SU's focus on strong finish, youth development

• By PERRYN KEYS
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Nov 7, 2009

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On Saturday afternoon, in a sleepy little stadium northwest of Houston, Southern’s dream of a Southwestern Athletic Conference championship officially went kaput.

Prairie View held off a late surge from Alabama A&M to win 33-27, moving within one win of clinching the Western Division.

As for Southern, its chance at winning the West officially moved from slim to none.

The Jaguars needed to win all three of their remaining games, then hope for Prairie View to lose three in a row.

That’s out of the picture now.

So what comes next? Two big things.

First, Southern (5-3, 2-2) will try to finish with an 8-3 overall record — something coach Pete Richardson said his team wants to do.

Second, the Jaguars want to prepare their youngsters for the long road ahead.

At 2:30 p.m. Saturday in Mobile, Ala., the Jaguars face Alabama State (4-5, 1-5). It is the only game for Southern in a 27-day span that began Nov. 1 and ends Nov. 27, the day before the Bayou Classic.

It is not only a chance for SU to rest and heal, Richardson said; it is also a chance to take an early look at what it needs to do in spring practice.

Call it a pre-spring spring.

Even before the Jaguars lost to Prairie View, Richardson said he planned to use this time to drop a heavier workload on some of the Jaguars’ younger players.

“It’s almost like a second spring practice,” he said.