Vacation Over, Back To Work

By Craig R. Turner
bluedeathvalley.com
October 23, 2009

Well the Aggies had a couple of weeks off and now after passing the midseason mark they stand at a shade over .500 by virtue of a forfeit from Delaware State. The Hornets opted to travel to the University of Michigan to grab a $500,000 payday rather than play A&T last week in Greensboro as originally scheduled.

Delaware State absorbed a 63-6 mud hole stomping by the Wolverines and then basically ended up handing about half of that payout to the conference as part of a penalty imposed by the MEAC (100K) and the rest to A&T for the lost gate revenue that A&T would have made if the DSU had honored its conference commitment.

The next time someone sees DSU athletic director Derek Carter, ask him how that arrangement is working out for him.

Although the NCAA doesn’t recognize a “no contest” forfeit as a win, the MEAC in fact does, so with that the Aggies move to 4-3 overall and 2-2 in the conference. This week the Aggies travel to Washington, DC to play a 1-5 Howard team that the Aggies defeated last year in a 21-20 death match to see who would finish in last place in the MEAC a year ago.

Now in 2009, first year head coach Alonzo Lee has his team in the middle of the pack in the conference - guaranteed not to finish any lower than sixth- and with a couple of more wins along with one or two breaks elsewhere in the league, the Aggies could very well finish in the top half of the MEAC. That would be a remarkable feat considering A&T was the worst football team in all of FCS football just two years ago.

Howard in the meantime seems to have taken that title away from the Aggies, winning nothing in 2008 and grabbing a squeaker over non-scholarship Georgetown over a month ago. Not that the Bison have bad athletes. They don’t. They have some good ones, just not enough of them. They do compete for the most part.

What they really lack is true confidence, a certain cohesiveness and team chemistry. And yes some questions have been raised about the coaching staff by the Howard alums but that is always the case when you are not winning. And with their homecoming approaching in just a few hours it will be getting even louder if they lose Saturday.

This time off for A&T has been spent reshaping quite a few things on the offensive side of the ball in trying to find some explosiveness, a consistent red zone offense, and with the special teams, a field goal team that can put up points in a close contest.

Lee has been tinkering with wide receiver Wallace Miles stepping into the field goal and PAT kicking role because of the poor performance from freshman Pat Courtney who seems to not have much left and still nursing a year long hernia injury which probably will require surgery at the end of the year.

Lee has also been working in the film room and with the chalk board to get the ball into the hands of Larry Raper. The 5-10, 175 pound freshman is one of the MEAC’s fastest players and can be magical when he gets enough touches, especially in an open field.

And although not much has been said over the last two weeks, there has been a lot of shuffling along the offensive front in an effort to reduce unnecessary penalties and increase the short yardage push, the Achilles hell to A&T’s red zone offense.

Defensively, there’s not much to say than to keep on playing. Last time out the Aggies adjusted their defense to take away the big play which had hurt them so badly against Coastal Carolina and North Carolina Central.

When you only give up seven points to Morgan State you should expect to win.

Bad officiating not withstanding (which cost A&T three scores), the Aggies blew three other chances to win that game out right with poor offensive execution and errant placekicking.

Therein lays the real challenge for A&T and not necessarily the Howard football team this weekend. If the Aggies can find a way to punch the ball into the end zone then they should win this game and win it convincingly.

It they haven’t learned anything from the past two weeks of practice then it will be another struggle just as it was year ago, two teams struggling mightily trying to figure out how not to shoot themselves in the foot.