By Nate Abraham Jr.
Commentary College football season in South Carolina is over. It was a good year for fans of HBCUs, not so much for fans of South Carolina’s Division One programs. Benedict and SC State had great seasons, USC, Clemson and Coastal Carolina did not.
As a USC Gamecock fan, the end of football season was a relief. Watching the Gamecocks play this year was like watching a close relative with a fatal disease – there is a constant sense of impending doom. You know that every brief moment of hope will quickly be crushed under reality.
The South Carolina State Bulldogs’ season was the complete opposite. You knew that no matter what they faced, they were going to find a way to win. Last Saturday, they were down 21-0 at halftime in the Celebration Bowl. They stormed back to tie the game in the third quarter, and won the game in four overtimes.
It’s not a stretch to say that SC State head football Coach Chennis Berry is the best coach in the state. In his five years as a head coach, he has never had a losing season. Since going 5-5 in his first season as head coach at Benedict, he has won at least a conference championship every year. He has not lost a conference game in four seasons, and won his first national championship with SC State with a victory in the Celebration Bowl last Saturday against Prairie View A&M.
Even more impressive, SC State went undefeated in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and won a national title with practically a new team. The Bulldogs had 44 new players on the team this season. You have to be a great coach to win a national title after losing more than half of your previous team – which also competed for a national title.
You have to give props to Benedict College President Dr. Roslyn Clark-Artis and the
Benedict board for recognizing Coach Berry’s potential and giving him his first head coaching job after he spent 26 years as an assistant coach. I still remember the press conference where he was introduced as Benedict’s coach. You could tell that there was something different about him. Ironically, Benedict fans had to wait an entire year to find out how good he was after the football season was cancelled because of the Covid outbreak.
With Berry’s outstanding
