Coach McKinney Confident in 2022 Texas Southern Tigers
The Texas Southern Tigers open the season on the road against Houston area and SWAC Western Division rival Prairie View A&M Panthers on Sept. 3. HBCU Legends had an opportunity to speak to head coach Clarence McKinney about his 2022 Tigers team, quarterback Andrew Body, his defense, and players to watch this season.
July 21, 2022; Texas Southern Tigers quarterback Andrew Body is interviewed by ESPN at the 2022 SWAC Football Media in Birmingham, Alabama at the Sheraton-Birmingham Hotel. Credit: SWAC
ON ANDREW BODY
I feel really good about him. I think he's going to show a lot of improvement and a lot of growth from last season. He's got a year of experience within our system. He understanding what we're asking of him to do, and I think this is going to be an exciting year for him.
ON HIS 2022 DEFENSE
Yeah, we lost some key components. But defensively, we also return a lot of guys. We played over 50 freshmen last year; a lot of those guys were on the defensive side of the ball. They're just like Andrew. They've got a year of experience under their belt. They're hungry. They want to go out and play a lot better defense on this year than what we did on last season.
ON THE LABOR DAY CLASSIC
Bubba [McDowell] is a friend of mine. The whole Labor Day Classic, TSU versus Prairie View. This is the start of football season. It's a huge game you open with the conference game, and give you can give yourself an opportunity to be in first place in the conference on the west side. It's a very important game.
You gotta love those bragging rights. And it also gives you a leg up on recruiting in the Houston area. So it's a very important game to our success.
July 21, 2022; Texas Southern Tigers defensive end Demontario Anderson is interviewed by ESPN at the 2022 SWAC Football Media in Birmingham, Alabama at the Sheraton-Birmingham Hotel.
ON PLAYERS TO WATCH, NOT NAMED BODY
I think defensively, you got to look at a guy like DE Demontario Anderson, LB Tarik Cooper. A guy who set out on last year with an injury is returning in our d-line, Viramontes Pippins. I think any one of those three guys we're expecting to lead that defense and to be standouts.
What's going to be the score after the Labor Day Classic?
"1-0, TSU." ~ Coach Clarence McKinney
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