Rod Broadway, A&T’s head football coach, has been coaching football since the late seventies.  He began his career as the defensive line coach at East Carolina University.

Tomorrow, Broadway and team seek to uphold their undefeated record as they play against the Howard Bison at Aggie Stadium. The game is scheduled to be televised nationally on ESPNU at 7:30 p.m.  

This season, Broadway and his coaching staff look to improve on a 7-4 2012 campaign.

In an interview, Broadway discussed several topics regarding last season and what fans should expect this year, as his third season as A&T’s head coach.

Broadway, an Oakboro native, says he chose to coach at A&T for several reasons. “I thought it would be a great challenge. It also gave me an opportunity to get closer to my family again.”

Off the field, Broadway is a family man. Broadway’s son, Kenneth, a former Central football player played under Broadway.

After several years in the profession, Broadway understands how much hard work goes into coaching. “We work 15 hours a day seven days a week. We try to have family night Thursday night after practice so coaches are allowed to spend time with their family”.

For Broadway, coaching football is much more than just X’s and O’s.  “Well, it’s a lot more than just coaching football. It’s also trying to develop people and build champions out of people,” said Broadway.

Broadway has certainly had the winning formula in the past, leading NCCU to two CIAA championships in 2005 and 2006, and winning the SWAC championship as the head coach of Grambling State University in 2008.  

Broadway emphasizes leading his players into the direction of becoming not only exceptional players, but great men. A&T linebacker Tony Clodfelter says, “Coach Broadway gives us stability in our program entering his third season. He has an open door policy where we can talk about problems we are facing.”

When asked about the win-loss column, Broadway quickly changed the conversation to the week to week basis by which the A&T football program approaches the season. “Well, we just want to get better you know. Our goals are simple, we want to make improvements from week to week and play as hard as we can play.”

According to the win-loss column, last year was one of the Aggies best seasons in recent memory.  Coach Broadway provided us with his own breakdown of last season. “Well, in terms of W’s and L’s it was successful, should have been a lot better you know, we had a chance of winning nine ball games and that hasn’t been done around here in a long time. But the thing you learn in coaching is you can’t let great opportunities slip away from you”.

Last season, A&T had no shortage of nail-bitters.  Broadway gave us some insight into how everything went down.  

“Well, they’re all good. Beating South Carolina State for the first time in a long time, beating FAMU, beating North Carolina Central, beating Howard again after losing up there our first year here, a game I think we should have won. All the wins were good.”

In the past, A&T student athletes handling academic responsibilities have been a concern. Broadway provided a brief update on the current state of his players in the classroom.  “We were able to achieve a 944 last year with our APR and that’s the highest in the history of the school.”

 Broadway goes an extra mile to see that his players are in good academic standing. The coach initiated a policy that requires players to complete a certain amount of study hours depending on their GPA. If a player does not complete their assigned hours, the player will be ineligible for that week’s game.

When asked how he wants to be remembered as a coach, Broadway said, “I just want to be a person that tried to do the right thing the right way, lived the right way, and that influenced people.”

Broadway has an overall record of 82-33 and is 14-10 in his three-year tenure as A&T’s head football coach.

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• JEREMY DAYS Register Reporter