Week two of the CAA season was kind to a lot of teams who got off to a good start in their conference play while others spent their time getting to struggle against nonconference games although a few broke through into the win column.
Rashad Raymond’s 1-yard scoring run with 3:11 to go lifted William & Mary past Maine, 28-27. W&M quarterback Tyler Hughes passed for 129 yards and 2 TD’s and ran for 73 yards to lead the Tribe in their win.
Derek Robertson passed for 342 yards and six touchdowns – four of them to Josh Derry – and added another on the ground as Monmouth rolled over Fordham, 49-28.
Stony Brook jumped out to a 10-0 lead in the first quarter on a 22-yard Enda Kirby field goal and a 1-yard TD run by Roland Dempster but couldn’t hold on as nationally ranked Rhode Island scored 24 straight points in the second quarter enroute to a 31-17 win.
Explosive plays were the name of the game as John Dunmore’s 18-yard touchdown catch from true freshman quarterback Andrew Indorf with 28 seconds left gave Towson a 27-22 victory over Morgan State to capture the Battle for Greater Baltimore.
North Carolina A&T was clearly physically overmatched going into its trip to Big 12-member Central Florida and paid for that disparity with the loss of three quarterbacks to injury as the Knights registered a easy 68-7 blowout of the Aggies.
Ja’Quan Snipes broke loose for a 47-yard game-winning touchdown run with 39 seconds left as Hampton got past Elizabeth City State, 27-20. The Pirates trailed 20-10 late in the third quarter but got a 5-yard TD run by Snipes and a 30-yard field goal from Brett Starling that tied the game with 5:21 to go.
Campbell knew what it was up against when it traveled to Greenville but its token resistance in the first quarter wasn’t nearly enough as East Carolina rolled up 535 yards in total offense in its 56-3 win over the Camels.
It was a walk in the park for Elon who showed no mercy running up a 41-0 halftime lead and went on to completely rout Davidson 55-7. It was an afternoon of complete domination as the Phoenix finished with 547 yards of offense and held Davidson to 158.
The one big fear that every FCS team has when it plays FBS teams that are members of the upper echelon Power-4 conferences (Big Ten, SEC, Big 12, ACC) is losing players, especially key contributors to injuries because of the sheer size and physicality disparities that exist between the two divisions.
Now both the FCS and the FBS at least on paper are all Division 1 teams. But let’s get real here. The difference in budgets, scholarships, and the new handicap of available NIL money has made it impossible for the little guys to compete against the elites of college football. There are rare exceptions like North Dakota State but then again, they are for all intents and purposes been an FBS program for quite some time. They just haven’t made the move up. At least not yet.
You only must look at some of the scores from last couple of weekend games between the FBS giants and the average FCS team to see the obvious – Grambling was beaten by 70 (Ohio St.), N. C. A&T by 61 (UCF), Arkansas Pine Bluff beaten by 60 (Texas Tech).
But it’s not just HBCUs, East Tennessee St by 55 (Tennessee), Cal Poly by 54 (Utah), Long Island by 55 (Florida) and the list goes on and on.
Athletic Directors at these smaller institutions should take note that the money guarantees that these FBS schools offer is far too small for the beatings they will take both mentally and physically in these glorified scrimmages. You cannot convince me that Power 4 programs like Ohio State or Georgia which generate literally millions of dollars in annual revenue can’t afford let’s say $700K- 800K once or twice a year to fine tune themselves against an FCS opponent while padding their record before their conference play begins.
There are enough lower tier FBS programs out there looking for non-conference opponents where FCS teams would have at least a fighting chance of being competitive with a far lower injury risk to their athletes. Sure, the payouts would be far lower, but it would be substantially more level playing field if the FBS opponents were the Charlotte, Eastern Michigan, Kent State, or Kennesaw.
Then again with the pending expansion of the FBS playoff field to probably 16 teams in a couple of years, a lot of these David vs Goliath matchups may soon be a thing of the past with upper tier teams looking to improve their strength of schedule with lower FBS teams with an eye on securing a far better chance at an at-large bid. Time will tell.
The Aggies lost its 3 top quarterbacks against UCF, two out indefinitely with dislocated elbows (Braxton Thomas and Champ Long) as well as, true freshman Jy’Aire Walls who is out for the season with a broken collarbone.
That will shift a lot of pressure on to the last two remaining healthy QBs on the roster in Redshirt junior Noah Sanders and true freshman Nelson Layne.
Sanders, a former 3-star high school prospect transferred to A&T a couple of years ago from the University of Delaware. And while fans didn’t see much of him over this past season, Sanders (6-2,215) showed well in the April Spring game with excellent mobility and vastly improved passing skills. Sanders is an older quarterback who has been in the A&T system for a while and has a solid frame and more suited to run the football if need be.
Nelson Layne is an exciting option that will also be available and will see considerable action on Saturday as well. The 6-3, 195, a native of Highland Springs, Va., comes in with some impressive numbers after a stellar high school career.
As a senior, Layne passed for 1321 yards and 11 TDs while rushing for 1,044 yards and 7 more TDs. He is only the third high school quarterback in Virginia Prep history to achieve that feat in a single season. The most intriguing aspect of his game is his blistering forty speed which has been laser timed at 4.43.
Both quarterbacks will see action Saturday night, two major things will be incumbent on them both. They will first need to play within their capabilities and not force the issue and secondly avoid the biggest pitfall for A&T’s offense over its first two games which is putting the ball on the ground.
Defensively, A&T will need to slow down Hampton’s potent running attack and in particular star graduate RB Ja’Quan Snipes (6-1,215) who over the first two games of the year is averaging just over 105 yards per outing. He’ll also get lot of help from teammate Jah’Kei Travis (5-10,187, Fr.). Senior quarterback Isaiah Freeman (6-3, 200) also has 113 yards rushing while going 19-33 on passes for 168 yards with one TD and one interception.
A&T’s front seven will have to concentrate heavily on gap control and outside containment because they will be severely tested by an offense that will a fair share of draws, screens, stretch plays mixed in with a variety of traps to get their speedy backs into open space.
A&T’s offense is really an enigma at this point especially with all the injuries at quarterback. It’s almost like starting at week one all over again with a pair of QBs who will be getting the first real significant playing time of their careers. This is going to be a team test and not necessarily a quarterback exam.
Winning is difficult enough when all the pieces are in place let alone when you’re being forced to rely on unknown commodities at the most important position on the field. It’s going to crucial that A&T gets its ground game going with some consistency to make it easier for the newest of new QBs to gain some confidence and help keep the Aggie defense fresh by winning the time of possession game against a Hampton team that will try to bully up and ram it down your throat.
Saturday marks the first home game of the season for Shawn Gibbs as head coach and the first CAA game of the year. A win over Hampton would do wonders this early in season for this young team. Hopefully a good and very vocal home crowd will be wired for the home opener, which could be difference maker in a tight contest which it will be. I just don’t know if all that will be enough given A&T’s critical quarterback situation.
Hampton – 25
N.C. A&T – 17
