After decades of struggle, Prairie View A&M is atop the SWAC. The team’s new challenge? Staying there.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Before arriving at the Southwestern Athletic Conference’s football media day in July, Prairie View A&M coach Tremaine Jackson watched an old video of the Panthers facing Alcorn State.

The quarterback on the screen belonged to another era, but Jackson did not need an introduction. The footage was from the early 1990s, when Alcorn State, led by Steve “Air” McNair, beat Prairie View four consecutive times by an average of 50 points — though in those days, it didn’t take a future NFL MVP quarterback to run the Panthers off the field.

That was the Prairie View of Jackson’s childhood. Born in Houston in 1983, he grew up less than an hour from campus as the Panthers endured an NCAA-record 80-game losing streak from 1989-98. Yet somewhere inside those years, a former Prairie View coach offered a warning that sounded more like prophecy.

“It ain’t going to always be like this,” the former coach said, according to Jackson. “Eventually, we’re going to get it together.”

Three decades later, Jackson sat beneath the media-day lights as proof. Last season, his first as head coach, Prairie View finished 10-4, won its first SWAC championship since 2009 and reached the Celebration Bowl for the first time. Though the Panthers lost in four overtimes, merely reaching the championship game in Atlanta meant they had accomplished something once bordering on unimaginable.

“I knew that other Prairie View,” Jackson said. “But it ain’t like that anymore. … This is a different time in our program, a different era.”

The new era carries a different kind of burden. Prairie View spent years trying to escape its history. Now the team must withstand expectations as defending conference champions and the preseason SWAC West favorite.

Prairie View athletic director Anton Goff can already sense the skepticism waiting behind the praise.

“I think a lot of people don’t think we can do it [win the SWAC title] again,” he said.

Jackson does not entertain the language of defending anything. He rejects the notion that the Panthers have become the hunted — even after declaring post-Celebration Bowl that any team seeking the conference title would have to come through Prairie View, Texas.

“There’s no target on our back,” Jackson said. “It might be somebody else who placed it there, but we don’t feel that way. We feel like we’re in the mud. We’ve got to find a way to get ourselves out of the mud.”

That mud is where Jackson wants his players — far from trophy photos, preseason votes and memories of Atlanta. Last season’s culture rested on Jackson’s “DOG” principles: discipline, obedience, grit. This team inherits the slogan, not the accomplishments.

Prairie View welcomed 64 newcomers this offseason, including 58 transfers, replenishing a roster that lost 12 starters. Seven departed from a defense that led the SWAC, allowing 17.9 points per game overall and 13.4 in conference play. Five starters left an offense that finally found a rhythm late in the season, scoring at least 30 points in four of its last five regular-season games.

Production can be replaced on a depth chart. Bonds cannot. Last year’s team survived close calls and the friction of a new staff because by season’s end, their connection had grown stronger than the discomfort around them.

“Us as coaches, we can draw up all the fun stuff in the world, but it doesn’t matter if your players can’t play together,” defensive coordinator Brandon Andersen said. “I think that was where [the defense’s] end-of-the-year success really came from.”

Now, Prairie View must teach dozens of newcomers how the last year’s team won, and only then ask them to help win again.

The returners serve as the bridge. They remember Jackson’s first fall camp from a year ago, the blunt corrections and the tension that comes when a new staff tears away old habits. They also remember where the process led.

“Some people might say he is old-fashioned in his coaching,” wide receiver Rodny Ojo said of Jackson. “Some people might be like, ‘Man, he doesn’t actually love you.’ But if he’s not ripping you a new one, if he’s not giving you tough love, he doesn’t really love you.”

Last season, Jackson brought several players to Prairie View from Valdosta State, where he had coached previously. They were veterans of his methods who gave Prairie View’s holdovers a living picture of his standard. This summer, Ojo and the returning players have assumed that role.

“I think we’re more player-led this year, and I’m glad we went through what we went through last year,” Ojo said. “There’s a majority of us that have already went through it to know what it takes to win in Atlanta. Now, we just have to get everybody on board.”

Every newcomer starts camp as a nameless team member, stripped of the outward privileges that often accompany reputation — no jersey number, gloves or socks. Not even a full claim to being a Panther.

“You’re just the basic default player [as] if you were playing a video game,” said Trent Earley, associate head coach and co-defensive coordinator.

The equipment returns in stages. A player who fits within the football program earns his number and gear. 

“Once we know that you’re fully invested, your teammates are following you and you’ve shown leadership qualities, there’s no doubt that you’re one of us,” Earley said.

Jackson’s staff manufactures strain before opponents can provide it. Bodies ache through the long days of camp. Patience thins. Players compete for roles, confront mistakes and reveal themselves when fatigue makes pretending difficult.

“We’re not afraid of failure,” Andersen said. “You need to go through some bumps and some bruises to get better. If the first time you go through adversity is on game day, you’re going to be in trouble.”

Prairie View learned that lesson in public last season. 

The team started 2-2, surviving Texas Southern on the final play of the Labor Day Classic, losing to Texas Rio Grande Valley and Rice, and narrowly outlasting Northwestern State. The Panthers then won four straight games before a Nov. 1 loss to Alabama State exposed how far they still had to climb. The game was tied at halftime, but Prairie View managed only seven points in the second half and eventually lost 31-28.

For Goff, that defeat became the turning point.

“He’s [Jackson] an incredibly smart football guy,” Goff said. “I had to block out all the noise, trust myself, live with and be comfortable with the decision I made [to hire him]. After the [Alabama State] loss, we started rolling.”

Now, others see Prairie View differently, too. The team entered last season projected to finish third in the SWAC West. This summer, the Panthers were picked to win the division. Inside the conference, they have become the standard they once chased.

Beyond it, though, Jackson believes old perceptions linger.

In July, Jackson publicly questioned why members of his staff were not invited to speak at the Texas High School Coaches Association’s annual coaching school and convention after Prairie View was the only Texas team to play for a national championship last season. He viewed the omission as evidence that some still judge the program by what it once was rather than what it is now.

“You thought Prairie View was something that Prairie View A&M is not anymore,” Jackson said in a video posted on social media. “Prairie View A&M plays real ball. We play real ball. We coach real ball. We recruit real football players.”

Prairie View’s schedule this season offers more evidence of Goff and Jackson’s vision for the program. Among its first four opponents are Tarleton State, Stephen F. Austin — two teams that finished among the FCS’ top programs last season — and Baylor, all games that will test the roster and shape recruiting battles across Texas.

Goff wants elite opponents because he wants Prairie View judged as an elite FCS program. Jackson is less diplomatic.

“I don’t care if it’s the 1985 [Chicago] Bears,” Jackson said. “When Prairie View shows up in the stadium, we plan to win.”

Prairie View no longer seeks respect for surviving its history. The Panthers want it for what they have built and what they believe they can become.

“Ultimately, we fell short in the Celebration Bowl, so we didn’t finish the job,” Earley said. “But more importantly, this year’s team hasn’t done anything yet.”

The job awaits at the end of the season in Atlanta, and Jackson has already imagined the scene at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, from kickoff to the final whistle.

“About 12 o’clock on Dec. 12, they’re going to kick the ball off,” Jackson said. “Prairie View A&M plans to be there. And at 4 o’clock, the confetti is going to fall on us.”

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