News from the FCS
September 7th, 2021, 09:20 PM
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North Carolina A&T head coach Sam Washington opening statement… "Good afternoon everyone, happy to be here. It was a tough loss as all losses are. I had no idea this was the first loss in nine-straight years. I'm just learning that and that makes it a little more bitter, but talking about the ballgame I thought we came out flat. That time off we had some concerns about coming into the game and it showed up. It's my responsibility to get the team ready to play regardless of the circumstances and I failed to do that. I give you my word, we will be better prepared this upcoming week. A few things about the ballgame that were striking… We put a lot of emphasis on stopping the run and when we needed to stop them the most, we did not and that's very disturbing for me. Second rule – protect the football. We failed to do that. We had turnovers in the red zone and one on the two-yard line. That cannot happen. You cannot and will not be successful with that. Win the kicking game. We missed, no, we dropped to extra point snaps. It's very important that all three phases are complete – snap, hold, and kick – and we failed to do that. It's those little things that culminate and pile on top of each other and made for a very tough afternoon for us. Another thing I'm very disappointed with was third-down conversions. We could not convert on third downs and they did. I think they were 6-for-16 overall and that's not winning football. Another thing that stood out was the red zone. They were 3-for-4 in the red zone and we were 1-for-3. So those are the areas that we will put a lot of concentration on this week and a lot of focus. We're going to go back and we're going to get better at the small things. We often talk about how important fundamentals, technique and effort are and perhaps I didn't preach that enough, didn't get that message sent home to each and every one of us, but we're sure to do so this week."
More... (https://ncataggies.com/news/2021/9/7/football-coach-washington-talks-blue-devils-quarterback-play.aspx)
North Carolina A&T head coach Sam Washington opening statement… "Good afternoon everyone, happy to be here. It was a tough loss as all losses are. I had no idea this was the first loss in nine-straight years. I'm just learning that and that makes it a little more bitter, but talking about the ballgame I thought we came out flat. That time off we had some concerns about coming into the game and it showed up. It's my responsibility to get the team ready to play regardless of the circumstances and I failed to do that. I give you my word, we will be better prepared this upcoming week. A few things about the ballgame that were striking… We put a lot of emphasis on stopping the run and when we needed to stop them the most, we did not and that's very disturbing for me. Second rule – protect the football. We failed to do that. We had turnovers in the red zone and one on the two-yard line. That cannot happen. You cannot and will not be successful with that. Win the kicking game. We missed, no, we dropped to extra point snaps. It's very important that all three phases are complete – snap, hold, and kick – and we failed to do that. It's those little things that culminate and pile on top of each other and made for a very tough afternoon for us. Another thing I'm very disappointed with was third-down conversions. We could not convert on third downs and they did. I think they were 6-for-16 overall and that's not winning football. Another thing that stood out was the red zone. They were 3-for-4 in the red zone and we were 1-for-3. So those are the areas that we will put a lot of concentration on this week and a lot of focus. We're going to go back and we're going to get better at the small things. We often talk about how important fundamentals, technique and effort are and perhaps I didn't preach that enough, didn't get that message sent home to each and every one of us, but we're sure to do so this week."
More... (https://ncataggies.com/news/2021/9/7/football-coach-washington-talks-blue-devils-quarterback-play.aspx)