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Grambling State took the last unbeaten record out of SWAC play on Oct. 10, rallying from a 14-0 hole and a fourth-quarter deficit to beat Jackson State 45-38 at Eddie G. Robinson Memorial Stadium. The loss dropped Jackson State to 2-1 in the league and left no SWAC team unbeaten in conference play at the midpoint of the season.
The loss also cost Jackson State its quarterback, as Jared Lockhart was hurt on the last play of the first half and did not return.
Jacobe Robinson was close to perfect. He completed 17 of 21 passes for 212 yards and four touchdowns, and he ran for 52 yards and another score. A crowd of 15,434 watched the teams go to halftime tied 21-21.
Jackson State had answers of its own, as Li'Darious Pryor ran 22 times for 166 yards and three touchdowns. But backup quarterback Caron Tyler threw two interceptions after taking over for Lockhart. Grambling State went ahead for good when D'Shaun Ford scored on a 1-yard run with 1:36 left, and Tyler's second interception on the next drive set up Theodore Caballero's 24-yard field goal with 1:01 left.
Lockhart had gone 3 of 7 for 75 yards when he went down awkwardly on the final play of the second quarter, and he was taken to the locker room on a cart at halftime, WLBT reported.
Jackson State head coach T.C. Taylor called him day-to-day with a back injury. "We'll take our time with him. That's the main thing," Taylor said Oct. 12, according to WLBT's Garrett Busby and Nathan Lee. "I don't want to put him in any situation where it can do further damage."
Jackson State, now 5-1 overall, shares the SWAC East lead at 2-1 with Alabama A&M and Mississippi Valley State. Alabama A&M improved to 5-2 with a 55-17 win over Bethune-Cookman, and Mississippi Valley State came back to beat Texas Southern 38-34 to reach 3-4.
That three-way tie may not hold up in the race for the title game. Mississippi Valley State and Florida A&M are both barred from the 2026 postseason after the NCAA hit each with a Level 2 Academic Progress Rate penalty in May, FootballScoop's Zach Barnett reported. Mississippi Valley State posted an 894 and FAMU a 918, both short of the 930 needed to pass. That keeps the Rattlers out of the SWAC Championship Game, the Celebration Bowl and the FCS playoffs even with a perfect record, Gerald Thomas III of the Tallahassee Democrat wrote. Alabama A&M drew a Level 2 penalty too, but it won a waiver and remains eligible, as reported by HBCU Gameday's Steven J. Gaither. Florida A&M can still shape the East race, though. The Rattlers and Bethune-Cookman are each 1-1, and Alabama State is 1-2 after a 28-27 loss to FAMU.
The cross-division win still counts in the West race. Grambling State is 4-2 overall and 2-1 in the SWAC, tied for the division lead with Alcorn State (4-3, 2-1). Arkansas-Pine Bluff sits at 1-1 after a bye, and Prairie View A&M fell to 2-2 with a 28-14 home loss to Southern, which improved to 1-2 while Texas Southern stayed winless in league play at 0-3.
Jackson State gets no time to regroup. It hosts Florida A&M for homecoming at 3 p.m. ET on Saturday, Oct. 17, in Jackson, Miss., with Lockhart's status still day-to-day.
