NATCHEZ &8212; William Banford&8217;s days of following the Jackson State football team are on hold right now.

The Jackson State fan had joined his friends to watch the Tigers play at home and in New Orleans, Grambling and Baton Rouge up until the 2003 season. Many others, too, stopped traveling to the road games and, eventually, the home games.

Two words &8212; James Bell.

Now that Bell was fired and the Tigers are playing out the string under interim head coach Daryl Jones, not many JSU fans are expected to turn out for the season finale against Alcorn.

&8220;Not too interested,&8221; Banford said. &8220;I&8217;m glad we&8217;ve gotten rid of our coach. I used to go up and be a big, big fan. (Bell) made all those changes and so forth, and I just haven&8217;t been up. I was there every Saturday they&8217;d play. They stayed too long with the other man for me.&8221;

Saturday&8217;s game at Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium may be the least-hyped Capital City Classic game in the history of the series. In the wake of Bell&8217;s firing and the Tigers&8217; three losing seasons in his tenure, fans have avoided the stadium almost as if the place was on fire.

When some 2,000 fans attended the Tigers&8217; game against Arkansas-Pine Bluff in the 60,000-seat stadium, that may have been an all-time low for a program steeped in history. Then the Tigers went to Prairie View and lost to the Panthers for the first time in 31 years.

&8220;I said if we didn&8217;t beat Southern, I wasn&8217;t going to any games,&8221; Natchez resident William Blowe said. &8220;This will be the first time in 40 years I haven&8217;t gone to one game. The program, I&8217;ve never seen it this bad before. I&8217;m not saying Bell is not a good person, but some people are good assistants but not a good head coach. I&8217;m not saying it&8217;s all his fault, but you&8217;ve got to point your finger at the head man.&8221;

The Tigers, however, have pledged to at least keep up the fight. Armed with by far the worst defense in the SWAC, the Tigers will match up against an Alcorn team that has put points in the board at times this season.

And coaches are hoping players don&8217;t want to go out losers. Doing so Saturday would put their final record at 2-9 &8212; its second two-win season in three years.

&8220;It&8217;s definitely a low point at Jackson State to lose to Prairie View,&8221; Jones said. &8220;Not to take any credit away from Prairie View and Coach (Henry) Frazier &8212; they did what they had to do to win the football game. We&8217;ve got a game this week against Alcorn State, and we want to finish the season off as strong as we possibly can.

&8220;We talked with the players and coaches about having the character of going out and finishing the season strong. We&8217;ll talk about those pride things and some of the pride we have at Jackson State.&8221;

Fans, however, aren&8217;t faulting Jones and his efforts to fight a good fight with the season nearing its end. Bell was fired after the disastrous 64-36 loss at home to UAPB, and athletic officials named quarterbacks coach Jones interim coach for the remainder of the season.

The Tigers haven&8217;t gotten any better on the field. Jones&8217; first game was a 52-6 defeat at Alabama A&M &8212; a three-game stretch where opponents scored 168 points.

&8220;It was the best thing,&8221; Banford said of the firing. &8220;We had too many other people who had more ability and a better record than (Bell). I just think Jackson State lost a lot of its fans as a result of that. I know all about the scheming (athletic director Roy) Culberson did.&8221;

The Tigers&8217; poor run defense has been the main culprit. They have allowed on average 234.8 yards a game, and Texas Southern&8217;s struggling run defense is ninth at 207.7 yards per game. It&8217;s gotten so bad that teams are hardly passing on the Tigers. The opposition has thrown a conference-low 213 passes against them.

&8220;I think the morale of the team is down, and I think they won&8217;t be competitive against Alcorn,&8221; Blowe said. &8220;It would be a great uplift if we beat Alcorn. It really would help the program. Even if we don&8217;t beat them, just be competitive. Just play a decent game and not get blown out.&8221;

A win could salvage much more than a season for the Tigers. Low turnouts have not only hurt the program but the school&8217;s entire athletic budget. Then school officials can turn to hiring a successor and rebuilding the program.

&8220;We&8217;ll come out of it all right,&8221; Banford said. &8220;It&8217;s not going to happen all at once, but it&8217;s going to take a while. Everybody gets down. They&8217;re hollering because we&8217;re down, but we&8217;re coming back. I&8217;m going to remind them of that, too.&8221;