Post by Aggie One on Sept 21, 2007 20:58:55 GMT -5
Aggies and Eagles, No Love Fest
by Craig R. Turner
bluedeathvalley.com
Okay let’s quickly review last week’s 59-14 thumping that the Aggies received at the hands of 12th ranked Hampton last Saturday night. A&T hung for a half, played fairly decent defense and put together its best offensive drive of the year right before halftime trail 17-7 and had gained a considerable amount of momentum going into the locker room.
Then there was the second half kickoff to the Pirates that was taken to the house 70 yards almost totally untouched by transfer wide out Kevin Teel and that was the end of that. The Aggies punched in another score after an Aggie takeaway to cut it to 24-14 midway in the third quarter but three more quick Pirate touchdowns in the last eight minutes of the quarter broke A&T’s back for good and opened the flood gates.
The only real bright spot for A&T was the emergence of untested rookie quarterback Shelton Morgan who didn’t have a great game statistically but who effectively recognized his coverages, made good reads, and hit the open man for two touchdowns and gave A&T some consistency at the quarterback spot, something it had been missing in its first two games.
Poor special teams play remains the Achilles heel for A&T for the second straight week breaking any sort of surge that this team seems to put together at crucial moments that have turned the tide in the opposite direction. Don’t get me wrong, A&T was way overmatched talent and size wise against the Pirates and the outcome would have very likely been the same, a Pirate win. But up until that second half kickoff, the Aggies were holding their own and were in the fight.
It might just be in the Aggies best interest to simply squib its kickoffs out of bounds give the extra five yards on the penalty and not let the opposition touch the ball and just go ahead and play defense from there.
Let me stop right there, frustration is rearing its ugly head and the mean spirited fan is starting to come out. Somewhere, sometime this season this team will break through but A&T fans are beginning to wonder when and if that will happen.
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North Carolina Central. Say that name to most any A&T fan and you get reactions from mild indifference to down right disdain. The Eagles have been one of the most successful HBCU programs over the last four years with back to back CIAA championships, a national black college title a year ago, losing only three games in the last three years to boot.
The Eagles cried foul when the Aggie-Eagle Classic was dropped after 2005 claming that the Aggies were running scared because of its 22-20 win in the last meeting in Raleigh. In fact, a couple of totally different reasons contributed to the demise of that game.
First there was a mandate by the MEAC to play a 1-AA schedule with only one exception and athletic director Dee Todd’s determination that A&T would no longer play Division II schools as to not to hurt the chances of possible at-large playoff chances because of a strength of schedule issue.
That is something South Carolina State can attest too with two back to back 9-2 seasons and no post season play to show for it in 2004 and 2005.
Secondly, and probably even more important was that A&T never got paid the full $125,000 dollar guarantee it signed for in the contract with the promotions outfit in Raleigh and as it stands now, probably never will.
Well as you know in football everything runs in cycles and things have a funny way of working their way around full circle. NCCU athletic director Bill Hayes, who is the winningest football coach in A&T history and was responsible for much if not all of the Aggie swagger through the 1990’s and the early part of this decade is to be honored this week since his untimely ouster in 2002.
With that being said, all the persons involved in that move are no longer at A&T but that whole affair and the way it was handled can’t make it any easier to sallow for a coach of Hayes stature but he has been gracious and downplayed the past events these past years for the most part - at least publicly.
He now leads the NCCU athletic program, his alma mater, into the foray known as Division One athletics, a new and unmarked territory for the Eagles. Hayes is about as resourceful as the old TV series escape artist McGiver in devising ways of making something major work to his advantage out of something small. He’s a sly old fox who knows his way around the hen house. You can’t help but like him.
It’ll be nice to see you Bill back in the house that you help build. Even just for a day. Just don’t leave with a win.
****************************************************
This game will be a slobber knocker of an affair as it always is and I don’t expect either team to blow the other out. A last minute play or two will make the difference in a game of big plays. A&T might just have just one more break go their way at home this week.
