‘More history to be written’: JC Smith football chases CIAA title
For football recruits coming to Johnson C. Smith University, it’s never just about the field.
When a new player and his family visit campus, head coach Maurice Flowers takes them up the hill past the north end zone at the Irwin Belk Complex, offering a view of the uptown Charlotte skyline. Many notice the Golden Bulls’ statue first, or assume Flowers, the reigning Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association coach of the year and JC Smith graduate, is showing off the venue.
But it’s become more than just a pitch. Since Flowers arrived, JC Smith’s identity has evolved both on and off the field: The Golden Bulls put up a team GPA of 3.16, and their recruiting efforts now stretch from Charlotte’s backyard all the way to Florida and Georgia.
And for the first time since 1972, those efforts have landed them on one of college football’s biggest Division II stages.
This year’s Golden Bulls earned a shot at history: Seeded No. 2 in the CIAA after a historic 9-1 regular season, they’ll try to stop top-seeded Virginia Union from winning a third consecutive conference title at 3:05 p.m. Saturday at Durham County Memorial Stadium, televised locally on WCCB-TV. JC Smith’s first CIAA championship appearance in more than a half-century was built on the backs of standout recruits from near and far — and now, they’re ready to finish the job.
“A lot of people think we’re telling them to check out the field, but we want them to see that skyline — because that’s your future,” Flowers said this week inside the school’s media studio. “When we had our plan to come to JCSU and to build this program, we knew that we would have any opportunity to be in these types of situations — really, because of the recruiting base that we were going to be able to have. … When you’re recruiting a family — not just a young man — it really helps that you can say, ‘You’re going to be in Charlotte, North Carolina,’ one of the top cities in the United States.”
‘We believe in each other’
The team talks about its legacy.
Echoes of 1969, the school’s most recent football championship, and 1972, the last time JCSU reached the title game, reverberate inside the locker room. This year’s squad already has more wins than any team in the school’s history. But ask the players whether they’re satisfied, and you’ll know the answer.
Their drive shows. During Saturday’s win against Livingstone — the “team from Salisbury,” as Flowers puts it every time he mentions the school’s Commemorative Classic rival — JC Smith wide receiver Deandre Proctor called a play himself, looking for quarterback Kelvin Durham to find him in the left corner of the end zone.
Durham hit Proctor for a 24-yard touchdown on the next snap.
“That’s how we operate as a team,” Flowers said. “We believe in each other. And that’s what we’re going to do this weekend. The history and how it’s been so long, we talk about it, but we feel like there’s some more history to be written.”
Golden Bulls limited the CIAA’s leading rusher in regular season
JC Smith redshirt freshman running back Bobby Smith ranks second in the CIAA, averaging 91.1 rushing yards per game.
Smith, who goes by “Bobby T.,” arrived last summer fresh out of Boynton Beach Community High School in South Florida — Lamar Jackson’s alma mater — and took handoffs early in games among a crowded backfield. An extended fall break ensured Smith didn’t take enough snaps for it to have counted as his freshman season, and the extra work he put in throughout the offseason has shown.
Virginia Union, on a seven-game win streak coming into Saturday, handed JC Smith its only loss this season, a 28-10 defeat Sept. 20 in Richmond. Panthers running back Curtis Allen, the CIAA’s leading rusher by a wide margin with 2,098 yards, was kept to his lowest total of the season (114 rushing yards) against the Golden Bulls.
“We’re not in this as a ‘revenge game’ because they beat us earlier,” Flowers said. “What we’re really concentrating on is we’re focused on us. We respect Virginia Union — I mean, how can you not respect a two-time, back-to-back champion, and how they’ve done it? They went to the third round last year in the playoffs. They’ve got a coaching staff that’s been together for a long time. They recruit well. They teach well. Nothing but respect for them.
“But what we do know is we’ve beaten this program, though. We’ve done things that have been successful against them. And we just have to do it again on Saturday.”
Where to watch JC Smith in the 2025 CIAA championship
Fans can watch Johnson C. Smith try for its first CIAA title since the ‘60s live on WCCB-TV at 3 p.m. Saturday.
- Over the air: Channel 18.1
- Spectrum Cable: Channels 11 and 1212
- Comporium Cable: Channel 0111
- DirecTV: Channel 18
- Dish Network: Channel 18
- AT&T U-verse: Channel 1018
