FCS HBCU Football Week 0 Recap: SC State’s Rout, Jackson State Survives, Howard Wins It Late

Three results stood out from a two-day, fourteen-game HBCU Week 0 slate that ran from Thursday night in Dover, Delaware, through a marquee Saturday: South Carolina State’s title defense opened with an 87-0 rout of Savannah State, Jackson State needed everything it had, including four field goals, to hold off Tennessee State in the John A. Merritt Classic, and Howard beat Alabama A&M on a touchdown with less than three minutes left on ABC. Those three are below, followed by the rest of the results in the order they were played.

South Carolina State 87, Savannah State 0

South Carolina State opened defense of its HBCU national championship about as emphatically as possible, piling up 627 total yards on 70 plays and 32 first downs against Savannah State’s 6. The Bulldogs scored on all eleven of their trips into Savannah State territory, ten of them touchdowns, and did it with two quarterbacks: Keely Watson went 8 of 12 for 95 yards and three touchdowns, and Ronnie Robinson added 96 yards and a touchdown through the air to go with a rushing score of his own. Josh Shaw scored three times on just nine carries, and Mason Pickett-Hicks contributed to the rout both ways, rushing for 95 yards and a touchdown and catching four passes for another 29 yards and a score.

Savannah State’s first-year coach Thomas Howard had said all week his team would need to win the turnover and kicking battles against the bigger, more physical Bulldogs. Instead, his offense managed just 117 total yards on a night when the Tigers’ still-unresolved quarterback competition between Christian Burks and Fabian Walker produced 7-of-18 passing for 42 yards, and Savannah State converted only 3 of 15 third downs. Chennis Berry’s Bulldogs, ranked No. 24 nationally entering the season, sent an early message to the rest of the MEAC.

Jackson State 26, Tennessee State 24

The John A. Merritt Classic lived up to its billing in its first playing at Nashville’s FirstBank Stadium, and it was the only game across the entire Week 0 slate decided by fewer than seven points. Jackson State needed all four of Amare Ivanicuc’s made field goals, including a 51-yarder, to escape with the two-point win after he missed a fifth attempt. Sophomore quarterback Jared Lockhart, coming off a co-Freshman of the Year season, threw for 222 yards and an 88-yard touchdown to Jonathan Jones, and Naeshaun Blount IV carried 15 times for 101 yards to help control the clock against a Tennessee State defense that had given Barlow’s program real hope a year ago.

Tennessee State would not go away. Winston-Salem State transfer Daylin Lee, making his Tigers debut, threw 41 times for 265 yards and ran for a touchdown, and Jaden Guy caught nine passes for 148 yards, but Tennessee State could not find one more possession to complete the upset. Jackson State, the preseason SWAC East runner-up to Alabama State, needed every one of its field goals to hold on in a game that lived up to the history of John A. Merritt in the city where he built Tennessee State into a power after leaving Jackson State in 1963.

Howard 31, Alabama A&M 24

Ted White won his head-coaching debut in dramatic fashion on ABC. Alabama A&M kicker David Faulk, the Preseason HBCU Boxtorow All-American the preview flagged, put the Bulldogs ahead 24-23 with a fourth-quarter field goal, and the lead held for barely five minutes before Howard answered. Ja’Shawn Scroggins capped a six-play, 83-yard drive with a 51-yard touchdown pass to Se’Quan Osborne with 2:41 remaining, and Nathanial Clark’s two-point conversion catch made it 31-24 at the Cricket MEAC/SWAC Challenge in Atlanta. Scroggins settled the Bison’s open quarterback competition with his performance, finishing 19 of 36 for 315 yards and three touchdowns, and placekicker Matt Conord, the Preseason All-MEAC honoree the preview singled out, made all three of his field-goal attempts.

Alabama A&M did not go away easily in Sam Shade’s second season. Graduate quarterback Cornelius Brown IV threw for 254 yards and two touchdowns and ran for a third, and the Bulldogs held a fourth-quarter lead before Osborne’s touchdown catch settled it. Howard made all three of its field-goal tries, forced an interception and improved to 1-0 in a game that opened the 20th playing of the MEAC/SWAC Challenge.

Delaware State 41, Stony Brook 34

Delaware State opened DeSean Jackson’s second season with a shootout win in front of a “Welcome Back” White Out crowd at Alumni Stadium, holding off a Stony Brook rally that briefly tied the game in the fourth quarter. Senior Ui Ale, the projected starter on Delaware State’s fall camp depth chart, delivered on that promise, throwing an early 72-yard touchdown to Jaylin Terzado on just Delaware State’s second play from scrimmage and finishing 18 of 29 for 259 yards and a score while adding 82 rushing yards and a touchdown of his own on 8 carries. Samari Collier (59-yard touchdown run) and Jayden Jenkins also found the end zone on the ground as Delaware State built a 24-6 lead in the second quarter.

