Post by Aggie One on Nov 17, 2011 18:22:53 GMT -5
N.C. A&T vs. NCCU: More Than Just a Rivalry
By Craig R. Turner
Bluedeathvalley.com
North Carolina A&T and North Carolina Central will meet for the 83rd time in one of the most storied and intense rivalries in all of HBCU football this Saturday afternoon in Greensboro at Aggie Stadium.
Even with both teams engrossed in a major overhaul of their football programs with below .500 records a near sellout crowd is expected for this season finale.
The two teams have experienced growing pains this season under two new head coaches who both bolted from strong programs from the SWAC a year ago.
Henry Frazier left the friendly confines of Prairie View A&M after building that program from one of the worst in all of FCS football into an eventual SWAC champion just two years ago to take over at NCCU.
His initial season has been anything but stellar as the Eagles have struggled all season long with its 2-8 record, looking early in the year as perhaps being an above average team to its present state of playing far below expectations of nearly every Eagle follower in their first year of transitioning from Division II and the CIAA to the FCS and the MEAC.
Even by his own admission, Frazier has remarked that the Eagles have a serious talent gap, despite its 60 scholarships, in trying to compete on a consistent basis week in and week out in a league dominated by high-powered offenses and strong physical defenses with depth of the stronger established MEAC programs.
The Eagles returned some 18 veteran starters but they have had a great deal of trouble adjusting to Frazier’s more complex schemes and those players being unable to adjust accordingly. In short, they were built for the CIAA. There are no real doormats in the MEAC.
Rod Broadway took the A&T job knowing that the Aggies were struggling with APR issues and plenty of coaching turnover after national signing day, which left him with virtually little or no recruiting class in which to build upon.
Broadway quickly let it be known from the outset to A&T alumni, that season one would be difficult but that he and much his staff, which followed him from Grambling, would go with his inherited roster of only 33 scholarship players and do the best they could with the cards dealt to them.
Most A&T fans soon resigned themselves to perhaps another one or two win season and not being up to the task of playing with current MEAC powers like South Carolina State, FAMU, Norfolk, or Bethune.
Even though the Aggies hit a huge dry spot of losses during a torturous 4-game road stretch against the four best teams in league, they literally took each one of those teams down to the wire after earlier dominating a strong Bethune Cookman team at home and an improved Morgan State squad on the road.
In fact, the Aggies surprisingly remained very relevant in the MEAC championship picture for eight weeks. The Aggies have a chance this week to do something most of their fans never figured could happen which would be to finish .500 in the conference and in the middle of the pack of the MEAC.
Now Rod Broadway will say not much was accomplished and his team is not very good but anyone that has followed A&T football during the last seven years can present a strong argument that Aggies have made tremendous strides even at 4-6.
That 4-6 record is extremely deceiving and to the trained sports eye, one can see that the A&T football program is finally headed in the right direction and moving there quickly.
This rivalry is intense. It has been the cornerstone of any measurement of success no matter the record if a victory can be had by one over the other. At times it has been downright bitter having spilled over into unflattering confrontations.
Make no mistake about it and do not let anyone fool you. These two teams do not like each other. Short of a civil war, it would be hard not to take sides if you attended either school, live in either Durham or Greensboro or are even vaguely familiar with anything about the history of this series between these two universities.
There are no championships to be decided this weekend as Norfolk State has laid claim to their first MEAC title, which they so richly deserve. they earned it.
The trophy that is really at stake this week is not so much about bragging rights, albeit it nice to throw around the coffee pot at work on Monday morning, but more importantly it is about which program will have the upper hand in grabbing the key to open the doors of many of the most coveted in-state recruits, who are now seriously looking at both schools between now and the first week of February.
Whether NCCU goes 3-8 or A&T goes 5-6, it most likely will not matter. What will matter is that last game. The better student athletes almost will always gravitate to the school they perceive as being on the upswing, a winner if you will.
This single game will stick out in the minds of those high school recruits long after the final gun. When those campus visits are made, their eyes will certainly be on academics, on facilities, on the coaches and their staff, the campuses and all those things will be subjective in most cases to a recruit.
The one thing that will not be will be who walks off green grass of Aggie Stadium with the “W.” At the end of the day, whether you are an Aggie or an Eagle isn’t that what really counts in late November?
****************
Well, it is the last time out for 11 A&T seniors and some individual records will be up for the taking but that is not of importance. If they come, they come.
What I do expect from those 11 seniors and the rest of the A&T football team is wanting a win over their most bitter rival and to go out on Senior Day so badly as a winner and thus becoming a major part of the start of the complete renaissance of A&T football to where it was nearly a decade ago.
I like our chances, especially with this defense. The Eagles will come out hard but the Aggies will put on the final show.
