Post by Aggie One on Sept 8, 2011 20:16:02 GMT -5
An Early Season Check-Up
by Craig R. Turner
bluedeathvalley.com
After a somewhat shaky first half start in playing against a team that you know nothing about, which had never played a college football game in almost 70 years, a team full of D-1 “last chance” first rate FCS level talent, new A&T head coach Rod Broadway didn’t seemed perturbed or nervous in the least as his ball club went into halftime with a slim 10-0 lead with 65 new players of his own which he had seen or coached in a college football game.
The Aggie coaching staff made some adjustments and went after what they recognized as an opportunity in the chink in the Lynchburg (University of Virginia) defensive armor and went about the task of dismantling the Dragons in what turned out to be an easy 38-7 season opening win.
This week A&T takes the short bus ride up 421 North to Boone, NC to play one of the priemier FCS programs in the nation in Appalachian State. Broadway who regularly points to the fact that he prepares his team against itself more so than an particular opponent has set his biggest measuring stick for the Aggies as being able to take care of the football, something it did not do very well against VUL with six fumbles.
Defensively, the Aggies were expected to suspect at best but instead controlled the line of scrimmage with its smaller defensive line and superior team speed giving up only 80 yards of total offense on 96 plays for the game. Of those yards given up the Lions managed only a paltry -16 yards in rushing against an A&T team that was missing three starters, all of which will be available and 100 percent to go this coming Saturday afternoon.
And to be frank, A&T will need every able body they can put out of the field. App State is considered and rightfully so, a national championship contender every year and it is rightfully deserved designation that has been built by coach Jerry Moore from the ground up and has built a true dynasty over his twenty plus years heading up the Southern Conference program.
The Mountaineers are undergoing a lot changes themselves recently in voting to start earnestly looking for a new FSC conference home which some of their fans feel is premature and to a lesser extent feel warranted. Despite the vote, the Apps got a very big and bitter taste of what a week in and week out FCS football would be like with a 66-13 demolition at the hands of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg last weekend.
This week is a weekend of oddities that are suddenly coming together early in the year with a somewhat out-manned A&T team, depth wise, under a very new successful head coach with a proven track record of turning around floundering programs against a rock solid established FCS program in App State that may be in a rebuilding mode for this year.
This may be one of those games that neither coach, neither Broadway or Moore, really worries a great deal about the others personnel or schemes but instead concentrate on what they failed to do correctly in week one and work overtime to improve their respective ball clubs from week one to week two in preparation for conference play for both coming up very quickly on the calendars.
The Apps will be employing a new a 3-4 defense which is major departure from their standard 4-3 scheme which everyone has become accustomed during their many championship runs. A&T will be a base 4-3 team despite their slightly smaller than average stature that is offset with a lot of team speed.
The big question for A&T will be can the lack of depth of the Aggies have on defense hold up against ASU and their pound the ball off tackle style and can they stay away from turnovers. The first 44 on each side match up pretty well against each other but after that is where the drop off because evident.
The Aggies will get the full services of Walter Peyton Award Finalist running back Mike Mayhew, the MEAC’s top back who suffered a stinger in last week’s win and was held out for this game. App State is in a position where many teams aspire to. This is a measuring stick of sorts of where and what A&T needs to do to be able to climb the ladder toward the consistency of the ASU program.
Notice I didn’t say match but move to the level of consistency of being a conference championship contender as well as a perennial playoff participant. Once that consistent on the field effort, off season recruiting, academic retention, and winning mind set is established then A&T, over time, will no longer be considered just an afterthought but can step up and compete with ASU on the field each year and in the living rooms of recruits this winter.
**************************************
The Aggies enter this game with very little to lose and everything to gain and App State has a lot of making up to do after being embarrassed last time out at Virginia Tech. Neither one of these teams are anywhere the teams they were when A&T was 0-11 or App State was on its FCS three-peat championship run but a gap still exist here.
How much of one is unknown and we still may not know for sure by 7 pm on Saturday night but it will give Coach Broadway some idea of where he needs to go and where he needs to do get where he needs to go with the program.
