Mickey Joseph did not sugarcoat what it felt like to relive last season’s near misses. Speaking during Monday’s SWAC weekly media session ahead of Grambling State’s season opener against Clark Atlanta, the Tigers’ head coach described going back and watching a string of one-score losses from a year ago.

“When I went back and watched those one-score losses, I wanted to puke,” Joseph said. “I had to be a better head coach in a situation and make sure I’m putting my players and my staff in the best situation to win the game.”
Rather than pointing to talent gaps or bad breaks, Joseph said the film forced him to be honest about his own decision-making in close games.

“I had to be honest with myself when I looked in the mirror and say, you know, they’re not blowing us out,” Joseph said. “We lost a play here, lost a play there, and we can’t depend on other people to help us. We got to help ourselves.”

That self-assessment extended to specifics. Joseph pointed to late-game situations, protecting a lead in the fourth quarter and closing out drives on both sides of the ball, as the moments Grambling State must clean up in 2026.

“When it’s 3:37 and we’re up by two, we got to make sure we’re putting the right personnel on the field to run the ball, to make sure we don’t give it back to them,” Joseph said. “When it’s a minute-three to go in the game and we’re up by two, we got to have the right personnel on defense to make sure that we don’t let them go down and score.”

Joseph also flagged special teams as an area where Grambling State left opportunities on the field, saying the Tigers could have been more aggressive attacking punts.

“I looked at that we could have blocked more punts,” Joseph said. “We need to be more aggressive on special teams.”
Through it all, Joseph was consistent about where responsibility begins.

“Y’all know me. I’m always going to stand on the table, and I’m never going to point fingers,” Joseph said. “I’m going to start with me. I had to do a better job. And we’re going to do a better job.”

Grambling gets back to basics ahead of Clark Atlanta

That mindset has carried into how Joseph is preparing his roster for a season opener against an opponent his staff knows relatively little about. Clark Atlanta arrives with significant roster turnover, and Joseph said Grambling State is leaning on scheme rather than scouting reports to get ready.

“Right now we don’t have a whole bunch of film on them because they’ve just gotten there,” Joseph said. “So right now we have to depend on our rules about how we’re going to defend zone reads, how we’re going to defend counter, how we’re going to attack quarters.”

Joseph said preparing for the unknown has also meant returning to fundamentals he believes have eroded across college football, a concern he tied directly to accountability on his own coaching staff.

“Nobody’s been tackling,” Joseph said. “It’s not back in the days where you woke up to tackle. These kids wake up to play seven-on-seven and play finesse football. So we’re going to see if you want to take on blocks, and we want to see if you want to be gap integrity.”

Joseph pointed to increased repetitions of four-minute offense and two-minute defense in fall camp as a direct response to how close last season’s margins were.

“We put them in a lot of four-minute offense. We put the defense in a lot of two-minute drives,” Joseph said. “With the four-minute, don’t give the ball back to them. We got to get a first down. But we got to figure out as a head coach and a coaching staff what personnel needs to be out there.”