MACHIAVELLI
Chairman/C.E.O.
Jackson State coach James Bell isn't one to make predictions in terms of wins and losses.
Bell does assure one thing, though: The Tigers will be better this season than the past two.
"You'll see a better football team," Bell said recently at SWAC Media Day in Birmingham. "The first two years were truly growing pains for everybody. Sometimes to get to where you want to go, you have to make sacrifices. And sometimes that means doing things differently."
JSU finished 2-10 in Bell's first season and 4-7 in his second ? the program's first back-to-back losing seasons in more than three decades. Year 3 of the Bell era begins in earnest today as players report to campus for fall practice.
Bell and his staff are expecting about 90 players to report. About 30 of those players are newcomers, approximately half made up of freshmen and the other half made up of junior college and college transfers.
JSU, which was picked in the preseason poll to finish last in the SWAC's Eastern Division, did show some progress last season. It doubled its number of wins from the previous season, and lost three games by a combined 11 points.
"Why did we lose those games?" Bell asked. "We didn't make plays. We've got to get mentally and physically tougher."
As for the blowout losses to Alabama State and Southern University?
"Those two ball games we just showed up," Bell said. "That's my fault."
http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050807/SPORTS030101/508070341/1025
Bell does assure one thing, though: The Tigers will be better this season than the past two.
"You'll see a better football team," Bell said recently at SWAC Media Day in Birmingham. "The first two years were truly growing pains for everybody. Sometimes to get to where you want to go, you have to make sacrifices. And sometimes that means doing things differently."
JSU finished 2-10 in Bell's first season and 4-7 in his second ? the program's first back-to-back losing seasons in more than three decades. Year 3 of the Bell era begins in earnest today as players report to campus for fall practice.
Bell and his staff are expecting about 90 players to report. About 30 of those players are newcomers, approximately half made up of freshmen and the other half made up of junior college and college transfers.
JSU, which was picked in the preseason poll to finish last in the SWAC's Eastern Division, did show some progress last season. It doubled its number of wins from the previous season, and lost three games by a combined 11 points.
"Why did we lose those games?" Bell asked. "We didn't make plays. We've got to get mentally and physically tougher."
As for the blowout losses to Alabama State and Southern University?
"Those two ball games we just showed up," Bell said. "That's my fault."
http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050807/SPORTS030101/508070341/1025
