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DURHAM - Fifteen games into his tenure as North Carolina A&T’s head football coach, Vincent Brown is still searching for that one signature victory to establish credibility amongst the Aggie fanbase.
Unfortunately, last Saturday night in Durham against arch-rival North Carolina Central, Brown might have suffered what some detractors would consider a signature loss.
Playing in front of a sold-out crowd at O’Kelly-Riddick Stadium and a national TV audience on ESPNU, A&T was thoroughly embarrassed in every phase by NCCU, 66-24.
It was an outcome that left some A&T supporters openly questioning if Brown fully understood the importance of this historic rivalry – and if he was the right man to get the program headed in the right direction.
On Monday, instead of declaring it was “a great day in Aggieland” at the start of his weekly press conference as he has consistently done since arriving in Greensboro, Brown instead opted to address the media in a more somber, apologetic tone.
“I know there were a tremendous amount of people that we let down with that performance on Saturday,” said Brown, who saw his team drop to 1-3 on the season and now has a career record of just 2-13. “I one hundred percent own it. I am the head football coach and everything that was on display ultimately falls back to me. The team we took to Durham wasn’t prepared as best as they should have been, and we’ve got a lot of things that we need to fix.”
For the second week in a row, A&T’s defense surrendered more than 500 yards of total offense as the Eagles dominated the line of scrimmage and quickly seized the game’s momentum with an onslaught of big plays.
Central forced five A&T turnovers, including a blocked punt recovered in the endzone for a touchdown on the opening play of the second quarter and a fumble returned for a touchdown later in the third quarter.
After A&T’s Aaron Harris returned the game’s opening kickoff 100 yards to give the Aggies a quick 6-0 lead, NCCU scored touchdowns on their first four possessions and led 40-12 at halftime.
NCCU redshirt junior quarterback Walker Harris finished with 272 yards and three touchdowns on 16-of-23 passing, and running back J’Mari Taylor added a game-high 137 yards on the ground and two scores.
By the time both teams came back from halftime, the celebration had already begun in the stadium amongst the Central faithful.
“Many may ask ‘well, how does that happen in a rivalry game against an opponent where there’s no love lost?’ and in my opinion it comes down to a series of big plays.”
“We get the great kickoff to start the game and we go up. Big play. We get an opportunity to get them into third down and stop them, and we get penalized which keeps the drive going. They move the ball down the field (and score a) touchdown. Their next possession, we are pressing to try to get a stop on third and short and we get split for a 60-yard touchdown run. Next possession, they throw a simple glance route for a 60-yard touchdown pass. Next possession, we get a punt blocked. So all of a sudden, you see what should be a competitive game get out of hand very early.”
Brown, who is currently in year two of a six-year contract that pays him $365,000 annually, knows that fans and alumni are growing increasingly impatient over the program’s slow start.
The question now becomes how can A&T rebound from such a devastating loss and what changes will Brown be willing to make in order to get things turned around quickly.
The task doesn’t get any easier this upcoming Saturday as the Aggies travel down to Orangeburg, S.C. to face another historic HBCU rival, South Carolina State, at 6 p.m.
The Bulldogs are led by first-year head coach Chennis Berry, a longtime veteran of HBCU football who – like NCCU coach Trie Oliver- may be feeling some extra motivation to defeat the Aggies this weekend.
Berry previously served on two different A&T coaching staffs in the early 2000s and was ultimately fired twice by the school.
SCSU leads the all-time series against A&T, 31-24-2, but the Aggies have won seven games in a row against the Bulldogs.
The strength of SCSU is their running game, led by running back Deondra Duehart and dual threat quarterback Eric Phoenix. The Bulldogs boast the second-best defense in the MEAC this season, allowing just 347 yards per game.
Brown assured fans they will not see a repeat performance of the NCCU debacle and said he looked forward to these types of HBCU rivalry matchups.
“I think it’s fun and exciting,” said Brown who graduated from Mississippi Valley State and previously coached at Howard. “Having historical rivals that you get to play at their place or here, I think it keeps the tradition of what A&T football has been. And at the same time, recognizing that we’re in a different conference now and our (goal) is to build a team that is able to compete for championships in our own conference.”
The Aggies will likely be without starting quarterback Kevin White Jr, who was knocked out of the NCCU game late in the first quarter after being driven into the turf on a scramble play and suffering a “significant” upper body injury. He was replaced by graduate transfer Justin Fomby who finished with 153 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions. True freshman quarterback Braxton Thomas also saw action in the second half and threw for 46 yards and a pick.
Star running back Kenji Christian returned last week from a hamstring injury, but after exploding down the sideline in the first quarter for a 53-yard run, he went back into the injury tent and never returned to action.
If Christian is unable to go against SCSU, the Aggies will likely utilize a running back by committee approach featuring Wesley Graves, Shimique Blizzard and Daniel Coles.
“In spite of all the things that went wrong on Saturday, there is still hope and there is a lot of football ahead of us,” Brown said.
