FAMU football coach Alex Wood: summer focus is on academics

 WALTER STEWART
Defensive Ends Coach
Florida A&M University Rattlers
Alma Mater: Cincinnati '12
 

Former Cincinnati DL Walter Stewart has join Alex Wood staff as defensive ends coach. Stewart served 2-years as a defensive graduate assistant under Coach Butch Jones at the University of Tennessee.

TALLAHASSEE, Florida -- It's been a busy summer for first-year Florida A&M head football coach Alex Wood, and he said academics has been the main focus for the team since the end of spring football.

"We just need our guys to do well in the classroom this summer," he said. "There's still a lot of development that needs to happen, but right now we're focused on finishing strong academically in summer school."

Wood – who will return to Tallahassee July 13 — said the academic focus is what the team needs to battle NCAA sanctions due to low APR scores. FAMU football is ineligible for the postseason for the second year in a row, and the team can't hold full spring practices until the sanctions are lifted.

Fall football practice starts Aug. 3 for the Rattlers.

"I knew APR scores were looming and I knew that would be a problem coming in," Wood said.

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