2010 Fountain City Classic

The 2010 Fountain City Classic was the 21st annual Fountain City Classic American football game featuring Fort Valley State University and Albany State University, two of Georgia's historically black universities. The game was played at A. J. McClung Memorial Stadium in Columbus, Georgia on November 6, 2010.
Pregame
The matchup
Leading up to the 2010 Classic, both teams achieved high hopes during the 2010 season. Prior to the game, the Fort Valley State University Wildcats had an 8-1 overall record (7-1 in the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference) and were second in the conference and seventh in NCAA Division II Super Regional Two. The Albany State University Golden Rams maintained an undefeated season (a 9-0 overall record, 8-0 in the conference) and were ranked first in both the conference and the Super Regional Two. In addition to Classic bragging rights, the winner of the game also would win the 2010 Southern Intercollegiate title and represent the conference in the Pioneer Bowl on December 4, 2010.
The 2010 Classic was billed “The Showdown before Sundown.” Wildcat senior offensive center Collin Cordell used the Fountain City Classic Luncheon earlier in the Classic week as the forum to guarantee that at the end of Saturday’s duel the Wildcats would be the team left standing. Along with his teammates, Cordell and the Wildcats delivered on that guarantee. For the previous six seasons, Albany State had won the annual rivalry, and they held an overall Fountain City Classic won-loss record of 15-4 over Fort Valley State. However, in the previous match-up, the Wildcats upset Albany State with a blowout 35-13 victory on November 7, 2009. With the victory, the Wildcats snapped the Golden Rams seven straight Classic victories head-to-head matchups and earned their first win over Albany State since 2001.
Albany State then struck again with that 53-yarder field goal shortly into the fourth quarter to take a lead they didn’t relinquish.
Albany extended the lead 12-7 with 10:45 left in the fourth, and then tried to take time off the clock late in the game to secure the victory. They primarily ran the ball, which took up most of the clock, but didn’t secure good field position. They had to punt the ball from their own 20-yard line, and Fort Valley blocked the punt and recovered the ball, gaining possession on Albany State's 10-yard line with 32 seconds left on the clock. Three incomplete passes and a penalty later, the Wildcats had one last shot to win it at the 20-yard line with seven seconds left. The Fort Valley State offense moved up the field with an 8 yard pass, but it was too late when time ran out, securing the Golden Rams the 2010 Fountain City Classic and the Southern Intercollegiate championship.<ref name="albanyherald1"/>
Aftermath
Albany State University made a late-game stand to win a grind-it-out contest against Fort Valley State, 12-7, to win its first Southern Intercollegiate championship since 2006 and finished the regular season undefeated (10-0 overall, 9-0 in the conference). It was the fourth time in school history the team had 10 wins without a loss, and the second under head coach Mike White. It was also the school’s 14th Southern Intercollegiate championship and fifth under White. Not only did the Rams’ defense not allow the Wildcats — the No. 1 scoring team in the conference coming into the game, averaging 34.1 points per contest — to score against them, they stopped Fort Valley (8-2, 7-2) on a crucial possession in the final seconds with the game on the line.<ref name="albanyherald1"/> With the victory, Albany State also secured a first round bye and home field advantage throughout the NCAA Division II playoffs before being defeated by Delta State University in the third round on December 11, 2010.

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