Howard at North Carolina Central: Somebody Leaves Durham in First Place

MEAC games in late October are usually about positioning. This one is simpler than that: Howard and North Carolina Central both walk into O'Kelly-Riddick Stadium this afternoon at 1–0 in the conference, and only one of them walks out still holding a share of first place. Kickoff is 2 p.m. ET in Durham, streaming on ESPN+.

It is, as the Triangle Tribune put it this week, a battle to remain in first place — and both teams bought their seats at this table the hard way.

NCCU's freshman is the headline

The Eagles (3–5, 1–0 MEAC) snapped a four-game losing streak by walking into Dover and dismantling Delaware State 31–12 in their conference opener — 31 unanswered points after trailing 6–0, 427 yards of offense, and a Hornets offense held to 257 total yards. The engine was a true freshman. Gino Addison carried 31 times for 214 yards and two touchdowns, scored on runs of six and 16 yards, and swept the week: MEAC Offensive Player of the Week, MEAC Rookie of the Week, and Stats Perform FCS National Freshman Player of the Week. Behind him, NCCU rushed for 272 yards as a team — and its defense leads the nation in turnovers forced with 18. Tre' Oliver's sixth-season Eagles don't beat you with mystery. They run it, and they take it away.

Howard's chaos is real too

The Bison (4–4, 1–0) got here through an overtime classic. Down 14 in the fourth quarter at Morgan State, Howard lost starting quarterback Ja'Shawn Scroggins to injury — and Isaiah Freeman, the third quarterback the Bison turned to that day, ran for a 2-yard touchdown and threw a 4-yard score to Billy Roberson II to force overtime. In the extra period, sophomore defensive back Ben Chandler IV sealed it with an 87-yard pick-six — the game-winning score in a 26–20 win. Roberson finished with a career day, and head coach Ted White told the Triangle Tribune he had stood Chandler up in a team meeting that week and told him he had a feeling a big play was coming. It came on fourth-and-long, with the season's shape hanging on it. As HBCU Gameday noted, the upset moved Howard's MEAC probability in ESPN Events' Celebration Bowl projection from 4.5% to 27.94% — with South Carolina State the current favorite at 40.63%, which makes today a must-hold for both sides: the winner stays in the leading pack, the loser spends November chasing.

The matchup that decides it

Strip it down and the game is one question: can Howard's front survive the ground game that just hung 272 rushing yards on Delaware State, against a defense that has already had to solve three mobile quarterbacks in a single month? NCCU's own defensive task mirrors it — the Tribune noted the Eagles must contain Howard's quarterback room for the second straight week, Freeman's legs included. First-year Howard coach Ted White ('98) against Oliver ('98) — two alumni coaching their own schools for sole possession of the conference lead in homecoming season.

Somebody leaves Durham in first place today. The other leaves with the math against them. In the MEAC, that's as clean as a Saturday gets.