Prediction
NCCU 21
N.C. A&T 23
by Craig R. Turner
bluedeathvalley.com
Okay let’s quickly review last week’s 59-14 thumping that the Aggies received at the hands of 12th ranked Hampton last Saturday night. A&T hung for a half, played fairly decent defense and put together its best offensive drive of the year right before halftime trail 17-7 and had gained a considerable amount of momentum going into the locker room.
Then there was the second half kickoff to the Pirates that was taken to the house 70 yards almost totally untouched by transfer wide out Kevin Teel and that was the end of that. The Aggies punched in another score after an Aggie takeaway to cut it to 24-14 midway in the third quarter but three more quick Pirate touchdowns in the last eight minutes of the quarter broke A&T’s back for good and opened the flood gates.
The only real bright spot for A&T was the emergence of untested rookie quarterback Shelton Morgan who didn’t have a great game statistically but who effectively recognized his coverages, made good reads, and hit the open man for two touchdowns and gave A&T some consistency at the quarterback spot, something it had been missing in its first two games.
Poor special teams play remains the Achilles heel for A&T for the second straight week breaking any sort of surge that this team seems to put together at crucial moments that have turned the tide in the opposite direction. Don’t get me wrong, A&T was way overmatched talent and size wise against the Pirates and the outcome would have very likely been the same, a Pirate win. But up until that second half kickoff, the Aggies were holding their own and were in the fight.
It might just be in the Aggies best interest to simply squib its kickoffs out of bounds give the extra five yards on the penalty and not let the opposition touch the ball and just go ahead and play defense from there.
Let me stop right there, frustration is rearing its ugly head and the mean spirited fan is starting to come out. Somewhere, sometime this season this team will break through but A&T fans are beginning to wonder when and if that will happen.
****************************************************
North Carolina Central. Say that name to most any A&T fan and you get reactions from mild indifference to down right disdain. The Eagles have been one of the most successful HBCU programs over the last four years with back to back CIAA championships, a national black college title a year ago, losing only three games in the last three years to boot.
The Eagles cried foul when the Aggie-Eagle Classic was dropped after 2005 claming that the Aggies were running scared because of its 22-20 win in the last meeting in Raleigh. In fact, a couple of totally different reasons contributed to the demise of that game.
First there was a mandate by the MEAC to play a 1-AA schedule with only one exception and athletic director Dee Todd’s determination that A&T would no longer play Division II schools as to not to hurt the chances of possible at-large playoff chances because of a strength of schedule issue.
That is something South Carolina State can attest too with two back to back 9-2 seasons and no post season play to show for it in 2004 and 2005.
Secondly, and probably even more important was that A&T never got paid the full $125,000 dollar guarantee it signed for in the contract with the promotions outfit in Raleigh and as it stands now, probably never will.
Well as you know in football everything runs in cycles and things have a funny way of working their way around full circle. NCCU athletic director Bill Hayes, who is the winningest football coach in A&T history and was responsible for much if not all of the Aggie swagger through the 1990’s and the early part of this decade is to be honored this week since his untimely ouster in 2002.
With that being said, all the persons involved in that move are no longer at A&T but that whole affair and the way it was handled can’t make it any easier to sallow for a coach of Hayes stature but he has been gracious and downplayed the past events these past years for the most part - at least publicly.
He now leads the NCCU athletic program, his alma mater, into the foray known as Division One athletics, a new and unmarked territory for the Eagles. Hayes is about as resourceful as the old TV series escape artist McGiver in devising ways of making something major work to his advantage out of something small. He’s a sly old fox who knows his way around the hen house. You can’t help but like him.
It’ll be nice to see you Bill back in the house that you help build. Even just for a day. Just don’t leave with a win.
****************************************************
This game will be a slobber knocker of an affair as it always is and I don’t expect either team to blow the other out. A last minute play or two will make the difference in a game of big plays. A&T might just have just one more break go their way at home this week.
Prediction
NCCU 21
N.C. A&T 23
