Not The End, But The Beginning

By Craig R. Turner
bluedeathvalley.com
November 19, 2009

The end of the 2009 football season is drawing near and for the first time in a long time, the future of the A&T football program looks very bright.

First year head coach Alonzo Lee has taken a football program that has only won three games in three years and has brought respectability back to the Greensboro campus.

Aggie fans no longer walk around with their heads hung down looking for something else to do on fall afternoons anymore. A&T has returned to the top ten in attendance among FCS schools and will finish in the middle of the pack in the MEAC no matter what happens against powerful S.C. State in Orangeburg, SC this weekend. The Aggies are entering with a 5-5 record, something unthinkable back during spring practice with only 50 players to work with.

Aggie Nation were able to remove the imaginary paper bags from their heads, taking wins over both its major in-state rivals, Winston Salem State and North Carolina Central, for the first time in six years. A&T also defeated Howard on the road for the first time since 1998 and even knocked off a good Norfolk State team in an exciting come from behind win at home.

It was by no means a perfect scenario. The Aggies dropped a pair of last minute heartbreakers against Morgan State and FAMU, which a lot of folks could directly contribute to some home cooking and questionable officiating.

Heck, an unlikely upset over SCSU would probably get him some serious coach of the year consideration, even though Buddy Pough probably wrapped that up weeks ago.

But realistically, Lee has proven his point that his football team is not that far off from taking a serious run at the MEAC crown and probably a lot sooner than most folks think.

He stated when he took the job last January that he doesn't believe in five-year plans to turn teams around and it appears by all accounts that he has proven to be a man of his word. Getting a near .500 season with basically freshmen and sophomores in this league is no small feat, especially for a first-year coach.

The Aggies are an extremely young football team made up of mostly freshmen and sophomores while losing only 11 seniors this coming Saturday. It has been a season of many first for the Aggies. They found a pair of strong freshmen running backs in Donta Payne and Mike Mayhew, both top ten rushers within the MEAC.

And last time out, Lee found next season’s starting quarterback in freshman Lewis Kindle. Kindle is a cross between Connell Maynor and Ellsworth Turner, and had a spectacular starting debut against FAMU with a 16-31, 206 yard, two touchdown performance while rushing for another 59 yards and a single score of his own.

Lee went full hog by first regaining A&T's in-state recruiting presence, re-establishing A&T’s deep roots within the Washington, DC area, and gaining a fairly strong new foothold in that rich, talent-laden state of Florida.

From early indications Lee will soon be venturing into the Tidewater area in the backyard of both Hampton and Norfolk. He’ll also be while crossing south into South Carolina and Georgia to challenge SCSU’s Buddy Pough’s stranglehold on those states.

The next two months will be instrumental in not only replacing some key seniors but adding to the talent pool of his first recruiting class that was been prominent in A&T’s about face this season.

The Aggies will have a lot of holes to fill along the defensive front, losing seniors Jarrell Herring, Adam Beal, and Tyre Glasper. Rising junior tackle Micah Stanfield will be the only returning starter along the front four. Freshmen Darius Dawkins, Daruis Hall, Chris Neal and Brandon Young will be putting in a lot of weight training time this winter and next summer.

The linebacker situation is far less daunting heading into the off season, considering the play of several underclassmen in prominent roles during the second half of the season. MLB Brandon Jackson will back as a junior and the number five tackler in the MEAC.

The secondary is almost completely intact with and safety Justin Ferrell has established himself a formidable defensive back. Ferrell presently leads the MEAC with five interceptions. Quay Long is not far behind him and is one of the MEAC’s best return men and cover players along with Devonte Ingram at the corners. Throw in an improved Dashuan Graham and Donald Dorsey at the safeties and A&T will certainly be very good in the defensive backfield.

Anyway you cut it, filling holes or not, you can expect an Alonzo Lee- coached defense to be ready whenever the Aggies hit the field.

However in 2010, it will be the offense that should grab the headlines with a now experienced offensive line returning completely intact that will dominated by juniors and sophomores, as will the receivers who be led by Wallace Miles, Buster Cooper, Terrance Whitaker, and Larry Raper.

Now with the late season emergence of Kindle as a first rate dual-threat quarterback, who plays with both poise and smarts, the offense should carry this team early on next season.

Lee’s staff has quietly managed to stockpile a considerable amount of very promising and large red shirts before the season that many A&T fans probably aren’t aware of along both lines, at linebacker, at running back, and yes even a couple of good quarterback prospects to play behind Kindle.

The kicking game will be better with the return of punter Alex Grubb, and the return of placekickers Eric Houston (academic red shirt) and the expected maturation of Pat Courtney.

So all in all, it really doesn’t matter a whole bunch what happens in South Carolina this week because it is next season where A&T will be looking to and will most likely make that move back to near the top of the conference and become legitimate contenders with a much deeper, faster, and far more physical team going into spring practice.

There won’t be any more feeling out processes from this point with Lee and his staff. He now knows what his players can do and he will work them extremely hard in preparing for next season.

The General may not say it out too loud or often between now and next August, but with a far more favorable schedule he will most likely have a lot of bank to play the game with in 2010.

But then again, when have you ever known the General to keep quiet about anything when talking about his football team.

You know how Baptists like to talk.