Football | 11/1/2021 9:50:00 PM

North Carolina A&T Head Coach Sam Washington Opening Statement:  "Good afternoon everyone. Tough ballgame; however, one thing I am very pleased with, I thought the guys played hard, and they played as one. Coming in, we thought that was going to be critical. Whenever you play a team of that caliber, you must play as a team, and I thought we did that. Coach Callahan and his staff had their team ready to go, and they came in and played like champions. A lot to be learned from this ballgame, and we looked forward to this week in preparation." 

Coach Washington on defensive third-down troubles: "One word would be: execution. They executed well. They didn't really do anything that we weren't expecting. They just lined up, and they executed well, and we didn't in those situations. I think they were like 9-of-15 on third down. It was ridiculous. Fourth down, very tough to stop. I thought we had some great stops in there, in particular, that 4th-and-1 quarterback sneak. I thought the whistle should've been blown, but that's my opinion, and no one else stopped them, so I thought we did an admirable job, just wasn't good enough." 

Coach Washington on Big South teams going for it on fourth down: "Absolutely, and it doesn't matter the distance. That's what was surprising for me. I've seen 4th-and-8 to be common in any area of the field. That's something that we'll have to adjust to and put some effort towards during the offseason." 

Coach Washington on second-half struggles: "I wish I had the answer to that. If I had the answer to that, we wouldn't be having a problem, but it's something that we'll continue to work on, and we'll get better at." 

Coach Washington on the importance of finishing the season well: "It's going to be very crucial to the momentum and the mindset. We're not accustomed to being in the position that we're in right now, so it's very difficult for everybody, but it's very important that we stay together and band together as a team and learn from it. It's a journey. It's part of it, so we have to make the most of it." 

Coach Washington on how players are handling the season: "It's been tough. One of the things that happened over the past week that I was grateful for is many of the old players, the recent and old, came by and gave some words of encouragement. They shared some of their experiences while they were here and told their stories and their journeys, and I thought that was very helpful. I thought that also allowed us to see things from a different perspective." 

Coach Washington on Jalen Fowler's recent performance: "He hasn't been performing as well as we would like, and that's just the reality of it. He does have a broken left hand, so there's some injury involved in that. He has a fractured left hand, so that may have something to do with it. One thing about that kid is he's tough, and he's giving us all he has." 

Coach Washington on the duration of Fowler's injury: "Two weeks. A two-week injury." 

Coach Washington in the magnitude of third-quarter Ron Hunt's, called back touchdown: "I thought it was huge. I wish you could see it on tape. I'm going to leave it at that." 

Coach Washington on consideration of involving Kingsley Ifedi more given Fowler's injury: "I thought we did. We got him in the game as often as we felt was necessary, and there may come a time when he gets a little more time, but we did come into the game with a two-quarterback system." 

Coach Washington on the injury report: "Honestly, I won't get that until today. The medical staff meets on Monday. They met with the doctors this morning, and we'll get the report this afternoon by 1 o'clock." 

Coach Washington's message to fans not used to seeing A&T in this position: "Bear with us. Just bear with us. This has been one of those learning-curve years, and there are several things we can attribute it to – the pandemic, injury – but I'm going to stick with my motto – no excuses, no regrets. Next man up is what's expected here. We expect the next guy to step in, and we're not to falter. The level of play shouldn't alter very much, but it is what it is. It's one of those learning experiences and part of our journey. One thing I will say; if that's the champion, we're not far. If that's the championship team, they haven't lost a conference game in three years, we're not far, so I'm excited for the future of this team and this program. All we have to do is do what we do and do it well." 

Coach Washington on doing chicken: "I don't think we're doing chicken properly. One thing I was pleased with against Monmouth, we stopped the run. We held them to 77 yards, which is well below their average, so with that part, I was pleased. Protecting the football; we've got to protect the football. You can't give that kind of team a short field. Special teams; the first snap hit a kid's shoulder. Now they have the short field. Now they only have 38 yards to go. Those are the kinds of things that put you behind the sticks, and when you're playing against a championship-caliber team, you can't make those mistakes and be successful." 

Coach Washington on how CSU is different from 2019: "Their quarterback is more experienced. That's the way I see it. He is throwing the ball more accurately, and he ran the ball very well a couple of years ago, so he is a concern. I think he is the difference." 

Coach Washington on playing younger guys with three conference losses: "It was a thought, but we're going to play with who got us here. I think our philosophy remains the same – best man wins. I don't care what class he is in right now. The better player plays. That's the way I think it should be done, and that's the way it will be done, regardless of the class. Best man wins." 

Coach Washington on if he's faced adversity similar to this in his career that he can draw from: "Nope. I wish I could, and particularly in the recent past, I never experienced anything like this. It's all new and again, I think it's part of my journey. It's a part of this season for whatever reason, and what we've got to do is just stand firm, stay together, stay connected, and everything else will take care of itself. As long as we link, we bond, we're good." 

Coach Washington on what's not 'Aggie football': "12 penalties. You can't do that and particularly against a championship-caliber team. We had 12 penalties, and that's one of the things I thought we had gotten beyond because we went from 12 in the first part of the season to three. Each week they dropped down. We went from 12 to six to three, and here we are back at 12; that's a problem." 

Coach Washington on if penalties were due to homecoming hype: "I hope not, but it has a little glare to it. Homecoming, you want to give a little bit more, you want to play harder, but still, that's not the time nor place." 

Coach Washington on defensive confusion at times: "It was obvious. We called two timeouts defensively. That can't happen. It was the first drive. They came out into some formations that we hadn't seen and guys just got confused, and we had to call timeout. Unacceptable, but it's part of football."