Midterm In Week Two

by Craig R. Turner
bluedeathvalley.com
Sept. 4, 2008




Now that everyone is back to their normal routine after celebrating the 44-12 drubbing of Johnson C. Smith last weekend to end a two and half year winless streak, its time to get down to some serious business.

This week A&T faces one of its three biggest rivals on the 2008 schedule and also the closest in proximity to Greensboro- the Winston Salem State Rams. Coach Kermit Blount has had a very good career at WSSU and the Rams are now entering their second year of full fledged MEAC competition. However, they will not eligible for title contention until next fall. Don’t let anyone snow you; they are every bit a legit FCS program.

In the overall series, the Aggies have dominated the win-loss ratio and the point differential, but for the last two years, with the Aggies struggling to rebuild its program from the depths unknown, they have been on the short end of a couple of lopsided losses . They were downed 41-14 in 2006 and 28-7 a year ago at Bowman Gray.

Since I can remember, this has been (for the most part) a respectful and friendly rivalry between theses two institutions and I can see nothing on the horizon that could possibly change that. The fans inter-mingle frequently, they pick at each other in good humor, they all tailgate together in good natured fun, and the teams compete extremely hard against one another every year. I would suspect that will again be the case Saturday night at Aggie Stadium.

Now on paper, before things got started last week, WSSU would have been a solid favorite to make it three in a row, given recent history. But A&T is not the team it has been the last two years. Not by a long shot. The Aggies are growing up and doing it rather quickly. They destroyed CIAA foe Johnson C. Smith a week ago in a game that would have probably been lost a year ago.

Some folks sat up and took notice of A&T’s surprisingly easy win and some pundits dismissed it as a calculated effort against a lowly D-II team to end what had been the longest losing streak in the nation. There is some truth to both points but I believe more so to the former.

The Aggies did what “good” teams are supposed to do: manhandle lesser opponents. I am sure many of you can remember any number of games in past years, both good and bad, when that didn’t happen and A&T suffered incomprehensible losses to teams they were heavy favorites against.

So if A&T is for real, if J.C. Smith was not a fluke, if the pundits are to forever dispatched, then now is the time to prove it. Now is the time for A&T to send that message to the rest of the MEAC that there are bills to be paid and A&T just got its paycheck.


Ain’t nothing going on but the rent and the rent is now due.


WSSU has one of the biggest offensive lines that the Aggies will face this season, outside of NCCU, and all return intact. They have their receivers back, although throwing the football consistently has never been their forte of late. They will come at the Aggie defense with two big power runners and an untested quarterback, maybe two of them, with no game experience. You see where this is going?

The Rams will try to play smash mouth football as they have the two previous years by overpowering A&T up front. But A&T has gotten a lot larger and deeper up front since last season, and certainly much more aggressive under the tutelage of Ty Odums.

Defensively, the Rams have some readjusting to do, losing several of their main weapons, and are counting on new untested blood to step in and up. A&T ran up over 440 yards in total offense without three projected starters in the offensive line and they all return this week at full strength.

The Aggies are no longer running their old predictable offense but something more akin to a “now you see it now you don’t” variation of the West Coast attack under offensive new coordinator John McKenzie. That, along with having a game already under their belts while the Rams are still dusting off the cob webs, may mean the difference in getting out of the chute early for A&T.

If that becomes the case, the ball control-oriented Rams will have their hands full. It’s going to be difficult trying to make up a quick deficit if the Rams are forced to throw the football in what hopefully will be a near capacity Aggie Stadium … minus Hannah.




PREDICTION

N.C. A&T 34

WSSU 10