Post by Bornthrilla on Jun 23, 2008 9:23:50 GMT -5
2008 Winston-Salem State University Football Season Prospectus
Rams return to the gridiron after a successful 2007 season
June 12, 2008
Overview:
The Winston-Salem State University Rams head into the 2008 season fresh off of the most successful Division I season in team history after the Rams posted a 6-5 record in their second full season as a member of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.
A senior-laden team helped the 2007 Rams rank eighth in the MEAC in points per game (21.1 ppg) en route to victories over perennial NCAA Division I-FCS powers Hampton, Florida A&M, Bethune-Cookman, North Carolina A&T and Morgan State as the Rams tallied wins over five MEAC opponents. The Rams also scored a win over former Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) rival and current NCAA Division I-FCS Independent, North Carolina Central.
A 3-1 record at home and an unblemished mark in neutral site contests, earned the Rams their first winning season since the transition to NCAA Division I classification began four years ago.
The successes of the 2007 season are not soon to be forgotten as WSSU players, coaches and the Winston-Salem State faithful forge ahead towards the kickoff of the 2008 campaign as a season of transition and rebuilding lay in wait for the now youthful Rams.
The Rams must strive to replace 13 starters lost as only 15 starters return to a team that was equally stoic on both sides of the ball in 2007.
Hardest hit was the WSSU defensive corps as nine defensive starters were lost to graduation and a tenth, all-everything defensive end William Hayes, was drafted by the Tennessee Titans in the fourth round of the 2008 NFL draft.
Though only three offensive starters were lost at the completion of the season, the Rams will have to do without the services of a trio of four-year starters as quarterback Monte Purvis, halfback Jed Bines and offensive line mainstay Lonnie Teasley all expended their eligibility and earned their undergraduate degrees.
However, the cupboard is not bare for the Rams as 15 starters return to a team that welcomes back the services of 41 total letterwinners.
With 60 underclassmen reporting to fall training camp in 2008, fear may strike the hearts of the WSSU faithful, but head coach Kermit Blount, who has redshirted nearly 90 percent of his freshman during his 15-year tenure at WSSU, will field a youthful team filled with game experience.
A team that benefits from 37 upperclassmen will play four of their first five games at home in the friendly confines of Bowman Gray Stadium with the only road game coming a short 30 miles away at Aggie Stadium in Greensboro, N.C.
Blount, a man who needs only three victories to become the all-time winningest coach in the history of WSSU football, and his seasoned coaching staff look to continue the tradition of gridiron excellence that has become synonymous with Rams football.
Offensive:
The WSSU offense was witness to a rebirth in 2007 as the Rams, a team that had relied heavily upon the running game since the transition to NCAA Division I began, started to fire on all cylinders under offensive coordinator, Nicholas Calcutta.
Under the tutelage of Calcutta the Rams scored 232 total points at a rate of over 20 points per game. Though the bulk of the WSSU offense was still generated by the powerhouse running attack, the Rams generated over 1,000 yards in passing offense for the first time since moving to NCAA Division I.
The 2008 season will pose challenges for the Rams, perhaps the biggest hurdle is replacing quarterback Monte Purvis and running back Jed Bines, fifth-year seniors who accounted for 25 of the team's 32 touchdowns this past season.
Bines ended his career with 3,600 rushing yards (third in program history) and 35 rushing touchdowns (tied for fourth in program history). Purvis, a three-year starter, passed for 2,821 yards and 18 touchdowns, ran for 1,181 yards and 13 touchdowns and ended up with 4,002 total yards in his career (fifth in program history).
Replacing Purvis at quarterback will likely come down to a four-man race with Tienne Jefferson, a 6-1, 210-pound redshirt freshman from Washington, D.C., looking to be the frontrunner to start behind center.
Also in the race for the starting quarterback job is Jarrett Dunston, a 6-3, 220-pound junior from Raleigh, N.C., who transferred to WSSU from Temple University in the spring of 2007. Dunston possesses the strongest arm of all the quarterback contenders and has the added benefit of seeing game action in four contests last season, including one start, in relief of Monte Purvis.
