Florida A&M’s Green football starters defended well to rout third and fourth-string Orange players in Saturday’s Spring football game.
FAMU Green team scored 40 points in the first half, which came from the defense and an efficient running game.
Running back of the green team, James Owens, racked up 84 yards on 11 carries.
“I am blessed from god, just to get some reps,” Owens said. “It took a lot of energy, but I played through it. I felt I could have done better, but I think I did good. We were following the directions of our coaches and we were doing what we were told to do.”
Austin Trainor was under center for the green team. He was 12 for 21 with 129 yards in the game. Trainor said his confidence in his receivers allowed him to guide the offense effectively.
“I am an aggressive quarterback, but I have a lot of faith of my receivers. I am going to go out there and take shots, so when I get back there and drop back I trust my guys to make the play,” Trainor said. “We have a lot of things we need to work on. Even though we didn’t score in the second half, we had opportunities to.”
The orange team had the ball for 31:10 and only garnered three first downs.
After being shut down by the green team in the first half, the orange team found its rhythm on defense as it shut down the green team in the second half of the game.
“We played alright tonight,” Justin Davis, a linebacker on the orange team, said. “The defense only let up and gave up two scores tonight. As the saying goes, offense wins games but defense wins championships. We have a lot of veteran guys coming back so we will be fine.”
Even with the 40-0 victory for the green team, Trainor acknowledged the efforts of the orange team and the progress the team still needs to make.
“I’ll tip my hat off to the orange team because they came out in the second half and played great,” Trainor said. “But there are things we need to work on and we had a couple of miscues we need to iron out.”
The game went exactly the way head coach Joe Taylor thought it would.
“If the game went the other around, I would be concerned,” Taylor said. “In the second half the orange team started to play with a lot more intensity and heart, but I am always pleased to see the defense playing well because when you’re winning, that means you’re playing great defense.”