A&T - The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

[fc97]

My observations:

1 - A&T's band is better than I have seen since 1996. Just, Awesome.

2 - Coach Broadway ran circles around Swepson and staff. He made the right calls, read the right plays and made the right adjustments. Considering where A&T was when he took over, he's doing and outstanding job with 10 less scholarships than us.

3 - Swepson Sucks! He stands alone on the sidelines, very rarely engages the team, very rarely gets in huddles with the offense or the defense. And that embarrassing unsportsmanlike penalty where he threw his hat down and whined instead of helping to develop a defensive plan. Freaking embarrassing.

4 - Predictable offense. 1st down run into a wall. 2nd down throw to Rorie. 3rd down throw to Rorie. Punt. Absurd. It wasn't until things changed, whether from upstairs or not, that the game turned into something better. Brown should be the primary receiver, not Rorie.

5 - No offense to Brad Sherrod, but the defense is horrible. Our big stops were more to A&T mistakes than to us making a big stop. Why are we running a 4-3 when 95% of the division runs a 3-4. And running a 4-3 and still giving up big running plays is just terrible. Not only that, flat wide open gaps in coverage giving up big plays.

6 - Special Teams Coaching - Not Good - Our new punter is outstanding. The kicker will develop fine. But, it is ridiculous to have a special teams unit leave an entire side of the field uncovered so that a receiver can can large yardage not once, not twice, but three times.

7 - The team did well at times. And this tells me we have a team that when playing well and being coached well can be good. Pincince is doing an okay job. Swepson and Sherrod are not.

[Deleted]

Agreed on Ricky Brown. I don't know what year he is but if he's not a senior we need to be developing that young man. Same with TE Warrick. He actually has a build more like a WR than a traditional TE. Saw him catch a pass tonight & turn on surprising speed after the catch.

I may be very wrong here, but does Swepson look to anyone else like a guy who has thrown in the towel & is now just going through the motions. That end of game tantrum was all about his frustration, not passion. He was totally and completely disengaged today.

[keepitreal]

I was at game and agree with fc97 and want to elaborate on some things.

O looked best when it ran what I call the hurry-up short-count no-huddle. We usually run what i call the slow, long-count no-huddle - players get to the line, then things stop as the players look to the sidelines and play is changed? No sure what they do but we do it almost every play, taking away what advantage we had with a no huddle. In the TD drive the no huddle was a true no huddle with no delays looking to the bench. Their D was not ready almost every one of those plays on the drive. Therefore, up the tempo and run the hurry-up short-count no-huddle most of the time and the O will look a lot better.

As for the D, it was apparent that A&T's #5 was the go-to-guy for their QB by the end of the 1st half if not earlier. #5 was open so much because their other WRs were sent deep taking all our coverage with them. All #5 did was go out about 5 yds then cut across now vacant area and was wide open every time. He finished with 10 receptions and lots of yards. Virtually every time #5 was in the game, he was thrown the ball. The adjustment at half should have been .... drape someone on him at the line and stay with him, forcing QB to other WRs he was not overly comfortable with. This soft belly in the defense was evident in the WVwes game but they did not have the talent to take full advantage on every play. Things could have been worse but A&T chose to be very conservative and tried to balance things with the run.

I believe the O line is much better than last year and the D line actually looked pretty good considered we have Fr and R-Fr rotating in. For the O, up the tempo with a true short-count no-huddle. For the D, put the D up closer to the WRs and tighten up the soft underbelly in the 5-10 yd zone.

Just my two cents.

[fc97]

Yes, the no huddle looked good, and I meant to comment on that. Thanks for reminding keepitreal

[euphoenix99]

61 total yards rushing from the former running backs coach. I also believe there is talent on this team to be much more competitive than the coaching staff is allowing them to be.

Not sure how to describe it, but since day one I have always felt like Swepson didn't respect the FCS level of football like he should. He came in from an FBS program that I'm sure looked down on all FCS opponents, and that kind of attitude impacts your ability to recruit and motivate players against top quality opponents. His approach to the GT and UNC games came across as "we don't belong on the field with these teams". When you condition your players to think that way, it carries over into FCS games. I don't ever want Elon football to be some pet project for someone who doesn't appreciate how important FCS football is to alot of us.

Swepson's done. I hope something is down now as well. We need a new day in the CAA for Elon football. There will be a number of good coaches clamoring to coach in the CAA.

Go Phoenix!