Post by Aggie One on Apr 1, 2007 11:35:54 GMT -5
Not There Yet – But Close
A One-on-One with Lee Fobbs Jr.
By Craig R. Turner
A Bluedeathvalley.com Exclusive
North Carolina A&T wrapped up its spring practice yesterday with an impressive showing of a rejuvenated defense that hade been MIA in 2006 with a new look, new personnel, and a energy level that seemed more like fall practice than just the usual run through of a short 2 and half weeks of March workouts.
A&T did not break its team into separate blue-gold units but instead went with the offense against the defense for four quarters without clock stoppages and then worked on red zone offense situations in the latter stages to conclude the scrimmage.
Fobbs stated that his team had gone full bore in its two weeks and were a little banged up so he made a decision not to risk those players nursing bumps and bruises. “I decided to hold a lot of our guys out today and it gave us a chance to look over our new personnel and some of our younger players under game conditions. We know what a lot of our returning kids can do already.”
Missing the spring game were starters Mike Ferguson (RB), Andre Garth (WR), Curtis Walls (WR) along with Mike Christian (FB), Tim Witherspoon (LB), transfer Jabreel Cuthbertson (DB) and leading tackler Andre Thornton (LB). Others only played sparingly like newcomer Eugene Eubanks (LB) who nursed an ankle all day.
An enthusiastic crowd of 1,000 spectators looked on what will be a football team that is looking to rebound from a dismal 0-11 season a year ago hoping to see signs of significant improvement. They were not disappointed as Coach Lee Fobbs and his coaching staff has seemingly found quite a few answers in improving the Aggies number shortfall by redesigning their defense into an unusual alignment mixed in along with a traditional 4-3 set. It was no less enthusiastic among the players in the locker afterwards.
“Our kids attitude is a total 180 turnaround from a year ago. They are enthusiastic, they anxious to get to the season, we’re all on the same page now and there is a team chemistry we didn’t have a year ago,” Fobbs explained.
I asked him about what caused the change. Fobbs was emphatic in response. “The guys now care about what they are doing instead of just going through the motions. They believe that they can compete within the system they we know have in place. I going to stand with the same philosophy I did when we started last year. I mean if you don’t believe in what you doing as a coach then how in the hell do you expect anyone else to believe in it. You guys know I’m going to be honest with you and tell you the truth, I’m not going to hide it or make excuses. I don’t know any other way.
When you hear coaches making excuses for this or that then your program unravels, Ninety five percent of what happens each week is on the coach and I will always take responsibility for that. If we don’t get it done it won’t be anyone else to blame.”
This new 3-5-3 scheme has allowed A&T to take advantage of their biggest strength coming out of spring practice, a very deep linebacker crew, an unusually large and physical secondary, and a pronounced increase in speed at all positions on that side of the ball. So much so that the defense defeated the offense 21-12 in a point system where the defense earned points for stopping drives, turnovers, and interceptions.
“Our coaches did a fine job in the off season in designing a system that takes advantage of the personnel we had on hand this spring and our kids really took to it right off’ said Fobbs said in a post game interview. “The kids were flying around today, getting to the ball, closing gaps and creating pressure. We wanted our defense not to play on their heels but get after people and be aggressive and really attack the offense and for the most part we’ve were largely successful in getting that goal accomplished this spring.”
Despite the odd formation Fobbs acknowledged that at this point the Aggies are not quite yet in a position up to try to battle people toe to toe on every single play along the line. “We’re not as big as we hoped to be at this point so we tailored some things to help equalize our lack of size in the trenches. We not nearly there yet, but we made real some strides in using our available linemen and linebackers in different non traditional ways.
Our coordinator, coach (Demetrius) Adams and new defensive line coach (Damian) Frenchers did a hell of a job in getting the guys ready and getting this new look worked into part of what we want to do defensively this year along with our normal sets.
The weight of the defense up front is being handled up front by senior tackle LeShawn McLean (6-3,275), nose tackle Kelvin Jackson (6-4,290) , and sophomores Billy Hansford (6-3,240) and Joseph Taylor (6-3,235) at the ends.
Where Fobbs is really excited is at linebacker. “We are fortunate to have some big physical folks at linebacker who can really run and finish tackles now. Tim (Witherspoon) has really meshed in well after being away for a year and he‘s a real good one. Davion Hemphill and Brandon Long has gotten much bigger and stronger and created havoc. (Marcus) Short, (Jamison) Hedgepeth and a bunch of our other kids got after it by working hard to get better and its evident in what they did out there today.
