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Wednesday, September 23, 1998
Panthers still losing but say they're better
By MICHAEL A. LUTZ AP Sports Writer
PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas (AP) - After each game for almost a decade,
the Prairie View A&M Panther football team has returned to
its small rural campus in bluebonnet country to absorb the weight
of one more loss.
It's a quiet little farming community where the state flower
blooms annually, a good place to contemplate a very unpleasant
legacy.
Every fan and student connected with the school knows the Panthers
haven't won a game since Oct. 28, 1989, when they defeated Mississippi
Valley 21-12. The spectators also know Prairie View's NCAA-record
losing streak now stands at 80.
What they don't know is how the players feel.
"We don't have to answer to anyone but ourselves and God,"
coach Greg Johnson said. "We just have our little private
world here. We are here in our little zone, trying to get better."
Johnson is keeping the curious media away from the players
after feeling his team was mocked last season. He says the press
ban has taken some of the pressure off.
Still, the closer the Panthers get to winning, the more agonizing
the losses become.
The Panthers trailed Southern University 10-0 going into the
fourth quarter Saturday before they fell 37-7. That game was further
marred by a halftime brawl between the two schools' marching bands
that prompted Southwestern Athletic Conference Commissioner Rudy
Washington to suspend both bands for the next two games.
But the coach said his program is improving.
"I feel like we're fighting harder and we're fighting
longer," Johnson said. "We're showing more maturity
and discipline. I am encouraged with our progress since last season."
The Panther can afford to offer only 15 scholarships, well
below the SWAC limit of 63 scholarships.
"We can break the streak with 15 scholarships," Johnson
said. "The score Saturday night did not reflect how hard
we played. People came up after the game and said 'you could have
beaten them.' But they have no idea how hard it was for us to
get to that point."
Prairie View started the season with 77 straight losses. In
their opener, they fell behind Texas Southern 17-0 before losing
24-13. In their second game, the Panthers blew a halftime lead
and lost to Howard Payne 22-14.
Then came loss No. 80 to Southern, a game Johnson really felt
his team could have won.
"This is speaking from the heart: We were more competitive
with Southern than we have been in probably five years,"
Johnson said. "We felt we had a good game plan. We wanted
to be patient. Last year we tried to do too much against them
and shot ourselves in the foot.
"This year, we tried to not make too many mistakes and
let them shoot themselves in the foot."
Prairie View was making a game of it until the fourth quarter
when, as usually happens with the outmanned Panthers, they wore
down.
"They finally took a toll on us with their experience,"
Johnson said. "Yeah, they got three big plays on us. Still,
we had two or three opportunities to score and we just couldn't
punch it in.
"But they scored 60 on us last year and 37 this time.
Any way you look at it, that's improvement."
The Panthers' next opponent is Saturday against Langston, where
Johnson was head coach before coming to Prairie View prior to
last season. Langston won last year's battle and they expect to
win again.
"We don't talk about being the team that loses to them,"
new Langston coach Ted Alexander said. "What I have talked
to the kids about is the fact that Prairie View wouldn't exchange
film with us. But we'll be ready."
The Prairie View basketball team gave the school hope last
season when it earned a spot in the NCAA playoffs with a surprising
march through the SWAC tournament.
The basketball team did it on a shoestring and Johnson says
fans and alumni expect the football team to do the same.
"People are fickle, they want to be associated with a
winner," Johnson said. "They want to see us win before
they come around. The basketball team did it with just a little
bit and they want to see us do it too."
But it's easier to mold five basketball players into a cohesive
unit than an entire football team.
"I just ask them to give me ample time to do what I do,
I know that I can get it done," Johnson said. "I knew
the hand I was dealt when I came here. Rome wasn't built in a
day and I can't turn this around overnight."
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