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The A&T football program showed definite signs of improvement last Saturday night during its season-opening loss to Morgan State, but there’s still a stage of development the Aggies will need to master in year two under head coach Shawn Gibbs: learning how to finish.
After marching down the field and scoring a touchdown on their first series to take a 7-0 lead, the Aggies were held scoreless the remainder of the night despite making several additional trips deep inside the redzone and dominating the time of possession.
Morgan State did just enough to stick around all evening, trailing 7-3 at halftime before exploding for two touchdowns in the final period to somehow escape Truist Stadium with a 17-7 victory.
It was another frustrating start to a season for Gibbs, who saw his team squander a late comeback attempt against Tennessee State a year ago in week one when a short field goal attempt was blocked as time expired.
That heartbreaking defeat eventually set the tone for a 2-10 campaign in 2025, but after making significant roster and staff changes this offseason, Gibbs was hopeful his team was finally ready to enjoy a major leap forward.
Red-shirt freshman Braxton Thomas emerged as the winner of a tightly-contest quarterback battle in fall camp and got the start for A&T against Morgan, finishing with a career-high 240 yards passing on 20-of-32 attempts and no interceptions.
He scored the Aggies’ lone touchdown on a two-yard run that capped a 17-play, 70-yard drive and gave the festive home crowd an early reason to believe this year might be different.
However, Thomas would need a lot more help from his supporting cast throughout the night, as A&T only gained 88 total yards rushing, suffered a number of dropped passes by wide open Aggie receivers and had two promising drives end with blocked field goals.
Afterwards, Gibbs acknowledged it was difficult to a watch another winnable game slip through their grasp, but he realizes these are some of the growing pains that come with trying to revamp a once-mighty program.
“The guys are working hard and we’ll get better, but we just have a lot of work to do” said Gibbs on Monday during his weekly press conference. “We’ve got to stop beating ourselves and find a way to take North Carolina A&T off the schedule. We’re not good enough to beat our opponent and North Carolina A&T.”
The Aggies will get another chance to showcase their growth this Friday night when they travel down to Atlanta to face FBS opponent Georgia State.
Kickoff is set for 7 at Center Parc Credit Union Stadium in what will be the first-ever meeting between the two schools.
Statistically, the Panthers were one of the worst FBS programs in the nation a year ago, finishing 1-11 overall and 0-8 in the Sunbelt Conference. Georgia State ranked 119 out of 136 FBS team in scoring offense, averaging just 19.8 points per game and ranked 133rd in the nation in scoring defense, allowing 37.8 points per game.
This will mark their third season under head coach Dell McGee who brought back 50 players from the 2025 roster and added 67 newcomers, including 37 transfers and 24 freshmen.
The Panthers offense will be led by senior quarterback Cameran Brown who saw action in 10 games last year and started in four. He’s finished as the team’s leading passer with 1,296 yards on 120 completions, 13 touchdowns and just one interception.
As much as Georgia State has struggled in recent years, the Panthers will still enter Friday night contest against A&T as heavy favorites – just based on the significant advantages in resources and scholarships dollars that come with being a FBS program.
Defensively, A&T had an encouraging performance against Morgan State, holding the Bears to under 250 years of total offense and allowing just 1 of 7 conversions on third down.
Sophomore inside linebacker Tyrek Brown and redshirt freshman edge rusher Eddie Conover both had solid performances with six tackles each.
Still, the Aggies once again were plagued by a familiar issue that hurt them much of last season: giving up untimely big plays.
Morgan State took their first lead of the game on a 68-yard touchdown pass early in the fourth quarter and then sealed the contest in the game’s final minute with a 22-yard by run by Jordan Barnett. Barnett's 42-yard run midway through the second quarter set up a Bears field goal.
“We let one slip away from us, “ said Gibbs afterwards. “We had a chance to win that game and we should have. Defensively, we played pretty good. You take away three plays and it would have been an outstanding effort defensively, but unfortunately in this game you can’t take away any plays.”
