2024 Orange Blossom Classic Teams Announcement.
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00:00 All right, HBCU Legends fans, it's Kyle T. Mosley here with our family.
00:06 And yes, she is a part of the HBCU Legends family.
00:10 It's none other than the founder and the executive director of the Orange Blossom Classic, Ms. Kendra Bullock.
00:18 How you doing, Kendra?
00:19 Hi, I'm doing great. How are you?
00:21 Oh, good to see you again.
00:23 And she want to be all formal with Happy New Year to you.
00:26 Happy New Year. And always great to see you.
00:30 And I always appreciate you guys for having us.
00:33 Yeah, definitely. Well, look, you got some great news that you would like to announce about the,
00:42 I guess, is it the third year or fourth year that you got? Fourth year for the Orange Blossom Classic since its renewal.
00:50 So who are going to be the teams represented at the classic this season?
00:57 So this year we have the Alabama State University Hornets.
01:01 Wow. Of course, as we know, they are part of the Southwestern Athletic Conference.
01:06 And we have the North Carolina Central University Eagles, who are, of course, as we know, a part of the MEAC.
01:13 So, yeah, we are ASU and North Carolina Central University.
01:18 And we're excited. That's a big lineup to have.
01:21 You talk about two teams, of course, Trey Oliver and the Eagles won the national championship a couple of seasons ago
01:29 after defeating Jackson State in the Celebration Bowl.
01:32 And you got Alabama State, Bama State, who just had a coup.
01:37 They just brought on Andrew Boddy from Texas Southern, and he's going to be their quarterback for this season.
01:43 You're talking about two teams that potentially, Kendra, could be the preview to the Celebration Bowl.
01:50 Exactly. Exactly. Yeah, we're excited to have two teams that are, as you said, at the top of the conference.
01:57 I think that we will give people that early look as to what those two teams look like.
02:03 There is a lot of excitement, as you mentioned, behind the quarterback for North Carolina Central.
02:07 So and, you know, just being down here in South Florida, I think the joke is,
02:12 OK, if people from Florida didn't send their kids to FAMU, they sent them to either Alabama State or Tuskegee.
02:19 It was something about that Alabama Florida connection.
02:22 So, you know, we've got a lot of fans, I think, in the Florida area from Alabama State.
02:27 So I think it's going to be pretty good.
02:30 Well, not only that, you have two teams that don't have to have their fan base to travel too far.
02:37 Right. And you have two premier coaches in Trey Oliver, as well as Eddie Robison, Junior.
02:45 Talk about that matchup between the coaches.
02:48 Was that a part of your selection process and how you guys decided to approach those teams to be a part of these the 2024 Orange Blossom Classic?
03:01 Well, you know, when you're selecting teams, you look for all of that.
03:04 That is definitely one of the things that we take into consideration,
03:07 especially when you're thinking about a game like ours that started this thing off with Coach Prime.
03:13 Right. So how do you back that up?
03:16 And then, of course, you know, just Coach Simmons, Willie Simmons, you know, he has a personality of his own, you know, and just people just just love Coach Simmons.
03:24 So you definitely look for those things.
03:27 You look for where the fan base has to travel from.
03:30 You look, you know, you look at what their attendance numbers are and, of course, what's happening with those programs at the time that you make these decisions.
03:39 Now, again, keeping in mind that a lot of times these decisions are made before the season even ends.
03:45 So you never really know, you know, what that how they're going to finish off the season.
03:51 And I can tell you, it's funny, because with North Carolina Central, as I'm sure many people thought, we kind of thought we were getting,
03:58 you know, we would probably have a repeat of what we would have seen at the Celebration Bowl with North Carolina Central.
04:05 You know, things happen. Right. But nevertheless, still with North Carolina Central being at that, you know, the top of the conference where they are, it's definitely a good fit.
04:14 Trey Oliver has a really good personality.
04:17 You know, I think if you want to think about who probably matched that Coach Prime energy, right, and who could really do some trash talking.
04:26 Yes. Trey would be up there with some of the best. And we know we know the same thing with with Eddie Robinson.
04:32 So that definitely, definitely comes into play when you're making these decisions, among other things.