In an HBCU football fairy tale, Clark Atlanta University has turned heads in the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC), heading to the championship after a stunning turnaround season.
Just last year, CAU closed out a painful 0-10 season, but this fall, under the leadership of new head coach Teddy Keaton, it has clawed its way to a 7-2-1 record and made history. The school will compete for a football title for the first time since getting a five-way piece of the title back in 1991. You have to go back even further for an outright title as Clark College won the 1978 SIAC title.
To say the least, Teddy Keaton’s arrival has been transformative. His coaching philosophy emphasized discipline and resilience, urging his team to play one play at a time. That’s why he commented that being ranked no. 4 in HBCU preseason polls by Dr. Kenyatta Cavil was ‘rat-poison.”
CAU will now face Miles College, a team with proven championship experience that handed them a tough loss during Clark Atlanta’s homecoming. Sly The Sports guy summed up the intensity of that defeat on the Teddy Keaton Show: “Miles came down here and took you behind the woodshed.”
But Keaton feels the pressure is on Miles, not Clark Atlanta.
“All we got to do is — don’t make too much of the moment, go to work and play a game,” Keaton said. “And you can’t make them type of mistakes against a good ballclub, — a championship type ballclub. This is our opportunity on a national stage, on live TV to show the world that we’re here.”
This season’s excitement is not just limited to football. Clark Atlanta’s men’s basketball team experienced a similar journey last year. It too fell to Miles College in the regular season, only to meet them again in the championship game. CAU won that game, something that isn’t lost on Keaton.
“Clark Atlanta football team now played Miles in the regular season and lost to Miles. Now it’s the same scenario with the Clark Atlanta Panthers and the Miles College Bears in football. Are we saying that maybe Clark, Atlanta and Miles are building a dynasty that nobody’s talking about? It could be.
Just as basketball found redemption against Miles College, Clark Atlanta University football now has a chance to complete its own comeback story, drawing energy from the university’s recent success in basketball and inspiring hope across the HBCU community. For the CAU, this moment symbolizes not just a game, but a chance to write a new narrative.