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GREENSBORO - More than 20,000 people will return home today with thousands more outside the house on Lindsay Street. And they'll all be aware of the numbers that define Homecoming 2010.
0-5.
For the first time since 2007, the Aggies go into their homecoming game winless. That's not going over well with the A&T faithful.
Alonzo Lee is hearing it from the fans as did the coaches before him, three of them in seven years before he arrived to take over a team that had gone 12-56 since 2004 with a 27-game losing streak in the middle of it.
"Grumbling craziness," Lee said.
He said it doesn't bother him. It comes with the job.
A lot came with this job, not the least of which is an NCAA probation that has A&T in the throes of an academic nightmare. Therein lies the problem. The numbers tell the story.
The NCAA report that came out in June listed A&T as the only Division I football program in North Carolina to be penalized for poor performance. The report, which measures academic eligibility and retention measures in all NCAA schools, was based on a four-year period from the 2005-06 academic year to the 2008-09 year.
Lee wasn't the coach at A&T during those years, but he's the one paying. The penalties cost the Aggies 6.3 scholarships and reduced the team's practice time to 16 hours a week. The school was already on probation from earlier APR reports, so in reality A&T is down 17 scholarships out of a possible 63.
Wheeler Brown, the A&T athletics director, told the school's board of trustees in September that Lee was working under enormous pressure, not of his own making.
"And we're seeing signs that things are improving," Brown said Friday. "We just sent in our report for 2009-10. We needed to be above 900 to get out of the penalty phase. We believe we're going to be above that."
Lee moved spring practice to allow players more study time before finals and made it clear to the team that they were being scored on their progress off the field as well as on it.
A&T was scored in the bottom 10 percent of the country in APR in June, one of four MEAC schools penalized in football, 14 men's teams in all for the MEAC. The NCAA scores the APR on a scale of 1,000. Anything below 900 almost assures a school of penalties, and A&T's four-year score was 843.
Last fall, Lee's first at A&T, the program's APR was 939. Fans of the Aggies program will most remember that A&T went 5-6, the best win-loss record at the school since 2003.
Brown told the board of trustees that Lee was bringing in better students than previous coaches, hinting that meant taking a longer look at transfers and partial qualifiers. This has put the Aggies in a tough position.
Last week, A&T lost to Tennessee State 37-7. Lee said there was little doubt which was the better team, and there was little doubt in his mind why.
"You look at them, and they carry around 17 transfers," he said Monday. "We played guys from Ohio State and Miami and the University of Illinois. Three out of four of their quarterbacks are transfers. It was an older, more mature group than ours."
A&T has one transfer, tight end Tony Coles, who played at West Hill Community College in Maryland last season. After the game Saturday, a Tennessee State player went over to congratulate Lee and the A&T coaches.
"Big ol' offensive guard from Michigan State who we had here on campus," Lee said. "We couldn't find enough credits to keep him. He's a good-looking young man, and I told him, 'Good luck the rest of the way.' But, good gracious, I don't need to wish him much luck. Looking at him on film, he looked really good."
Lee couldn't get big ol' Anthony Woods in school, in part because A&T has begun to crack down on athletics when it comes to academics. That partly explains the 0-5 record, which probably won't appease the masses today if that becomes 0-6. Lee, however, knows he has to please the administration first.
"I get 100 percent support from the administration," he said. "But the bottom line is they have to be able to get into A&T grade-wise or transferable (credit) hours. It may be a little easier at Tennessee State. With Anthony (Woods), it came down to us, Norfolk State and Tennessee State. Then it boiled down to us and Tennessee State. They were able to take him."
It remains to be seen how much the Aggies can take this time with their fourth coach since 2002 and the numbers headed in the wrong direction on the field, and despite the fact that the numbers seem to be going up off the field.
Contact Ed Hardin at 373-7069 or ed.hardin@news-record.com A&T HOMECOMING
Who: Morgan State (2-3, 1-1 MEAC) at A&T (0-5, 0-2 MEAC)
When: 1:30 p.m. today
Where: Aggie Stadium (21,500), Greensboro
Tickets: $35 general admission, $20 non-A&T students; $15 children age 12 and younger; www.ncataggies.com or 334-7749
Inside: Schedule of events for A&T's homecoming. B4
A&T HOMECOMING
Today's events
7:30 a.m.: School of Nursing TELOCA Breakfast, Sheraton Greensboro at Four Seasons Colony Ballroom BC
8 a.m.: Homecoming parade.
8 a.m.: WNAA-90.1 Homecoming Parade Stage, East Lindsay and Yanceyville streets.
9 a.m.: Vending, sponsored by N.C. A&T Alumni Association Inc., Sheraton Greensboro at Four Seasons Pre Function Area
After the parade: The WNAA-State Farm Soundstage at Aggie Fan Fest, parking lot of War Memorial Stadium near East Lindsay and Boyd. Live bands performing R&B, go-go music; performances by Junkyard Band, New Impressionz Band, B. Leak, Marques Haynesworth, Brian B., step teams, A&T Drumline.
1:30 p.m.: Football game, Aggie Stadium.
9 p.m.: Homecoming Alumni Dance, Sheraton Greensboro at Four Seasons Guilford Ballroom.
Sunday's events
8 a.m.: Alumni continental breakfast, Sheraton Greensboro at Four Seasons Imperial Ballroom A.
8 a.m.: Vending, sponsored by N.C. A&T State University Alumni Association Inc., Sheraton Greensboro at Four Seasons Pre Function Area
9 a.m.: Affirmation Service, Sheraton Greensboro at Four Seasons Imperial D Ballroom.
