ETTRICK, V.A. – The 2022 Virginia State University Football season will be the start of a new era, the Frazier Era! Dr. Henry Frazier, III was named the 26th Head Football Coach of the Virginia State Football team on May 10, 2022 and looks forward to leading the Trojans this season. 

"I'm excited, we have great numbers right now which tells me we'll get to have some physical practices which will help our coaches evaluate the players a little better," said Frazier. "Everyone will have a clean slate and a fair opportunity to be a part of what we're trying to get done."

VSU will open the season on the road against the top-ranked Lenoir-Rhyne University Bears, en route to a 10-game schedule that will feature five home games.

Coach Frazier's first and most important agenda item is focusing on the team, not the opponents. He wants to play with tempo on both sides of the ball, resulting in specific conditioning drills. On the offensive side of the ball, Coach Frazier's main objective is to push the pace with a "no huddle" offense to tire out the opponents defense. On defense, his primary goal is to stop the run and force teams into obvious passing situations. Above all, Frazier wants a discipline team that works together and communicates. 

"The things I will demand from my team have nothing to do with talent, I need them to play fast, physical and disciplined," said Frazier. "I need my young men to be disciplined off the field, as well, because what they do off, the field is almost a direct correlation to what they do on the field. I want them to just do the absolute best that they can do. If they can do those little things they will have some success." 

The New Regime 
The VSU football program will not only welcome a new head coach, the squad will also welcome a whole new coaching staff to the Land of Troy. Coach Frazier was able to bring four coaches along with him to take VSU Football to the next level. These coaches are familiar with the CIAA!

Lamar Manigo will be the Offensive Coordinator as he comes to VSU by way of Shaw University.

Carlos Fields, Jr. will be taking over the reins of the historically sound VSU defense as the Defensive Coordinator. Prior to VSU, Fields was an Assistant Defensive Line and Linebackers coach at Alabama A&M under Head Coach Connell Maynor.

John Pearce will be calling the shots as the Defensive Line Coach and Special Teams Coordinator. Prior to arriving at Virginia State, Coach Pearce served eight seasons as the head football coach at Sul Ross State University.

Lawrence Kershaw is entering his first season as the Offensive Line Coach and Recruiting Coordinator. Coach Kershaw comes to VSU after four seasons at Winston-Salem State.

Coleman Blackston enters his first season as a Graduate Assistant - Tight Ends coach. Blackston comes to VSU after attending Lackawanna Junior College, Hartnell Junior College and Fairmont State University prior to attending Shaw University.

Out With the Old, In With the New
The quarterback battle has been an interesting piece of fall camp as the two true freshman in Jakari Joyce and Meziah Scott battle it out with veteran Jordan Davis and former Heritage standout and Delaware State transfer, Jabari Blake. Tranfers Jabari Blake and Meziah Scott are two front runners for the starting job while the lone returner Jordan Davis takes a decent portion of the first team reps. Davis is ready for the key to the offense after being an extremely solid backup to Cordelral Cook in 2019 and having his season cut short do to an ACL injury in 2021. He earned 310 passing yards and four touchdowns in eight games in 2019. A season ago, he earned 363 yards and a pair of passing touchdowns in only four games. Jabari Blake was once a household name in the 804 as he helped lead his team to a 14-1 record winning the Virginia High School League (VHSL) state championship. He was named the VHSL Class 3A State Offensive Player of the Year, was selected first-team all-region, and first-team all-state. While he did not get to see much playing time at Delaware State, he got his best chance to show his skills against Virginia University of Lynchburg throwing for 60 yards and completing five passes on seven attempts. Meziah Scott came back home to Petersburg after spending a season with the Catamounts of Western Carolina up in the mountains of Cullowee, North Carolina. Scott was named the Spring 2021 Region 3A Offensive Player of the Year and a first-team offense selection. He was nominated for the Mark L. Fischer Player of the Year Award after breaking the Petersburg High career passing record with 5,034 yards and 48 passing TDs over his first 32 career games while also adding 1,622 yards and 23 scores on the ground over his first three seasons. Scott was dubbed first-team All-State as a junior in 2019 after passing for 2,006 yards and 21 TDs with 630 yards rushing and eight scores. The 804 native was named the Region 3-A Offensive Player of the Year and Progress Index Athlete of the Year as just a sophomore in 2018. 