Brian Wynn, a 6-6, 200-pound sophomore from Greensboro, N.C. is in the mix despite having no game experience, as are junior Justin Sherrod and sophomore Omar Kizzie, both of whom played mainly at wide receiver last season. Both Kizzie and Sherrod are expected to take snaps at the quarterback and wide receiver positions in the fall.
The wild card in the quarterback race may very well be true freshman Branden Williams, a 6-1, 190-pound quarterback from Seale, Ala. Williams, who possesses a strong arm and may be as mobile as Purvis, passed for more than 3,000 yards and ran for more than 2,000 yards in high school en route to scoring a combined 45 career touchdowns.
While the quarterback battle remains in question, the Rams look like they will have less trouble at the running back position where Blount's stable is full of thoroughbreds.
Returning in the backfield are a pair of talented upperclassmen in Brandon McRae and Roderick Fluellen.
McRae, a 5-10, 225-pound redshirt junior led the team in rushing two seasons ago and looked to reach for a 1000-yard season in 2007 before breaking his wrist in the Rams' win over Morgan State in mid-September.
Fluellen returns to the lineup on the heels of a 2007 season in which he rushed for 520 yards and scored three touchdowns. He brings with him his 4.4 yards per carry average and again will be looked to for his power running game.
Nic Cooper, a 6-0, 230-pound power back from Clinton, N.C. will throw his hat into the ring in his bid to become a backfield mainstay in 2008 after spending the 2007 season as a redshirt freshman.
Cooper, the Cape Fear Player of the Year in both 2005 and 2006 is a big, athletic running back with 4.5 second speed in the 40-yard dash that led Clinton High School to a state title as a junior. He will look to move up the Rams' depth chart.
The Rams' wide receiver corps returns nine letterwinners from the 2007 season as eight of the top nine receivers from last season will again grace the roster.
WSSU will likely start the pass-catching trio of Michael Scarbrough, Bryant Bayne and Brent Thomas in the fall of 2008 as the three seniors combined for nearly 70 percent of the Rams' receiving yardage and all but one of WSSU's receiving touchdowns.
The Rams' offensive line will once again be led by the ever-present combination of right tackle Joseph Blanks and center Michael Helton.
Blanks returns to the lineup with his start streak of 31 consecutive contests intact, a streak that is second only to Helton's 32-straight games started. The pair of offensive line staples will look to protect whatever young WSSU quarterback lines up behind center.
Joining Helton and Blanks are experienced offensive linemen in Nazir Levine (left guard), Bennie Barbour (right guard) and Thurman McDonald (left tackle). Levine and Barbour combined to start 15 games for the Rams in 2007 as both players head into fall training camp firmly encamped at the top of the WSSU depth chart.
McDonald seeks to replace the services of starter Lonnie Teasley, a player who started 30 career games for the Rams. McDonald, a redshirt sophomore from Fayetteville, N.C., made seven starts in 2007 and returns a wealth of experience to the lineup.
Defense:
The WSSU defense was the hardest hit by graduation as the Rams lose the services of 10 starters. The Rams took their biggest hits on the defensive line and at linebacker as WSSU does not return any starters on the line, and only two linebackers who have at least three career starts return their services.
Nathaniel Biggs and Ernest Blakley are the biggest losses from the WSSU secondary as Biggs and his eight career interceptions, and Blakely and his five career picks will no longer patrol the defensive backfield.
The most glaring holes to fill will be those vacated by the loss of the Rams' top two tacklers from 2007 in linebacker Thadeus Griffin and defensive end William Hayes.
Griffin, a player who led the Rams in tackles for the past three seasons exhausted his eligibility, while Hayes capped his WSSU career with his fourth round selection by the Tennessee Titans in the 2008 NFL Draft.
Chedrick Marshall and Juan Corders will likely start at linebacker for the Rams in 2008 as both players recorded multiple starts last season. Marshall made significant progress in 2007 as he finished the year with 55 total tackles, good enough to rank fourth on the team.
