Johnson C. Smith turned a negative into a positive and ran past Tuskegee 21-13 in the fourth annual Red Tails Classic at the historic Cramton Bowl.
Junior tailback and Michigan State transfer Quavaris Crouch scored on the first play of the third quarter when he raced 75 yards to give the Golden Bulls a 14-7 lead just 11 seconds into the second half.
Crouch had a touchdown nullified by a penalty in the final seconds of the first half and the Golden Bulls missed a subsequent field goal that left the teams tied at halftime.
“Upset’s a good word to say,” Johnson C. Smith head coach Maurice Flowers said. “What we said at halftime was let’s stop helping them. Most of the things that they got were things that we gave them.”
Crouch took a simple handoff on the first play of the third quarter, found a hole and outran Tuskegee defenders for the go-ahead 75-yard touchdown run.
“What we did, if you go back to Pop Warner football, you might call it ‘Dive Right’ or ‘Dive Left,’ Flowers added. “I mean, that’s what it was. You had to just trust what you’ve been taught. And so when you have a veteran team, that’s what you can do. You can trust the team and just trust the process because they believe in the system. And if you believe in the system, the system is sound. We should be able to make some big plays to keep us in the game.”
Tuskegee head coach Aaron James called it a “momentum changer”.
“We had a blown assignment,” James said. “The running back went straight up the middle, up the ‘A’ gap and scored a touchdown. Coming out of the half, you know, that should never happen. Like I said, it was just a mental mistake and we’ve just got to go back and clean up a lot of things.”
Crouch finished with 21 carries for 161 yards and one touchdown to earn Red Tails Classic MVP honors. The 161 rushing yards and 75-yard run are both the second most in Red Tails Classic history.
Tuskegee answered with a 51-yard touchdown drive set up by Devon Cooper’s 32-yard kickoff return.
Senior running back Johnny Morris capped the five-play drive with a 1-yard TD run. Junior Lorcan Ryans missed the extra point attempt, leaving the Tigers with a 14-13 deficit.
Johnson C. Smith junior receiver Bevin Caldwell was the playmaker in the passing game. He caught seven passes for 90 yards and two touchdowns. Caldwell had a 37-yard catch-and-run touchdown late in the third quarter to give the Golden Bulls a 21-13 lead.
Johnson C. Smith turned a fumble recovery into a touchdown in the final minute of the first quarter for the game’s first score. Junior linebacker Chris Jackson recovered a fumble by Tuskegee freshman receiver Reggie Brigman at the Golden Tigers’ 21-yard line.
Five plays later, junior quarterback Darius Ocean tossed a 7-yard touchdown pass to a wide-open Caldwell in the corner of the end zone to give the Golden Bulls a 7-0 lead with 58 seconds left in the first quarter.
Tuskegee made a big play on special teams to set up the game-tying touchdown on the next possession. Sophomore Timarcus Grayson blocked a punt to put the Golden Tigers at the 9-yard line.
After taking an 11-yard sack on first down, junior quarterback Raquon Beal redeemed himself with a 15-yard touchdown pass to junior receiver Karon Taylor to knot the score at 7-7 with 10:41 left in the first half.
Johnson C. Smith (1-0) played in the Red Tails Classic for the first time. Flowers improved to 2-0 as head coach at the Red Tails Classic. He led Fort Valley State to a 30-0 win over Tuskegee in the inaugural Red Tails Classic in 2021.
Tuskegee (0-1) fell to 1-3 in Red Tails Classic games, losing twice to Fort Valley State (2021 and 2022) and a third time on Sunday. The Golden Tigers’ lone win came against Fort Valley State in 2023.
