NCA&T Aggies look for win on road against Morgan State

By Daniel Henderson, A&T Register

Head Coach Lee Fobbs stated that his team is ready for the challenge in Baltimore Saturday when the Aggie football team gets set to play the 2-3 Bears of Morgan State.
A&T lost 50-20 at home this weekend to Norfolk State.

"We go back to work on the practice field and continue to work," said Coach Fobbs. "We've got a ball game next week.
The Aggies (0-5), have not beaten the Bears since 2005, but have won seven out of the last ten meetings.

The last time A&T football has celebrated a victory was against Morgan State in 2005 at Fed Ex Field in Landover, Maryland.
Morgan State shut-out the blue and gold 32-0 in their previous 2006 rival at Aggie Stadium last season.

The Bears lead the all time series 37-35-3.

Offense

The Aggies hope to continue their effective ground attack this weekend behind junior running back Michael Ferguson.

Ferguson is currently ranked second in the MEAC in rushing yards with 587 on the season behind Morgan State's running back Chad Simpson.

A&T is averaging 14 points per game and 271.6 yards of total offense.

The running game has been the bulk of the offensive success as the Aggies obtain 51 more yards on the rushing than in the air a game.

Freshmen quarterback, Shelton Morgan, missed last Thursday's game due to a concussion, but is expected to start against the Bears.

The dual quarterback attack, which includes junior quarterback Herb Miller, is once again expected and has been quite valuable for the team. When executed, A&T has decreased their margin of victory by two touchdowns or less.

"I do not feel our success is weighted on how we use our quarterbacks", said Coach Fobbs.

"We've always been a two-quarterback system and we'll do whatever we have to do in order to win the game."

Defense

The blue and gold defense will try to relocate the supremacy displayed against the North Carolina Central Eagles earlier in the season this Saturday.

Allowing 351 passing yards last Thursday is certainly not a way of finding it for A&T after displaying it's poorest performance of the year from a consistent secondary last week.

Opponents are averaging 37.8 points per game against A&T this season, and over 100 more total offensive yards in comparison to their defense yards on the year.

Perhaps the highlight of the defense this season is leading tackler sophomore linebacker Andre Thornton, who has continually played well with his 33 tackles in five contests, with five being for losses.

After leading the team in tackles a year ago, Thornton is on the verge of becoming one of a few Aggies to lead his team in tackle in each of his four seasons.

The defense has surrendered 186 rushing yards per game, and will need to find a way to manage Morgan State's running game that averages 237.8 yards per contest.

Morgan State

The run heavy Morgan State offense is equally significant in their run stopping defense.

Morgan State has allowed a low 79 rushing ypg. game, while giving up 17.4 ppg.
The Bears are lead by running backs Chad Simpson and Devan James, who are coming off a combined 181 ground game attack in their 33-9 spoiler at Bethune-Cookman's College 2007 homecoming.

Quarterback Byron Selby will dictate the play calling on the field, and is pretty sufficient at distributing the ball to a variety of receivers.

The accomplishments of the Bears is still not enough to lower the level of Fobbs confidence on the Aggies.

"We will just rely on our offensive and defensive coordinators to come up with great schemes against Morgan State," said Coach Fobbs.

Game time is 4 p.m. and can be viewed live at www.morganstatebears.com