Corders, who fought a foot injury for the latter part of the 2007 season, returns to the lineup completely healthy and will look to return to the form that made him a rookie of the year candidate as a true freshman in 2006.
Shawn Kearney will likely round out the WSSU linebackers in 2008 following a 2007 season in which he was limited to only four games because of injuries. The 6-2, 210-pound sophomore tallied five solo tackles and a pair of tackle assists last season in limited action and defensive coordinator Michael Ketchum expects him to mature into a leader on defense.
The Rams return four players into the defensive secondary who each started at least three games last season as defensive backs David Irizarry, Marvin Bohannon, Alex Chandler and DeRon Middleton all return to the lineup.
Irizarry and Bohannon, a pair of speedy coverage players, combined for 72 total tackles last season, and ranked eighth and 13th on the roster in tackles respectively.
The defensive line returns only two letterwinners in Quentin Jones and Kevin Dorsey, Jr. Jones, a 6-3, 275-pound redshirt senior will inherit the starting duties at left defensive end in 2008 as he tries to fill the shoes vacated by William Hayes. Jones appeared in all 11 games last season and made one start (at Howard on Sept. 29) en route to ranking 12th in total tackles with 32.
Dorsey, Jr. will move into the starting right defensive end position as he replaces Michael Merritt. Dorsey appeared in eight games for the Rams in 2008 after making the switch from the offensive line to the defensive line in fall training camp.
Despite the position change, Dorsey ranked 19th on the Rams' roster in total tackles as he collected 11 tackles.
Special Teams:
The WSSU special teams units may prove to be one of the largest difference-makers for the Rams in 2008 with the return of nearly every key member of special teams with the exception of kicker Matt Mitchell.
Mitchell, a true freshman in 2007 who appeared in 10 games, will not return for the Rams in 2008. The loss of Mitchell will be most obvious on kickoffs as he was responsible for 41 of the Rams' 46 kickoffs last season en route to tallying more than 2,170 yards and three touchbacks.
Mitchell's services will also be missed on the field goal unit as the kicker hit both of his season-high pair of field goals in the Rams' victory at Morgan State, one of which propelled WSSU to the win as time expired.
Looking to improve upon Mitchell's two-of-seven field goal kicking mark will be Brad Shelton, a 6-2, 190-pound dual-purpose kicker/punter from North Davidson High School in Lexington, N.C. Shelton, an all-conference selection in both his junior and senior seasons in high school, will inherit the placekicking duties vacated by the departure of Mitchell.
Jamaine Mack will again return to the Rams' roster as WSSU's starting punter. Mack, a do-everything athlete who is projected to return to his starting slot at free safety for the Rams, pulls double-duty as WSSU's punter.
Mack returns for his senior season in 2008 fresh off of a 67-punt, 2,346-yard season in which he averaged 35 yards per punt with 21 kicks inside opponent's 20-yard line and 10 touchbacks.
Mack and Shelton will enter the season with the confidence that comes from having seasoned kicking unit members as the Rams return a pair of experienced long snappers in sophomores Michael Gray and Corei Plummer. Both Plummer and Gray logged game experience last season as both redshirt sophomores appeared in more than half of the Rams' contests.
Not only will the Rams have veterans taking to the field for every facet of the kicking game but WSSU will have excellent kick return units as they welcome back the services of the top seven kick returners from 2007.
Senior David Irizarry leads a kick return cast that enters 2008 entirely intact as the Rams look to improve upon a 2007 season in which they recorded 764 yards of kick return yardage. Irizarry leads the way for the Rams as he tallied 414 yards on kick returns in 2007 for an average of 20.7 yards per return.
Synopsis:
The Rams return to action in 2008 looking to continue to lay the foundation for the successes that are sure to come at the NCAA Division I level.
A youthful, yet game-seasoned roster that will play four of their first five games at home, coupled with the experience of a coaching staff that has remained intact since the Division I transition, all capped off by the leadership of head coach Kermit Blount, a man in his 16th season at the helm of the WSSU program and on the precipice of becoming the all-time winningest coach in WSSU football history, will surely shine brilliantly under the bright lights of the national football stage.