Asked directly by this reporter about efforts to increase the manpower up front, Fobbs remarked, “We have some things in the works on the way for this fall. You know as a coach I really don’t want to talk about these things until they have gone through the process and things are in place but we do have real help on the way to rectify that that situation. I’m pleased with what we’re doing. We never stop recruiting.”
Offensively the second year head coach was pleased with the performance of quarterback Herb Miller and his command of the offense. Miller, a 6-2, 190 rising sophomore, showed that he has fully recovered from a knee injury that ended his season prematurely at mid season. Miller was accurate on his passes going 10-16 for 2 TDs, rushing for another 64 yards, and making correct decisions, and showing poise under pressure.
“Miller showed lot today in his improvement and his hard work paid off. He threw the ball well, ran it well, made really good decisions, and didn’t make mistakes but importantly showed leadership. He did what you want your quarterback to do, read the defense correctly, make plays, and be smart in what he does,” said Fobbs.
Miller wasn’t the only one that caught Fobbs eye. “I’m really excited about Giorgio Lowrance, a red shirt freshman who came to us a quarterback but has moved to wide receiver. He’s got great size (6-5,210), can run, can catch, block, and a tough kid. He really has exploded this spring and he’ll be big for us with Andre (Garth).”
Wide receiver Mike Caldwell got great reviews for his acrobatic catches and a 32 yard scoring run off a reverse that was called back. Fobbs remarked “He’s 5-9 165 pounds soaking wet but he plays like he is twice that size and has the talent to match it.”
Quarterback Wayne Campbell never got into a rhythm until late in the day with the red zone drills and seemed tentative on his throws. “Wayne has some work to do and he didn’t recognize defenses as well as he should have. But he’s has talent and we’ll work on those things with him and he’ll be a factor,” remarked Fobbs.
“Brett Fisher (6-3,230) is another guy that frankly who has simply been outstanding this spring at tight end. He’s an undersized tight end, but he’s got great hands, really good speed, and goes after ball. His ability to go deep and adjust his body in motion to make the catch is remarkable.”
The one thing that did not get praise from Fobbs was the lackluster play of his offensive line. “We just are not anywhere where we need to be in this area. We know we have our work cut out there and we have some big strong people coming this fall that will help us immensely up front and they’ll have be to ready because no one is safe as things stand now. It doesn’t do us any good to have one of the better backfields here in some time but you can’t get them anywhere to run.”
While speaking of backfields, the Aggies may have one of the best in the league going into this fall. Besides leading rusher Mike Ferguson, a new kid on the block got oohs and hahs from the fans in sophomore Clemson transfer Demmerick Chancellor. Chancellor ran with seemed to be little effort scoring on a 13 yard TD run weaving through traffic and breaking tackles. The Aggies also added some additional insurance with transfers David Robinson, Reggie James, and returning sophomore Dion McNair.
The news could indeed get a lot sweeter in the next few days if the NCAA approves the medical red shirt petition for Brandon Sweeney (920 yards in 2005) who missed his senior year in 2006 because of a preseason kidney injury. Sweeney has been given the green light by his doctors so now it’s a wait and see with the NCAA on the petition. Fobbs broke into a board smile when speaking of Sweeney.
“It’s all in their hands now (NCAA) so we’re just waiting for them to review the documentation and give us an answer. Brandon is a very special player that doesn’t come along every day. If we get him back we’ll be over the top in our running game.”
A otherwise productive day on the field was marred by what appeared to be a almost tragic accident when starting free safety Brian Ringgold took a vicious shot to the head and neck area when tackling back up running back Chad Truesdale just a few series into the game. Both players were knocked to the ground with Truesdale getting to his feet very slowly after regaining his senses.
However, Ringgold remained motionless, obviously having suffered a spinal injury. A&T trainers quickly attended to and immobilized the red shirt junior until paramedics could safely transport him to Moses Cone Hospital.
Fobbs expressed his concern in his face while checking on his player’s health with the hospital. “You know as a coach that football is a physical sport and things like this can happen, but you never really are prepared for this and Brian is such a good kid it really gets to you when this sort of thing happens. They tell me he’s beginning to get the feeling back in his hands and feet. We’re going to go right over as soon as we wrap things up here.”
Word late last night was that Ringgold had regained felling in his extremities but will have to undergo surgery to repair a ruptured to the L-5 vertebrae in his lower back. His prognosis for a return to football is unknown at this time.