Stony Brook would not go quietly. Redshirt sophomore Quinn Boyd, the CAA Rookie of the Week honoree the preview flagged as the Seawolves’ full-time starter, threw for 284 yards and three touchdowns, capping a comeback with a 9-yard scoring pass to Keiden Gutierrez that tied the game 34-34 with 11:25 left. Delaware State answered for good, using an 11-play, 80-yard, nearly six-minute drive finished off by Sean Weston Jr.’s 16-yard touchdown run with 1:54 remaining to seal the 41-34 win. Delaware State outgained Stony Brook 518-456 in a game where neither defense forced a turnover.

Norfolk State 56, Winston-Salem State 0

Michael Vick got his first win at Norfolk State in emphatic fashion, and it came against Tory Woodbury, the first-year Winston-Salem State coach who spent 2025 as Vick’s assistant head coach. Junior college transfer Deljay Bailey, who won Norfolk State’s quarterback competition in a battle Vick said went to the wire, threw for 119 yards and three touchdowns and added a 20-yard touchdown run, and five different Spartans found the end zone on the ground in a game Norfolk State led 21-0 after one quarter.

Winston-Salem State, playing its first game against Norfolk State since 2009, managed only 106 total yards and turned the ball over three times against a Norfolk State defense that also got a 32-yard interception return touchdown from Caden Rice. The result flips last year’s script for Vick, who went 1-11 with an 0-5 mark in MEAC play in his debut season; Norfolk State’s offense alone outgained Winston-Salem State’s entire team output by more than 350 yards.

Texas Southern 42, N.C. Central 30

Texas Southern rallied from a 24-14 halftime deficit against a North Carolina Central defense that led the FCS in sacks a year ago, scoring 21 unanswered points in the third quarter to take control. Southern transfer Cam’Ron McCoy, playing against North Carolina Central for the second straight year after facing the Eagles in last year’s MEAC/SWAC Challenge, threw for 185 yards and three touchdowns in his Texas Southern debut, connecting with JaQuan McGee for two scores and hitting Roriyon Richardson for a go-ahead 45-yard touchdown. A blocked-punt return touchdown by Jordan Thompson and 163 rushing yards from Athean Renfro, who entered the year chasing a 1,000-yard season, rounded out the Tigers’ attack.

North Carolina Central’s Nelson Layne kept the Eagles in front for most of the first half, throwing for a touchdown and running for two more, including a 60-yard score, while Riley Daniels made three field goals. But North Carolina Central, picked second in the preseason MEAC poll, could not solve Texas Southern’s offense over the final 30 minutes, closing the book on the programs’ first-ever meeting and the Tigers’ first Week 0 game since 2017.

Alabama State 30, Southern 17

Marshall Faulk’s coaching debut ended in a loss, as Alabama State trailed 17-13 at halftime of the inaugural Birmingham Football Classic before scoring 17 unanswered points in the second half at Legion Field. Quarterback Andrew Body threw a 61-yard touchdown pass to R. King, running back Jamarie Hostzclaw scored on the ground, and kicker Andrew Abu-Akel, who hit better than 80 percent of his field-goal attempts a year ago, made all three of his tries, including a 44-yarder, to account for half of Alabama State’s points.

Southern built an early lead behind touchdown runs from M. Franklin and C. Johnson, but the Jaguars’ offense stalled after halftime, managing no points over the final two quarters. Trey Holly, Southern’s leading returning rusher, was held to 38 yards on the ground as Faulk’s first game as a head coach at any level ended with Eddie Robinson Jr.’s Alabama State claiming the first Mayor’s Cup.

Morgan State 17, N.C. A&T 7

North Carolina A&T’s newly named starting quarterback, redshirt freshman Braxton Thomas, opened the scoring with a methodical 17-play, 70-yard touchdown drive that ate up more than nine minutes of the first quarter. It was the only points the Aggies would manage. Morgan State’s Eastern Michigan transfer Cameron Edge found Joseph Towler for a 68-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter to take the lead, and Jordan Barnett iced the game with a 22-yard touchdown run, finishing with 114 yards on just 12 carries.

Morgan State’s defense, which returned nine Preseason All-MEAC selections, held North Carolina A&T to 88 rushing yards and forced the Aggies’ offense into three consecutive scoreless quarters, a step in the right direction for a Morgan State program chasing its first winning season since 2009. It was a rough season debut for second-year A&T coach Shawn Gibbs in front of the home crowd at Truist Stadium, where the Aggies had renewed their series against Morgan State for the first time since 2019.

