A Battle To Behold: NSU vs. FAMU post-game show

Norfolk State University Spartans, the Florida A and M Rattlers 13 News now presents the auto connection. A battle to behold NSU versus F AM U post game show. Look, first thing that we have to do this is talk about what's happening, right? The bands are still going, the ban is over. They don't know it, they don't care. Welcome to being A H BC U. This is New H BC battle. The band are going back and forth. There's people dancing, there's people, the stands are still like 30% full. Not bad for 14 point underdogs to push that. And I'm gonna have to correct you, which I never do because you're always right. I think it was 1417 for Norfolk State. So now that we've talked about the bands, I, I wanna talk about something else. Yes, I'm so happy. College football's, I mean, this is incredible. We were and the fact that we got what we got makes it even sweeter. They're one good chance. This would be a only was it? This was a great again, eight that we saw tonight. And you have to say now Dawson Odom's. So, what do you let's move on to that point. Right. Personally, as someone who works in the Norfolk area, I'm so proud of this team. Yes, I mean, talk about what you felt watching them tonight. Not just tonight. Think about over the last couple of years since Dawson Odoms took over this program. He had to go through COVID. He had to get guys coming and then finally gets his guys over the last two years. People were finding it hard to believe. Oh, we're not really sure they are back now that maturity, the guys were talking about that leading up to this week, they're mature. They're together. There's a oneness with them. If not for literally three straight sacks in the third quarter on Jalen Daniels, this could be a different game and if not for a decision that we are gonna talk about at length in this show that two point decision will be discussed by you and me and I have a feeling we're gonna disagree on it. We might, but then you got to figure out we'll get to that. But think about it too. The botched field goal, a chance to 3.3 points. I was down on the field. You're talking about in the first half in the first half. That was not a black field goal. That was a and it was easier to see from down here. I was on the field, it was up top. We got all the angles covered for you guys. Now, we'll get to all that. Let's go right from the beginning. Let's go to the highlights. Let's talk about this first half. Yes. What a first half. Whoa, I mean, what a first half, what a first drive for Norfolk State. Wow. The running games back, the running game is absolutely back and it wasn't just any running back. No, it was Oscar Smith legend Key Von King, a guy we profiled in the, in the pregame show. We profiled him in the pregame show. We profiled him last week. He told us he was gonna have a big season man. If tonight is any indication, nearly 150 yards rushing, 14 carries, 146 yards, two touchdowns and that first touchdown, 82 yards to the crib to give Norfolk State a seven nothing lead to start this thing. And then you got Jalen Daniels nice rushing touchdown from a yard out, made it look easy and all of a sudden it was 14 and all. We're all look and go. Wow. And let me talk. Let's give up some kudos real quick. I'm starting to think we're clairvoyant cause we talked about his size 6, 5/200 pounds. How that would be effective. They get down to the goal line and he's able to push that ball over using his height, using his size. So it's 14 to 0 Spartans. They're cruising but Florida A and M is, they're the rattlers, but they're a team full of dogs and I'll tell you what else that drive or they, the Florida Rattlers made it 14 to 7. Some astounding athletic plays, their playmakers. We had a hurdle in there. We had a wild catch in the end zone and so all of a sudden it's 14 to 7. Ok. Norfolk State gets the three and out and now they're back on defense and Florida A and M is driving and this is where I think you really truly see the fact that this Norfolk State program has taken a turn. I'm going to tell you why, why Florida A and M is driving. They've got all the momentum are headed for the end zone. They take a shot at the end zone to tie it up. 1414, Devin Allen, an Ocean Lakes grad from Virginia Beach, a past deflection in the end zone to prevent the touchdown. Then they get a tackle for a loss and instead of a touchdown, they give up a field goal. Norfolk State teams we may have seen in the past all of a sudden, it's 1414 and Fu runs away with it instead it's 1410 and they were actually doing well in maturing playing well. Yes, I thought their physicality was great. Yes, I thought all around. They kept their cool in the moments where f you tried to assert their dominance. Yes. And the secondary too, you got to give them credit too. What defensive plays that were played by the secondary is incredible. Absolutely. Devin Allen especially had some flash plays. He had a big pass interference late that we'll get to. But I thought he played a tremendous game. Now we go into halftime and it's 1410, we come out of halftime. Another example of what we're talking about fan u comes out big explosive play for the touchdown, 55 yard touchdown and all of a sudden just like that Norfolk State does all that work in the first half and they're down, what do they do? Do? They fold? No defending national champions don't do that. They come, they come right back and get a field goal. 1717. It's a resilience that we haven't necessarily seen all the time in the past couple of years and, you know, from this point forward, it's only gonna get better, it's only gonna get better. That's the thing that gonna have to really discuss here. I'm so excited for the rest of this Norfolk State season. All right. So let's go back. So we've got 1717 and then fan U scores again, those playmakers they've got on the outside that makes it 24 to 17. And then things slow down for a little bit. You called it a couple of