When Henry Frazier arrived as Prairie View A&M football coach in 2004, the Panthers were the laughingstock of the SWAC. No one's laughing in 2008. The Panthers have returned to relevance, standing second in the SWAC West at 6-1 and miles away from the program that didn't have a winning campaign from 1976-2007.

A slip from division leader Grambling State - the only team to beat Prairie View - could advance the Panthers (9-1 overall) to the league championship game. Ironically, missing out on the SWAC title game would leave Prairie View in position for an at large berth in the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs.

Before Frazier's five-year makeover, Prairie View was best known as the school with an 80-game losing streak from 1989-98. In 2003, Frazier was hired away from Bowie State of the CIAA, where he turned the Bulldogs into a league power twice - first as a player in the 1980s, then as coach.

He inherited a wreck at Prairie View, where the Panthers were coming off a 1-10 season and were outscored 543-109 the season prior to Frazier's arrival. Interest in the program, which was a black college powerhouse in the 1960s under legendary coach Billy Nicks, was non-existent on campus, the community and football-crazy Texas. Needless to say, they're paying attention now.