and he is hoping for a similar jump at Alabama A&M. Part of the difference is the transfer portal: Shade was not hired until mid-January last year, after the early portal window had already closed, which limited his first signing class. With a full offseason to work this time, the Bulldogs brought in 14 FBS transfers, targeting linebacker, offensive line and wide receiver. Shade, an Alabama alumnus who won a national championship with the Crimson Tide in 1992 and spent eight seasons in the NFL with the Cincinnati Bengals and Washington Redskins, has been impressed by his counterpart across the field. “Coach White was a great hire,” Shade said. “With him being an alum and his track record, he is a really good coach and football mind.”

Graduate quarterback Cornelius Brown IV, who is on the Stats Perform HBCU National Player of the Year Award Watch List, is slated to start for the Bulldogs behind a deep quarterback room that includes former Arkansas-Pine Bluff starter Mekhi Hagens and Penn State transfer Bekeem Kritza. Alabama A&M also returns three All-SWAC First Team performers in sophomore defensive lineman Arenza Davis, redshirt senior linebacker Wyatt Wright, who made this year’s Deacon Jones Player of the Year Watch List, and sophomore placekicker David Faulk, a Preseason HBCU Boxtorow All-American. Sophomore wide receiver Jordan Chambers-Smith gives the Bulldogs a playmaker in the passing game as well, and he has a good story behind him: Chambers-Smith walked onto the team as a true freshman in 2022 and earned a scholarship before playing in his first game, then won the punt returner job and now figures to see an expanded role at receiver in 2026.

Both coaches struck a similar note this week about what a game like this means. White and Shade each pointed to the quality of HBCU talent despite fewer resources in facilities and NIL, and both framed Saturday’s prime-time window on ABC as a chance to showcase that talent and represent the MEAC and SWAC on a national stage, all while stressing that the goal extends beyond football to preparing players for life afterward.

There is a family thread running through Howard’s roster, too. Offensive lineman Glen Vinson III, of Upper Marlboro, Md., is the son of former Howard offensive lineman Glen Vinson, and running back Rufus Ferguson II, of Tampa, Fla., is the son of former Howard running back Rhadi Ferguson. Both programs turn the page quickly after Saturday: Howard hosts Richmond in its home opener on Sept. 5 at Green Stadium, and Alabama A&M hosts Miles College the same day.