sacks. They start getting Greenland Day in a row. I was just floored and all of a sudden the air seemed to come out and I was like, wait a minute, but then they come back, they still ran another moment where it would have been so easy to fold. It would have been so easy to fall back and say, all right, fam, y you got this game. That's not what they do. F you driving again? Norfolk State forces a fumble, they recover that ball and they head back the other way. King, we already talked about him. Oscar Smith grab, he gets the touchdown. So now Norfolk State is going for the extra point to tie things up that's blocked, but we've got a penalty which means that ball gets placed right on the goal line. There are 6.5 minutes to play in this game. That ball is right on the goal line. You can either kick an extra point for a tie or you can go for two and try to get yourself a win and they decide to go for two. I liked it. I liked it too. I liked it. I mean, it, why not? I mean, if you go down, go down swinging. I can't believe I agree on it. We agree. We agree on this. Yeah, I love it. Yes. One, once you get the penalty, yes, you are ready to score a touchdown. You are right there. You get a couple extra yards and number two, I just love the Moxie show your guys you believe in them, show your guys I think you guys can win this game, not just play for overtime, they go for it, they don't get it. And so now they're down one, they try to get the stop on fan. They use their time fan. You starts running that football and they're able to kind of, you know, salt the clock and at this point they're not that team that, oh, they've lost some, they didn't seem to lose much. They really pushed themselves to a win so. Well, that's good. And, and we'll talk about Daniel Johnson as well. The quarterback for fan, he had some really excellent moments, but so did Jalen. Absolutely. I mean, we had a lot to be proud of and a lot to be excited about. Well, we're gonna be right back. We're gonna be right. We got a lot to be more. We got guests, so we got guests coming. Yeah. Yeah. Listen, you don't have to hear us talk about. No, no, we know that was a lot. We got guests coming. Yes, we'll be right back. The welcome back to our postgame show with us, offensive coordinator for the Spartans. Jason Phillips. How proud are you of this team? I mean, it's just the way they play. Yeah, I think you can't do anything but be proud of them. Uh, just the way they fought through adversity, ups and downs roller coasters. Uh, you know, we're not immune to knowing that most people don't expect us to, to be in this ball game. Uh cut all those distractions out. We had a really good camp so we kind of expected it. No one else may have, but we kind of expected those guys to rise to the occasion. I feel terrible that we're a yard short, you know, but you can't help but be proud of those guys and the effort and the fight and the toughness that they showed for 60 minutes, I guess, you know, the defending national champions. So, you know, it's tough. No one wants to go home, uh ride this bus with a loss. Um But yeah, you can't help but be proud of these guys. You mentioned a yard short, the two point decision down one about 6.5 to play, you get the penalty on the extra point, so you advance the ball. What went into that decision? What were the discussions behind them? I think it was just, we, we run the ball so well all night. Uh we needed a yard and a half. Um You know, our offensive line running back to running game is the strength of our offense. Um So I think we got all the faith in the world that we can get one yard. Um You know, obviously we had some issues, communication wise with the snap, uh didn't go our way, but I think, you know, we would do it again. Just the confidence that we have in those guys up front and the guys carrying the ball. So it's disappointing, but they, they play, they play and there'll be stuff to fix first game errors and things like that. But if we can get that effort consistently, we're going to be a very good football team. Your assessment of Jalen Phillips, Jalen Daniels performance in this game. You know, we tried to protect him a little bit too much in the first half and just let him, obviously, he saw starting out in the second half and he, he can throw it a mile. Uh We have some receivers that could really make some plays, but I think he managed the game. Well, I think we had one delay of game that was really probably more my fault than his early in the first half, but I think that he settled in and kind of had guys believing in him. You know, that's what we really needed to do. That's how in sync you guys are. I made you into one person that's coordinator quarterback. How proud are you of Kon King and his performance tonight? You know, I think that, uh you can't say enough but just the confidence that he brings, you know, he feels like with the balls in his hands, he he, he can make it happen. Um And I think that when you can hand the ball off and go 80 it makes life a lot easier for me. But I think you know, hopefully this is one for him to build on against him even more confidence that whole room is and I think it was him tonight, but that whole room has really got some guys that can step up and do that on a consistent basis. So I'm proud of all those guys, especially him making a bunch of plays tonight. We were just talking about the fact that the move to the locker room. you felt, you literally said we should have won this game. Absolutely. I don't think there's a person in the locker room that doesn't feel like we should be celebrating, holding up a trophy, uh, enjoying our bus ride back a lot better, but, you know, it's part of it. Uh I've been in this game. This is my second time here. Um You know, our goal is ultimately to play in the big stadium down the street more. So I feel like we're capable of doing that. We're capable of winning our league and hopefully get another shot at these guys and see if we can make up