It's not every day that you receive the opportunity to lead your alma mater, but Tory Woodbury finds himself in the perfect position to lead Winston-Salem State back to success. The Rams are among the bluebloods of HBCU football, having formerly employed HBCU legends such as Bill Hayes and Pete Richardson. They even saw success under Connell Maynor, who led the team to the NCAA Division II National Title game in 2012. But the team has struggled in recent years.
Under former head coach Robert Massey, the Rams secured only one winning season in his seven years at the helm of the CIAA program. The lack of measurable success led Massey to resign from the team, leaving Woodbury to lead Winston-Salem State once again. He did it once as a player, leading the program to back-to-back CIAA championships as he threw for over 4,500 yards and rushed for 1,000 yards in his college career. Now he assumes the position as head coach, one in which he predicted he would land before he was offered the job as he spoke about in his introductory press conference.
“I told somebody earlier, I knew I would come back here and coach. It was just a matter of time when.”
And Woodbury worked for this moment. He's worked several coaching positions in HBCU life, most recently as special teams coordinator with Norfolk State, and even worked with the Super Bowl Champion Rams from 2017 to 2021. He's accumulated the knowledge to build a competent program, and detailed his vision in the press conference.
“It's inside out,” he said, answering a reporter's question about how to build a stable program in modern-day college football. “You start on the inside first and foremost, just watching all the film from last year. And you have to start with the players that want to be here. I'm not in a business of handing out trophies, people…they gonna jump in the portal. That's the name of the business. I'm used to it being in the NFL. I want players that want be around [and] understand what that RAM pride means and what it means to the community and what it means to me. And we gonna start there. So we have that nucleus that want to be here, the rest to take care of itself.”
He also laid out the need to raise funds to build on the resources available to the football team.
“It's very important, although, I'm very, joyful,” Woodbury said, responding to a question posed by Steven J. Gaither, the founder of HBCU Gameday. “All the likes, retweets, and thousand likes. I'm getting we do need to raise money, so I need to pour that same energy into donating whatever you have, a dollar, $5, $10, it's gonna add up. And that's part of why I'm here as the head coach, even at the New York Jet Alumni weekend this weekend and having Vinny Testaverde and the Curtis Martin's to donate back to the school Working on that and getting out of this community. 'cause we can't do it by ourself. We understand where we are. And, that's the biggest thing to get out here, raise money, use my relationships and my platform to continue to build, this program inside and out where I'm home at.”
Now, Woodbury looks to use his connections and football know-how to revive a team that finished 4-6 overall and a dismal 2-5 in conference this season.
