FAMU, Jackson State players aim to impress NFL scouts during Orange Blossom Classic
Miami Dolphins offensive lineman Terron Armstead and former University of Miami football star Melvin Bratton will be paying close attention to Hard Rock Stadium on Sunday, Sept. 4, when the Florida A&M Rattlers play the Jackson State Tigers in the Orange Blossom Classic, America’s oldest Black college football classic.
Although neither is an alumnus, Armstead and Bratton have a vested interest in the nationally televised matchup, which will shine a spotlight on players who chose to spurn traditional programs to play for a Historically Black College or University (HBCU).
Their hope, and that of HBCU players everywhere, is that high school recruits and NFL scouts will tune into ESPN2 and be impressed.
Armstead, a three-time Pro Bowl selection, is a 10-year NFL veteran and the league’s longest-tenured active player from an HBCU. He became the highest draft pick ever from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff when the New Orleans Saints picked him in the third round of the 2013 NFL Draft. He knows the road to the NFL is longer and harder for HBCU players, knows you need to “jump off the film” for scouts to notice you, so he is delighted to see expanded exposure for those programs.
Despite his athleticism and imposing physique — 6-foot-5 and 305 pounds — Armstead was considered an NFL draft “sleeper” until after his senior college season, when he shined at the East-West Shrine Game and amazed scouts with a 4.71-second 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine, the fastest 40-yard dash time of any offensive lineman since the first combine in 1982.
There are 259 picks in the NFL Draft. Not one came from an HBCU team in 2021. That number increased to four in 2022, and five more HBCU players signed free agent contracts to attend training camps.
“It’s a longer road for HBCU players, and the margin for error is smaller, but it’s possible,” Armstead said. “The key is to get in front of the decision-makers, and getting on TV is monumental. You have to dominate that tape. You’re trying to be seen, so you have to pop off that film. The film doesn’t have any audio, so with your play you have to jump off and make yourself known.”
Bratton agrees. He spent many years as an NFL scout and is now an agent. One of his clients is NFL rookie safety Markquese Bell, who played for FAMU last season, went undrafted and is having such an impressive training camp with the Dallas Cowboys that he is expected to make the 53-man roster. Bratton said the growing TV exposure for HBCU football is a game-changer.
“On a Saturday or Sunday, a lot of NFL executives and scouts who can’t get to those HBCU schools will be sitting in a hotel room somewhere watching an HBCU game, and a kid flashes up,” Bratton said. “As a scout, your eyes are trained. If a kid makes a play, we’ll remember that number, Google the kid and look up his bio to see who he is and make a note to keep an eye on this kid through the season. Then you start doing your homework, due diligence. Having HBCU games on TV is an opportunity for those kids to get exposure. All it takes is one team to fall in love with you.”
Although HBCUs have turned out 30 Pro Football Hall of Famers, including Jerry Rice (Mississippi Valley State), Walter Payton (Jackson State) and Michael Strahan (Texas Southern), top high school recruits and NFL scouts have tended to focus on the traditional powerhouse programs, which have more money, more exposure and play in more competitive conferences.
The knock on HBCU players has been that they play against weaker competition and that their bodies are not always NFL-ready, partly because of lack of training staff and equipment.
“Me being a former NFL scout, I ran five drafts, I can tell you scouts are looking at the level of competition that those kids are playing against,” Bratton said. “If you’re at a smaller HBCU school, you’ve got to dominate for these NFL teams to come in and recognize your talent. Also, those HBCU kids are at a disadvantage because physique-wise they don’t look the part. When the scouts come in, they have to pass the eyeball test, and a lot of them don’t because they don’t have the weight rooms and the meal plans that University of Miami, ACC, SEC schools have, so they’re at a disadvantage.”
When Bratton met Bell, he was 198 pounds. He sent him to Fort Lauderdale for specialized training at XPE Sports with Matt Gates and Tony Villani. Bell got on a healthy diet, put on 15 pounds of muscle, and ran the 40 in 4.4 seconds at the NFL Scouting Combine.
There has been a recent shift in attitudes about HBCU football, thanks in large part to former Florida State University and NFL star Deion Sanders, who was hired as Jackson State’s head coach in September 2020. “Coach Prime,” as he is now known, has brought attention to the inequities, demanded TV networks show HBCU games, and persuaded some of the nation’s highly touted recruits — including his quarterback son Shedeur Sanders — to play for the Tigers.
