The Florida A&M University football team will take on the Savannah State University Tigers at Bragg Stadium Saturday.
The Rattlers are coming off back-to-back, disappointing losses to Southern University and Howard University. The Rattlers are 2-4 on the season and 1-1 in in the MEAC conference.
The team started off fast on offense against Howard and Southern, scoring a touchdown in the first quarter of both games. However, the Rattlers leveled out from theren and struggled to score for the rest of both games.
On the other side of the ball, FAMU’s defense has played better in the past two games, allowing 238 yards per game as opposed to the 475.8 yards the defense allowed through the first four games.
Offensively, the Rattlers has averaged 262.5 ypg in their last two losses compared to the 378.5 yards they gained in the first four games.
The defense will need to stay stingy and the offense will need to improve this weekend if the Rattlers are to get the win against Savannah State.
Senior punter Brandon Holdren, a fourth-year criminal justice student from Jacksonville, is psyched for Saturday’s game. Holdren said that FAMU has the best talent in the MEAC (Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference), but that they just have to put it all together.
“I just wanna get back to kicking the ball and having fun like I used to,” Holdren said. “It’s been a tough year for me so far, but I always do better in the later part of the season.”
Senior linebacker Brandon Hepburn, a fourth-year biochemistry student from Pomona, N.Y., believes the defense has to stay discipline this weekend. Hepburn is in his first year of graduate school in the professional masters of business administration program.
“The game is won through the week,” Hepburn said. “We want to take advantage of the opportunities we will be given this Saturday.”
Head football coach Joe Taylor said the team needed to put more drives together. The offense had too many three-and-outs, he said.
“I don’t think one loss in conference takes us out of contention,” said Taylor. “When we do what we’re supposed to do, then we will get things taken care of.”
The Rattlers are looking for their third conference win. Kickoff is Saturday at 6 p.m. Rattlers are encouraged to attend.