For Grambling State, it marks their eighth football championship in the SWAC title game era that started in 1999.
The East Division winning Braves (7-5, 5-2 SWAC) and West Division winning Tigers (11-1, 7-0 SWAC) had split the prior two championship meetings with Grambling rallying back to take last year’s championship 27-20 and Alcorn proclaiming a 49-21 victory in the 2015 title game.
Final Judgement saw the teams play out relatively evenly in a tight first quarter with the scored tied at 10-10.
Kincade, the SWAC Offensive Player of the Year, gave the Tigers the first lead on a 14-yard touchdown run with 12:06 remaining in the first quarter, but the Braves had an answer when conference leading rusher De’Lance Turner rumbled in from two yards out to help knot the score at 7-7 with 7:50 left.
After Grambling’s Marc Orozco and Alcorn’s Corey McCullough traded field goals, the Tigers broke open with a 28-point second quarter highlighted by a five-yard touchdown run by Martez Carter, two passing scores from Kincade (one to Jordan Jones and another to Quintin Guice) and another on a 27-yard rushing score to take a comfortable 38-10 lead into halftime.
Defense stiffened in the third quarter with neither team able to score.
Grambling halted Turner in the end zone for a safety to increase the lead to 40-10 early in the fourth and then Alcorn State began a furious attempted rally as Norlando Veals scored on a 34-yard touchdown toss from Lenorris Footman with 12:53 left. Footman added another score when he took it himself to score from five yards out. McCullough’s PAT made a 40-24 score with 6:11 remaining in the game.
And, the Braves were not finished as Footman found Marquis Warford on a deep 65-yard pass to set up a six-yard touchdown run by Turner. Footman followed up by finding Veals toward the corner of the end zone for a successful two-point conversion to cut the lead to 40-32.
Kincade was named the SWAC Championship Offensive Most Valuable’s Player while De’Andre Hogues was dubbed the game’s Defensive Most Valuable Player after making a team-high seven tackles to go along with a sack and a tackle for a loss.
Guided by head coach Broderick Fobbs, the Tigers have now won 10 straight games and last lost to a conference opponent in the 2015 SWAC Championship against Alcorn State.
Grambling State advances to represent the SWAC in the Celebration Bowl and will play undefeated North Carolina A&T on December 16 in Atlanta at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
