When Brad Sherrod was considering whether to pursue the job as head football coach at Morehouse, he couldn’t get past the notion of coaching quarterback Miles Scott. Whenever the veteran coach looked at game film, Scott always seemed to be there making a big throw or run.
The lure of coaching a talent like Scott and leading one of the nation’s signature historically Black college programs was enough to convince Sherrod to pull up roots and move from Texas Wesleyan, where his teams went 17-6 and made back-to-back NAIA playoff appearances.
Now Sherrod must find a way to turn around a program that went 3-7 in 2025 and hasn’t had a winning season since 2018.
A big piece of the turnaround will be Scott.
The senior enters the season needing 1,056 passing yards and 17 touchdowns to break the Morehouse record for both categories. Last year, he threw for 2,559 yards and 18 touchdowns and had five 300-yard games, including 456 total yards and six touchdowns against rival Clark Atlanta.
The transformation to Sherrod’s style began in the spring. With a dozen additions from the transfer portal — many of them offensive linemen — Morehouse began a transition toward a more balanced attack.
“Spring was very important because I wanted to see what kind of team I had and to see how important football was to them,” Sherrod said. “We’re going to run the ball. We’ve got some talented receivers, but I wanted to establish who we’re going to be and what we’re going to do, and I wanted Miles to buy into that because they’ve been pass-first for a lot of years.”
Scott bought into the transition. He sidestepped overtures from other suitors to stay at Morehouse, where his father and uncles attended.
“This is my last year and I want to leave a mark, win games and put the football team back on the map,” Scott said. “Coach Sherrod has done a great job just coming in and installing a new culture. We’re being held to a higher standard and we want to use that momentum from the spring to move toward having a successful season. We have a lot of guys who have a chip on their shoulder, ready to prove something.”
The chip got a little bigger at the SIAC preseason meeting, when the Maroon Tigers were picked to finish 12th in the 13-team league.
Making Scott even more dangerous is the return of leading receiver Eric Stephens, who caught 37 passes for 599 yards (16.2 yards per catch) and five touchdowns. He had 133 yards and two touchdowns in the season-ending Big Cat Classic against Clark Atlanta.
But questions remain in the backfield — where leading rusher Nicholas Woodford transferred to Central Michigan after his breakthrough freshman season (427 yards rushing, 24 receptions) — and at receiver, where Maurice Veney (32 catches) was plucked away by Vanderbilt.
The Morehouse defense will be led by edge rusher Zach Underwood, a redshirt sophomore who tied for the team lead with 4½ sacks and forced three fumbles last year, and linebacker Sean Johnson, who led the team with 88 tackles and recovered five fumbles.
Morehouse opens the season Aug. 29 against Arkansas-Pine Bluff in the Natural State Kickoff Classic in Little Rock, Arkansas. The Maroon Tigers will host Clark Atlanta on Sept. 5 in the Atlanta Labor Day Classic.
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