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GREENSBORO — It's homecoming week at N.C. A&T, and the list of events for students and alumni is impressive.

Just don't look for any football players at those distrac ... er ... events.

"We're going to run," A&T coach Alonzo Lee said. "We're going to get 'em away from here. We're going to a hotel Friday night, and we're not even going to tell (the players) where we're going. We're just going to put 'em on a bus."

The normal Friday routine before a home game calls for A&T's players to sleep in their own beds. But this is no ordinary home game.

"There's no doubt there's all kinds of distractions: parents, friends, friends of friends. Everybody's coming to town," Lee said. "... They mean well. Everybody wants to see you and talk to you. But sometimes that can go on until 11 or 12 o'clock at night. So we're going to get on the bus, turn off all those cell phones and concentrate on what we need to do."

Players' ticket requests were due no later than Wednesday, Lee said, and the team will practice today and leave campus Friday afternoon.

Lee said he's not trying to deny his players from having fun on homecoming. On the contrary, he's trying to guarantee they enjoy homecoming.

"After the game, we want to be able to sit back and have that warm feeling inside. So we have to keep our focus," Lee said. "The bottom line is you are the top festivity that's happening. There's all these other things happening, but everything boils down to the football game. Everything is great when you win the football game. We're on stage, so we can't be a part of the crowd in the other stuff that's going on. The biggest stage is Saturday at game time. It's us. We can't get caught up in the other hype."

AHEAD OF SCHEDULE? There's more at stake for A&T than pride this homecoming weekend. A victory over Bethune-Cookman would push the Aggies' record to 6-3 and guarantee a winning season for the first time since 2003.

"We talk all the time about this great explosion that's going on," Lee said, "and (winning) will back up the things we're saying and show that it's not just talk. It'll show we're out there working our butts off trying to do the things we need to do to be successful. ... I really feel we will be ahead of schedule."

This group of A&T seniors has never won a homecoming game, but Lee said they've helped lay the foundation for a winning season.

"We want to make sure we send our seniors out with a bang," Lee said. "They'll be able to tell their sons and their grandsons for years to come, they were a team that didn't win but three games in three years, then came out in their senior year and really set the tone for the next 20 years."

FIRST OPTION: Bethune-Cookman has won two of its last three games, and the Wildcats have done it with a triple-option spread offense.

"It's night-and-day different from everything else we've seen," Lee said. "They are a true option team like Georgia Tech. It's an offense we haven't seen all year."

A&T spent one day of spring practice and one day of training camp devoted to defending the run-first offense.

"We'll see a whole lot of chop blocks," Lee said. "Those linemen won't try to block our guys high, they want to get you on the ground. But the biggest thing is carrying out your assignment. If you've got dive, you take dive. If you've got quarterback, you take quarterback. You can't come back to the sideline and say, 'Well, coach, I thought &ellipses;' Those 'I-thoughts' are when the ball goes in the end zone."

Lee said the best way to deal with the Wildcats' offense is for his own offense to score early.

"If we can get ahead of these guys, we can get them out of their comfort zone," Lee said. "Force them to throw the ball and do different things out of their element."

Contact Jeff Mills at 373-7024 or jeff.mills@news-record.com