By: Dwight Moore II-Contributor
North Carolina A&T University is the home of many things. "The Greensboro Four", one of the most respected engineering programs in the nation and one of the best football programs in all of black college football.
However, over the past few seasons this very proud football program has endured multiple losing seasons that has caused a lot of complaining within the Aggie community among the students, fans, alumni, and supporters.
The constant question of "When is the football team going to win a game?" has become very popular topic throughout campus.
Now I am 21 year old junior from right here in Greensboro . I have spent every fall since 1990 in Aggie Stadium watching, cheering, and loving A&T football. My family and I were at every home game, every classic from Atlanta to Indianapolis, and every big game home or away. So if anyone among the student body has the right to complain about the football team it would probably be me. But I'm not, because I realize no matter how great and proud a football program is there will come a time when they will have to rebuild and that is what Coach Fobbs and his staff are doing.
The reason that so many Aggies are having a hard time dealing with the rebuilding process is because we are not use to "rebuilding" but "reloading" and we became spoil fans who always thought that our football would be great and for good reasons.
From 1990 to 2003 the football team won 111 games to only 49 losses. This run of excellence would include four MEAC titles, three trips to 1-AA playoffs that included the school's first playoff win over the number one team in the nation at the time in Tennessee State that also claimed the school's first and only black national championship during the historic 1999 season, and also an appearance in the 1991 Heritage Bowl in Miami. Names such as James White, Rudy Artis, Connell Maynor , Maseo Bolin,Maurice Hicks, Chris McNeil, Darryl Klugh, Curtis Deloatch, and "The Blue Death Defense" became apart of Aggie football lore.
However, after the 2003 season the bottom started to fall out from under and you can trace the being of it back to the end of the 2002 season when Bill Hayes was fired as head coach.
That move began a string of very questionable moves by the administration and the athletics department that included a very bad attempt at trying to become a Division 1-A football program. Those moves along with poor results under the George Small tenure lead the program to the state that it was in last season.
Usually undermanned against the their opponents last season we went 0-11, a season that we would all like to forget and there is good chance that will happen in coming seasons.
Coach Fobbs and his staff are bringing transfers and recruits to go along with the other players that we already have which allows him to have more man power at his use and more means a more competitive team and that will lead to more wins.
As a person who has followed the A&T football program their entire life I have to say that the last a couple seasons have been very hard. Going 3- 8 two straight years and then going 0-11 has been really hard for the Aggie community to handle because many of us remember when A&T was one of the respected and feared teams in black college football.
But now things are about to change the rebuilding process has began and I hope the MEAC and the rest of the HBCUs enjoyed A&T being down for these last couple of years because now A&T is getting there "swagger" back although you could argue that it hasn't gone anywhere to being with.
It is now time to remind all the HBCUs in the nation why they have always been jealous of us Aggies because "we are A&T and they aren't and every school that isn't A&T is just school wishing that it was".
Because the day will come when once again our players will make us proud and we will be able to stand in the opponents faces and there will be nothing they can do about when we scream the those two words that known are worldwide...
AGGIE PRIDE!
North Carolina A&T University is the home of many things. "The Greensboro Four", one of the most respected engineering programs in the nation and one of the best football programs in all of black college football.
However, over the past few seasons this very proud football program has endured multiple losing seasons that has caused a lot of complaining within the Aggie community among the students, fans, alumni, and supporters.
The constant question of "When is the football team going to win a game?" has become very popular topic throughout campus.
Now I am 21 year old junior from right here in Greensboro . I have spent every fall since 1990 in Aggie Stadium watching, cheering, and loving A&T football. My family and I were at every home game, every classic from Atlanta to Indianapolis, and every big game home or away. So if anyone among the student body has the right to complain about the football team it would probably be me. But I'm not, because I realize no matter how great and proud a football program is there will come a time when they will have to rebuild and that is what Coach Fobbs and his staff are doing.
The reason that so many Aggies are having a hard time dealing with the rebuilding process is because we are not use to "rebuilding" but "reloading" and we became spoil fans who always thought that our football would be great and for good reasons.
From 1990 to 2003 the football team won 111 games to only 49 losses. This run of excellence would include four MEAC titles, three trips to 1-AA playoffs that included the school's first playoff win over the number one team in the nation at the time in Tennessee State that also claimed the school's first and only black national championship during the historic 1999 season, and also an appearance in the 1991 Heritage Bowl in Miami. Names such as James White, Rudy Artis, Connell Maynor , Maseo Bolin,Maurice Hicks, Chris McNeil, Darryl Klugh, Curtis Deloatch, and "The Blue Death Defense" became apart of Aggie football lore.
However, after the 2003 season the bottom started to fall out from under and you can trace the being of it back to the end of the 2002 season when Bill Hayes was fired as head coach.
That move began a string of very questionable moves by the administration and the athletics department that included a very bad attempt at trying to become a Division 1-A football program. Those moves along with poor results under the George Small tenure lead the program to the state that it was in last season.
Usually undermanned against the their opponents last season we went 0-11, a season that we would all like to forget and there is good chance that will happen in coming seasons.
Coach Fobbs and his staff are bringing transfers and recruits to go along with the other players that we already have which allows him to have more man power at his use and more means a more competitive team and that will lead to more wins.
As a person who has followed the A&T football program their entire life I have to say that the last a couple seasons have been very hard. Going 3- 8 two straight years and then going 0-11 has been really hard for the Aggie community to handle because many of us remember when A&T was one of the respected and feared teams in black college football.
But now things are about to change the rebuilding process has began and I hope the MEAC and the rest of the HBCUs enjoyed A&T being down for these last couple of years because now A&T is getting there "swagger" back although you could argue that it hasn't gone anywhere to being with.
It is now time to remind all the HBCUs in the nation why they have always been jealous of us Aggies because "we are A&T and they aren't and every school that isn't A&T is just school wishing that it was".
Because the day will come when once again our players will make us proud and we will be able to stand in the opponents faces and there will be nothing they can do about when we scream the those two words that known are worldwide...
AGGIE PRIDE!
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