Coaches for FCS Kickoff, Redtails Classic promote upcoming games
Coach Aaron James and Tuskegee will be in Montgomery on Sept. 1 for the annual Red Tails Classic and face Johnson C. Smith. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
Camellia Bowl officials and their sponsors gathered on Wednesday at the RSA Activity Center to kick off the 2024 football season and promote the FCS Kickoff and the Red Tails Classic.
The pair of games, featuring a pair of Football Championship Series teams in the first game and Division II Tuskegee in the second, will be televised by ESPN and take place in the next five weeks at Cramton Bowl.
Camellia Bowl executive director Johnny Williams also noted the kickoff time and date for the 11th annual Camellia Bowl on Dec. 14 at 8 p.m., and introduced corporate sponsor Integrated Solutions for Systems, Inc., a Huntsville-based company.
“Our game will follow the Heisman Trophy presentation,” Williams said. “We’ll have people from literally around the world watching who’s going to win the Heisman and once they find that out, they’re coming to Montgomery. We’re going to make it a priority to pack out Cramton Bowl that night.”
The featured speaker for the luncheon was Wright Waters, the former Sun Belt Conference commissioner and former executive director of the Football Bowl Association. The Montgomery native discussed the current state of college football and noted that proponents of college football need to quit trying to emulate the National Football League and formulate a plan for the future of the sport.
“Good or bad, intercollegiate athletics is the front porch of institutions of higher learning,” Waters said. “Student-athletes are members of the student body and we’re preparing these student-athletes for life after college. Only 2 percent of our football players will go on to the NFL. Only 1.7 percent of the high school kids will receive a college scholarship.
“There’s a pretty good chance that you’ll have a hard time convincing a young person that they won’t play in the NFL when they come to your campus. But here’s what you can convince them: you can convince them that while somebody is paying for a free education, get yours and the NFL will take care of itself.”
Waters said it was important for college football officials “to have a national discussion on what intercollegiate athletics should look like. We’ve got to emphasize the importance of education. We’re an extension of higher education and we need to act like it. It’s why we exist.”
Waters, a longtime supporter of the Camellia Bowl, praised the work of Williams and his wife Robin in putting on the annual December matchup between Sun Belt and Mid-American teams.
“In another life, I supervised 42 bowls and I can tell you none of them are run as efficiently as this one,” he said. “Congratulations to the city of Montgomery for recognizing that this will change the image of Montgomery nationally.”
Waters then offered praise for former Central Alabama Sports Commission executive director Ken Blankenship, who passed away on Sunday.
“Ken was a dynamic force who was always recruiting and selling the city of Montgomery and making things happen,” Waters said. “He will be missed.”
All three games -- the FCS Kickoff, Red Tails Classic and Camellia Bowl -- are owned by ESPN Events and both past ESPN Events vice-president Pete Derzis and current vice-president Clint Overby were in attendance at Wednesday’s event.
Overby said the cable giant “is so appreciative and humbled by the fact that we get to play the part we get to play in communities like Montgomery” and praised the support of the three games by the community.
“For all the things that have changed in college sports over the last several years, the competition that these gentlemen (coaches) know, the players know, that hasn’t changed,” he said. “The traditions haven’t changed, the fan passion hasn’t changed, all the things about college football that bring people together haven’t changed.”
North Alabama will play Southeast Missouri on Saturday, Aug. 24, at 6 p.m. in the 10th annual FCS Kickoff at Cramton Bowl. North Alabama coach Brent Dearmon, whose Lions will make their second consecutive FCS Kickoff appearance, said his team was eager for the encore performance.
“We had such an amazing time last year,” Dearmon said. “We stayed here in the city and did our walk-throughs here. Everything about this place was awesome to me. I talked a little bit last year (as a former Vigor High player) about how Cramton Bowl meant a lot to me, not always in a positive way. To come back and to be able to coach in historic Cramton Bowl means a lot to me. It also means a lot to our players. We have a lot of players from a two-hour radius from the city of Montgomery.”
Tuskegee will play Johnson C. Smith on Sunday, Sept. 1, at 6 p.m. in the fourth annual Red Tails Classic at Cramton Bowl. Tuskegee coach Aaron James, who played in the facility as a Tuskegee quarterback, won his coaching debut last season in the Red Tails Classic.
“Montgomery has a good place in my heart,” James said. “Cramton Bowl, I think I only lost once there as a player and as a coach. It’s going to be an exciting game coming up on Sept. 1. I just want to thank the city of Montgomery for showing support with everybody who came out last year.”
Johnson C. Smith will be making its first appearance but head coach Maurice Flowers is familiar with the Golden Tigers, having served with James under Miles coach Reginald Ruffin, the Tuskegee athletic director. He also coached in the first Red Tails Classic as the head coach at Fort Valley State.
“It feels great to be here, to feel the love for football,” Flowers said. “It’s an honor to be playing in the Red Tails Classic with the tradition and the history of Tuskegee University, to go along with all the things that Tuskegee has done away from athletics. It’s history is tremendous. It’s an honor to be able to play them in this event on Sept. 1.”