Rams return to the gridiron after a successful 2007 season
June 12, 2008
Overview:
The Winston-Salem State University Rams head into the 2008 season fresh off of the most successful Division I season in team history after the Rams posted a 6-5 record in their second full season as a member of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.
A senior-laden team helped the 2007 Rams rank eighth in the MEAC in points per game (21.1 ppg) en route to victories over perennial NCAA Division I-FCS powers Hampton, Florida A&M, Bethune-Cookman, North Carolina A&T and Morgan State as the Rams tallied wins over five MEAC opponents. The Rams also scored a win over former Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) rival and current NCAA Division I-FCS Independent, North Carolina Central.
A 3-1 record at home and an unblemished mark in neutral site contests, earned the Rams their first winning season since the transition to NCAA Division I classification began four years ago.
The successes of the 2007 season are not soon to be forgotten as WSSU players, coaches and the Winston-Salem State faithful forge ahead towards the kickoff of the 2008 campaign as a season of transition and rebuilding lay in wait for the now youthful Rams.
The Rams must strive to replace 13 starters lost as only 15 starters return to a team that was equally stoic on both sides of the ball in 2007.
Hardest hit was the WSSU defensive corps as nine defensive starters were lost to graduation and a tenth, all-everything defensive end William Hayes, was drafted by the Tennessee Titans in the fourth round of the 2008 NFL draft.
Though only three offensive starters were lost at the completion of the season, the Rams will have to do without the services of a trio of four-year starters as quarterback Monte Purvis, halfback Jed Bines and offensive line mainstay Lonnie Teasley all expended their eligibility and earned their undergraduate degrees.
However, the cupboard is not bare for the Rams as 15 starters return to a team that welcomes back the services of 41 total letterwinners.
With 60 underclassmen reporting to fall training camp in 2008, fear may strike the hearts of the WSSU faithful, but head coach Kermit Blount, who has redshirted nearly 90 percent of his freshman during his 15-year tenure at WSSU, will field a youthful team filled with game experience.
A team that benefits from 37 upperclassmen will play four of their first five games at home in the friendly confines of Bowman Gray Stadium with the only road game coming a short 30 miles away at Aggie Stadium in Greensboro, N.C.
Blount, a man who needs only three victories to become the all-time winningest coach in the history of WSSU football, and his seasoned coaching staff look to continue the tradition of gridiron excellence that has become synonymous with Rams football.
Offensive:
The WSSU offense was witness to a rebirth in 2007 as the Rams, a team that had relied heavily upon the running game since the transition to NCAA Division I began, started to fire on all cylinders under offensive coordinator, Nicholas Calcutta.
Under the tutelage of Calcutta the Rams scored 232 total points at a rate of over 20 points per game. Though the bulk of the WSSU offense was still generated by the powerhouse running attack, the Rams generated over 1,000 yards in passing offense for the first time since moving to NCAA Division I.
The 2008 season will pose challenges for the Rams, perhaps the biggest hurdle is replacing quarterback Monte Purvis and running back Jed Bines, fifth-year seniors who accounted for 25 of the team's 32 touchdowns this past season.
Bines ended his career with 3,600 rushing yards (third in program history) and 35 rushing touchdowns (tied for fourth in program history). Purvis, a three-year starter, passed for 2,821 yards and 18 touchdowns, ran for 1,181 yards and 13 touchdowns and ended up with 4,002 total yards in his career (fifth in program history).
Replacing Purvis at quarterback will likely come down to a four-man race with Tienne Jefferson, a 6-1, 210-pound redshirt freshman from Washington, D.C., looking to be the frontrunner to start behind center.
Also in the race for the starting quarterback job is Jarrett Dunston, a 6-3, 220-pound junior from Raleigh, N.C., who transferred to WSSU from Temple University in the spring of 2007. Dunston possesses the strongest arm of all the quarterback contenders and has the added benefit of seeing game action in four contests last season, including one start, in relief of Monte Purvis.
