B-CU's foe will be familiar

Bethune-Cookman and Prairie View A&M have never met before on the football field. But neither team is likely to surprise the other \ when they open the season Sunday in Orlando in the MEAC/SWAC Challenge.

Mark Orlando, B-CU's offensive coordinator last year, is now the offensive coordinator at Prairie View. And Panthers assistant coach Prince Pearson is a cousin of B-CU head coach Brian Jenkins.

"When you coach long enough you encounter different scenarios," Orlando said. "And meeting your previous school in your first game is a little different."

With Orlando running B-CU's offense last year, the Wildcats were second in Football Championship Subdivision in scoring at 38.17 points per game. While Orlando brings his no-huddle spread offense to the Southwestern Athletic Conference school, B-CU has replaced him with another guru of the spread in former Toledo, Clemson and Syracuse offensive coordinator Rob Spence.

So the offenses on display at the Florida Citrus Bowl might be mirror images of each other, while the defenses may feel like they're facing their own team -- just like in practice.

"Mark knows us, but we also know Mark," Jenkins said. "It evens out. We still have to line up and play the game. And regardless of how well we know them, they're a very good football team. They're a big team, they're very aggressive on defense and they have a lot of athletes. We have a serious task ahead of us."

Orlando said that because B-CU is the opening opponent, he has made some changes in his offense.

"Naturally I don't want to go in there running the same type of offense we ran at Bethune-Cookman," he said. "We made some changes in our schemes that fit our personnel.

"Basically, a no-huddle offense is a no-huddle offense, but we're probably using a tight end a little more than we have in the past, and you'll probably see some different things formation-wise."

The Panthers' offense won't be the only thing familiar to Jenkins on Sunday. Pearson, Prairie View's assistant head coach, is a "down-the-line cousin," Jenkins said.

"We grew up playing football against each other (in Fort Lauderdale)," Jenkins said. "He played for St. Thomas Aquinas, and I played for Dillard. They're big rivals. And then we played again in college when he was at Minnesota and I was at Cincinnati, so it's been a continuous battle."

When asked if he and Pearson talk a lot, Jenkins quipped, "We did."

Orlando returns to the SWAC, where he coached for 17 seasons at Southern and Texas Southern before joining Jenkins' first staff at B-CU last year.

Orlando said Prairie View made a "better financial offer" than B-CU could, but the main reason why he made the move was because of his wife, who is a flight attendant.

"It's easier for her to be based out of Houston," Orlando said. "When we lived in Daytona Beach, she had 80 miles to commute to her own base.

"It felt great to be back in the state of Florida," the former Florida State quarterback said. "But my wife and I felt this was a good opportunity for both of us."

Just like last year, Orlando has joined a team with a new head coach. Heishma Northern, the Panthers' former defensive coordinator, played for Orlando at Southern and coached with him at Texas Southern.

The Panthers, 7-4 last season, are breaking in a new quarterback and a new receiver corps. Orlando also worked with an inexperienced group last year at B-CU, and the Wildcats wound up finishing 10-2 and winning a share of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.

"Coaching is overrated," Orlando said. "We had two or three Division I-A players transfer in before last season, and that made a big difference at Bethune."

This year the Wildcats have about 10 transfers from major schools, including former Maryland quarterback Jamarr Robinson.