By John Dell, Winston Salem Journal
Winston-Salem State will make its first road trip of the season today, ending up about 15 miles from the South Carolina coast, but won’t have a day at the beach.
WSSU - 1-0 after whipping rival N.C. A&T 28-7 - will play Coastal Carolina at 7 p.m. in Conway, S.C., in the first of six straight road games.
Coach Kermit Blount is trying to get the Rams to 2-0 for the first time since 2000, and he said he didn’t change much in practice this week.
“One of the things that we told the team after the game was that we have to play two times better going to Coastal Carolina than we did last week at Bowman Gray,” Blount said. “I think that our kids have bought into our commitment to be the best that we can possibly be when we play, and we’re looking forward to the challenge this weekend.”
Coach David Bennett of Coastal Carolina has some experience against WSSU. The teams met last season (Coastal won 31-12), and Bennett coached against WSSU twice when he was at Catawba. He also has seen film of WSSU’s game last week.
“That backfield with (Jed) Bines and (Monte) Purvis is very tough,” said Bennett, who is 3-0 all-time against Blount. “They have played together since they were at Parkland ... so we know that’s something we have to be ready for.”
Coastal Carolina’s big weapon on offense is wide receiver Jerome Simpson. At 6-3, he can go get the ball (123 career catches, 34 touchdowns), and devising a way to stop him will be a big challenge for defensive coordinator Mike Ketchum.
“I think the thing that we’ve got to do better this year is make plays in the secondary,” Blount said. “We hadn’t had the opportunity to make them thus far. We just didn’t make those plays last year, and we’re going to have to put pressure on the quarterback.”
One reason WSSU was so efficient against A&T was the steady play of the offensive line, which didn’t allow a sack. WSSU also had no turnovers.
Offensive lineman Bennie Barbour said: “I think we just came together as far as the offense. We had been working all week about not giving up any sacks, and we did that. We want to try and keep that promise to Monte this week also.”
Barbour said that WSSU will have to play better than it did last week to beat Coastal, which went 9-3 last season and made the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly I-AA) playoffs.
“I think what it’s going to take is we are going to have to play twice as hard this week as we played last week,” Barbour said. “Our coach has been talking about it all week. Coastal is a pretty good team, but I think we can beat them.”
Blount said that having two top running backs in Bines and Brandon McRae (85 yards rushing last week) has created healthy competition in practice.
“The key scenario is having all five guys up front play well and they played better last week,” Blount said. “But they can also get better, and we’ll need that to have an effective running game.”
The changes in the Rams’ offense from last season include more wide-receiver sets and a slot back (usually Rod Fluellen). Purvis completed nine passes to seven different receivers against A&T.
The ability to spread out the offense a little more should make the Rams’ running game more effective.
“This is a pretty hard-working group,” Blount said. “They understand they want to get better. We are going to have to play solid and not turn the football over.”
After beating the Aggies, the Rams face the possibility of a letdown, but Bines says that won’t happen.
“We talked about not having a letdown,” Bines said. “It’s another big game for us. We want to treat it like it is the A&T game. It’s not going to be as emotional as the A&T game was, but we want to go out there and get a win.”
Winston-Salem State will make its first road trip of the season today, ending up about 15 miles from the South Carolina coast, but won’t have a day at the beach.
WSSU - 1-0 after whipping rival N.C. A&T 28-7 - will play Coastal Carolina at 7 p.m. in Conway, S.C., in the first of six straight road games.
Coach Kermit Blount is trying to get the Rams to 2-0 for the first time since 2000, and he said he didn’t change much in practice this week.
“One of the things that we told the team after the game was that we have to play two times better going to Coastal Carolina than we did last week at Bowman Gray,” Blount said. “I think that our kids have bought into our commitment to be the best that we can possibly be when we play, and we’re looking forward to the challenge this weekend.”
Coach David Bennett of Coastal Carolina has some experience against WSSU. The teams met last season (Coastal won 31-12), and Bennett coached against WSSU twice when he was at Catawba. He also has seen film of WSSU’s game last week.
“That backfield with (Jed) Bines and (Monte) Purvis is very tough,” said Bennett, who is 3-0 all-time against Blount. “They have played together since they were at Parkland ... so we know that’s something we have to be ready for.”
Coastal Carolina’s big weapon on offense is wide receiver Jerome Simpson. At 6-3, he can go get the ball (123 career catches, 34 touchdowns), and devising a way to stop him will be a big challenge for defensive coordinator Mike Ketchum.
“I think the thing that we’ve got to do better this year is make plays in the secondary,” Blount said. “We hadn’t had the opportunity to make them thus far. We just didn’t make those plays last year, and we’re going to have to put pressure on the quarterback.”
One reason WSSU was so efficient against A&T was the steady play of the offensive line, which didn’t allow a sack. WSSU also had no turnovers.
Offensive lineman Bennie Barbour said: “I think we just came together as far as the offense. We had been working all week about not giving up any sacks, and we did that. We want to try and keep that promise to Monte this week also.”
Barbour said that WSSU will have to play better than it did last week to beat Coastal, which went 9-3 last season and made the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly I-AA) playoffs.
“I think what it’s going to take is we are going to have to play twice as hard this week as we played last week,” Barbour said. “Our coach has been talking about it all week. Coastal is a pretty good team, but I think we can beat them.”
Blount said that having two top running backs in Bines and Brandon McRae (85 yards rushing last week) has created healthy competition in practice.
“The key scenario is having all five guys up front play well and they played better last week,” Blount said. “But they can also get better, and we’ll need that to have an effective running game.”
The changes in the Rams’ offense from last season include more wide-receiver sets and a slot back (usually Rod Fluellen). Purvis completed nine passes to seven different receivers against A&T.
The ability to spread out the offense a little more should make the Rams’ running game more effective.
“This is a pretty hard-working group,” Blount said. “They understand they want to get better. We are going to have to play solid and not turn the football over.”
After beating the Aggies, the Rams face the possibility of a letdown, but Bines says that won’t happen.
“We talked about not having a letdown,” Bines said. “It’s another big game for us. We want to treat it like it is the A&T game. It’s not going to be as emotional as the A&T game was, but we want to go out there and get a win.”
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