GREENSBORO – North Carolina A&T's 2024 spring practices culminated with Saturday's annual Blue & Gold Spring Game at Truist Stadium. The game consisted of A&T's offense against its defense. The defense used six sacks, five coming in the second half, to defeat the offense 36-17.
Even though the defense did not force any turnovers, they used three-and-outs and some third-down stops to make up their totals. Meanwhile, on the offensive side of the ball, the Aggies used an effective running game that included rising sophomore quarterback Kevin White using his legs to contribute. White threw a seven-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Ger-Cari Caldwell and ran for a 50-yard touchdown to account for the Aggies' two touchdowns. Christopher Brown IV added a 35-yard field goal to close out the offense's scoring.
"We are by no means a finished product right now, but there is a lot to like about what happened this spring," said A&T second-year head coach Vincent Brown. The camaraderie, teamwork, and cohesiveness of this program were great. As we just told the team, we are getting ready to move into the next phase, which is going to prepare us to compete for a (Coastal Athletic Association) title."
The game started with running back Wesley Graves breaking free for impressive runs of 16 and 11 yards before the Aggies defense stiffened and forced two punts. Shimique Blizzard took most of the load in the third quarter. He rushed for 66 yards on nine carries. A&T's leading rusher from last season, Kenji Christian, also saw some action, with his longest run going 23 yards in the second quarter.
The Aggies played five quarterbacks on Saturday. In addition to White, graduate transfer Justin Fomby, Division I transfer Noah Sanders, Jaeyman Smith and Taffrey Peterman also saw action behind center. Throughout the day, the passing game produced some outstanding plays, including Peterman hitting Shamar Sutton for a 34-yard pass play. Smith's 16-yard completion to Joshua George set up Brown's field goal.
"They expect a lot out of me, especially after last season," said White. "I wanted to come out here and put on a show and show them what I could do for this upcoming season with everything we have installed for this season."
On the defensive end, Boston College transfer Joshua Hardy had a strong game, ending the day with five tackles. The pass rush of Jared Crawl-Bey and Kelvin Broadhust Jr. proved vital for the A&T defense in the second half, and Bryce Enlow had two sacks for the Aggies D.
"Any time you're trying to build something, you evaluate everything you're doing," said Brown. We are evaluating everything we did as a program. We are looking at everything we did schematically against the competition we played. We are trying to see how we can get better. I think you evaluate everything. I feel really confident with the guys we have here and are developing. If we can keep everyone healthy, we can cause problems in this conference."
A&T opens the season against two Winston-Salem programs. The Aggies travel to Wake Forest University to play the Demon Deacons on Thursday, Aug. 29, at Allegacy Federal Credit Union Stadium. A&T's home opener is against longtime rival Winston-Salem State on Saturday, Sept. 7, at 7 p.m. from Truist Stadium.
