Aggies meet fans, answer questions on Media Day

By NCATAggies.com

GREENSBORO--A day full of games, signing autographs, cheerleaders, unveilings and answering questions from the media, the North Carolina A&T Fan Fest/Media Day ended with an encouraging intra-squad scrimmage.

Both sides of the football had their moments. There was a goal line stand, some completed deep passes and couple of long runs that ended in touchdowns.

“We are looking for more consistency,’’ said N.C. A&T head football coach earlier in the day before the start of the scrimmage. “We have a tough opponent in Winston-Salem State in the next two weeks, so we need to see the young men understand what we’re trying to do.”

The Aggies start the season on Saturday, September 1 at 6 p.m., against Winston Salem-State at Bowman Gray Stadium. As it stands now, there are still several spirited competitions for starting jobs. Herb Miller will likely be the starter on September 1, but there are a lot of receivers vying to catch his passes once the season starts.

Curtis Walls and Michael Caldwell are the veterans, but Giorgio Lowrance, Vernon White, Rashad Richardson, Cedric Byrd have all had their moments in the preseason. The running back position is also crowded with Dion McNair, Chaz Truesdale, Michael Ferguson, Demerick Chancellor and David Robinson all vying for playing time.

On the defensive side, the Aggies rotated in several different defensive back combinations. The depth chart at the linebacker position is very strong. Robert Russell, Tim Shropshire, Brandon Long, Andre Thornton and Davion Hemphill are all good enough to start.

The scrimmage ended with Walls making a tremendous catch in the corner of the end zone, but it was ruled he went out of bounds. The day started with Fobbs holding a press conference in the multipurpose room. Fobbs answered questions concerning Miller’s growth as a quarterback, training camp and the morale of the team.

“We had to make some changes,’’ said Fobbs. “We needed to have guys in here who want to uplift each other. We were not a team last year. I don't think at any point we exemplified a team. I had to look at everything to get that four-letter word (T-E-A-M) working."

The day also included the Aggies unveiling the decals on N.C. A&T Athletics tractor trailer. Players also signed autographs and played games with fans, while the drumline performed.