A One-on-One with Lee Fobbs Jr.
By Craig R. Turner
A Bluedeathvalley.com Exclusive
North Carolina A&T wrapped up its spring practice yesterday with an impressive showing of a rejuvenated defense that hade been MIA in 2006 with a new look, new personnel, and a energy level that seemed more like fall practice than just the usual run through of a short 2 and half weeks of March workouts.
A&T did not break its team into separate blue-gold units but instead went with the offense against the defense for four quarters without clock stoppages and then worked on red zone offense situations in the latter stages to conclude the scrimmage.
Fobbs stated that his team had gone full bore in its two weeks and were a little banged up so he made a decision not to risk those players nursing bumps and bruises. “I decided to hold a lot of our guys out today and it gave us a chance to look over our new personnel and some of our younger players under game conditions. We know what a lot of our returning kids can do already.”
Missing the spring game were starters Mike Ferguson (RB), Andre Garth (WR), Curtis Walls (WR) along with Mike Christian (FB), Tim Witherspoon (LB), transfer Jabreel Cuthbertson (DB) and leading tackler Andre Thornton (LB). Others only played sparingly like newcomer Eugene Eubanks (LB) who nursed an ankle all day.
An enthusiastic crowd of 1,000 spectators looked on what will be a football team that is looking to rebound from a dismal 0-11 season a year ago hoping to see signs of significant improvement. They were not disappointed as Coach Lee Fobbs and his coaching staff has seemingly found quite a few answers in improving the Aggies number shortfall by redesigning their defense into an unusual alignment mixed in along with a traditional 4-3 set. It was no less enthusiastic among the players in the locker afterwards.
“Our kids attitude is a total 180 turnaround from a year ago. They are enthusiastic, they anxious to get to the season, we’re all on the same page now and there is a team chemistry we didn’t have a year ago,” Fobbs explained.
I asked him about what caused the change. Fobbs was emphatic in response. “The guys now care about what they are doing instead of just going through the motions. They believe that they can compete within the system they we know have in place. I going to stand with the same philosophy I did when we started last year. I mean if you don’t believe in what you doing as a coach then how in the hell do you expect anyone else to believe in it. You guys know I’m going to be honest with you and tell you the truth, I’m not going to hide it or make excuses. I don’t know any other way.
When you hear coaches making excuses for this or that then your program unravels, Ninety five percent of what happens each week is on the coach and I will always take responsibility for that. If we don’t get it done it won’t be anyone else to blame.”
This new 3-5-3 scheme has allowed A&T to take advantage of their biggest strength coming out of spring practice, a very deep linebacker crew, an unusually large and physical secondary, and a pronounced increase in speed at all positions on that side of the ball. So much so that the defense defeated the offense 21-12 in a point system where the defense earned points for stopping drives, turnovers, and interceptions.
“Our coaches did a fine job in the off season in designing a system that takes advantage of the personnel we had on hand this spring and our kids really took to it right off’ said Fobbs said in a post game interview. “The kids were flying around today, getting to the ball, closing gaps and creating pressure. We wanted our defense not to play on their heels but get after people and be aggressive and really attack the offense and for the most part we’ve were largely successful in getting that goal accomplished this spring.”
Despite the odd formation Fobbs acknowledged that at this point the Aggies are not quite yet in a position up to try to battle people toe to toe on every single play along the line. “We’re not as big as we hoped to be at this point so we tailored some things to help equalize our lack of size in the trenches. We not nearly there yet, but we made real some strides in using our available linemen and linebackers in different non traditional ways.
Our coordinator, coach (Demetrius) Adams and new defensive line coach (Damian) Frenchers did a hell of a job in getting the guys ready and getting this new look worked into part of what we want to do defensively this year along with our normal sets.
The weight of the defense up front is being handled up front by senior tackle LeShawn McLean (6-3,275), nose tackle Kelvin Jackson (6-4,290) , and sophomores Billy Hansford (6-3,240) and Joseph Taylor (6-3,235) at the ends.
Where Fobbs is really excited is at linebacker. “We are fortunate to have some big physical folks at linebacker who can really run and finish tackles now. Tim (Witherspoon) has really meshed in well after being away for a year and he‘s a real good one. Davion Hemphill and Brandon Long has gotten much bigger and stronger and created havoc. (Marcus) Short, (Jamison) Hedgepeth and a bunch of our other kids got after it by working hard to get better and its evident in what they did out there today.
