The dust has settled and another big week looms ahead for N.C. A&T in its quest to regain respectability and to improve once again over an impressive 24-3 throttling of Morgan State on the road last week.
That win ended a seven year drought against the Bears who has had all kinds of offensive problems and the Aggies displayed a tough ground controlled offense and a dominating defense that zapped all of the life out of the Bears and befuddled long time Coach Don Hill-Elely and his staff in all phases of the game.
That will not be the case this week as the Aggies take on one of the most impressive offensive teams in all the FCS in Bethune Cookman.
The Wildcats are an offensive nightmare for every team that faces them this season averaging well over 40 points per contest with has been described as the new “NASCAR” offense. The simply score points and a lot of them.
Coach Brian Jenkins is in his second year as head coach and has completely transformed BCU from their old triple option attack to a spread option formation team that is loaded with division one transfers that pushed the Miami Hurricanes to the wall for three quarters before running out of steam.
BCU is extremely talented and probably the most explosive team that the Aggies will face all year.
On paper, the personnel matchups make this game an easy one to call but the Wildcats have a couple of weaknesses that do make them human, undisciplined play that results in a league leading 140 yards in penalties per game and penchant for committing turnovers when trying to press too hard in close football games.
BCU is blessed with unnatural speed at its skill positions that few teams in the MEAC can fathom and with its offensive line although they are not the biggest team up front, blocks about as well as any team out there.
They are a reflection of their young coach who is highly emotional and uses about very trick in the book to keep his opponents off balance at every turn.
Now as good as BCU is on offense, their defense has been up and down this year with both some standout performances but also at times has given up a good amount of points because they do take a lot of chances on defenses.
They are a heavy blitz oriented team and most coaches will tell you anytime you blitz a lot,there is a high probability if the opponent guesses right and executes properly you can find yourself in a real dog fight trying to chase down people.
For the last three years the Wildcats have destroyed A&T with its big quick strike offense posting 60 points or more in two of their three last meetings.
A&T Coach Rod Broadway is more than aware of mental aspect that can play havoc on his young undermanned A&T squad in the major psychological battle in getting his team ready to compete against such talent.
The Wildcats have played many of their early games at home in Daytona Beach or close to it so it will be interesting to see how they respond on the road in a hostile environment.
A&T is surprisingly is only a nine point underdog to BCU this week and that may be because there is an uncertain situation as whether senior Maryland transfer QB Jamar Robinson or Sophomore Jackie Wilson will get the call under center.
Or it may attributted to the fact that A&T is playing much improved ball under Broadway by eliminating mistakes and turnovers as they did last week on offense and has been playing better defense against the run and are now adjusting to Broadway’s conservative philosophy of playing patient for sixty minutes despite its smaller numbers and size to offset their lack of scholarship athletes by playing smarter and getting the most out of its available talent which is underrated as well.
This is going to be as very tough game for the Aggies because BCU is a level above A&T when you go down the roster and look at individual talent. But pure individual talent by itself doesn’t win football games alone, team play does.
Defending MEAC champion South Carolina can attest to that fact after dropping a low scoring defensive 17-14 shocker last week to a Norfolk State team that they considerably outmanned on paper.
Turnovers, mistakes on special teams, penalties, and missed assignments all are factors that normally determine what happens on Saturday afternoons and they can neutralize even the most talented teams against lesser opponents.
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I don’t expect a 60 point blowout as in the previous years because despite the smaller numbers, the Aggies are a much better team than a year ago. A&T will be hard pressed to win this game and will have to play near perfect football with very minimal mistakes.
BCU will need to help the Aggies out in getting away from their normal race horse style and give A&T some key opportunities to help keep this game in contention and lose some of their composure through frustration in the meantime.
If the Aggies don’t give up the easy points on big plays and can make BCU work for their points while in turn keep the BCU offense off the field and shorten the game and limit BCU offensive possessions by putting together some long drives with points to show for it in the end, this can be interesting.
That might be the case for a while but BCU just has a lot of weapons to cover and it may be just too much for the Aggies to handle for an entire 60 minutes.
But again ask Norfolk State, and they will tell you that’s why they play the game thus the term is coined “On any Given Saturday.”
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PREDICTION:
Bethune Cookman – 38
N.C. A&T – 24
