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As A&T nears the midway point in what has been another disappointing season, the challenge of remaining hopeful and finding a pathway to success becomes more and more difficult.
Last week, the Aggies saw a rare second-half lead quickly evaporate against South Carolina State as the Bulldogs capitalized on a spree of A&T miscues in the third quarter to seize momentum and cruise to a 45-25 victory.
The loss snapped the seven-game winning streak A&T had enjoyed against its former MEAC rival and served as another reminder of just how low the A&T football program has fallen in recent years.
The Aggies are now 1-4 on the season, with their lone victory being a come-from-behind, overtime win against Division II Winston-Salem State.
Still reeling from the 66-24 beatdown by NCCU two weeks ago, the Aggie fanbase is clearly in panic mode and desperately looking to answers.
Unfortunately, there doesn’t appear to be magic elixir to easily cure the Aggies’ woes.
“Obviously, the game didn’t go the way we anticipated it,” said second-year head coach Vincent Brown, who saw this career record fall to 2-14. “We did not have the team that went to Orangeburg prepared well enough to play a complete game. I thought there was some really positive things to come out of it, but as I said to the team in the locker room after the game – working hard, preparing hard, going the extra mile doesn’t guarantee you success. But if you don’t do those things, you stand no chance of winning the football game.”
South Carolina State had their highest offensive performance of the season against the Aggies as senior quarterback Eric Phoenix threw for 367 yards and three touchdowns and the Bulldogs racked up 521 yards in total offense.
It was the third straight game that an opponent has amassed more than 500 yards of offense against A&T, leading many to wonder if the defensive problems are talent-related or a schematic issue.
“You can’t blame it all on youth,” said Brown. “Yes, there are some young guys playing, but part of it is also some of the things that we’re doing. We’ve taken a deep dive into the things we need to do schematically and from a technique standpoint to allow our players to have better success on defense. We’re working on those things right now.”
It didn’t help matters that A&T encountered major travel issues prior to the game, in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. The Aggies spent Friday night in Columbia, S.C. and their team hotel was without power and reportedly had poor room conditions.
To add injury to insult, Brown announced on Monday that a number of starters are expected to be out for the remainder of the season, including sophomore quarterback Kevin White Jr., running backs Kenji Christian and Wesley Graves, and safety Ty Williams Jr.
That news couldn’t come at a worse time as the Aggie prepare to hit the road again this Saturday to face the nationally ranked Richmond Spiders at 2 p.m. in A&T’s second Coastal Athletic Association matchup of the season. The Spiders (3-2 overall, 1-0 in the CAA), advanced to the second round of the FCS plays a season ago and are coming off an impressive 27-17 win at Elon last week.
Richmond is led by longtime coach Russ Huesman, who has a 45-35 record in eight seasons.
The Spiders defeated A&T 33-10 last October in Truist Stadium in what was the first regular season matchup between the two schools. Richmond also defeated A&T by 29 points in 2016 in the first round of the FCS playoffs that year.
If A&T hopes to get some payback, this week might be the last opportunity for a while since the Spiders are leaving the CAA next year to join the Patriot League.
“Their offense is very efficient on first and second down, so they keep themselves out of third and long situations,” said Brown. ”And then defensively, they do a really good job if getting after the quarterback. Their defensive line plays with high energy so they don’t have to blitz a lot. They have a system that Coach Huesman has run since he’s been there. It’s the same system he ran when I was part of the staff back in 2008.”
Despite the SCSU loss, there were a few positives for A&T to take away from last week.
Graduate transfer quarterback Justin Fomby earned the start in place of the injured White and threw for 205 yards and three touchdowns on 16-of-29 passing. It was the first time an A&T has thrown for three touchdowns in a game since 2021.
Fomby’s primary targets against SCSU were redshirt freshman receiver Jayvonne Dillard who had four catches for 75 yards and redshirt junior wideout Ger-Cari Caldwell who finished with three catches for 46 yards and two touchdowns. Caldwell’s performance was the first time an A&T wide receiver has caught two touchdowns in a game since 2022.
With season-ending injuries suffered by their top two running backs in Christian and Graves, the Aggies turned to redshirt-sophomore Cameren Dalrymple who finished with 93 yards on 11 carries, averaging 8.5 yards per rush.
In addition, fan favorite kicker Andrew “Money” Brown continues to make a strong case for All-America honors as he has now connected on 9-of-10 field goal attempts, which ranks ninth in the nation and first in the CAA.
“Everything that we set out for, outside of beating Central, is still in front of us,” said Brown. “The CAA is still in front of us. We get a chance to go on the road at Richmond and play a conference game and then we have a slate of conference games following that which will allow us to have an opportunity to compete for a conference title towards the end of the season. All those things are still obtainable; they’re still in front of us and we just have to focus on doing the things necessary to win the very next game.”