Jackson State went 4-8 in 2019. Two years later, under Sanders, the Tigers went 11-1 and earned a berth in the Celebration Bowl.
The biggest headline came on Dec. 15, 2021, when Travis Hunter, the No. 1 overall high school prospect in the Class of 2022, shocked the nation on the first day of the early signing period and flipped from his FSU commitment to sign with Jackson State.
Coach Prime also demanded upgraded facilities from the Jackson State administration and boosters.
“There’s definitely more attention on HBCUs now, the spotlight is on, so everyone has a fair chance and opportunity,” Shedeur Sanders said. “My dad is extremely passionate about improving HBCU football. It’s all he thinks about day and night. The challenges he goes through being a coach at an HBCU being who he is and coming from where he came from, most people wouldn’t even understand.”
The younger Sanders said he remembers getting to Jackson State and being disappointed with the facilities and dining options. He was stunned to find out there was no Gatorade or other sports drinks readily available for athletes, just water. His father made sure the school upgraded the locker room, fields and dining services.
“There’s a big change in the environment, like 1,000 percent,” the younger Sanders said. “Now, there’s a better spirit because we don’t have bad practice fields, don’t have bad locker rooms, bad equipment, so that changes your mind-set. Last year I wouldn’t even eat the food, but now I eat it every day. And now we have Gatorade. Little stuff like that makes a big difference.”
The Florida A&M roster also features players who could have chosen a major Division I program but went the HBCU route. Linebacker Isaiah Land, the Buck Buchanan National Defensive Player of the Year last season with 19 sacks and 25.5 tackles for loss, flirted with the transfer portal last spring, but decided to stick with the Rattlers. He turned down offers from Kentucky, Auburn, Georgia, Louisiana State, Texas and UCF, to name a few.
Hunter’s decision and the explosion of the transfer portal has led to an infusion of talent to HBCU programs.
“Travis Hunter signing with Jackson State was significant,” said FAMU coach Willie Simmons. “A young man who was the No. 1 player in America spurning Power 5 offers for an opportunity to play at an HBCU — that hasn’t happened in my lifetime. He showed future four-star, five-star recruits that ‘Hey, I can be the No. 1 player in America and take my talents to an HBCU.’ That speaks volumes. Hopefully other young men will follow suit, and not just at Jackson State.”
Simmons said he and his staff have always courted high-profile recruits.
“The difference now is we’re getting a receptive response,” he said. “In the past the response was kind of cold, guys were hard to get ahold of, they may respond to a message or call but you could tell their eyes were set somewhere else. But now you’ve got guys who reach out to us, high school kids and transfers.
“They want to be part of something special, celebrated for being a minority and culturally be a majority. We will continue to push that message and dispel the myths we’ve had to overcome, and I think the future is bright for HBCU football.”
Bell’s success at Cowboys training camp this summer will also help.
“I’m happy for Markquese and the exposure he is bringing FAMU,” Simmons said. “It helps the future Rattlers or guys here now see you can make it from FAMU and HBCUs. The more guys have success at that level, the more it validates that point that they’ll find you wherever you are if you’re good enough.
“We have to continue to advocate for our players, expose them and highlight them as much as we can because we don’t have the marketing engine that a lot of Power 5 programs have, so we have to do a little bit more to garner the respect in the national landscape.”
Simmons and his staff do everything they can to accommodate NFL scouts, allowing them to watch the entire practice and speak one on one with players. The scouts are noticing.
“The scouts are going into black colleges now; they’re not going to drive past anymore,” Bratton said. “In the past, if they went to Tallahassee, normally they’d pass FAMU to go to FSU, then go to UF, UCF, USF, Miami, FAU. Now, they’re going to peek in there because you don’t want to miss on a kid. The transfer portal is helping black colleges, as well. You’ve got to pay attention to black colleges because it’s not where they start it’s where they finish, so a guy like Markquese, started at a big D-I [Maryland] and finished at an HBCU. HBCUs are definitely going to be a hotbed going forward.”
Armstead agreed: “I think the road for HBCU players is getting shorter. Hopefully one day we’ll get to a place where it’s more parallel with the bigger programs.”
This story was originally published August 31, 2022 at 8:00 AM.