The running back room has proven to be a scary sight for CIAA defensive coordinators and are headlined by the senior Darius Hagans. Hagans has displayed his dominance in two-straight seasons with the Trojans as he has gained over 1,000 career yards with almost 300 receiving yards and 16 total career touchdowns. In 2021, he led the team in rushing attempts (108) as well as yards (491) and tied for rushing touchdowns (3). Hagans found his stride later in the 2021, season rushing for 199 yards on 22 carries against Bowie State. While he was a bruising back in between the tackles, Hagans showed his versatility as a pass catcher as three receiving touchdowns ranked him second on the team. Against Chowan and Elizabeth City State, Hagans gained over 100 total yards on the ground and through the air and scored two or more touchdowns in both games. Upton Bailey will be a very viable option to relieve Hagans as he showed bursts of lightning speed in the 2021 matchup against ECSU where he earned 58 yards on just four carries. Bailey was also responsible for the longest rushing play from scrimmage a season ago as he took a ordinary rushing play 74 yards to the house which provided a much needed spark in the Bowie State game. 

While the Trojans receiving core lost their leading returner, the position group still have very capable playmakers in Roy Jackson, III, Tylin Oden and Tylique Ray. Jackson returns the most receptions (21), receiving yards (233) and ties for touchdowns (2). The 6'4 Tylin Oden looks to expand his role this season after bringing down 12 receptions for 150 yards a season ago. His best game came against Ohio Dominican where he brought down five receptions for 55 yards. He had splash plays against Bowie State and Virginia Union scoring on a 12-yard fade route against BSU and a reverse toss play against VUU. The former division one quarterback also delivered a 34-yard touchdown pass to Darius Hagans against Chowan. While Tylique Ray's 2021 stats may not stand out, his claim to fame came against Fayetteville State when he caught back-to-back passes against FSU's fourth round NFL draft pick, Joshua Williams. He ended his season with 13 grabs for 105 yards. 

The Trojans offensive line will look to fill the void of Zachary Wilcox and Damian Wilson heading into 2022. That being said, the Trojans return Matthew Foster and Malik Thompson who both started on an offensive line that scored 14 rushing touchdowns and only gave up 20 sacks last season.

While the group lost former all-conference selections in Adonte Braxton and Javon Frazier, the defensive line has a host of returning talent led by Duane Platt. In 2021, Platt accounted for 4.5 sacks, 4.5 tackles-for-loss and 13 total tackles. Platt will look to continue the momentum he found in the last three games of 2021 as he got to the quarterback once in each of those games. Javon Burks was a force in defending the run game last season as he accounted for a forced fumble, a fumble recovery and seven tackles-for-loss. His best performance came Elizabeth City State where he accounted for 3.5 tackles-for-loss and a forced fumble. 

Leading this year's Trojan defense is All-CIAA Linebacker, Zion Johnson. A season ago, Johnson played in every game, collecting 24 solo tackles, 46 assisted and a single sack for three yards. Johnson was essentially in on every tackle as his 46 assisted tackles made him the conference leader while 70 total tackles which ranked Johnson 10th in the conference. He made his presence felt against Elizabeth City State and Fayetteville State as he earned double-digit total tackles in both contests.

The group that retains the most talent is the defensive backs group despite losing free safety Will Adams whose swift ascension granted him the opportunity to currently fight for a roster spot with the Washington Commanders. Kymon Pope looks to be the heart and soul of the secondary as the Sophomore Nickel burst onto the scene last season. Pope gained a bit of notoriety in just the second game of his collegiate career against Ohio Dominican as he accounted for three solo tackles and a pair of pass breakups. Kymon Pope gained the attention of his teammates, fans and opposing coaches after his big homecoming performance against Lincoln (Pa.) which earned him CIAA Freshman of the Week Honors. In that game, he was credited with 11 total tackles, two sacks, an interception and a 30-yard punt return that set up the VSU offense in plus territory. The next week, he earned five total tackles along with a tackle-for-loss the Virginia Union rivalry game. TJ Tucker also had an extremely solid freshman season as he was responsible for 40 total tackles which, ranked him fifth on the team. Tucker put the conference on notice game one against Lenior-Rhyne a season ago as he accounted for eight total tackles with a pair of tackles-for-loss and a pass breakup. Willie Drew is also back for season two after accounting for five breakups along with 25 tackles in 2021. 

During both spring and fall camps the Trojans coaching staff have been working hard to replace kicker/punter Nickolas Woolfolk and kick/punt returner Andre Jackson as both were ranked nationally a season ago.  

The Trojans will look to avenge last year's season opening loss to Lenoir-Rhyne on September 3 at 6:00 p.m. as the squad hits the road to Hickory, NC to face the Bears.