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Stop us if you heard this one before.
An undermanned but confident A&T football team heads south on an early road trip, seeking to build on an encouraging performance in their season opener and earn a nice pay day against an FBS opponent.
Instead, the Aggies are given a quick reality check in the form of a humbling defeat while suffering a serious injury at the quarterback position – a blow that could threaten to derail the remaining season.
Yes, that was again the scenario last Friday when the Aggies were thoroughly dismantled by a superior Georgia State team, 59-10, in downtown Atlanta. For the second year in a row, Braxton Thomas started at quarterback only to exit early in the first quarter with what appeared to be a significant injury.
It was eerily similar to the nightmare encounter against UCF a year ago in the Aggie’s second game, when they were routed 68-7 and had three different quarterbacks suffer season-ending injuries on the same night.
Against Georgia State, Thomas limped off the field after being sacked awkwardly on third down of the game’s opening drive.
As of Wednesday, the full severity of his injury was still unknown but the team announced he was scheduled for an MRI and already ruled out for this upcoming week.
“Obviously it was a tough loss on Friday,” said A&T head coach Shawn Gibbs during his weekly press conference on Monday. “Things didn’t go the way we wanted it to go. Georgia State’s an FBS opponent and the games are called Money Games for a reason. But that doesn’t give us an excuse to play poorly.”
“Georgia State was the better team on Friday and they played like it. But 59-10 is unacceptable and I don’t care who’s standing on the other sideline.”
The injury to Braxton Thomas – who threw for a career high 240 yards passing against Morgan State in the opener - comes at a specifically bad time for the Aggies who are now preparing to face archrival North Carolina Central this weekend in what ‘s always the most anticipated matchup of the year.
Kickoff is set for 12 p.m. this Saturday at NCCU’s O’Kelly-Riddick Stadium.
“I try to take myself out of it,” said A&T head coach Shawn Gibbs, who was a running back at Central during his playing days. “Of course, there is a lot of personal stuff with me. I played there; I played with Coach (Trei) Oliver. But at the end of the day this is about North Carolina A&T vs. North Carolina Central.”
“We know what this game means to our fans, to our alums and we’re excited about it,” said Gibbs. “We look forward to traveling to Durham to see ol’ Coach Oliver.”
The Eagles have won the last four matchups in the series, including lopsided wins in the last two contests in which they scored over 60 points each time.
Last year, NCCU dominated in every phase of the game and cruised to a 62-20 win, racking up 745 yards of total offense and limited A&T to just 42 yards on the ground.
‘Personally, I’m really motivated by how they did us last year. That was an embarrassing loss. They beat the brakes off of us and it’s time for us to get our face back.”
After Thomas’ quick departure against Georgia State, Kevin White Jr. came off the bench and finished with 122 yards passing on 9-of-20 attempts and 27 yards rushing. His 61-yard touchdown pass to tight end Anthony Rucker in the second quarter on a perfectly executed play-action fake gave the Aggies their lone touchdown of the night.
However, White was constantly under siege by the Panthers’ relentless pass rush and was sacked four times.
The challenge this week will be for White to showcase his elite athleticism and ability to make explosive plays on both the ground and through the air, while finding a way to remain healthy.
The last time White faced NCCU in Durham he himself left the game with what proved to be a season-ending shoulder injury after he was driven into the turf by an Eagles defender.
“He’ll be better this week because he’ll have more of the first team reps,” said Gibbs about his redshirt junior quarterback. “This week he knows that he’s going to get the chance to go out there first and I think he’ll be ready to go. I hope he can do the things that he can naturally do. He’s a fast guy and he can throw a lot better. I’m excited to see him play.”
This contest will also be a reunion of sorts for Eagles starting quarterback Nelson Layne, who transferred to NCCU this offseason after spending last year on A&T’s roster as a backup. Layne earned two starts for A&T a season ago, including the season finale at Elon.
The redshirt freshman 6’3, 199-pound Virginia native has a big arm and is arguably just as dangerous as White with his legs.
This season he’s completed 57.14 percent of his passes for 291 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions. A dynamic runner, Layne also ranks as Central’s leading rusher after two games - gaining 157 yards on the ground and two rushing touchdowns.
“Nelson was over here last year and decided to transfer to them, so we’ll see if that pays off for him,” said Gibbs. “It should be exciting. Nelson is a really good player; really good athlete. He’s explosive, makes some really good plays, so we’re going to have to have a plan for him”.
Defensively, it is still uncertain what to expect for an Aggie unit that has added of lot of new faces and increased its size in the trenches over the offseason but is still trying to establish an identity.
After a strong showing against Morgan State in the season opener, A&T gave up 563 yards of total offense against Georgia State including 279 yards on the ground.
“We have to find a way to tighten the box and decrease the running lanes,” said Gibbs regarding what defense areas he needs to improve. “We have to find a way to get off blocks and work on our block destruction. We have to set better edges on the perimeter and we have to keep the ball in front of us.”
