COLUMBIA – Are you ready for some throwback college football? A reminder of how the sport existed back in the day?
Not just in the few years before all this realignment stuff, the transfer portal and big Name, Image and Likeness money. Way back.
Here it is in front of Higgins Hall and alongside the neighborhood Kentucky Fried Chicken. But keep your eyes open because the practice field at Allen University is hard to spot from bustling Taylor Street. It’s only 64 yards long with one goal post.
Practices are filmed from atop a deer stand. The head coach at this historically Black school works across the street in a small, windowless office.
The home field is at a high school 15 miles away.
Offensive coordinator Jackie Robinson, a former Clemson wide receiver, is also the Allen men’s track coach. And cross country coach.
Linebackers coach EJ Junior, a former Alabama star who played in the NFL for 13 seasons, moonlights in university housing.
“I kind of consider us a ‘Last Chance U’ opportunity for players,” head coach Teddy Keaton said, referring to the popular documentary. “When I got here, I went and found all the good kids that might have been borderline academically. Now we’re getting kids who are high academic-achieving kids. I’m so very proud of these kids and the work they’ve put in.”
Things couldn’t be much better at Allen, which doubles as the antithesis of modern college football and the most surprisingly good team in South Carolina. Taking full advantage of last chances and fresh opportunities, the Yellow Jackets are 4-1 going into an Oct. 7 Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference home game against Clark Atlanta.
Allen University quarterback David Wright is the big reason why the Yellow Jackets, off to a 4-1 start, lead the SIAC in passing yards per game. J’kari Thompson/Allen University
Pretty incredible for a school with only 657 students that re-started its football program in 2018 after not having the sport for all but three years since 1968. The Yellow Jackets moved up from NAIA to NCAA Division II status three seasons ago.
Allen finished 2-8 in 2022.
The crowds are bigger at Westwood High School on Turkey Farm Road in Blythewood this season — Allen had 804 for the opener against Erskine, 678 on Sept. 30 against Fort Valley State. Never mind the Redhawks logo at midfield, or the red and white end zones for a college team with bright royal blue and gold uniforms.
“It’s a new sense of life around here,” said Justin Eaton, a junior linebacker who played at Goose Creek’s Stratford High School. “We’re having a good year so everyone wants to come, and fans are loving the games more.”
And loving Allen’s Band of Gold halftime performances, also starring an exceptionally energetic spirit squad and the Golden Jackettes dance team.
A bunch of good, engaged players boosting school pride and enrollment is what Dr. Ernest C. McNealey had in mind when he began leading the effort to revive Yellow Jackets football soon after he came on as Allen president in 2017.
A new stadium is planned for Richland County property off Two Notch Road.
“The extraordinary experience the university affords its students and the continued success of the football program are linked and will allow all that can be imagined to be achieved,” McNealey said, “and more.”
The strategy to expand athletics programs includes a projected impact on grade-point averages, graduation rates (from 22.6 to 31 percent recently) and racial diversity, McNealey said. All while enhancing the Allen brand.
It starts with a good head coach.
Ideally someone familiar with the school president’s vision.
Keaton, 46, played at Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, Ala., and went on to become an assistant coach and head coach in lower-level arena football leagues. McNealey, while president at Stillman, brought Keaton back to become head coach in 2011.
Keaton went 27-26 at Stillman before the school dropped football. He’s onboard with the big picture.
“We don’t worry about the labor pains, we’re just trying to have the baby,” Keaton said. “The university and the president set out a vision and a timeline. We knew this wasn’t going to be easy, but the whole university is playing a role in this.
“We’re well on our way.”
‘That beautiful opportunity’
Short field?
Missing end zone?
Kentucky Fried Chicken drive-thru line distractions?
There’s no complaining at practice. Allen players appreciate their new artificial turf. They also remember the early wake-up calls. A few seasons ago, before the Taylor Street field was available, the Yellow Jackets woke up at 4 a.m. for bus rides to practice near the University of South Carolina’s Solomon Blatt Physical Education Center on Wheat Street.
“This is light years away from where we were when I started here,” said Eaton, who arrived for a 2020 season cancelled by COVID-19. “I love it.”
Though Allen trails its more established Columbia neighbor Benedict College (5-0) in the SIAC standings, the Yellow Jackets are fourth in the SIAC in scoring at 28.3 points per game and first in passing offense (379.3 yards per game), more than 100 yards better than No. 2 Edward Waters.