another yard. Coach you and I spoke about, you told me you wanted to create more explosives with this offense. Do you feel like you executed that aspect of things up to your level of expectation? I mean, obviously you're going to, you know, wish you had a couple more and we had a couple of guys open. We had a couple of cuts that I think we could have made. But I mean, that's what the challenge was, is, you know, get the explosives, create momentum plays. And I know we had a big pass there to start out in our first possession in the second half really to answer their score when they took the lead. And I thought that was huge for our team for our quarterback and just, you know, carrying that momentum, you got to continue to do it and keep working it and just continue to get better. I get a sense that this team is going to rebound off that one point loss with, with a lot of zest right now. I feel like there again, there's hurt in the long run. We should have won the game. I think, you know, obviously, right after it's over, there's emotions and things like that. But I think once we watch the film and assess where we did well, what we did wrong, I think that they're going to look back and say, hey, we're a really good football team that was a yard away from beating the defending national champions and we're going to, you know, hopefully take that, carry it forward. Get into me a little bit later in the year and like I said, try to be down at Mercedes Benz in a few more months. Last one from us, coach you're in Mississippi for about a decade, you finally get up to Norfolk and they send you right back to sec country. Are you guys ready to get back to Hampton Road? Absolutely. You know, it's a long trip. It was good. I said this is a great experience, especially for our guys. You know, you can't beat ABC. These guys, you know, getting that opportunity I think is huge. You, you, you can't say enough about how they played, uh, and just how disappointing it is. But I think, uh, like I said, once we get back home, uh, the dust settles, I think we understand that we got a shot to be a pretty deck. You deserve a trip to the beach coach. Thank you so much. Appreciate your time. Offensive coordinator Jason Phillips joining us for tonight at the Spartans loss 24 to 23. A close one. We're not done now. We still got some more. Uh We should be hearing from head coach Dawson Odom. Here goes the Spartan Spartan Legion just coming through right now out of here, the Spartan Legion at halftime by the way, live up to every expectation that they're gonna let hope so. We'll be right back. Yeah, we'll be right back. We'll be here. Welcome back. Welcome back, Ryan. Did you notice something? What's that? I called? Offensive coordinator, Jason Phillips, Jalen Phillips. They Daniels is the quarterback, you know what it is, what delirium may be setting in, which means things are gonna get fun a little weird out here. But before we get weird. We got to stick with some business because we, we've worked decently hard. No one's worked harder than Dawson Odoms to watch this team to this 0.4 years to get to this point and to put it mildly, he has to be proud of this team. In fact, we just got from his press conference. So let's hear from head coach Dawson Odoms after his team's incredible but tough loss to fam. Uh, you guys got a chance to see an entertaining football game because of many of you probably didn't expect that. But I've been explaining to people. We got a good football team and we got to believe that. But once that belief kick in spar is gonna be hard to deal with this year and we got a chance to put a lot of people don't notice. I'm proud of these guys. The coaches are programmed. Uh We came a long way, we came up 1.1 point short. But what I tell our guys is that I can be excited for victory. I'm humble and lost because I always try to find the positives. Uh, we ran the football and for the most part of the game, we stopped the run. Uh, we held a really good football team in check for the most of the game and we was in a football game all the way to the to the last Horn shows you a lot about Dawson Odoms, the head coach coaching him up. Some coaches might be disappointed over something like this. No. Dawson Odom Odoms knew his team was up against somebody and his team had enough pride to go. We're not going to let you get away with it. There's a word that he used multiple times and I think is key here and that's belief. Yes. Right. And that's a belief. You can do the work, you can have the talent. But when you've had a couple of down years, you need to believe that you can win games, you need to believe that you can overcome adversity and a game like this, despite the loss, could absolutely instill belief in this spartan team that they can make noise in the mi. So I thought it was key that he used that word multiple times and like you said, clearly disappointed, but obviously optimistic. So we're excited to get back to Hampton as Jason Phillips offensive coordinator for Norfolk State put it best. He says, no, there's no down heads. They feel you talked about him talking about the belief. They already know because they know they should have won this game. So that says a lot about what Dawson Odoms has done to bring. This ran back and down on the sideline. When f would make their runs, the Spartans did not lose that belief. They kept each other up, they kept pushing, they communicated constantly. There were players that clearly were trying to lend energy to their teammates to make sure that this team stayed up, stayed believing they absolutely did. To the very end, this game came down to a couple of bounces, a couple of plays. They's way this time. It says a lot too about the changing culture, which they've been saying since we've been saying this during the preseason, great point culture has changed in this program. And it was evident tonight, even though it was a one point loss, it was evident tonight, Brian Smith, you're on point