*************
PREDICTION:
N.C. A&T – 37
NCCU -17
By Craig R. Turner
Bluedeathvalley.com
North Carolina A&T and North Carolina Central will meet for the 83rd time in one of the most storied and intense rivalries in all of HBCU football this Saturday afternoon in Greensboro at Aggie Stadium.
Even with both teams engrossed in a major overhaul of their football programs with below .500 records a near sellout crowd is expected for this season finale.
The two teams have experienced growing pains this season under two new head coaches who both bolted from strong programs from the SWAC a year ago.
Henry Frazier left the friendly confines of Prairie View A&M after building that program from one of the worst in all of FCS football into an eventual SWAC champion just two years ago to take over at NCCU.
His initial season has been anything but stellar as the Eagles have struggled all season long with its 2-8 record, looking early in the year as perhaps being an above average team to its present state of playing far below expectations of nearly every Eagle follower in their first year of transitioning from Division II and the CIAA to the FCS and the MEAC.
Even by his own admission, Frazier has remarked that the Eagles have a serious talent gap, despite its 60 scholarships, in trying to compete on a consistent basis week in and week out in a league dominated by high-powered offenses and strong physical defenses with depth of the stronger established MEAC programs.
The Eagles returned some 18 veteran starters but they have had a great deal of trouble adjusting to Frazier’s more complex schemes and those players being unable to adjust accordingly. In short, they were built for the CIAA. There are no real doormats in the MEAC.
Rod Broadway took the A&T job knowing that the Aggies were struggling with APR issues and plenty of coaching turnover after national signing day, which left him with virtually little or no recruiting class in which to build upon.
Broadway quickly let it be known from the outset to A&T alumni, that season one would be difficult but that he and much his staff, which followed him from Grambling, would go with his inherited roster of only 33 scholarship players and do the best they could with the cards dealt to them.
Most A&T fans soon resigned themselves to perhaps another one or two win season and not being up to the task of playing with current MEAC powers like South Carolina State, FAMU, Norfolk, or Bethune.
Even though the Aggies hit a huge dry spot of losses during a torturous 4-game road stretch against the four best teams in league, they literally took each one of those teams down to the wire after earlier dominating a strong Bethune Cookman team at home and an improved Morgan State squad on the road.
In fact, the Aggies surprisingly remained very relevant in the MEAC championship picture for eight weeks. The Aggies have a chance this week to do something most of their fans never figured could happen which would be to finish .500 in the conference and in the middle of the pack of the MEAC.
Now Rod Broadway will say not much was accomplished and his team is not very good but anyone that has followed A&T football during the last seven years can present a strong argument that Aggies have made tremendous strides even at 4-6.
That 4-6 record is extremely deceiving and to the trained sports eye, one can see that the A&T football program is finally headed in the right direction and moving there quickly.
This rivalry is intense. It has been the cornerstone of any measurement of success no matter the record if a victory can be had by one over the other. At times it has been downright bitter having spilled over into unflattering confrontations.
Make no mistake about it and do not let anyone fool you. These two teams do not like each other. Short of a civil war, it would be hard not to take sides if you attended either school, live in either Durham or Greensboro or are even vaguely familiar with anything about the history of this series between these two universities.
There are no championships to be decided this weekend as Norfolk State has laid claim to their first MEAC title, which they so richly deserve. they earned it.
The trophy that is really at stake this week is not so much about bragging rights, albeit it nice to throw around the coffee pot at work on Monday morning, but more importantly it is about which program will have the upper hand in grabbing the key to open the doors of many of the most coveted in-state recruits, who are now seriously looking at both schools between now and the first week of February.
Whether NCCU goes 3-8 or A&T goes 5-6, it most likely will not matter. What will matter is that last game. The better student athletes almost will always gravitate to the school they perceive as being on the upswing, a winner if you will.
This single game will stick out in the minds of those high school recruits long after the final gun. When those campus visits are made, their eyes will certainly be on academics, on facilities, on the coaches and their staff, the campuses and all those things will be subjective in most cases to a recruit.
The one thing that will not be will be who walks off green grass of Aggie Stadium with the “W.” At the end of the day, whether you are an Aggie or an Eagle isn’t that what really counts in late November?
****************
Well, it is the last time out for 11 A&T seniors and some individual records will be up for the taking but that is not of importance. If they come, they come.
What I do expect from those 11 seniors and the rest of the A&T football team is wanting a win over their most bitter rival and to go out on Senior Day so badly as a winner and thus becoming a major part of the start of the complete renaissance of A&T football to where it was nearly a decade ago.
I like our chances, especially with this defense. The Eagles will come out hard but the Aggies will put on the final show.
*************
PREDICTION:
N.C. A&T – 37
NCCU -17