Asked directly by this reporter about efforts to increase the manpower up front, Fobbs remarked, “We have some things in the works on the way for this fall. You know as a coach I really don’t want to talk about these things until they have gone through the process and things are in place but we do have real help on the way to rectify that that situation. I’m pleased with what we’re doing. We never stop recruiting.”
Offensively the second year head coach was pleased with the performance of quarterback Herb Miller and his command of the offense. Miller, a 6-2, 190 rising sophomore, showed that he has fully recovered from a knee injury that ended his season prematurely at mid season. Miller was accurate on his passes going 10-16 for 2 TDs, rushing for another 64 yards, and making correct decisions, and showing poise under pressure.
“Miller showed lot today in his improvement and his hard work paid off. He threw the ball well, ran it well, made really good decisions, and didn’t make mistakes but importantly showed leadership. He did what you want your quarterback to do, read the defense correctly, make plays, and be smart in what he does,” said Fobbs.
Miller wasn’t the only one that caught Fobbs eye. “I’m really excited about Giorgio Lowrance, a red shirt freshman who came to us a quarterback but has moved to wide receiver. He’s got great size (6-5,210), can run, can catch, block, and a tough kid. He really has exploded this spring and he’ll be big for us with Andre (Garth).”
Wide receiver Mike Caldwell got great reviews for his acrobatic catches and a 32 yard scoring run off a reverse that was called back. Fobbs remarked “He’s 5-9 165 pounds soaking wet but he plays like he is twice that size and has the talent to match it.”
Quarterback Wayne Campbell never got into a rhythm until late in the day with the red zone drills and seemed tentative on his throws. “Wayne has some work to do and he didn’t recognize defenses as well as he should have. But he’s has talent and we’ll work on those things with him and he’ll be a factor,” remarked Fobbs.
“Brett Fisher (6-3,230) is another guy that frankly who has simply been outstanding this spring at tight end. He’s an undersized tight end, but he’s got great hands, really good speed, and goes after ball. His ability to go deep and adjust his body in motion to make the catch is remarkable.”
The one thing that did not get praise from Fobbs was the lackluster play of his offensive line. “We just are not anywhere where we need to be in this area. We know we have our work cut out there and we have some big strong people coming this fall that will help us immensely up front and they’ll have be to ready because no one is safe as things stand now. It doesn’t do us any good to have one of the better backfields here in some time but you can’t get them anywhere to run.”
While speaking of backfields, the Aggies may have one of the best in the league going into this fall. Besides leading rusher Mike Ferguson, a new kid on the block got oohs and hahs from the fans in sophomore Clemson transfer Demmerick Chancellor. Chancellor ran with seemed to be little effort scoring on a 13 yard TD run weaving through traffic and breaking tackles. The Aggies also added some additional insurance with transfers David Robinson, Reggie James, and returning sophomore Dion McNair.
The news could indeed get a lot sweeter in the next few days if the NCAA approves the medical red shirt petition for Brandon Sweeney (920 yards in 2005) who missed his senior year in 2006 because of a preseason kidney injury. Sweeney has been given the green light by his doctors so now it’s a wait and see with the NCAA on the petition. Fobbs broke into a board smile when speaking of Sweeney.
“It’s all in their hands now (NCAA) so we’re just waiting for them to review the documentation and give us an answer. Brandon is a very special player that doesn’t come along every day. If we get him back we’ll be over the top in our running game.”
A otherwise productive day on the field was marred by what appeared to be a almost tragic accident when starting free safety Brian Ringgold took a vicious shot to the head and neck area when tackling back up running back Chad Truesdale just a few series into the game. Both players were knocked to the ground with Truesdale getting to his feet very slowly after regaining his senses.
However, Ringgold remained motionless, obviously having suffered a spinal injury. A&T trainers quickly attended to and immobilized the red shirt junior until paramedics could safely transport him to Moses Cone Hospital.
Fobbs expressed his concern in his face while checking on his player’s health with the hospital. “You know as a coach that football is a physical sport and things like this can happen, but you never really are prepared for this and Brian is such a good kid it really gets to you when this sort of thing happens. They tell me he’s beginning to get the feeling back in his hands and feet. We’re going to go right over as soon as we wrap things up here.”
Word late last night was that Ringgold had regained felling in his extremities but will have to undergo surgery to repair a ruptured to the L-5 vertebrae in his lower back. His prognosis for a return to football is unknown at this time.