Brian Wynn, a 6-6, 200-pound sophomore from Greensboro, N.C. is in the mix despite having no game experience, as are junior Justin Sherrod and sophomore Omar Kizzie, both of whom played mainly at wide receiver last season. Both Kizzie and Sherrod are expected to take snaps at the quarterback and wide receiver positions in the fall.
The wild card in the quarterback race may very well be true freshman Branden Williams, a 6-1, 190-pound quarterback from Seale, Ala. Williams, who possesses a strong arm and may be as mobile as Purvis, passed for more than 3,000 yards and ran for more than 2,000 yards in high school en route to scoring a combined 45 career touchdowns.
While the quarterback battle remains in question, the Rams look like they will have less trouble at the running back position where Blount's stable is full of thoroughbreds.
Returning in the backfield are a pair of talented upperclassmen in Brandon McRae and Roderick Fluellen.
McRae, a 5-10, 225-pound redshirt junior led the team in rushing two seasons ago and looked to reach for a 1000-yard season in 2007 before breaking his wrist in the Rams' win over Morgan State in mid-September.
Fluellen returns to the lineup on the heels of a 2007 season in which he rushed for 520 yards and scored three touchdowns. He brings with him his 4.4 yards per carry average and again will be looked to for his power running game.
Nic Cooper, a 6-0, 230-pound power back from Clinton, N.C. will throw his hat into the ring in his bid to become a backfield mainstay in 2008 after spending the 2007 season as a redshirt freshman.
Cooper, the Cape Fear Player of the Year in both 2005 and 2006 is a big, athletic running back with 4.5 second speed in the 40-yard dash that led Clinton High School to a state title as a junior. He will look to move up the Rams' depth chart.
The Rams' wide receiver corps returns nine letterwinners from the 2007 season as eight of the top nine receivers from last season will again grace the roster.
WSSU will likely start the pass-catching trio of Michael Scarbrough, Bryant Bayne and Brent Thomas in the fall of 2008 as the three seniors combined for nearly 70 percent of the Rams' receiving yardage and all but one of WSSU's receiving touchdowns.
The Rams' offensive line will once again be led by the ever-present combination of right tackle Joseph Blanks and center Michael Helton.
Blanks returns to the lineup with his start streak of 31 consecutive contests intact, a streak that is second only to Helton's 32-straight games started. The pair of offensive line staples will look to protect whatever young WSSU quarterback lines up behind center.
Joining Helton and Blanks are experienced offensive linemen in Nazir Levine (left guard), Bennie Barbour (right guard) and Thurman McDonald (left tackle). Levine and Barbour combined to start 15 games for the Rams in 2007 as both players head into fall training camp firmly encamped at the top of the WSSU depth chart.
McDonald seeks to replace the services of starter Lonnie Teasley, a player who started 30 career games for the Rams. McDonald, a redshirt sophomore from Fayetteville, N.C., made seven starts in 2007 and returns a wealth of experience to the lineup.
Defense:
The WSSU defense was the hardest hit by graduation as the Rams lose the services of 10 starters. The Rams took their biggest hits on the defensive line and at linebacker as WSSU does not return any starters on the line, and only two linebackers who have at least three career starts return their services.
Nathaniel Biggs and Ernest Blakley are the biggest losses from the WSSU secondary as Biggs and his eight career interceptions, and Blakely and his five career picks will no longer patrol the defensive backfield.
The most glaring holes to fill will be those vacated by the loss of the Rams' top two tacklers from 2007 in linebacker Thadeus Griffin and defensive end William Hayes.
Griffin, a player who led the Rams in tackles for the past three seasons exhausted his eligibility, while Hayes capped his WSSU career with his fourth round selection by the Tennessee Titans in the 2008 NFL Draft.
Chedrick Marshall and Juan Corders will likely start at linebacker for the Rams in 2008 as both players recorded multiple starts last season. Marshall made significant progress in 2007 as he finished the year with 55 total tackles, good enough to rank fourth on the team.
Corders, who fought a foot injury for the latter part of the 2007 season, returns to the lineup completely healthy and will look to return to the form that made him a rookie of the year candidate as a true freshman in 2006.
