NCA&T Broadway Talks Tarik, Quarterbacks And Sharing

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GREENSBORO, North Carolina -- There is a little more than a month left before the North Carolina A&T football team opens the 2015 season against Shaw University at Aggie Stadium. Ahead of the 2015 MEAC season, head coach Rod Broadway sat down with ncataggies.com to discuss a wide range of topics. From Tarik Cohen’s summer-time celebrity, to the sharing of the 2014 title, to his philosophy on stopping the run, it is apparent coach Broadway is ready for the 2015 season to get underway. Broadway needs four wins to reach 100 for his career.

Ncataggies: Does the loss to N.C. Central in the last game of the season a few months ago still bother you?

Broadway: “Just when I think of. There was a lot at stake in that game. But let’s start off with giving those guys credit. They played well. I thought we had a chance to win that game, but we just weren’t good enough that day. So of course it’s painful when you look back. You’ve got a chance of winning a conference championship outright. If you win you’re probably black college national champions, and you’re going to the playoffs. There was a lot lost in that game, but that was last year, and we’re looking forward to this year to see if we can get better.”

Ncataggies: How do you, your staff and the players feel about sharing a championship that you were in position to win outright? Are they disappointed or are they proud to have at least a portion of the title?

Broadway: “It’s a little of both, really. When you’re where we were five years ago, winning one ballgame out of 11, to where we are now with nine wins, that’s a big accomplishment. Sharing a title isn’t what we wanted, but it’s better than 1-10. We definitely wanted to win it outright, but we take a lot of pride in winning nine ballgames after three years of probation (The NCAA sanctions occurred before Broadway was head coach). You have to give credit to our coaching staff, our players and everyone associated with the program. They took great pride in getting this program back on its feet. Were we disappointed in sharing the title? Yes. But we’re also pleased with where we are. When we stated four years ago, no one thought we were in the position to compete for a championship after coming off 27 straight losses. Just getting to the point where we are expected to do well is a great accomplishment by our guys and our coaches.”


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Ncataggies: What will it take for you to win the MEAC outright?
Broadway: “With us, it starts with staying healthy. If we stay healthy we should have a pretty good football team. There are some things we want to try to do and need to do to get better. With the type of speed we have, we need to create more mismatches and get the ball in the hands of guys who can make plays. We also need to work on our down and distance situations a little better, so we can execute a lot better. We also have to be better mentally and physically. There are a lot of steps we need to take to improve.”

Ncataggies: Describe what it is like going into a season where not much is expected of you versus going into a season where expectations are high.

Broadway: “You go from hoping you have a chance to knowing you have a chance. That’s the difference. We know if we play well we’ve got a chance in every game. Before we had to play well and the other team had to make some mistakes for us to win. Athletically, we’ve gotten to a place now where we can compete with everyone we play as far as talent is concerned with the exception of Carolina (They play on the Division I FBS level with more scholarships and resources). We’re at the point now where we should be pretty good. We’re in year five of the program, so if everything goes as planned we should have a decent football team. But this business is funny. One injury can change everything.”

Ncataggies: How do you get the team focused on this year instead of reveling or fretting over what happened in 2014?

Broadway: “A lot goes into that. Attitude. Work Ethic. Not getting complacent. Willing to be hungry. Willing to work toward what you want and not expecting people to give you something. Just because you were decent last year doesn’t mean you’re going to be decent this year. It’s a totally different ballgame and a totally different team, so we have to prepare our guys to play well.”

Ncataggies: When was the first time you saw the Tarik Cohen perform the backflip while catching a football?

Broadway: “The first time I saw it was when (assistant coach Shawn) Gibbs showed it to me on the computer. Then a couple of days later he came back and showed me the one with him catching two footballs while coming out of a backflip. I think what makes him special is his will and his work ethic. He works as hard as anyone we’ve got. He’s probably one of our most talented players. But he’s got the heart of a champion. When you combine those things with talent and athleticism, you’re going to get a pretty good player.”

Ncataggies: Did you think when you were recruiting Tarik he would have such a positive impact on the program and the university at large? I mean those social media videos and TV appearances garnered the school a lot of publicity.

Broadway: “If you watched him in high school, the only question we ever had about him was his size. We have to give (assistant coach Trei) Oliver credit for finding him. He stayed on me and kept telling me: ‘Coach, we need this guy. We need this guy.’ Coach Oliver went down and saw him play and tried to convince me to take him. At first I was a little hesitant about his size, so I went down there to visit him so I could see him in person and see what his body looked like.  Once I visited with him, my mind was set. He was a guy we wanted in our program. Of course since he’s been here, he’s been nothing but outstanding. What he has done for this football team is amazing, but not only that, what he has done for the university is tremendous. He’s gotten us publicity and coverage that we can’t afford to buy at our place. But you know what? It’s also been good for him. Not only did we benefit from it, but he benefited too, which is the way it should be.”

Ncataggies: You lost two All-Americans on the offensive line in (center) Ronald Canty and (guard) William Ray Robinson III. How hard is it going to be to replace those guys?

Broadway: “We’re going to miss those guys. That’s been one of our challenges since we’ve been here, trying to get enough offensive linemen. We’ve failed miserably at that. The guys we’ve signed have been decent, but we haven’t grown at offensive line in terms of numbers like I expected. Our goal was to have 15 offensive linemen in camp each year. We’ve never reached that goal. We have to continue to recruit guys and get them in our program, and not just in our program, but we need to develop them and keep them once they get here so that when you lose an R.J. Canty or a Wil Robinson, it’s not going to have that much of an effect on you because you’ve been training guys to replace them.”

Ncataggies: How important is it that you hired a coach to exclusively work with quarterbacks?
Broadway: “Chris (Barnette) is really working on the fundamentals and technique. And that’s thing. We need to go back to the basic fundamentals. We’re going to work on them every day, 30 minutes a day. We need those fundamentals to show up on game day. Over the last few years we’ve just reverted back to too many bad habits. Good habits are what we need to see on game day. I’m anxious to see how those guys look once the season starts.”

Ncataggies: Defensively, you return eight of the 11 guys that led the nation in turnovers gained.
Broadway: We should be better defensively. We have a lot of guys on the team who got to play last year on the defensive side. We’ve got some depth up front now on the defensive line, we’ve got bodies at linebacker, we just need someone to take the lead and take charge of the position. And we’ve got a good leader in (senior cornerback) Tony McRae. He comes to get the job done every day.”

Ncataggies: Your philosophy on defense has always been to stop the run. Why is that?

Broadway: “There’s not enough quarterbacks that can beat you throwing the ball. This is an athletic conference where the quarterback is going to hurt you the most by running the ball. But if you get them in a position where they have to throw, I don’t think too many quarterbacks on any level can beat you. You can get a plan to stop a one-dimensional football team. Now whether you can keep a quarterback in the pocket in this league is a different story. But if we can keep them in the pocket, I don’t think there is one out there that can beat us. There may be. We’re going to see because we’re going to make you beat us with the pass.”

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