Good things allows happen when one shows patience and persistance. When Head Football Coach Rod Broadway took to the podium at the Bryan Fitness Center a couple of weeks ago as national signing day was ending for the evening, a huge surprise was in store for those in attendance.
With many of the members of the Aggie Athletic Foundation, everyone in the special events room was expecting a subdued reaction from the popular coach about the results of the first official recruiting day for high school prospects.
What they got instead, shook not only the very foundation the A&T football headquarters but suddenly and dramatically changed the immediate future of A&T football from an also ran to what now appears to be one of becoming one of the top programs in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference literally overnight.
With a lot of offseason hard work in a short amount of time to work with, Rod Broadway had gone from a 33 scholarship program to an almost level playing ground by announcing that the Aggies had regained 27 scholarships for 2012 because of improved academic progress and thereby exceeding all the expectations of its large and rabid fan base.
Broadway put it in prospective remarking, “Recruiting is a crap shoot. You hope you have made the proper evaluations in looking at your personnel, the academic potential of the young people you have signed but cannot ever say for sure. We helped ourselves tremendously by bringing in what I think is an outstanding class of kids in our first year.”
“We needed everything and you never want to overstock at one position. Now we are beginning to get where we need to be with these numbers.”
“We will be still recruiting all the way to April while taking care of some kids already here and some transfers with our remaining grants,” remarked the usually soft-spoken Broadway.
“We placed a lot of emphasis on our academics, depth, getting us some added firepower with some game breakers, and to get bigger and stronger up front. Our staff made some major strides to that end.”
Major Strides? That may have been the understatement of the year as the Aggies brought in nine linemen in this initial class of 18 first day signees. Broadway told the standing room crowd of 75 invited guests, “We expect to see the entire group ready to go when we open August camp and we’ll have somewhere between 110-115 players out when practice starts in a few months.
“Most all of these young men are really fine students, real character guys and that’s hard to do with so many D-1 schools we were up against when we brought them in for their visits. We are excited.”
“We know there are just some kids we just are not going to get but most of the kids and their families we talked to listened to us. We signed some young men who can help us right away. We got our fair share of talent and stole us a few along the way we probably wouldn’t ordinarily get in the process.”
Broadway was not going to be pinned down by the press about talking specifics but at least this reporter’s observation in our one-on- one segment, it was evident that he was obviously pleased and knows that he may solved the one problem he cited at season’s end after the Aggies crushed North Carolina Central in the season finale.
“Late in the year we lost too many close ball games because we just didn’t have our legs at crunch time in the fourth quarter. We wanted to find us some finishers. I believe we did,” Broadway replied with a slight smile on his face.
Asked if the new FCS upstart program at the University of Charlotte had, any impact on this year’s recruiting, Broadway was not shy in his response. “It definitely did, more on some than on others. They have a solid product to sell and lots of money to back it. They are a major impact factor.”
“But I have to say we didn’t back down from anyone and stood our ground evidenced that 14 out of our 18 kids come from in-state. When you have a campus as this nice as this one is, a tremendous football complex to show, a highly respected academic institution with a nationally known reputation, a lot of years of tradition and a great fan base, well, all of it put together really put us at an big advantage.”
The question was also posed to the coach that in looking at 2012 class there was no talk about D-2 comparisons or competition for recruits for this year’s class.
Broadway was emphatic on this point.” Our competition is against people like App State, ODU, ECU, the ACC and other BCS schools. It is going to be that way from now on. “We are operating on a much different and more competitive level than in the past. Things have changed a lot from the old days.”
Broadway went looking for power and size up front to increase the depth along both the offensive and defensive lines. The Aggies did not disappoint with their haul on either front.
Offensive line coach Mike Wagner was extremely pleased with the signings of four extremely physical recruits.
The most familiar name player in a group that averages 6-4 and well over 305 pounds is probably Javontay Stewart (6-4, 305) from J.L. Mann High School in Greenville, S.C. and is considered one of the top high school prospects in the Palmetto state.
He will be teamed up with massive Lashon Hudson (6-4,325) from Savannah, Ga. who already bench press 425 pounds straight out of the prep ranks.
A&T also solidified its center position with 6-2,280 Jahkeem Forrester from Atlanta, GA and the versatile Major Kay (6-4,318) from Lincolnton, N.C. who can either play the guard or tackle spot along the front.
Defensive coordinator Sam Washington who does not take a back seat to any offense with the MEAC’s best overall defense and tops against the rush added two excellent ends in Shrine Bowler J.T. Terrell (6-4,250) from Greenville, S.C. and Marquis Ragland (6-4, 247) from Fayetteville.
The interior got a big boost with new Aggies in Marquis Raynor (6-3,282) another Fayetteville standout and massive Durham Hillside tackle Kevin Cousin, a 6-2,300 pounder.
The Aggies found a great middle linebacker prospect with 4.7 speed in highly touted Angelo Keyes (6-1,242) from 2-A state champion Kinston. The secondary was not neglected either with the addition of speedy Greensboro Grimsley’s Landis Shoffner, Reggie Prince (Southern Durham), and with Anthony Magnum (Durham Hillside).
Quarterbacks are always are in high demand and the Aggies went on signing spree in grabbing four outstanding signal callers in Oluwafemi “Femi” Bamiro (6-5,210) from Washington, DC, Shrine Bowler Kwashaun Quick (6-2,210) from 4-A champion Scotland County.
The Aggies did not just finish there in their quest for depth until they had also inked two more quarterback prospects, both Rivals 2-star quarterbacks in Dorian Belcher (6-2,208) and Marquis Boyan (6-1,180) from Eau Claire High School near Columbia, S.C.
Running backs are never in short supply at A&T but Broadway did sign speedster Tony McRae also from Scotland County and H-Back A.J. McMinn, a 6-3 220 pounder from Hendersonville, N.C.
The receiver slots got some huge help with the signing of Darren Bullock (6-0,180) who had caught the eye from several PAC-10 schools with 1200 yards in receptions and was the top rated wide out at the prestigious Nike combine held in Durham last summer.
Seyyan Moody (5-11,175) has a legitimate 4.5 speed with great acceleration and another member of the Scotland Scots state championship squad.
Broadway paid really close attention to Marquis Gorman and what coach in their right mind wouldn’t have. Gorman, while only 5-9,180, was All-State as a kick returner from Greenville Rose with 21 kickoffs for 751 yards and six touchdowns.
Add in the fact that he was also a receiver with over 800 yards and nine more scores, played defensive back with two interceptions and a touchdown and returned eight punts for 115 yards and yet another score. He was considered one of the most dangerous open field game changers in the Atlantic Coast region.
To top off the receiving corps for this class is the first real tight end prospect the Aggies have had since the last decade in 6-8,240 South Johnston product Joel Watson.
No doubt, his imposing stature as well as his prowess on the basketball court as a starting center helped him become an first team all-conference selection with 21 catches and five touchdowns.
To say that A&T found itself in enviable situation just a couple of weeks before national signing day would be like comparing an ordinary house cat to a Cheetah.
What was to be a lean year in Greensboro on the recruiting front has now turned into a treasure chest.
The situation has now become all about Broadway and his staff putting these first pieces together with some valued transfers already on campus and coaching them up and beyond what he did with a badly undermanned squad a year ago.
Somehow, I think Rod Broadway and his staff are more than up to the task ahead.
Not bad guys; not bad at all.