Shawn Kearney will likely round out the WSSU linebackers in 2008 following a 2007 season in which he was limited to only four games because of injuries. The 6-2, 210-pound sophomore tallied five solo tackles and a pair of tackle assists last season in limited action and defensive coordinator Michael Ketchum expects him to mature into a leader on defense.
The Rams return four players into the defensive secondary who each started at least three games last season as defensive backs David Irizarry, Marvin Bohannon, Alex Chandler and DeRon Middleton all return to the lineup.
Irizarry and Bohannon, a pair of speedy coverage players, combined for 72 total tackles last season, and ranked eighth and 13th on the roster in tackles respectively.
The defensive line returns only two letterwinners in Quentin Jones and Kevin Dorsey, Jr. Jones, a 6-3, 275-pound redshirt senior will inherit the starting duties at left defensive end in 2008 as he tries to fill the shoes vacated by William Hayes. Jones appeared in all 11 games last season and made one start (at Howard on Sept. 29) en route to ranking 12th in total tackles with 32.
Dorsey, Jr. will move into the starting right defensive end position as he replaces Michael Merritt. Dorsey appeared in eight games for the Rams in 2008 after making the switch from the offensive line to the defensive line in fall training camp.
Despite the position change, Dorsey ranked 19th on the Rams' roster in total tackles as he collected 11 tackles.
Special Teams:
The WSSU special teams units may prove to be one of the largest difference-makers for the Rams in 2008 with the return of nearly every key member of special teams with the exception of kicker Matt Mitchell.
Mitchell, a true freshman in 2007 who appeared in 10 games, will not return for the Rams in 2008. The loss of Mitchell will be most obvious on kickoffs as he was responsible for 41 of the Rams' 46 kickoffs last season en route to tallying more than 2,170 yards and three touchbacks.
Mitchell's services will also be missed on the field goal unit as the kicker hit both of his season-high pair of field goals in the Rams' victory at Morgan State, one of which propelled WSSU to the win as time expired.
Looking to improve upon Mitchell's two-of-seven field goal kicking mark will be Brad Shelton, a 6-2, 190-pound dual-purpose kicker/punter from North Davidson High School in Lexington, N.C. Shelton, an all-conference selection in both his junior and senior seasons in high school, will inherit the placekicking duties vacated by the departure of Mitchell.
Jamaine Mack will again return to the Rams' roster as WSSU's starting punter. Mack, a do-everything athlete who is projected to return to his starting slot at free safety for the Rams, pulls double-duty as WSSU's punter.
Mack returns for his senior season in 2008 fresh off of a 67-punt, 2,346-yard season in which he averaged 35 yards per punt with 21 kicks inside opponent's 20-yard line and 10 touchbacks.
Mack and Shelton will enter the season with the confidence that comes from having seasoned kicking unit members as the Rams return a pair of experienced long snappers in sophomores Michael Gray and Corei Plummer. Both Plummer and Gray logged game experience last season as both redshirt sophomores appeared in more than half of the Rams' contests.
Not only will the Rams have veterans taking to the field for every facet of the kicking game but WSSU will have excellent kick return units as they welcome back the services of the top seven kick returners from 2007.
Senior David Irizarry leads a kick return cast that enters 2008 entirely intact as the Rams look to improve upon a 2007 season in which they recorded 764 yards of kick return yardage. Irizarry leads the way for the Rams as he tallied 414 yards on kick returns in 2007 for an average of 20.7 yards per return.
Synopsis:
The Rams return to action in 2008 looking to continue to lay the foundation for the successes that are sure to come at the NCAA Division I level.
A youthful, yet game-seasoned roster that will play four of their first five games at home, coupled with the experience of a coaching staff that has remained intact since the Division I transition, all capped off by the leadership of head coach Kermit Blount, a man in his 16th season at the helm of the WSSU program and on the precipice of becoming the all-time winningest coach in WSSU football history, will surely shine brilliantly under the bright lights of the national football stage.
Can the Aggies beat WSSU this year?
