A&T Will Make It After All

By Craig R. Turner
bluedeathvalley.com
September 4, 2009

Three years ago, A&T started out the 2006 season with a new head coach who had no prior experience leading a program, a new young staff, a lot of new unknown players and some reserved optimism. And then almost immediately, the team went out and fell flat on its face.

Three seasons later, after going just 3-27 during that span with all three wins coming last year, the Aggies are starting over once again.

I’ve been reading all this week on our message board about the upcoming 2009 season and the opinions are varied. You have high expectations coming from some diehards who expect an immediate “rags to riches” story similar to the great football underdog movie “Rudy”, and then you also have the continued despair of some fans who have now firmly settled in the defeatist’s mind state as if it was a Lazyboy recliner.

Neither can be completely right and both could very well be wrong. It is truly a conflict of emotion, a conundrum if you will, of what is hoped for and what is realistic for A&T football this season.

True, A&T is embarking into this new era under Alonzo Lee with some vague similarities to the situation that Lee Fobbs, Jr. walked into a few years ago. It does seem similar on the surface, but pull back the covers and this situation is very much different underneath.

Yes, Alonzo Lee will be going into his first college football game as head coach but that is about the extent of any resemblance between he and Lee Fobbs. Lee has been the defensive coordinator for two of the best coaches in all of HBCU football in legends Billy Joe and Joe Taylor.

His defenses have consistently been ranked in the top ten nationally and he has had a huge hand in seven, count ‘em, seven MEAC championships - the last one being right here in Greensboro at A&T under George Small in 2003.

This man is no novice. And while he is not any kind of “Caped Crusader” or Superman, he is one hell of a smart, hard working, and resourceful football coach, an excellent recruiter, and a "in your face" motivator who has run defenses for two of the best coaches that have ever walked the sideline.

The staff that Lee has assembled is not like the staff that showed up in 2006 – young and straight out of college or the NAIA.

Both Chennis Berry and Mike Morand are older heads who have been successful offensive coordinators as well as position coaches in two areas where the Aggies have been their weakest, the offensive line and at quarterback. Defensive coordinator Maurice Johnson and defensive line coach Tayrone Odum bring both that Florida flavor and the North Carolina based background from winning programs at FAMU and Bethune-Cookman on their resumes.

Add in assistant head coach George Ragsdale, an revered A&T alum who held the program together after the firing of Fobbs, and it has to be obvious to even the worst cynic that this is an experienced MEAC staff.

They are no strangers to this conference and there is no learning curve before they get acquainted with opponents. This group as seen it all and they know what to expect on the field and how to prepare week in and week out.

Now, let’s take a real look into also at the personnel differences between now and then.

Fobbs came into A&T with the cupboard pretty much bare with players either leaving the program in droves voluntarily and other being forced out because of the “philosophical” differences with the new coaches who sought to reshape everything in their image.

Lee however did exactly the opposite. He embraced the players already on campus and challenged each one by making a commitment to them if they would return the favor.

Some 56 returnees did just that by staying on campus all summer long, strength conditioning, watching film while orchestrating their own volunteer workouts twice a day.

Add to that fact that Lee convinced many of the signees in his first and extremely talented recruiting class to join the incumbent group this summer. This helped the newcomers to get them accustomed to the football program and make the transition to the regiment of college life.

What he created in those offseason months was a sense of optimism for his players that they could achieve success, not two or three years from now, but that could win right away if they put in the effort to push their minds and bodies to a completely different level.

Fall camp would indicate he has gotten them on the right track. They have had an exceptional camp on both sides of the ball while learning and running new schemes with a lot of confidence.

Saturday night will at least give us an indication on how far this team has come and just how successful it can be as the season goes along.