Florida A&M needed only one game under Quinn Gray to offer a glimpse of what the Rattlers might become.<\/p>\n
Ten sacks. Three rushing yards allowed. Two blocked kicks. Twenty points and a victory in Gray\u2019s first game leading the program where he once starred at quarterback.<\/p>\n
Now comes the measuring stick.<\/p>\n
Florida A&M faces defending HBCU national champion South Carolina State on Sunday in the Orange Blossom Classic at Hard Rock Stadium (3 p.m., ESPN). Now the question for the program is how close they are to becoming the program Gray wants them to become?<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m excited to see where we will be against the defending national champions,\u201d Gray said when the matchup was announced in March. \u201cYou want to make sure you\u2019re playing quality opponents so you can measure up to figure out where you are as a program.\u201d<\/p>\n
Six months later, that measurement arrived.<\/p>\n
FAMU opened Gray\u2019s tenure with a 20-7 victory over Albany State on Aug. 29. The Rattlers\u2019 defense overwhelmed Gray\u2019s former team, limiting Albany State to 160 total yards and 3 rushing yards while recording 10 sacks.<\/p>\n
Antonio Camon Jr. finished with three sacks and Paul Gatney added two as FAMU\u2019s defense provided the clearest reason for optimism entering Week 2.<\/p>\n
South Carolina State will arrive in Miami Gardens after producing a dramatically different opening statement.<\/p>\n
After defeating Savannah State 87-0 while setting a program record for points, and piling up 627 yards of offense, the Bulldogs rushed for 423 yards, converted eight of 10 third downs and scored on all 11 trips into the red zone.<\/p>\n
Savannah State never reached the red zone.<\/p>\n
\u201cOpening the season against a championship-caliber South Carolina State team is exactly the type of challenge FAMU embraces,\u201d said Gray, 47. \u201cGreat teams want to measure themselves against great competition.\u201d<\/p>\n
South Carolina State went 10-3 last season, won its second consecutive MEAC championship and captured the Black College Football National Championship under coach Chennis Berry.<\/p>\n
Now the two programs will face each other in the Orange Blossom Classic which was founded in 1933 by J.R.E. Lee Jr., the son of a former FAMU president. The classic became one of the premier showcases for Black college football during segregation.<\/p>\n
FAMU played in 49 of the first 51 Orange Blossom Classics and enters Sunday with a 27-21-1 record in the event. The Classic disappeared after 1978 before returning in 2021.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you think about the Orange Blossom Classic, it\u2019s synonymous with FAMU,\u201d executive director Kendra Bulluck-Major said earlier this summer. \u201cIt was always FAMU.\u201d<\/p>\n
The modern version has grown beyond football. Organizers say the revived Classic has generated more than $500,000 in scholarships while incorporating HBCU cultural events, bands, educational programming and community initiatives throughout the weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur players understand they\u2019re representing something much bigger than football,\u201d Gray said. \u201cAlumni, students, fans and future Rattlers all come together. It\u2019s an opportunity to represent FAMU with excellence.\u201d<\/p>\n
But at 3 p.m. Sunday, the focus returns to football. Now Gray gets his first opportunity to measure his new program against one of the standards of HBCU football.<\/p>\n
More importantly, Gray gets to do it near home.<\/p>\n
As a native of Fort Lauderdale, where his late father, Otis Gray, was a legendary high school football coach at Fort Lauderdale Dillard, Quinn Gray gets to create his own legacy.<\/p>\n
\u201cReturning to lead my alma mater makes every opportunity special,\u201d Gray said. \u201cWearing the orange and green carries tremendous responsibility. I want our players to appreciate what this stage represents.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/TOS-Z-FAMU-BLOSS-0904-01.jpg\")
The uniforms for the South Carolina State Bulldogs, Florida A&M Rattlers and the championship trophy are on display during an Orange Blossom Classic press conference at the Miami Gardens City Hall on March 25. The game itself is Sunday at Hard Rock Stadium. (Matias J. Ocner\/Miami Herald)<\/p>\n
His second game as FAMU\u2019s head coach now brings him back to South Florida with the defending national champions waiting.<\/p>\n
South Carolina State will provide the test.<\/p>\n
What FAMU does with it should reveal considerably more than Week 1 could.<\/p>\n
The Rattlers already know they can win under Quinn Gray.<\/p>\n
Sunday begins to show how far they can go.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida A&M needed only one game under Quinn Gray to offer a glimpse of what the Rattlers might…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391406,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[41595,111,28,249,251,250,76046,110],"class_list":["post-391405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-college-gridiron-365","tag-college-sports","tag-florida","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news","tag-social-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}