PREDICTION:
App State – 37
N.C. A&T - 17
by Craig R. Turner
bluedeathvalley.com
After a somewhat shaky first half start in playing against a team that you know nothing about, which had never played a college football game in almost 70 years, a team full of D-1 “last chance” first rate FCS level talent, new A&T head coach Rod Broadway didn’t seemed perturbed or nervous in the least as his ball club went into halftime with a slim 10-0 lead with 65 new players of his own which he had seen or coached in a college football game.
The Aggie coaching staff made some adjustments and went after what they recognized as an opportunity in the chink in the Lynchburg (University of Virginia) defensive armor and went about the task of dismantling the Dragons in what turned out to be an easy 38-7 season opening win.
This week A&T takes the short bus ride up 421 North to Boone, NC to play one of the priemier FCS programs in the nation in Appalachian State. Broadway who regularly points to the fact that he prepares his team against itself more so than an particular opponent has set his biggest measuring stick for the Aggies as being able to take care of the football, something it did not do very well against VUL with six fumbles.
Defensively, the Aggies were expected to suspect at best but instead controlled the line of scrimmage with its smaller defensive line and superior team speed giving up only 80 yards of total offense on 96 plays for the game. Of those yards given up the Lions managed only a paltry -16 yards in rushing against an A&T team that was missing three starters, all of which will be available and 100 percent to go this coming Saturday afternoon.
And to be frank, A&T will need every able body they can put out of the field. App State is considered and rightfully so, a national championship contender every year and it is rightfully deserved designation that has been built by coach Jerry Moore from the ground up and has built a true dynasty over his twenty plus years heading up the Southern Conference program.
The Mountaineers are undergoing a lot changes themselves recently in voting to start earnestly looking for a new FSC conference home which some of their fans feel is premature and to a lesser extent feel warranted. Despite the vote, the Apps got a very big and bitter taste of what a week in and week out FCS football would be like with a 66-13 demolition at the hands of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg last weekend.
This week is a weekend of oddities that are suddenly coming together early in the year with a somewhat out-manned A&T team, depth wise, under a very new successful head coach with a proven track record of turning around floundering programs against a rock solid established FCS program in App State that may be in a rebuilding mode for this year.
This may be one of those games that neither coach, neither Broadway or Moore, really worries a great deal about the others personnel or schemes but instead concentrate on what they failed to do correctly in week one and work overtime to improve their respective ball clubs from week one to week two in preparation for conference play for both coming up very quickly on the calendars.
The Apps will be employing a new a 3-4 defense which is major departure from their standard 4-3 scheme which everyone has become accustomed during their many championship runs. A&T will be a base 4-3 team despite their slightly smaller than average stature that is offset with a lot of team speed.
The big question for A&T will be can the lack of depth of the Aggies have on defense hold up against ASU and their pound the ball off tackle style and can they stay away from turnovers. The first 44 on each side match up pretty well against each other but after that is where the drop off because evident.
The Aggies will get the full services of Walter Peyton Award Finalist running back Mike Mayhew, the MEAC’s top back who suffered a stinger in last week’s win and was held out for this game. App State is in a position where many teams aspire to. This is a measuring stick of sorts of where and what A&T needs to do to be able to climb the ladder toward the consistency of the ASU program.
Notice I didn’t say match but move to the level of consistency of being a conference championship contender as well as a perennial playoff participant. Once that consistent on the field effort, off season recruiting, academic retention, and winning mind set is established then A&T, over time, will no longer be considered just an afterthought but can step up and compete with ASU on the field each year and in the living rooms of recruits this winter.
**************************************
The Aggies enter this game with very little to lose and everything to gain and App State has a lot of making up to do after being embarrassed last time out at Virginia Tech. Neither one of these teams are anywhere the teams they were when A&T was 0-11 or App State was on its FCS three-peat championship run but a gap still exist here.
How much of one is unknown and we still may not know for sure by 7 pm on Saturday night but it will give Coach Broadway some idea of where he needs to go and where he needs to do get where he needs to go with the program.
PREDICTION:
App State – 37
N.C. A&T - 17
