By Solomon Crenshaw Jr. | For The Birmingham Times
While a strong game plan is one key to success in the Magic City Classic, Eddie Robinson Jr., the fourth year Alabama State University football coach knows it’s not just about X’s and O’s, but you’ve got to have Jimmies and Joes — talented players — to compete in the nation’s largest HBCU classic.
And the Louisiana native knows where he can often find that talent — Birmingham City Schools (BCS).
“I think it’s usually important just from the proximity of Birmingham to Montgomery (home of Alabama State) and the amount of alumni that we have there (in Birmingham),” said Robinson, (no relation to the Grambling State Hall of Fame coach Eddie Robinson). “I personally go into all of those Birmingham City Schools to make sure that they understand that we want them to be a part of what we’re doing.”
The fourth year Alabama State University football coach played in four of the rivalry games between the state’s largest historically Black colleges and universities when he was a standout linebacker for the Hornets from 1988 to 1991.
Robinson is 6-1 against the Bulldogs as he only lost once — as a sophomore in 1989. He is undefeated as coach of the Hornets, beating A&M in 2022, 2023 and 2024.
The Hornet coach said some BCS products on his roster are on scholarship. Others are walk-ons.
Alabama State features six players who played at Birmingham City Schools. Two of those are products of Ramsay High School – redshirt freshman Jalen Jones and sophomore Ashton Ashford. The others are freshman Aydden Moody-Copeland of P. D. Jackson-Olin, sophomore Eric Tarrant of Arthur Harold Parker, freshman Eldridge Shelton of Wenonah and freshman Jakoby Smith of George Washington Carver.
“For me, we will always have at least one game in Birmingham and the last two years we’ve played two games there,” Robinson said, noting Bama State’s 52-42 season-opening loss to University of Alabama at Birmingham (in late August). “Montgomery and Birmingham and Mobile — (those are) the areas that we have to be really good in as far as recruiting.”
On the other side of the field, Alabama A&M has four BCS grads. Three of those players – freshman Marquel Patterson, redshirt senior Jaylin Peterson and redshirt sophomore Jalen Wright – hail from Ramsay High. Nikolas Barnes, a junior, is a product of Jackson-Olin.
Sam Shade is the first- year coach of the Bulldogs, having traveled up Interstate 65 following a three-year stint leading the Golden Bears of Division II Miles College. But while this will be Shade’s first time participating in the Classic as a coach, the Wenonah High product is very familiar with the annual event that annually attracts hundreds of tailgaters around Legion Field for a week-long stay.
“I was very conscious of it,” said Shade, who replaced Connell Maynor as AAMU coach in 2024 after three seasons at Miles. “My mother and some of my family members attended Alabama State. My wife and some of her family members attended Alabama A&M and I’ve got a lot of friends, a lot of high school teammates that attended both universities.”
“But when I was growing up, I pretty much went to every Classic up until I went to college,” said Shade, a standout safety at the University of Alabama. “I followed it heavily. Even when I got out of pro ball before I got into college coaching, I went to every Classic until I became a college coach. Being from Birmingham, oh yeah, I definitely have spent a lot of time around the Classic over the years.”
Shade was drafted in the fourth round of the 1995 NFL Draft by the Cincinnati Bengals and traded in 1998 to the Washington Redskins. He ended his playing career in 2002.
Both coaches say they’ve benefited from the Birmingham Promise, which provides as much as four years of tuition assistance for graduates of Birmingham City Schools to attend any public two-year or four-year college or university in Alabama. That opens the door for some student-athletes from Birmingham to attend AAMU or ASU.
Robinson said some of his walk-ons have come through the program. Shade said he wasn’t able to get Birmingham Promise student athletes at Miles because the school was private and “being here at A&M, obviously that’s different,” the Bulldogs coach said. “We are a state school and that does help” because Birmingham Promise becomes another tool in the box for paying the expenses for a student — or student-athlete, he said.
The 84th Amazon Magic City Classic presented by Coca-Cola pits the Alabama A&M Bulldogs against the Alabama State Hornets at 2:30 p.m. Central on Saturday, Oct. 25, at historic Legion Field. The game is available via livestream on ESPN+ and will air via tape delay on ESPNU at 10 p.m. Central.
