Although Alabama A&M lost its season opener to Arkansas, Sam Shade put the experience into perspective. The new Bulldog head coach didn't see the game as a “money game” but rather as an “opportunity game.”
“Well, the first thing is going into the ball game, I told I told our team, I said, ‘Look, people call this a money game, but I called it an opportunity game.'” he said on the SWAC Coaches Call. “So, you know, I got I've got guys on this team that have, you know, talked to me about, you know, possibilities of playing after after college, playing professional ball. And, you know, for those guys, I said, ‘Hey, this is an opportunity for you guys.' And then, you know, some of our guys felt like they they should have been recruited maybe by some bigger schools. And so, we looked at it as an opportunity.”
Shade acknowledged that the final score of 52-7 wasn't indicative of the entire game's flow, as Alabama A&M had several successful offensive and defensive moments. This included their only touchdown drive, a seven-play, 75-yard series that ended with Maurice Edwards IV scoring on a six-yard rush.
Alabama A&M quarterback Cornelious Brown IV also had a strong start to the game. He ultimately finished with 130 passing yards on 9-of-19 passing.
“Well, we did some good things, particularly early on. They scored first, they [kicked] off to us, and we go 75 yards down the field. We have really good execution, no penalties, and things like that. But then after that, you know, that's where we start having, uh, procedure penalties and we get a block in the back in the back by one of our receivers on a on a big play when the score was 10-7 where we actually felt like, you know, if we don't get that penalty, we got a chance to if we don't get seven and make it 14-10, we we get a field goal to tie the game up at 10. So, the things we took out of that ball game is we we've got to execute better and and we can't have uh penalties and and things that are going to, you know, we can't self-inflict wounds on ourselves as a football team and we feel like we're going to work on that this week and and get better in those areas
He now looks ahead to his first HBCU game as head coach against Alcorn State. Although both are SWAC competitors, the game will be considered a non-conference matchup and won't count against their conference record.
Alabama A&M and Alcorn State are set to face off at 7 p.m. on Saturday. The game will air on SWAC TV, the conference's free streaming platform.
