Greensboro's African American Community Newspaper since 1967
A&T head coach Vincent Brown appeared upbeat and reenergized on Monday during his weekly press conference, thundering out a robust greeting of “Aggie Pride” to the media and alumni in attendance.
Returning from a much-needed bye week, Brown said he and his staff were able to go back to the drawing board last week, study film and take an honest look in the mirror.
“We did a deep dive, self-scout on ourselves in all three phases of the game,” said Brown, whose team went 1-5 overall and 0-2 in the Coastal Athletic Association during the first half of the year. “We took a real hard look at what we’re doing and who we’re doing it with. We really went back to the basics of (asking) how do we take the young men that we currently have available here and put them in the best position to succeed on Saturday.”
A&T fans hope that introspection will lead to quick improvements, because the stage couldn’t be any bigger this weekend.
More than 100,000 A&T alumni and supporters are expected to be in Greensboro this week for the cultural phenomenon known as the Greatest Homecoming On Earth (GHOE), and Brown knows that all eyes will be on his football program.
The game, which has been officially sold out since early August, will kick off at 1 p.m. and air locally on WMYV channel 48.
“Last year I got a chance to experience this for the first time and see the magnitude and scale of what this really means,” said Brown. “It’s going to be an exciting weekend; one filled with a lot of activities for the alums. But for us it is all about focusing on the next opponent.”
That opponent on Saturday will be former MEAC and Big South foe Hampton, marking the fourth time this season A&T has faced a longtime HBCU rival.
The Pirates, who are also coming off a bye week, enter the contest with a record of 3-3 overall and 0-2 in the CAA. Their previous outing was a 44-46 double overtime loss to No. 20-ranked Rhode Island, a contest Hampton actually led by 14 points midway through the fourth quarter.
This year, the Pirates have used a two-quarterback system to power their offense, led by senior Malcolm Mayes – who threw for 253 yards and 4 touchdowns two weeks ago against Rhode Island – and Greensboro native Chris Zellous, who was the fulltime starter in 2023.
Last season, Hampton narrowly escaped the Aggies on their own Homecoming, 26-24, when A&T running back Kenji Christian fumbled in the fourth quarter as A&T was driving for the go-ahead score.
“They haven’t changed offensively at all from what they’ve done previously,” Brown said. “They run the same system. Defensively, they bring a little bit more pressure on third down than what we saw last year, but there hasn’t been a dramatic shift from what they’ve done previously.”
For A&T, the primary focus during the bye week was how to fix a defense that is currently ranked dead last in the CAA in both scoring and total defense, surrendering an average of 465 yards per game and 39.7 points per game.
While Brown didn’t go into many specifics about the changes he planned to make, he hinted that the scheme and play calling could be simplified.
“It’s not about what we know as a coaching staff,” Brown said. “It’s about what the players know and what they can execute. Defensively, mistakes cause you to lose. Sometimes we (as coaches) have to be able to take a deeper look and assess whether the players know it or not through our reps and the mistakes that have been made through the course of the week.”
Another point of concern has been the overall health of the Aggies’ roster.
The Aggies have already lost a number of key starters to season-ending injuries this year including sophomore quarterback Kevin White Jr., top running backs Kenji Christian and Wesley Graves, and senior strong safety Ty William Jr. Brown also announced on Monday that graduate transfer defensive lineman DeAndre Dingle-Prince is still out from an injury suffered in week one and his possible return to the lineup is still unknown.
The next man up’ mantra has been in full effect, as A&T has been forced to constantly reshuffle its dept chart and scour the roster for healthy replacements.
“This (bye) week couldn’t have come at a better time for us, given the number of guys that we’ve had that are beat up,” said Brown. “We were able to get our younger players significant reps at practice, trying to develop some depth.”
One reason for optimism has been the emergence of graduate quarterback Justin Fomby, who took over for White midway through the NCCU loss and has continued to show improvement each week.
In his last two games, Fomby has thrown for 466 yards, five touchdowns and just one interception while completing 67.9 percent of his passes.
Fomby, who transferred from Houston Christian this offseason, said he worked hard to prepare for this opportunity even when he began the season as the backup to White.
“You can’t allow your mind to slip,” said Fomby, explaining how he remained mentally focused despite not seeing much playing. “We always say: ‘you’re one play away’. And if you’re one play away, then you have to be ready before that play comes. If you’re not ready before that play comes, you’ll find out really quick that you weren’t ready.”
Fomby’s main targets over the past two games have been junior wide-out Ge-Cari Caldwell - who had 130 yards and seven catches against Richmond – and sophomore tight end Anthony Rucker, who had eight receptions for 91 yards and two touchdowns.
A&T might have to lean heavy on its passing attack against Hampton this Saturday until the defense can get things figured out.
“We know we’re going to be in for a very challenging and exciting contest,” said Brown. “But as we told our guys: with who we have (on our roster), we believe we have enough. We just have to eliminate the things that cause us to lose games and put a complete game together in all three phases.”
“In our last game out, people said ‘hey, you guys are getting better; you got close’. And that’s true. But it’s the mistakes that ultimately cost us that last game and once we are able to minimize those mistakes, we’ll win the game.”
