Lee Fobbs: The Man With The Plan

By Semaj Marsh
bluedeathvalley.com
June 30, 2007

We've all heard the saying before: “if it doesn’t kill you it’ll only make you stronger.”

Well judging from our in-depth conversation with Lee Fobbs last week, the second year A&T coach is definitely still alive and kicking. After suffering through a forgettable 2006 campaign and earning the dubious distinction of being the only coach in A&T history to post a winless season, Fobbs returns in 2007 with a renewed focus and with several new members added to his supporting cast.

When we sat down with the 30-year coaching veteran he again spoke quite candidly about his optimism for the future and the challenges that still make his task of resurrecting the Aggie football program a difficult one.

Bluedeathvalley.com: Coach, thanks for taking the time to speak with us today. If there’s one positive that resulted from last year’s frustrating season I think that it may have helped galvanize you, your coaching staff, your players and even the A&T fans to do everything we all can to ensure something like that never happens again. This offseason, fans on our website have put their money where their pride is, so to speak, and organized an online fundraising campaign. This fundraiser is designed to help bolster your recruiting budget, which we understand is one of the lowest in the MEAC. Thus far, we’ve raised over $2600 toward our ultimate goal of having $20,000 by the end of the summer. What do you think about the BDF’s current fund-raising initiative and do you think it will have a major impact?

Lee Fobbs: I’ll tell you, right now I have chill bumps running down my legs and back just from hearing that. That’s the meat and potatoes of everything - our recruiting, and you definitely have to have resources to recruit. When we come together as Aggies, working together for that cause or for any other cause, its just outstanding. I firmly believe that you guys are going to reach your goal because, honestly, there could have been a lot of people who jumped off the bandwagon after last year, but a lot of our fans stayed on. They understood the direction in which I was going. They understood that I could have tried to make a quick fix of this thing, but I’m here for the long haul ... and that’s done through recruiting. What we did this spring that I think was really important is that we kind of revamped our recruiting (strategy) a little bit. We did not go outside of the state of North Carolina. We stayed in the state and we hit every high school that our budget would let us get to. Right now our recruiting board looks really good and we’re excited about it. Not to say that we won’t go outside the state (next year), but this spring we focused on in-state recruiting and we felt like there were a lot of good kids who showed a lot of interest. You’d be surprised at how many of these kids we come across who we talk to about coming to visit our campus here. Some of them have come up on their own unofficially and they are just waylaid. Their responses are: “Coach, I’m glad I came here” and “Wow Coach, I didn’t know this about A&T.” That’s been our biggest push: to get kids on campus. Once we get them on campus, as 2008 recruits, then they’ll see now what we’re all about. We took advantage our one phone call in May. We took advantage of everything that we can do to stay in touch we these kids to let them know that North Carolina A&T is right there for them, no matter who else is recruiting them in this state. And so now, what’s happening with you guys and this fundraiser; that’s just tremendous. You won’t be able to find anything better than that because (a fundraiser to help the recruiting budget) hits right where the need is. I’m just astonished to hear that it is in the process of being done and I know that you all will reach your goal.”

You mentioned earlier that, while trying to assemble your 2008 class, you focused more on in-state recruiting this offseason. Do you think you’ve successfully made a lot of inroads now with the high school coaches in North Carolina?

Lee Fobbs: “I truly believe that ... simply because of the response that we’ve been getting from the local coaches. This summer when we have the North Carolina High School Coaches Association Meetings here we’re going to go back and invite all the coaches over and just chalk talk a little bit. We’ll have that set up this summer. And I think the inroads that our assistant coaches have made when they were traveling throughout the state and the relationships they formed with these high school coaches were significant. Coaches have been calling our office and sending in film. And then also, with us being more visible to them when we’re out on the road and even myself getting out there and meeting some of the coaches, that has been really, really big. We’ve sent out open invitations to all the high school coaches to visit our campus, to visit our home games this year, or if they want to just come by and talk X and Os- that invitation has been extended to all the coaches in this state.

Were those relationships with the North Carolina high school programs something that A&T had been lacking in the past? Was that a fence that you felt needed to be mended a bit?

Lee Fobbs: “I think so. I think it was a relationship that was already there, but like you said, I think it needed to be mended. I think those (coaches) were hungry for it, I think they were anticipating and looking for it, and I think all we had to do was just put the velcro to it and take off from there.”

By having to work with one of the lowest recruiting budgets in the MEAC, what type of impact does that have on you and your staff as far as trying to attract players?

