BATON ROUGE — Florida A&M head coach Willie Simmons gathered his players near the 50-yard line at the end of the third quarter at A.W. Mumford Stadium. The Rattlers, which trailed for nearly the entire first half of Saturday’s game, were clinging to a 23–17 lead against Southern.
Moments away from the fourth quarter starting, Southern fans danced, swayed side to side and shook their blue and yellow pompoms to the music over the jumbotron as if they were on Bourbon Street on a Saturday night. The raucous atmosphere—between the music from the scoreboard or FAMU’s “Marching 100” and Southern’s Human Jukebox exchanging R&B hits and old-school melodies—it was what Simmons had prepared his players for all week.