Alabama NewsCenter 2021 football preview: Birmingham-Southern College
Branden Rew is a returning first-team All Conference wide receiver for the Birmingham-Southern Panthers. (Birmingham-Southern Athletics)
To Tony Joe White, it seems like yesterday that his Birmingham-Southern football team was on the gridiron.
“We played our season in February and March,” he said, “so this is the shortest time I’ve had to go between seasons.”
NCAA rules regarding COVID-19 gave the Panthers opportunities to practice last fall and then play in the spring. And there was still time for more preparation.
“We were able to get a number of practices in the fall,” White said. “Typically, in Division III, those practices are just in shorts. No helmets and no pads at all. But we were able to get some padded practices in the fall, which prepared us for the spring season.
“They gave us 114 days to get all of our seasons in because some people were able to play more games than others,” the coach continued. “Because we didn’t use all of our 114 days, once we finished our season, we came back with the returners that weren’t going to graduate, we were able to practice even more later on in May.”
Since the end of the 2019 season, the Panthers have practiced more than 200 times. Now they are eager to square off against players in different uniforms than their own.
“We’re excited about actually getting to play a full season with the maximum allotment of games and getting better that way,” White said.
The Panthers are preparing to return to the field this fall as football goes back to its traditional season even as the pandemic continues. Alabama NewsCenter is taking a look at the upcoming season and today is focused on Birmingham-Southern.
Alabama NewsCenter: What is the outlook for this season?
Tony Joe White: I’m hoping that it can look as normal as possible. We do have some mask protocols still in place and the way that we’re doing things here is anyone who has chosen to show proof of vaccination, those guys do not have to be tested. But if you are not vaccinated or you choose not to show proof of vaccination, then you are tested three times a week. That’s just to kind of help mitigate in case there is a case on campus. We can find it quickly, isolate those people from the healthy people and be able to prevent an outbreak. On the field, we’ve got a chance to be pretty good. We’ve got a lot of guys back. Because we got a lot of extra work last year, I think there’s a lot of retention from a knowledge standpoint. We had a very strong recruiting class. We’ve helped ourselves in a ton of positions. We’re very optimistic about what we’re going to be able to accomplish this year.
ANC: What is the strength of this year’s team?
White: I would say that our defense is where I feel like our strength is going to lie. We’ve got a lot of depth on our defensive front. We’ve got two first-team All Conference cornerbacks returning and a couple of our safeties, I think, can be All Conference-caliber players. From a talent standpoint and from a depth standpoint, defense is probably where the overall strength lies. But we’re pretty confident about what we’re going to be able to do offensively as well.
ANC: Who are your team’s standouts?
White: Because of COVID, a lot of the guys who were going to be out of eligibility were given the year back. We have an All-American tailback returning named Robert Shufford, who led the nation in rushing in 2019, then obviously in the truncated season. He was the Offensive Player of the Year in our conference, and he’ll be back for his COVID year. We have a first-team All Conference wide receiver coming back in Branden Rew. We’ve got a lot of returners up front, so we’re pretty confident that the offensive line is gonna be able to hold up for us. I’d like to have more depth on the line, but I feel like our first few guys, our first wave of guys up front, is pretty solid. Trey Patterson’s probably going to be our starting quarterback. He’s been a backup. He’s a little bit different type of player than what we’ve had here the last four years. He’s more mobile, more of a guy that can extend plays and be a little bit more creative, which I think is going to benefit our run game immensely. Gentry Neese is a wide receiver that his first year here he was voted Newcomer of the Year in the league. He’s always been a very consistent player for us and a strong leader in our program, so we’re excited about him as well. And Chris Moore, our center. All of our offensive line calls and everything we do up front starts with our center and the communication with him. He’s a guy who will be a three-year starter this year. He’s just a solid, consistent, very heady, very cerebral player. He’s one that I would definitely want to keep an eye on.
ANC: What game do your fans have circled on your schedule?
White: We always play Huntingdon for the Wesley Cup, and not getting to play that game last year, I think it’ll be a lot of fun (this season). It’ll be a great atmosphere to go down there (to Montgomery) and get to renew that rivalry. That’s always a big one. When you look at our conference, Trinity, out of San Antonio, and Berry. Berry’s the defending champs, so you know everybody wants to try to knock off the champ. That’ll be a big game for us, and Trinity. We haven’t beaten Trinity since I’ve been here, so we’re going to try to figure them out and get that W.
ANC: What is your lingering question?
White: As it relates to our football team in regards to schematics and personnel, we’ve got to develop some offensive line depth. We’ve got to figure that out. Then we’ve got to have somebody step up in the kicking game and get some consistency there. Aidan Hood and Zach Ford are returning (at placekicker), and we’ve got a transfer from Jacksonville State coming in named Cole Porch. Somebody’s got to win that job. And then we’ve also got to figure out who’s going to be our backup quarterback. That No. 2 position is wide open, and we need somebody to kind of separate themselves from the pack and secure that job. Regarding COVID, the numbers are increasing with this Delta variant. It’s so unpredictable and who knows what other variant comes along. We’re playing the same game that everybody in the world’s playing as far as, what’s going to be next with this? And are the vaccines going to hold up? We’re just gonna take it day by day. We’re working real hard to get better at football with the policies and the protocols that we have in place and trying to have the best time we can doing that.
Alabama NewsCenter is posting season previews for all 15 college football programs in Alabama. Read about West Alabama, Tuskegee, Samford and Alabama A&M, and look for a new preview each day.
