GREENSBORO – After the North Carolina A&T football team dropped to 0-2 in Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) Football Conference play on Saturday with a 37-14 loss to Villanova at Truist Stadium, head coach Vincent Brown expressed the immediate need for the Aggies passing game to improve.
The Aggies posted 64 yards passing against the Wildcats, including seven in the first half. The Aggies have yet to throw for 100 yards this season. The inability to move the chains has tilted the time of possession advantage heavily in the favor of A&T's opponents. The Aggies (1-4) only had eight first downs against the Wildcats, and they kept the ball only 6 ½ minutes in the first half.
"Seven yards passing in the first half puts tremendous stress on your offense and your entire defense," said Brown. "Being unable to run the football is very challenging. Overall, it is not even remotely good enough for us to be competitive in the conference. We have to find a way offensively to produce points. We have to find a way offensively to pass the football. It has been the same story all season long. We're going to get it fixed."
Despite A&T's offense only touching the field briefly in the first half, the Aggies had a first-half lead thanks to all-conference kickoff returner Taymon Cooke. Cooke returned his second kickoff for a touchdown this season with a 94-yard return in the first quarter to give A&T a 7-3 lead. It marked Cooke's third kickoff return for a touchdown in his career. Cooke leads the nation in kickoff returns for touchdowns and yards per kickoff return (38.9).
Villanova recaptured the lead two minutes later when Wildcat quarterback Connor Watkins found receiver Jaylen Sanchez standing by himself at the A&T 30-yard line on a long pass. Sanchez did the rest, scoring on a 58-yard touchdown reception to give the Wildcats a 10-7 lead. After a Matthew Mercurio 39-yard field goal extended the Wildcats lead to six, the Aggies used a solid punt return and the legs of true freshman quarterback Kevin White to recapture the lead.
Sophomore punt returner Elijah Kennedy returned a Nathan Fondacaro punt 11 yards to the Wildcat 33 to give the Aggies a 1st-and-10. Two plays later, White scrambled to his right and avoided two Villanova defenders before retracing his considerably fast steps back to the left before sprinting to the end zone in an amazing showcase of his speed to score on a 25-yard touchdown, the third of his short career at A&T. White's sprint gave the Aggies a 14-13 lead with 10:27 remaining in the first half.
"Based on his performance last week, we felt like he would give us the best chance this week," Brown said about White. "He demonstrates some things from a skill set standpoint that can be really hard to defend because he is such a great runner. We have to be creative in structuring things to take advantage of what he does best."
Despite White's efforts, the Wildcats would use the final 10 minutes of the first half to build a solid lead. Villanova responded to the Aggies scoring drive by putting together a 9-play, 85-yard drive that chewed away 5 ½ minutes off the clock as DeeWil Barlee scored on a 21-yard touchdown run. A&T's ensuing drive stalled, and the Wildcats took over the ball again with 2:45 remaining in the half.
It took the Wildcats a little more than a minute to go 62 yards in seven plays to score again as Watkins found Rayjuon Pringle in the corner of the end zone for a 9-yard touchdown pass, giving the Wildcats a 27-14 advantage. The Wildcats then used an onside kick to get the ball back and score on a Mercurio 19-yard field goal to head into the locker room with a 30-14 lead.
"It was very encouraging to be able to return one for a touchdown, but it was also very discouraging to give them another possession on kickoff return when we were hopefully getting ready to try to put something together offensively. Complementary football is the only way to win consistently."
The Aggies could not muster much of a response in the second half. They did not convert a third down in the second half, going 0-for-6. Sophomore running back Kenji Christian led the Aggies offensively, rushing for 64 yards on 11 carries. White completed 8 of 17 passes for 64 yards, with 52 of those yards going to tight end Nicholas Dobson, who had four receptions.
Freshman linebacker Kade Moledor led the Aggies with his first-career double-figure tackle game as he posted 11, including seven unassisted. Avarion Cole had nine tackles, including one for loss, and he broke up a pass. Graduate BJ Turner finished with eight tackles, including two for loss.
"I can't get into specifics here, but there are things that we know we can do to help our offense, and we're going to do those things," said Brown. "We have to play complementary football. The offense has to do its part to move the ball and to produce points. Defensively, we must stop them and give the offense the ball back, and then the kicking game has to be a major factor."