Tarleton State 49, Prairie View A&M 30

Prairie View A&M’s title defense opened with a loss in the debut of the Chancellor’s Cup, as preseason No. 5 Tarleton State, playing the Panthers for the first time since 1995, built a lead of as many as 26 points behind three touchdown passes from K. Anderson, two of them to M. Willis, and a two-touchdown, 184-yard rushing day from T. Hines that included a 63-yard score in the third quarter.

The final margin undersold how competitive Prairie View A&M actually was. The Panthers outgained Tarleton State 519-505 in total yards and held a slim edge in first downs, 26-25, behind Tevin Carter, who accounted for 439 yards of total offense, 130 yards and a touchdown rushing plus 309 yards and two touchdowns passing, including a 53-yard scoring strike to J. Kuykendall in the fourth quarter. Neither team turned the ball over. The difference came in the red zone, where Tarleton State scored touchdowns on all four of its trips while Prairie View A&M settled for field goals on two of its five, a gap that proved decisive at Memorial Stadium in Stephenville, Texas.

Hampton 45, Virginia-Lynchburg 0

Hampton opened its season with a shutout at Darling Stadium, piling up 476 total yards behind quarterback Jalen Woods, who threw for 191 yards and three touchdowns, and running back Amari Pryear, who broke off a 65-yard run among his 132 yards on just eight carries. The Pirates’ defense also got in on the scoring, with Caden Rice returning an interception 32 yards for a touchdown in the third quarter.

Virginia-Lynchburg managed just 220 total yards and never seriously threatened, unable to find the end zone across four quarters. Hampton scored touchdowns on five of its six red-zone trips and finished with a decisive edge in first downs, 22 to 12, in a lopsided season opener at home.

Arkansas-Pine Bluff 35, Morehouse 15

A pair of big plays carried Arkansas-Pine Bluff to a win despite being outgained in total offense. Quarterback Garrison Davis hit Demetric Whitlock for a 94-yard touchdown on the first play of the second quarter, one of three touchdown catches on the day for Whitlock, and Jalen Williams answered Morehouse’s first touchdown with a 70-yard scoring run of his own on the ensuing possession.

Morehouse actually won most of the underlying numbers, finishing within 10 yards of Arkansas-Pine Bluff’s total offense (376 to 386), holding a 22-17 edge in first downs and controlling the ball for nearly 35 minutes. Quarterback Miles Scott threw for 284 yards without a touchdown and ran for two scores himself, including a two-point conversion pass to Jeremiah Gibson, but Arkansas-Pine Bluff’s ability to strike fast in the passing and running game proved decisive at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.

Florida A&M 20, Albany State 7

Florida A&M needed most of the game to shake a scrappy Albany State team, coming away with a win built on Isaiah Knowles’ 2-yard touchdown pass to Jaquan Lee and a rushing touchdown from Cordale Gillespie. The Rattlers’ offensive line struggled against pressure, allowing seven sacks, but a defense that held Albany State to a net 3 rushing yards for the game did enough to get FAMU to 1-0.

Albany State’s lone touchdown came on a 7-yard catch by E. Sherrod, and the Golden Rams’ defense kept the game within one score into the fourth quarter before Florida A&M pulled away. The result continued a trend of Southwestern Athletic Conference programs needing full games to put away Division II opponents in Week 0.

Grambling 49, Clark Atlanta 7

Grambling State needed 14 seconds to take control, with Tony Phillips Jr. returning the opening kickoff 89 yards for a touchdown, and never let up from there. Phillips added a rushing touchdown of his own, Grambling used two quarterbacks, Reginald Johnson and Jacobe Robinson, to combine for four passing touchdowns, and four different backs found the end zone on the ground in a 487-224 rout in total yards.

Clark Atlanta’s only points came on a 64-yard touchdown pass from Xzavier Jackson to Chry’shawn Sellers in the third quarter, snapping a scoreless stretch that had lasted more than a game and a half. Grambling improved to 1-0 at Eddie G. Robinson Memorial Stadium in a game that was well in hand by halftime.

Alcorn State 56, Miles 7

Alcorn State’s J. Tolbert was nearly unstoppable through the air, completing 25 of 28 passes for 265 yards and five touchdowns spread across five different receivers, with Ebron catching two of them. Alcorn State led comfortably from the opening quarter and cruised to its season-opening win.

Miles College’s only score came on a 61-yard catch-and-run touchdown from B. Vandiver to G. Williams. The Golden Bears managed just 232 total yards against an Alcorn State defense that also forced two turnovers, closing out a Week 0 slate in which HBCU programs across four conferences and two divisions opened the 2026 season.