The 2008-2009 football season is winding down and the Florida A & M University Rattlers (7-3) will venture into their last home football game this Saturday at 1 p.m. in Bragg Memorial Stadium against the Hampton University Pirates (5-4).
The team plans to employ the same tactics from their 45-7 win last week, against North Carolina A&T, in the game against HU.
This is FAMU head coach, Joe Taylor’s first game coaching against his former team. He was the head coach of HU for 16 years.
Players say last week’s win against the Aggies will hopefully keep team morale up.
Jonathan Sanders, a sophomore wide receiver from Tampa, is still enthusiastic about the win over NC A&T.
“We were able to come out with the win because of the domination that offense brought to the game,” Sanders said. “The mental errors were kept at a minimum, and we all were just focused.”
Javier Wallace, a junior offensive lineman from Austin, Tx., said there was more team effort put forth in the game against the Aggies.
“We all played as a team, we scored points and defense did a good job stopping,” Wallace said. “We plan to put for the same effort against the Pirates.”
Defensive back Curtis Holcomb from Miami, also said he and his teammates plan to carry over the intensity from last week’s victory.
“Last week the team executed all the big and little things needed to make a play. We wanted to win and win big, and that’s exactly what we did,” Holcomb said. “For this week, we simply plan to come out with the same momentum as last week. We have to start off fast and that should give us the upperhand early off in the game; we just have to keep it all going.”
Statistically, the FAMU Rattlers average a scoring total of 31.9 points per game compared to the HU Pirates 28.1 points per game, which may give the home team the advantage.
The Hampton Pirates season has fallen short of expectations as they struggled with a 5-4 record. They enter Saturday’s contest having lost the past 4 games.