Wildcats Ready To Roll

Alvin Wyatt clearly enjoys being flashy.

Bethune-Cookman's football coach has maybe the most distinctive sideline wardrobe in the game. Shirts opened to mid-chest, gaudy jewelry dangling from his neck, sunglasses, pointed shoes with a glossy shine. And when he's away from the football field, he sometimes can be found driving around Daytona Beach in his luxury sedan. It's simply part of his lore, the way he's always been, the way he'll always be.

Yet Wyatt also has a simple side, the one that is the backbone of his football program.

For nearly three decades, the Bronson Residential Complex - the Bethune dorm that houses most football players, wedged between Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and the team's practice field - has been his year-round home. He eats alongside the students, shares a bathroom with them, rides the same elevators, walks the same hallways.

His reason? Officially, it's to save money, since he isn't exactly one of football's higher-paid coaches.

Deep down, though, he simply doesn't want to be anywhere else.

"I just feel closer to my players," Wyatt said. "It keeps a lot of rhetoric down that they know that I'm there. If they need something, I can be a call away or a few yards away from where they're at. I just feel that it's something that helps us recruit the type of athletes that we need."

So, for obvious reasons, Bronson Hall is happier when the Wildcats are winning.

And for the last couple of seasons, Wyatt's home hasn't exactly been the most joyous of places.

Bethune-Cookman was 5-6 in each of the last two years, erasing the momentum of the eight straight winning seasons Wyatt enjoyed at his alma mater from 1998 through 2005. This year, he hopes, will be different, and he's pinning most of the challenge on new starting quarterback McKinson Souverain, who replaces All-Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference player Jimmie Russell under center.

Russell accounted for 15 of Bethune-Cookman's 25 offensive touchdowns last year, 13 of them rushing. He was the MVP of the season-ending Florida Classic win over archrival Florida A&M, a game where the torch to the "Wyattbone" offense the coach named after himself was essentially passed to Souverain, whose 27-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter sealed that convincing 34-7 victory.

"You better get you a trigger man, a quarterback, and we've got that in McKinson Souverain this year," Wyatt said. "We have a quarterback that we feel can get us over the hump and get us back to our winning ways. ... With this kid, if he stays healthy, I think our team will have a lot of success. This kid is everything for our football team."

Wyatt said the biggest task he'll want to tackle before the season begins is spending time with Souverain and making sure the one-time Florida Atlantic signee fully understands the offense.