Not bad for a team picked to finish 11th of 14 schools in the SIAC preseason poll.
The Allen University practice field in Columbia is only 64 yards long, has one goal post and is wedged between a campus dorm, busy street and a Kentucky Fried Chicken store. But it has new artificial turf and a deer stand for filming. Gene Sapakoff/Staff
Quarterback David Wright has thrown for 1,691 yards and nine touchdowns already. Armone Harris has 22 catches.
Eaton leads Allen with 5.5 tackles for loss.
Wright and Eaton fit the Yellow Jacket profile for prospects and player development.
Eaton, after graduating from Stratford, was working in a tire warehouse in Summerville when he decided to give college football a try. He found “that beautiful opportunity” at Allen.
Wright, a redshirt sophomore from Tampa, Fla., drove to Allen for a recruiting visit with Jamal Jones, a Floridian who wasn’t on Allen’s radar. Keaton offered both Wright and Jones, who has six catches this season.
Players wear the “Relentless” wristbands Keaton gives out to anyone within reach.
“We want to be relentless in our pursuit of excellence,” Keaton said. “We didn’t just come here to play, we came here to win. Everything we do is a competition.”
Keaton said 39 players had 4.0 GPAs last year, with 59 on the Dean’s List.
McNealey said the average high school GPA for all students in Allen’s freshman class was above 3.0. Football, he said, has “fostered a greater sense of community and competition across the campus.”
Though players say there aren’t any major individual NIL deals, Allen has an NIL collective.
“You never know,” Wright said. “Maybe if we keep winning.”
Keaton has insisted on a thorough off-season strength and conditioning program and nutrition enhancement, with tips he picked up during visits to the University of Alabama while coaching at nearby Stillman.
Allen has dipped into the transfer portal for help; leading tackler Gary Bourrage came from Miles College.
Yes, things have changed at Allen.
But the deer stand remains.
“It was a cheap way to get a camera up high to shoot practice,” Keaton said. “So I brought my deer stand and put a guy up there.”
Lessons from Bear Bryant
It’s quite a coaching staff: nine assistants, plus recruiting analyst Billy Attix.
Junior was an All-American at Alabama while playing for Bear Bryant, and passes down lessons from the icon.
“The biggest thing is discipline: What do you do when nobody’s watching?” said Junior, who has eight children with his wife Yolanda. “Are you eating right? Are you sleeping right? A lot of those work-ethic things are similar. We try to teach that what you do from Sunday to Friday is going to reflect what you do on Saturday.”
Defensive coordinator L.C. Cole as a head coach took Tennessee State to the FCS playoffs twice and preceded Keaton as Stillman head coach. He was a defensive end at Nebraska and an assistant coach under Nick Saban at Toledo in 1990.
“You just have to take your hat off to the kids,” Cole said. “They worked hard all summer and it’s been paying off. We have less facilities than other places but we practice like a Division I program and that overshadows what we lack in facilities.”
Fort Valley State handed Allen its first loss, 49-21 on Sept. 30 at Westwood High.
But football schedule posters around campus mirror the mood.
Jasher Cox, Allen’s athletic director, summed up the enthusiasm with a tweet about a 34-30 home win over Kentucky State, showing a video of the Band of Gold and Golden Jackettes triumphantly marching off the field after Allen rallied from 30-7 down.
How to exit a stadium after trailing 30-7…. only to come from behind, pulling it out 34-30. pic.twitter.com/TomIi37NH0
— Jasher®️ (@jashercox) September 17, 2023
McNealey describes the scene at games as “controlled exuberance and a sense of community.”
The noise from Blythewood is reaching downtown Columbia. Eaton has worn Allen football gear around town for a few years but said no one seemed to notice until this season. He was stopped the other day by a fellow shopper at Food Lion.
“You all are doing great,” the man said. “Keep up the good work.”
Follow Gene Sapakoff on Twitter @sapakoff
Allen football at a glance
Location: Columbia
Founded: 1870
Enrollment: 657
Conference: Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC)
Football history: Program dormant for all but three years since 1969 but revived in 2018
Record: 4-1 going into Sept. 7 home game vs. Clark Atlanta after going 2-8 in 2022
Head coach: Teddy Keaton
Coaching staff includes: Former Alabama and NFL linebacker E.J. Junior, former Clemson wide receiver Jackie Robinson
School band: Band of Gold
Home field: Westwood High School in Blythewood
Tickets: auyellowjackets.com