Lee Fobbs: Well yes, quite naturally, it does hamper you. At this point we have to try to claw and scratch and do whatever we can ... but yet, we still we want to make it first class. We don’t just want to put something together and throw it out there; we want to make it first class. And I think we’ve done that in our recruiting. With our recruiting letters that we sent out, our invitations to home games, invitations for coaches to come up and talk football and Xs and 0s and things of that sort - we did it in a professional manner. We might not have had it in abundance like we wanted, but we were able to get it out through letters and by phone communication. Yes, at times (our recruiting budget) does hinder us because we are legally able to write note cards to coaches and players. The coaches, of course, we can write and call them any time. The players, however, in the month of May we were only allowed to make one phone call. However, the players can call us any time they want. So in our cards and letters we specify that they do that anytime; just letting them know that’s a way they can stay in touch with us. Its not like we recruit them in spring and they don’t hear from us again until October or November. We try to keep that line of communication open someway, somehow, as long as its legal. And I think that may have been done differently here in the past. Dwike Wilson is our recruiting coordinator now and he’s done a fantastic job of accumulating a list of the kids we’d like to offer (a scholarship to) and the kids we really, really like. What you’ll find is that we put out quite a few offers this spring and I think that’s been good for us. To say, “here’s a kid at Northeast Hampton or Southern Guilford and we really like this kid, let’s go ahead a send him an offer letter.” We’ll send him an offer letter saying we like everything about you academically and athletically, and we think you’d be a great fit at North Carolina A&T. Here’s the things you have to do in order to obtain this scholarship that we’re giving to you. And we talk about the grades, we talk about maintaining your ability on the field and other things along those lines. The last time I’ve talked to Dwike we offered scholarship this spring to about 10-15 kids that we really like. There was one kid that we really liked - and of course I can’t call any names because of NCAA rules - and we offered him and he said you guys were the first ones to offer me a scholarship. He said ever since we offered him everybody else has now been coming by to see him and talk about offering him a scholarship. His dad said that it held a lot of water with him that we were the first ones. He said ‘you didn’t offer because everyone else did; you all came an evaluated him, watched him on tape, watched him practice and then you decided on what you saw.’ I said yeah, I’m not going to offer a kid just because of what everyone else thinks. I’m going to offer because I think he can help us win. So we got a little advantage there. This kid is going to be recruiting by some big people but I know that will help us.”

So are you technically finished now with recruiting for the 2007 season?

Lee Fobbs: “Yeah, I’d like to say that I am. We’re really focused on August 2 with is our reporting day. We’ll be back full-boar as a staff on July 9. Of course, we’re here in the office now but we’re going to retreat on July 23 and 24 and really plan our (training) camp, plan the season and get everything together as a staff. But to answer your question, yeah I’d like to say we’re officially done recruiting. If there’s a way to gain another one and I can figure out a way to do it, we’ll get it done. But right now we’re pretty much done with the 15 that we’ve got.”

Among those 15 players you signed this offseason, there were a number of Division 1-A and JUCO transfers. What type of impact do you think those transfers are going to make to your program?

Lee Fobbs: “I thought we did a nice job of making sure everyone we brought in was above board not only athletically but academically as well. We addressed a lot of areas; we added some speed and some size and those were the things that were big for us. Those guys will be able to come in and fill in some spots right away. We also have some high school kids that probably need one more year of experience and then they’ll be ready to go. With the new rule that players must have at least two years of eligibility left before they can transfer, that is going to be a plus for us. We’ll have these guys for at least two years and that will give some of our younger guys a chance to mature. Our young kids will play this year but I think at this point in time maturity will be big for us. A lot the young kids who played last year, a lot of those freshman, they’ll be a little more mature. I don’t think they’ve hit (the mark) yet - they’ll be better, but they’ve got to get a little more experience under them too. By bringing in some of the transfers that we’ve got, this enables us to give those younger players a little more time.”

Which areas on the team do you think have made the most improvement since last season?

Lee Fobbs: “We’ll I’m just speaking from spring ball, but it was exciting to watch our kids really run around on defense. Coach (Demetrius) Adams has done a terrific job taking over as defensive coordinator. He has a no-nonsense attitude and our kids have developed that too. Its just run, run, run, run. We’re not looking back (to last season). This is something we’ve talked about as a squad and as a staff. What’s behind us is behind us and we’re going to leave it there. But we’re running so much better on defense than we were last year that its just unbelievable. I was really pleased this spring watching us run to the football. And now with the addition of some speed at the corners it will allow us to gamble more on defense. You’ll see us blitzing more and causing some problems and schemes like that. I really like what Coach Adams has done with our kids because he’s taking advantage of what we have. We don’t have the bulky 300 - plus pounds guys, but we got the 240-250 pound guys that can run and we’re giving them a chance to make plays.

Does Coach Adams now feel like he finally has a loaded gun to go into battle with?

Lee Fobbs: “You know, that’s probably a good way to look at it. We were talking just today and he felt really good about the corps that is coming in and the group we ended the spring with. I’ll tell you this: the kids have done a great job in our offseason program. If we ever say “well, the weight room is not going to open today”, they’ll get mad. However, at no time do we not have it open for them. And as you know, that’s voluntary for them - but the preparation that they are making for the season is just unbelievable. Its totally different from last year.”

Read Part Two

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>> By finishing with an 0-11 record in 2006, Lee Fobbs became the first coach in A&T history to go an entire season without earning a single victory

>> Fobbs recently capped his 2007 recruiting class after signing a total of 15 players, several of whom were Division 1-A or Junior College transfers.