BLINN FOOTBALL HOPING FOR BREAKOUT WIN VS. NAVARRO

(Story by Joe Alberico, Blinn College Sports Information)

The Blinn College football team can make an early statement in the Southwest Junior College Football Conference race Saturday when the Buccaneers host No. 10 Navarro College at 7 p.m. at Cub Stadium in Brenham.

Blinn enters the matchup 2-1 overall following a dominant 66-0 victory over Community Christian, while Navarro is 2-1 overall and 1-0 in the SWJCFC.

The game will mark freshman quarterback David Richardson’s first conference start after he took over under center during the second half of Blinn’s loss to then-No. 4 Tyler Junior College on Sept. 5. Richardson made his collegiate debut against the Apaches and scored two rushing touchdowns.

Richardson then made his first collegiate start Sept. 12 against Community Christian, completing 9 of 12 passes for 114 yards and two touchdowns. He connected with sophomore wide receivers Travaris Turner-Smith and Savion Conteh for scores.

Through two games, Richardson is 22 of 38 through the air for 205 yards and two touchdowns with one interception. He also has scored twice on the ground.

“I guess you could say he’s been kind of molded to get to this point,” Blinn head coach Ryan Mahon said. “Any kid we recruit out of high school, we try to make sure we can get him to the point of being a starter. All through camp and all the way up to this point, we’ve been getting him ready for this moment.

“I think he’s been ready every single game we’ve gone into, and he showed it in that second half against Tyler.”

Richardson said getting comfortable with the Blinn offense and building relationships with his teammates has been a gradual process.

“It has just been about working myself into things and just getting familiar with the offense,” Richardson said. “I came in here for a few weeks in the summer and then started the fall, and I had about eight weeks to get familiar with the offense. Since then, I’ve slowly worked my way into it and just gotten as comfortable as I can with the offense and the guys and the receivers. I’ve been developing a good connection with them and building a relationship with my offensive line.”

The freshman quarterback said adjusting to the speed of the college game has been one of his biggest challenges.

“The biggest thing for me was just the speed of the game,” Richardson said. “It’s definitely different from high school. Getting familiar with that was a big step for me, and it helped going out there against Tyler and then against Community Christian. I’ll be even more adjusted this week for Navarro.”

Mahon believes Richardson’s ability to run the football gives the Bucs another dimension offensively.

“It just opens up the playbook a little bit more,” Mahon said. “When you have a quarterback run game, you focus on it. It’s just one more tool in the toolbox that we can use.

“It’s awfully hard to account for a quarterback who can run a little bit, and he can run enough to make you scared.”

Sophomore running back Bryson Batts leads Blinn with 198 rushing yards and one touchdown, while Turner-Smith has 10 receptions for 237 yards and two touchdowns.

Navarro is coming off a 28-14 non-conference home loss to then-No. 7 Georgia Military College, but still brings a capable offense that averages 34 points per contest, allowing just 17 per game.

“They’re very well-coached,” Mahon said. “I think in all three phases, they do a lot of very, very good things. They lean more toward the run offensively. They’ve shown that they will pass, but they lean more toward the ground game.

“Defensively, they’ve changed things up a little bit from what they’ve run in the past. We’ve got to be ready for all the different variables and the multiplicity that they have.”

Freshman defensive back Samir Richard said Navarro’s offense will require the Bucs to stay disciplined, particularly against the Bulldogs’ quarterback run game.

“We saw from their offense that they like to throw, but they run a lot — especially with their quarterback,” Richard said. “To prepare for that, we just need to stay locked in during practice and make sure we study our scout team offense and how they replicate Navarro’s attack.”

Blinn is 6-8 against Navarro since 2012. The Bucs were awarded a forfeit victory over the Bulldogs last season and won the teams’ meeting in 2024.

With the conference standings still taking shape, Mahon said Saturday’s game carries added importance.

Then-No. 3 Tyler fell to then-No. 13 Trinity Valley Community College. Unranked Kilgore also upset then-No. 5 Snow College.

“We’ve talked about how wide open this conference is and how each win gets us closer to our goals,” Mahon said. “It’s always about any given Saturday … last Saturday was evidence of it. It’s a good thing we don’t gamble because all those games that were supposed to happen a certain way went the opposite direction.”

Richard said the Bucs understand what is at stake.

“This game is extremely important,” Richard said. “We’re a competitive team, and we do not like losing. We want to win, especially conference games. So in conference games, we want to be able to raise the bar a bit and be at our best on the field.”

Richardson added that the Bucs are focused on executing rather than trying to do anything outside themselves against Navarro.

“Against Navarro, we’re going out there with an emphasis on executing the fundamentals, and hopefully we can get ourselves a win. We don’t have to go out there and do anything crazy. We just need to execute what we’ve been coached to do, and I think we’ll have a great chance to come out on top.”