Jacksonville State Set to Resume Football season

Although the Alabama Crimson Tide football season has been over since mid-January, there's still a local college football team that you can support.

That team is the Jacksonville State Gamecocks.

The Ohio Valley Conference announced back in the summer that they'd be postponing many of their fall sports until the spring, due to the uncertainty of COVID-19.

Despite moving to the spring, football was one of the few sports that was granted the opportunity to play up to four non-conference games before pausing.

"While the OVC moved the conference schedule to the spring, the conference presidents voted today to permit conference schools to play up to four non-conference games. We are working diligently to provide our football team the opportunity to play an exciting and meaningful schedule this fall while maintaining the rigorous health protocols which were already established," said JSU athletic director Greg Seitz.

JSU took full advantage of this, winning three out of their four allotted games. Beating Mercer, North Alabama, and Florida International, while only falling to the Florida State Seminoles 24-21.

Already off to a better start than 2019, where the team finished 6-6 with three straight losses.

In the Athlon Sports' Spring 2021 Preseason FCS Top 25 Rankings, JSU is ranked No. 18 out of all FCS teams.

In a press conference, JSU head coach John Grass spoke about the season and how unusual it's been.

"I think it's a little bit of advantage knowing you're team, getting to play games in the fall. It was kind of like we picked up right where we left off at," said Grass.

One name to watch on the JSU offense, is 6'7 245lb senior TE Trae Berry, who was just named to the Athlon Sports Pre-Season All-American watch list.

JSU will kick off their fifth game of the year Sunday, Feb 21, against Tennessee State, who will be playing their first game of the season.