With the first game of the year approaching, N.C. A&T’s football team enters the 2012 season confident in their training and hopeful for a positive season despite negative comments from peers.

“They have been beat up on for a long time because they have been so bad,” said head coach Rod Broadway. “I hate it for them because they do try and they put forth a good effort for the most part, but that’s just human nature people are going to be negative.”

In years past, students have often stated that the Aggie football team “sucks.” The team at the end of the 2010 season was 1-10 overall. However, under the new leadership of head coach Rod Broadway and staff, the Aggies improved to 5-6 overall at the end of the 2011 season. With 19 returning starters at the beginning of this 2012 season, the team improvements do not show any sign of slowing down.

“Our motto for this season is to get better,” said Lewis Kindle a senior English major from Atlanta, Ga. and starting quarterback. “Everyday we go out and we just focus on continuously building a better football team.” Kindle continued, “As far as what our peers say, we cannot control that so we just try not to worry about it.”

Since the team reported to training camp on Aug. 3 they have made foundational changes in an effort to improve overall player performance.

“This year our preparations are different,” said Ronald Canty a junior Offensive Lineman. “We are learning how to practice harder by giving [practices] a game-like feeling so that when Saturday’s game comes we are ready for anything.”

In addition to different preparation tactics, the team has regained scholarships, which allows more players to be out on the field in a variety of positions.

“We have some good freshman and we’ll know a little bit more about them this weekend,” said Broadway. “It will be a big test for them and we’ll get a little better feel for them because everyone that practices well doesn’t play well and sometimes poor practice players play well. So we’ll know a whole lot more about them next week this time than we know right now.”

Of the new recruits gained, there was definitely a need at the quarterback position. In 2011, Kindle earned the starting role at quarterback, while Ricky Lewis was used as a running back, wide receiver and kick returner. Now, Kindle has three understudies and the extra players on the field will allow Kindle to focus on one position.

“We have a couple of seniors that we are depending on as well,” said Broadway. “More scholarships just means that we can go out and find more black young men and help them go to school and help them get an education.“

The team’s first game of the season will be an away game against Coastal Carolina, this Saturday, Sept. 1. The first home game will be against West Virginia State Sept. 8.

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• Liliane Long, Contributor