and there's no way I can say anything more astute than that. That was true. So, let's do one more break here. You got it and then we'll be here. We'll talk one more time. We've got one more guest coming. We're going to wrap this thing up, but for now, we'll be right back. Welcome back to a battle to behold NSU against FMU Spartans just coming up short 2423 with us, the voice of the Spartans, Ross Gordon, your assessment of the season opener for the Spartans from Atlanta. Uh You know, you could have gone a little bit better with the win, but other than that, you like what you see, you, you come to a, uh come to a nationally televised ball game and you don't, you don't choke on it. You just go do a good job of um making solid defensive plays until the end when I think we were a little bit tired and offense looked good moving the football, especially when Jalen Daniels got going, throwing the football. It was a good thing to see Ross. I wanna know we're all working, but we also all really support Norfolk State. But at what point did you start to say? I, I think we actually might win this. I, I thought maybe the way we started, that was a great, that was a great thing. I know a lot of people say it's not how you start, it's how you finish, but it's also how you start in game number one. And we got out to such a good uh role with uh with Jalen handing the ball off and, you know, you'd like to start this. I was in the run. Jack was seven of nine from the football, maybe a couple more baes next week as they start to integrate him a little bit more. Uh But you saw things, you saw things you see, hey, we can get better here. We can, you can, you can do a little bit better here. So, uh you know, besides special teams, I think we did amazing on both sides of the ball tonight. Talk a little bit about the alumni you've talked to over the week. Did you get a chance to talk to anybody who was coming down? What does it feel on national TV? Are they proud of how these Spartans play tonight? I think so? I, I believe that. They're not only proud, but I think uh we did our conference good today. You look, you look in the stands. There was a lot of orange. We were 2.5 hours away from Tallahassee, but it was a lot of green and gold here. Our band performed well. Our football team performed well and that's all you can ask for you to make sure you put a great product on the field. Uh but also show a lot of school spirit. And this week from Wednesday today, today has been amazing down here in Atlanta. We'll wrap it up with that Ross Gordon. I do want to mention, speaking of Wednesday. Yes, we've been hanging out with Ross. We all work in Norfolk. We all work with Norfolk State a lot that we've seen you more here in Atlanta than all the time we spent in Norfolk. Are you gonna miss us when we all go sick of a? Listen, these 22 things I, I've gotten with wbez that I haven't gotten ever uh Zoom meetings. I've never been in zoom meetings with you guys and now I'm on TV, with you guys. I love it. Why not do it again? We're here. Ron Ross is part time now, part time. WVEC. Let me get you the social security number first. Thanks for joining us. Appreciate you, Spartans, Ross Gordon, everything for the Spartans. Yeah, I see him rolling around with a camera. Of course. Oh, yeah. Does it all. Now, the one thing he doesn't do is coach this football team maybe one day, like Dawson, like Dawson Odoms. And we, I've heard more from Dawson Odoms at the podium. Let's throw it over to coach. We literally ran the ball down the H BC U National champs throat tonight. We boo them up and down the field all night long in the running game. So why would we, why would we stop? I mean, I don't have no stat sheet, but I'm quite sure our, our rushing yards are something they're not accustomed to. If you go look at the stats from a year ago, they were top 10 in all categories when it comes to defense. But I've always said with our football team is that we believe we can run the football on anybody. I mean, I think our offensive line is one of the best in the country. I think our offensive coaches do a great job and I think our offensive coordinator said we'll take them five yards and we'll take them 10 yards. But when you can run the football like that, that's why we was in this ballgame. We kept the ball game close. We controlled the time of possession. We played winning football, winning football ain't pretty, but it's winning. Football. Football is all about giving your team the best chance to win week in and week out and some weeks you can run the ball some weeks you might have to throw the ball. But tonight, the running game gave us a chance to win a football game and I'm proud of these guys and how they ran it. And of course, Dawson Odoms talking about his offensive quarter, who we just spoke with. Jason Phillips, proud of this team. Good night. A lot to show for it. That offensive line did look good. It did. And they finally got some experience. Last thing I want to highlight, what's that? A huge play in the end zone from Devin Allen Ocean Lakes grad probably the player of the game for Norfolk State, local products, Oscar Smith grad. This team is built with guys from Hampton Roads. They came down to Atlanta and they put on a show. I'm ready. When's week two, I'm ready for the rest of the season. We got to wrap this up first. You know, call would like some food and then we'll go get ready for week. We would like to thank a few people, Ashley Berry, Tierra Schultz, our news director for helping us put this all together for a battle to be hold among others who, who escaped right now. You know, Tierra missed having us around. I know she's still ready for us to get back. I know be there soon for Connor. I'm Brian Smith. We're live from Atlanta. Thank you for watching our post game show of a battle to behold perfect State against Florida. A and M Spartans losing a tough one by final of 24 where the players play. That's right. Good night. Everybody take care.