By Nick Bowton
nbowton@salisburypost.com
The oldest rivalry in black college football renews again today when Livingstone travels to Charlotte to play Johnson C. Smith.
The Blue Bears typically have as much motivation for this game as any other because of the history of a rivalry that started in 1892. This season, however, Livingstone has an even bigger reason to look forward to the J.C. Smith game.
One week after getting the first victory of the Lamonte Massie era, the Blue Bears have a chance to start a winning streak against one of the worst defenses in the CIAA.
“I’m excited,” said Massie, whose Blue Bears improved to 1-4 with a 27-10 victory at Lincoln (Pa.) last week. “We got back from Lincoln about 3:30 in the morning, and all I did was look at stats, look where (Smith’s) weaknesses are. I was looking at all the situations in our favor ó what a great time for our running game to come together.”
Livingstone certainly did have a rushing-game revival at an opportune time.
The Blue Bears rushed for 184 yards against Lincoln after registering 137 in the first four games combined. Senior Rashaad Flucker had 25 carries for 150 yards against Lincoln.
J.C. Smith’s defense, meanwhile, ranks 10th in the conference in both rushing yards per game (214.6) and points per game (36.8).
If Livingstone can continue to run the ball as well as it did last week, the Blue Bears might be able to beat a Golden Bulls team that beat them 47-7 last season. Massie said this year‚s game should be more competitive and that J.C. Smith and Livingstone are about as evenly matched as possible.
Unfortunately for both programs, they‚re evenly matched at 1-4, not 4-1.
„Two historically black colleges, and both of our programs have not been as successful as both would like to be,‰ Massie said. „(Fans) follow winners. If we were both winning eight, nine, 10, 11 games a season, I think the world would know ? at least in the black college arena, it would be more of an impact game.
„They say, ?Oh, for real, these two teams played back whenever?‚ It‚s an, ?Oh, by the way,‚ deal.‰