By T. SCOTT BOATRIGHT, Lincoln Parish Journal
Grambling State’s football team could be called “The U” this week.
That’s “U” as in underdog.
In the biggest challenge in the program’s rich history, the Tigers travel to Columbus, Ohio to take on reigning major college national champion and top-ranked Ohio State.
The massive mismatch is set for a 2:30 p.m. kickoff Saturday inside 102,780-seat Ohio Stadium, better known as “The Horseshoe,” one of college football’s iconic venues and a place where Olympic legend Jesse Owens ran in college before he set the world on fire in the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
How big of an underdog are the Tigers? It’s telling that Las Vegas has declined to set a betting line for the contest.
The disparity between the teams is that large.
Grambling coach Mickey Joseph added a little levity to his Monday press conference heading into the contest, knowing that GSU will be able to compete on the same level in at least one aspect.
“First of all, they’ve got a great band,” Joseph said with a smile. “We have a great band. And we’re going to compete as a band. … I’m just joking right now.”
Joseph said it’s no secret that this game is all about the money for Grambling.
“We understand what we’re getting into,” Joseph said. “We understand what’s going to happen. We understand it’s not balanced in scholarships. We know what they have and what we have as far as resources. We all know why we’re playing the game.
“I spoke to the coaches and told them we better play clean. And clean to me is that we don’t have nine (not enough) or 13 (too many) people on the field (on a given play). We just have to play within the system and swing and fight every play.”
During his weekly Southwestern Athletic Conference weekly football coaches press conference on Tuesday, Joseph harkened back to a day when Eddie Robinson coached the Tigers, Woody Hayes bossed the Buckeyes, and the disparity between the two programs would not have been as immense.
“I don’t know if Ohio State would have called Coach Rob back in the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s and said, ‘Let’s play.’ He just had loaded talent,” Joseph said. “He had a loaded locker room. (Grambling State University) is a national brand. Ohio State is a national brand. It’s going to be great for both universities to square off in the Horseshoe.
“We’re just on two different levels now. There are levels to the game. It’s the $20 million level, and it’s not the $20 million level. We understand that.”
Joseph acknowledged the Buckeyes’ consistency over decades of success, well before NIL deals and shared revenue reshaped college football.
Both teams are coming off wins. Ohio State opened the season in a Top 5 showdown by defeating then No. 1-ranked Texas 14-7 last weekend.
Grambling, meanwhile, opened its 2025 campaign with a dominating 55-7 win over NAIA Langston of the Sooner Athletic Conference at the Shreveport Kickoff Classic in Independence Stadium.
It was a performance that pleased Joseph.
“I thought we executed,” Joseph said. “I thought we executed in all three phases. Give us your focus and finish. That’s what we wanted to see. I take my hat off to my coaches. They did a really good job of getting our kids prepared.
“We had a little downfall in about the last eight minutes of the fourth quarter, and that was with our younger kids, straight out of high school, in there that had some trouble with the look and speed of the college game. But overall, I thought we played solid in all three phases and we can’t do anything but get better from that.”
Joseph said there will be two factors involved in determining whether or not Saturday’s game will be a win for his Tigers, regardless of the score.
“If it was clean, if we play clean, and if we come out healthy,” Joseph said. “That would be a win for us. But it’s got to be clean. That means having 11 people on the field, not 12, not nine (on a given play). We need to compete one play at a time. Just give it everything we have, one play at a time.
“This is a great opportunity, a great memory for our kids. We’re just going to go in there and swing. That’s all we’re going to do.”
Grambling played two quarterbacks last week against Langston and will do so again at Ohio State, Joseph said.
Redshirt sophomore quarterback Czavian Teasett, a transfer from Southern University, got the start against Langston and completed 20-of-25 passes attempts for 201 yards and three touchdowns, showing poise and control in his first game under center for the Tigers. Ashton Frye, a redshirt junior, also played well for GSU, connecting on 6-of-8 of right passes for 44 yards and a touchdown.
Joseph won’t be watching the scoreboard Saturday. He’ll look for effort play after play on the field.
“We know what we’re getting into,” Joseph said. “We just want to play hard, one play at a time, against these guys knowing the circumstances, knowing why we’re playing this game.”
Contact Scott at tscottboatright@gmail.com