South Carolina State head to Miami after 87-point win, face Florida A&M

Heading into the Orange Blossom Classic, Chennis Berry and South Carolina State are the talk of the football world. The Bulldogs started their season in Week 0 with a dominant and historic 87-point win over Berry’s alma mater, Savannah State. The win drew the attention and respect of many in the sports world, culminating in an interview on fellow Savannah State alumnus Shannon Sharpe’s Nightcap Live podcast.

Now Berry gears up to face a familiar foe that now has a familiar face as their head coach: Florida A&M. Berry’s first game as the head coach of South Carolina State in 2024 was against Florida A&M, then led by James Colzie. Despite an impressive outing by the Bulldogs in that week one matchup, Florida A&M went on to win 22-18. Berry and the new-look Bulldogs look to change the paradigm.

A matchup of programs on two different tracks

This is the type of game that you really want to see, but should never get the chance to see. When Chennis Berry first came to South Carolina State I wanted to see Willie Simmons versus Chennis Berry. They were the two preeminent coaches in HBCU football. I wanted to see the clash of styles between Willie Simmons’ high-octane, explosive offense and the stout, physical defenses that Berry’s teams typically deploy.

But with Florida A&M being Division 1 and typically playing Division II schools, I knew it likely would never happen. Then, when Berry became the coach of South Carolina State, I was once again excited at the possibility of seeing their matchup, but Simmons left to become an assistant coach at Duke University under Manny Diaz. But now we have another coaching matchup we got to see in the SIAC, which becomes all the more interesting given how last year went.

Albany State under Quinn Gray was dominant, making it all the way to the regional final of the NCAA Division Playoffs. Meanwhile, South Carolina State finally broke through and won their first Celebration Bowl in the Chennis Berry era and their second since the game was established in 2015. Now we get to see a semblance of the two coaches on equal footing in terms of resources. Now they play in a high-stakes game that could very well be a preview of the immediate future of HBC football in a potential celebration ball matchup beyond this season.

Two coaches with strikingly parallel career arcs, yet very different journeys to get there, will be on opposite sidelines for this one. Start with Chennis Berry, who has quickly become one of the standard-bearers of HBCU football. His first season at Benedict College in 2021 ended at five-and-five, but from there he won back-to-back SIAC Championships and earned the top seed in Super Region II en route to two Division II playoff appearances.

From Benedict, Berry took over at South Carolina State, stepping into a program built by the legendary Buddy Pough. He didn’t miss a beat: two consecutive MEAC Championships, two Celebration Bowl appearances, and finally, last December, the HBCU National Championship that had eluded him. Through all of it, he’s gone four straight seasons without losing a conference game.

Quinn Gray is hoping to follow that exact blueprint now that he’s back home at Florida A&M. And given his history with Berry, going back to the one season they overlapped in the SIAC, there’s no better way to open his tenure than with a win over him. Benedict College emerged victorious over Albany State in Quinn Gray’s first season in a resounding 47-10 victory. The game was uncharacteristic of a Quinn Gray offense, as the Rams only had 59 passing yards and no passing touchdowns. Isaiah Knowles played in that game, going 4-for-8 passing but only throwing for 20 yards. Now, in this quasi rematch, Gray can showcase how he’s grown as a coach and the power of his new team.

The matchup will surely be a clash of styles. Gray runs a heavy offensive attack built on moving the ball quickly through a passing game. Knowles has grown since the disappointing loss in the 2023 SIAC championship. He’s emerged as one of the best quarterbacks in HBCU football and has become adept at reading defenses and eluding pressure to make the right plays to continue drives.

Meanwhile, Chennis Berry has succeeded with his team’s aggressive defensive posture: getting after the quarterback, disrupting the flow of the offense, and controlling the tempo of the game. That was evident in South Carolina State’s dominant victory over Savannah State, in which they held the Tigers to 42 yards passing with one interception and 75 yards rushing on only 1.9 yards per attempt. While many can write off that performance as against a weaker Division II foe, Berry’s teams have consistently done this against other Division I opponents.

Many wonder whether South Carolina State can duplicate their success from last Saturday, but that shouldn’t be the question. We’ve seen them do it. The broader question is: can South Carolina State’s defense stump Gray’s pass-heavy offensive attack and duplicate the success that Albany State had in the pass rush against the Rattlers last Saturday, as Knowles was sacked three times in the game?

My prediction: South Carolina State will win this game, and likely by a lot. While Isaiah Knowles will be up to the task of navigating the Bulldogs’ aggressive defensive front, South Carolina State will force Florida A&M to play with the cards they’re dealt. In those games, South Carolina State tends to win.

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