Willie Simmons: “We control our own destiny”

Florida A&M head coach Willie Simmons made it known in his weekly press conference Tuesday that FAMU is in control of its own destiny.

The Rattlers will host the Morgan State Bears this week after coming off of a much-needed bye and look to remain undefeated in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (4-0).

“We’re one of the few teams left in the country that controls our own destiny,” said Simmons. “We don’t have to look for anyone to win games on our behalf to help us in the conference standings.

“We’re the only football team undefeated in the MEAC right now. We’re the only football team undefeated in the conference in black college football right now. That’s motivating enough for us to understand that each game is important. We’re in a playoff mentality.”

Although Morgan State does not necessarily have a good record to reflect the talent they may have, sitting at 2-5 overall and 2-2 in the conference; one thing that both teams do share is a win against North Carolina A&T, which shows that the Bears are not a team to be overlooked.

“If we go in and don’t play fundamentality sound, if we don’t start fast, if we don’t tackle on defense. If we have the same special team problems that we had a couple weeks ago, then we might find ourselves in a dog fight,” said Simmons.

“A team like this who doesn’t have a great record is still a very dangerous football team and so for us it’s about definitely starting fast and trying to set the tempo from the jump.”

Bishop Bonnett who has 343 yards, 43 carries and three touchdowns, will look to get more carries as coach Simmons says “running the ball a lot” is something they will look forward to.

“Bishop has a chip on his shoulder, believe it or not he walked on here. He plays with a huge heart and he’s that lightning in a bottle that you like to have at running back, he’s very explosive, gives us a very dynamic weapon out of the backfield.”

FAMU’s 22-21 win against the Aggies two weeks ago added on to its four-game win streak, also equaling the most wins since 2011 while also putting them in reach of their first winning season in seven years (7-4).

Morgan State, Howard, South Carolina State and Bethune-Cookman are in the way of the Rattlers having a winning season and winning the MEAC championship.

The game will be broadcast on ESPN3, Saturday at 4 pm.