LAURINBURG — Several former Scotland High players will soon wrap up the 2019 college football season with bowl games.
Most of those players are on North Carolina A&T’s roster. Karfa Kaba, Amir McNeill, Chris Williams, Tim Williams and the rest of the Aggies will face Alcorn State in the Celebration Bowl at noon on Saturday. The game will be played at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
The Celebration Bowl is the only bowl game that features Football Championship Subdivision teams. The first Celebration Bowl was played in 2015. The Aggies have won three of the first four Celebration Bowls. Two of those wins were against Alcorn State (41-34 in 2015 and 24-22 in 2018). A&T beat Grambling State 21-14 in 2017’s edition. 2016 is the only year the Aggies didn’t appear in the Celebration Bowl — Grambling State defeated North Carolina Central 10-9 that year.
Scotland graduate Zamir White and the No. 5 Georgia Bulldogs will face No. 7 Baylor in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1. at 8:45 p.m. The Sugar Bowl is hosted by the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans.
Georgia feature back D’Andre Swift has been nursing a shoulder injury, and it is not clear if he will play in the Sugar Bowl. If he doesn’t play, White could see an increase in playing time at running back.
Swift, a junior, said he’ll wait until after the bowl game to decide if he’ll stay at Georgia or declare for the NFL Draft. That decision will affect how White’s role with the team changes heading into next season.
Former Fighting Scots linebacker T.J. Smith will be on the field with Georgia State as the Panthers take on Wyoming in the Arizona Bowl on Dec. 31 at 4:30 p.m.
Georgia State finished the regular season with a 7-5 record. The Panthers started the season with a 38-30 upset of Tennessee. Smith has appeared in seven games this season, tallying 12 tackles and one tackle for loss.
