It’s fourth-and-one for Tremaine Jackson and Prairie View A&M Panthers

If nothing else, Tremaine Jackson is a football coach at his core.

So, it just seems natural that the second-year Prairie View A&M football coach thinks in on-the-field situations even as he tries to make sense of what is going wrong with the Panthers. 

Prairie View, the defending SWAC champions and HBCU national runner-up, faces the possibility that what was supposed to be a repeat season is falling apart, with the Panthers sitting at 2-5 overall and 2-2 in league play.

Time is running out on this season.

“It ain’t just this win. The urgency around here … It’s fourth-and-one,” Jackson said to the Defender this week when asked about the sense of urgency during the weekly SWAC Coaches Call. “Talking to you right now is wasting my time in my mind because it’s fourth-and-one and you’ve got no play call for me.”

But Jackson and his staff are looking to make the right call in hopes of salvaging a season that seems to be spiraling. The Panthers, the overwhelming favorites to repeat as SWAC West champs and return to the Celebration Bowl, have lost back-to-back conference games to Mississippi Valley State and Southern.

Offensively, they are still looking for consistency with quarterback Tevin Carter in control, and the defense has been susceptible to both the run and the pass. To confront the deficiencies on both sides of the football, Jackson announced this week that he has relieved offensive coordinator Chris Buckner and defensive backs coach Darren Garrigan of their duties.

Running backs coach Clifford Fedd is assuming the offensive coordinator and playcalling roles, while defensive coordinator Brandon Andersen and defensive assistant Frank Whirley will share secondary coaching duties as the Panthers get set to host Alcorn State in a must-win situation for Homecoming.

“We don’t waste a lot of time around here, man,” Jackson said. “The urgency has always been here. It’s been here since we got here. Nothing has changed at Prairie View A&M. Prairie View A&M knows exactly who it is and what we are doing here.

“It’s always been urgent. It’s fourth-and-one. It’s urgent. That’s just how we operate.”

Upside down SWAC

But there is no denying that Jackson is getting something of a wake-up call, largely due to the reality of coaching in an HBCU league. The lack of NIL money and the constant revolving door because of the transfer portal, which makes it easy for even other FCS programs to come in and take the top talent, has made it hard for the top HBCU programs like Prairie View, Jackson State, Alabama State, Florida A&M, and Grambling State to be consistent from year to year.

Case in point, the Preseason SWAC Football rankings predicted that Prairie View and Alabama State would win their respective West and East division titles. Yet, seven weeks into the season, Alabama State is at the bottom of the East, and the Panthers are in the bottom half of the West.

In the meantime, once struggling programs like Mississippi Valley State are surging.

What is the reason for this?

“The transfer portal,” Grambling State coach Mickey Joseph said to the Defender. “They (PWI programs) take your good players, and you’ve got to go find some more good players.

“I will say this about this conference, everybody has got the same type of players, and everybody has the same problems. Now it’s “can you get your kids to play?”

Could QB change be next?

Trying to push the right buttons to get similar production as last season out of players is where Jackson and his staff seem to be.

This week’s coaching staff shake-up seems to indicate that nothing is off the table for Jackson to turn the season around. Jackson has been supportive of Carter, a dual-threat quarterback in his first season as a full-time starter, who has done some good things. But during this past weekend’s loss to Southern, he threw three costly interceptions, which included the pick-six in the waning seconds of the game that thwarted the Panthers’ comeback attempt.

While Jackson continues to support his second-year quarterback, there is also a chance either Kaeden Smith or Preston Brown could be up next. The three were in a too-close-to-call competition through much of fall camp before Carter ultimately won the job.

“I believe in Tevin Carter. I believe Tevin Carter is a good player, and I think he has shown that time and time again,” Jackson said. “The last two weeks just hadn’t been very good. I’m not going to sit here and hope the next two weeks to get it right.

“We’ve got a really big game coming up this weekend, and we want to make sure we put our best foot forward.”

The Panthers’ best effort is exactly what Alcorn State coach Cedric Thomas is expecting this weekend. The Braves struggled early but now sit in a first-place tie with Grambling State for the lead in the West.

Prairie View, which beat Grambling State last month, needs a win over Alcorn State to get back in the division title conversation. It will be a big must-have game for both teams at Panther Stadium.

“The good thing about it is that we were that desperate team a couple of months ago, being 0-5 and 1-6, playing some games down the stretch,” Thomas said to the Defender. “So our guys know what that looks like and won’t take it for granted.

“We know Coach Jackson will have those guys chomping at the bit, and they have a lot to play for. They are still in it with a fighting chance. We are trying to put ourselves to maintain where we are at.”

Possible over-scheduling

While the play on the field is a concern, another issue may be how athletic director Anton Goff and Jackson constructed this season’s schedule in hopes of putting the Panthers on the map as more than just an HBCU power but as a player in all of FCS football.

Prairie View scheduled games this season against top FCS programs like second-ranked Tarleton State, No.3 Stephen F. Austin, and East Texas A&M. So far, this decision to ramp up the non-conference schedule hasn’t seemed to be beneficial at all after blowout losses to Tarleton State (49-30) and Stephen F. Austin (31-10) and with the Lions of the Southland Conference coming up later this month.

The Panthers also suffered a 44-3 loss to Baylor of the Big 12 in what is commonly known as a money game in which the program and athletic department benefit financially. Prairie View doesn’t get the same benefit from facing FCS opponents. 

Getting back to what Jackson knows

But right now, the focus seems to be on what Jackson knows best: Competing for titles at both the conference level and on the national stage. He won back-to-back conference championships (2023 and 2024) with Division II Valdosta State and led the Division II powerhouse program to the national title game in 2024.

Then last season, he guided the Panthers to uncharted territory after winning the SWAC West. They won the conference title and represented the league in the national championship game.

While Jackson is known for saying, “Just because you were, doesn’t mean you are,” he hasn’t been shy about saying a successful season for him only happens when the confetti falls on his team at the conclusion of the national title game.

“Since 2023, I don’t know what it’s like not to hold a trophy up at the end,” said Jackson, whose foundation this season is largely built with the roughly 70 new players signed in the offseason. “So, we walked in the door urgent. It remains the same right now, and we still have an opportunity. So, my staff is urgent because we have been living like this since 2023 in two different areas. That’s all we know. I don’t know anything else.

“People talk about Plan Bs, I don’t have a Plan B. This is all I know as a coach. If I didn’t coach here, I don’t know… It’s not like I’m going to go sell pharmaceuticals. I’m going to coach, and since I’m going to coach, this is the only way I know how to be; fourth-and-one every single day.”