GREENSBORO — By now, the package has probably already arrived at the MEAC office.
It's nothing fancy: Just a couple of film clips from an N.C. A&T team still smarting after a 7-6 loss to Morgan State in a game it probably should've won.
A&T missed three field goals and an extra-point kick. But that's not what's on the film clips.
"We had two (referee's) calls this past week that will be going to the conference office," A&T coach Alonzo Lee said Monday. "We're going to send those two in because you don't take the game out of the players' hands with little things like that. &ellipses; I haven't submitted anything before because I'm not that type of coach. But this game was really something."
The two calls in question both could've changed the game, Lee said. One was a holding penalty against the Aggies near the goal line that set A&T back 10 crucial yards. The other — the one that irked Lee the most — was a timeout granted to Morgan State that nullified an Aggies' fumble recovery.
"The one when they hiked the ball over the quarterback's head, well, that was definitely our ball, but they said the coach had called a timeout," Lee said. "You actually see it on film where the coach was calling timeout &ellipses; but you see the ball snapped first, and then the ref walk on the field to call timeout. Well, you can't stop it then. That should've been our football."
A&T recovered the loose ball 10 yards from Morgan State's end zone, but lost the ball — and a golden scoring chance — when the timeout was granted.
"As for the holding call down on the goal line, well that just didn't happen," Lee said. "That definitely wasn't there. We see nothing at all on the film."
And now the next set of eyes on the film will be at the MEAC office.
KICKING CHANGE: Freshman Patrick Courtney kicked himself out of a job with a poor day at Morgan State.
Courtney missed field-goal attempts from 38 and 32 yards away in Baltimore, and his only extra-point attempt was blocked.
"Either one of those would've won the game for us," Lee said. "&ellipses; I think we rushed him back off his injury. He's still having a little problem with his hip because he's trying to use his hip a little more to take pressure off of that injured area."
Courtney is 4-for-12 on field-goal attempts this season and just 1-for-8 on kicks of 30-39 yards. He'll still handle kick-offs, but Wallace Miles — the Aggies' leading wide receiver — will take over as the field-goal kicker.
"We're just going to have to put the young guy on the bench for right now," Lee said, "and try to do some things to relieve Wallace in between (offensive series) so he can go kick those field goals and extra points."
Miles missed a 51-yard attempt late in the Morgan State game, his first kick of the season. Courtney hadn't attempted a field goal longer than 39 yards.
"We had every opportunity to win that game," N.C. A&T coach Alonzo Lee said of We gave them an early Christmas present."
PLAYMAKERS: Lee said the Aggies missed opportunities for big plays against Morgan State, in part because quarterback Carlton Fears has developed such a good rapport with wide receiver Wallace Miles. The two are roommates, and Miles has a team-leading 20 catches and three touchdowns.
Lee said that's all well and good, but freshman speedster Larry Raper — who has 11 catches — needs to get the ball more.
"We had opportunities where we caught them in zero coverage where we could've got the ball to Raper down the field, and Carlton just threw it to the wrong guy," Lee said. "He had Raper wide open a couple of times versus that blitz coverage, and we wanted to throw that post (pattern) deep down the field. Of course, Wallace has been making some plays and so he threw it to his roommate. Well, his roommate wasn't as open as that deep post was."
Bottom line: Lee wants Raper to get the ball.
"We're trying to get the ball in our playmakers' hands," Lee said. "You may see Raper a little bit at tailback because we want to get the ball in his hands and get him outside where he can run. We may do a few more things with him to take advantage of his speed. If we can't put it in his hands enough throwing it to him, we might hand-off to him a few times."
Contact Jeff Mills at 373-7024 or jeff.mills@news-record.com
Who: N.C. A&T at Howard
When: 1 p.m. Oct. 24
Where: Greene Memorial Stadium, Washington, D.C.
Records: N.C. A&T 3-3, 1-2 MEAC; Howard 2-3, 0-2
Radio: WNAA-90.1
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