5-touchdown game for Franklin, VSU Blazers headed back to national championship game
Published 5:34 pm Saturday, December 14, 2024
Becky Taylor/Valdosta Daily Times Alfonso Franklin makes the turn on a throw from Sammy Edwards, scoring on a four-yard pass in the first quarter.
Becky Taylor/Valdosta Daily Times A little crease is a lot of yardage and a touchdown for Alfonso Franklin of Valdosta State. The 10-yard rush was the fourth of his five touchdowns Saturday.
Becky Taylor/Valdosta Daily Times Can Alfonso Franklin make it five touchdowns? Yes, he can as he dives and swipes the pylon with 1:51 remaining in the game, sealing VSU’s win.
Becky Taylor/Valdosta Daily Times Armani Hayes skies to reel in a Sammy Edwards pass and pick up a fourth down on the Blazers’ first drive of the day. VSU went on to score a touchdown.
Becky Taylor/Valdosta Daily Times VSU players pose with a Division II championship tournament banner.
Christian Vasser Becky Taylor/Valdosta Daily Times Diego Bremer comes in from the top and and Larry Elder has Christian Vasser by the ankle on the fourth quarter rush.
Becky Taylor/Valdosta Daily Times Give this Valdosta State fan a dime for his sign. It wasn’t weird that VSU improved Saturday to 2-0 against Minnesota State and more importantly, head for the Division II national title game.
Becky Taylor/Valdosta Daily Times Jaedon Henry gashed the Mavericks for big gains in the third period and held on to the ball despite a Herculean effort by a defender to strip him.
Becky Taylor/Valdosta Daily Times VSU head coach Tremaine Jackson gives lineman James Robinson a big bear hug after the Blazers defeated Minnesota State 35-21 to reach the NCAA Division II football finals.
Becky Taylor/Valdosta Daily Times It was a time for the Blazers to celebrate, but not before showing sportsmanship. Joey Goettl and Noah Gillan shake hands after the final play of the game.
Becky Taylor/Valdosta Daily Times Ma’jon Wright is going places on a reception in the first half.
Becky Taylor/Valdosta Daily Times Rance Conner celebrates his interception in the final minute of Valdosta State’s victory.
Becky Taylor/Valdosta Daily Times Rance Conner put a nail in the Blazers semifinal win with a last-minute interception. He returned the ball to the 1 before being tackled.
Becky Taylor/Valdosta Daily Times Reid Brass waves a Valdosta State flag as the team celebrates on the field.
Becky Taylor/Valdosta Daily Times Sammy Edwards holds out the ball on a rush to get every inch he can before stepping out of bounds.
By Austin Bruce
VALDOSTA — Valdosta State has done it again.
The Blazers (13-0) will once again play for a national championship, punching their ticket to McKinney, Texas, with a 35-21 win over Minnesota State (11-4).
With the win, Blazers head coach Tremaine Jackson became the fifth different head coach to lead VSU to the national championship game. The Blazers also moved to 7-0 in the semifinals.
For Jackson, this is just how he envisioned things back in August.
“1 Corinthians 3:6 says, ‘I planted the seed. Apollos watered it,’” Jackson said. “God’s been making it grow. These guys bought into that back in August, and that’s kind of been our theme of watering the seed. Obviously, we’ve been doing that all season with every game we’ve played. These men and women in our locker room have been successful. We have not lost, obviously, to this point. Very, very proud of our guys in the locker room for playing for the man in the helmet and not the logo on the side of the helmet. Also very proud of our staff, our coaches, and our support staff. It takes a lot of people to get to this point.”
Still, Minnesota State didn’t make it easy Saturday.
While the Blazers did find paydirt on their first four possessions of the game, they took just a 14-7 lead into halftime. The Blazers and Mavericks combined for just four possessions in the first 30 minutes, excluding VSU’s possession to end the half following a missed field goal by the Mavericks.
The Mavericks quickly tied things up early in the third quarter on a 69-yard touchdown run from running back Sam Backer.
That’s when Alfonso Franklin took over for the Blazers. The senior running back, who had already recorded two receiving touchdowns in the first half, tacked on two rushing touchdowns in the third quarter to give Valdosta State a 28-14 lead entering the final stretch.
Minnesota State wasn’t finished yet, however. Quarterback Hayden Ekern helped engineer an 11-play drive for a response, capping it off with a 25-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Isaiah Emanuel on fourth-and-seven to make it 28-21.
The Mavericks then got a quick stop defensively to force the first punt for either side. The Mavericks were unable to take advantage, though, as the Blazers were able to pin them deep and got them to go three-and-out. The two teams repeated this exchange on the following two series heading into the final minutes of the game.
Graduate linebacker Joko Willis made it clear that the defense wasn’t going to allow the Mavericks to quickly march down the field and score.
“Driving 90 yards on us is going to be taking a long time,” Willis said. “We were trying to get off the field fast, so coach sent two or three blitzes back-to-back-to-back. It made it easy to make plays.”
Following the punt exchange, the Blazers finally delivered the dagger, a 24-yard touchdown run from Franklin with just under two minutes to play.
Though he could have slid to kill the clock, Franklin decided to take matters into his own hands.
“Coach told me that if I got the first to slide, but that wasn’t happening,” Franklin said.
Jackson added on to that, joking that the coaches knew that Franklin wasn’t going to slide.
“We knew he wasn’t going down,” Jackson said. “We said that on the headset.”
The Mavericks’ last gasp on offense was snuffed out as junior cornerback Rance Conner picked off Ekern to end any hopes of a miraculous comeback.
Following the game, Jackson shared a heartfelt moment with former athletic director Herb Reinhard, who brought Jackson to Titletown in 2022. Reinhard retired earlier this year.
“I think Herb Reinhard might be the greatest talent identifier of coaches that is around,” Jackson said. “You don’t get five coaches to go to the semifinals and national championship game and have these opportunities with a program where every three to four or five years, there’s a new coach because of that success. Herb Reinhard gave me an opportunity after not knowing me from Adam. Marty McGhin gave me an opportunity after not knowing me from Adam. … I was way across the country.”
Jackson added: “These dudes, they got a call, they got a call that told them they should take a look, and they did, and that’s not normal. I’m very appreciative of that. When Mr. Reinhard retired, I told him we weren’t going to let him down. I understood that history and that standard.”
