Aug. 31, 2005

Winston-Salem, NC - The Winston-Salem State University Rams football team will take their 0-1 record on the road this week as they travel to Washington, DC to face the Bison of Howard University.  Howard is the first of two consecutive Division I-AA opponents and Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference members that the Rams will face this season.

 

Teams...Winston-Salem State University (0-1, 0-0 CIAA) at Howard University (0-0, 0-0 MEAC).

 

Kickoff...1:00 pm, Eastern Standard Time.    

 

Venue...William H. Greene Stadium in Washington, DC (Capacity - 10,000).

 

Television Coverage...There is no television coverage for this contest versus the Bison of Howard University.  The Rams currently have no games thus far in the 2005 season that are slated for television broadcasts, however there is discussion about televising the October 15th, 2005 contest versus the North Carolina Central University Eagles. 

 

Radio Coverage...This weekend's contest will be available to listeners in the greater Winston-Salem area live on WSNC, FM 90.5 with Doc Love and George Croom  calling all the action as well as live nationally on the internet at www.WSSU.edu by clicking on the link: "Listen to WSNC."  Howard University will broadcast the game on their local radio station, as well as on the internet with a live webcast.  The broadcast will be available on the internet by accessing Howard's Athletic web site at www.howard-bison.com.

 

Live Statistical Broadcast Online...Can't make it to the game, but want to keep tabs on what the Rams are doing as it happens?  Then log on to the official live statistical broadcast of the game on GAMETRACKER.  Catch all WSSU home games as each one takes advantage of the Rams' enhanced partnership with College Sports Television as WSSU became the 72nd NCAA member school to use the GAMETRACKER software that enables a live statistical broadcast of the entire game to be seen on the World Wide Web.  To access the GAMETRACKER webcast, fans may visit the Official Website of WSSU Athletics at www.WSSURAMS.com, accessing the football schedule page and then clicking on the GAMETRACKER link to view all the statistical action and information.

 

Setting The Scene...The matchup between the Rams and Bison marks the first game of the season for Howard University and marks the second contest of the year for the visiting Rams.  WSSU lost a defensive battle last Saturday evening to Catawba College by the score of 20-10 in front of 6,110 fans at Bowman-Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, NC. 

 

The Series...The Rams and Bison have met only three other times in the history of both programs.  The first meeting occurred in 1985 as the Rams defeated the Bison by the score of 12-7 in Winston-Salem, NC.  The Bison exacted revenge the very next season as they defeated the Rams by the score of 36-7 in Washington, DC.  Both of those contests came under the tutelage of then-head coach William "Bill" Hayes.  The most recent meeting between Howard and WSSU came in the Kermit Blount era during the 1993 season, Blount's first as the Rams' head coach.  The Rams lost that contest by the score of 31-10 in Washington, DC.  WSSU is 1-2 all-time versus Howard University and 0-1 versus the Bison under the guidance of current head coach Kermit Blount.   

 

Fun Facts and Numbers...Since coming to Winston-Salem State University in 1993 to coach his alma mater, head football coach Kermit Blount is 2-11-1 all-time versus teams from the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC).  The Rams' last win against a MEAC school came in 2000 when they defeated South Carolina State University by the score of 39-28.  The Rams will face the Bulldogs of SCSU next weekend in Orangeburg, SC.

 

Purvis Takes Over...With the conclusion of the 2004 season, the Rams lost the services of quarterback Joshua McGee, who has since moved on to become a member of the Ram coaching staff.  With the move from the playing field to the sidelines, the Rams have crowned a new starting quarterback in Parkland High School superstar, and sophomore (redshirt) Monte Purvis.  Purvis, who appeared in five games for the Rams last season, starting one, threw for 102 yards and a touchdown last season while rushing for 167 more.  Last week, in the 2005 season opener, Purvis was 6 for 11 passing for 60 yards as he turned in a completion percentage of 54.5%.  He was picked off once and turned in a passer efficiency rating of 82.18 with a long pass of 16 yards.

Jed Bines Reached The End Zone For WSSU's Only Touchdown Last Week, And Will Look To Do So Again This Saturday Versus Howard

 

The Brothers Bynum...The Rams have a tradition of football excellence, and also have a tradition of family that permeates not only the football program, but the athletic program in general.  The Rams currently have two sets of brothers on the team, the most valuable of which are the Bynum Brothers.  The brothers, Darrian Bynum (sophomore LB), and Levern Bynum (senior LB), will both make starts during the 2005 season.  Levern has appeared in 30 games during his Ram career, starting 23 while Darrian appeared in eight games his freshman year in 2004, starting six and started last week versus Catawba College.  Darrian currently leads the Rams in tackles with 12 (6 solo, 6 assisted).  Levern recorded a lone tackle, of the solo variety, last week vs. Catawba.

 

The Coaches...The coaches for this game are very evenly matched-up and both captain two football programs rich in tradition, both of which are accustomed to winning.  The Rams are led by 13th-year man and  WSSU alum (1980), Kermit Blount.  Blount has an overall record of 71-54-3 overall for a winning percentage of .554.  He has faced the Bison only once, posting a loss by the score of 31-10 during the 1993 season.  Howard is led by Rayford T. Petty who is entering into his fourth season with the Bison.  He has posted a 16-17 overall record for a winning percentage of .484.  Petty has never faced the Rams and will be squaring off versus Kermit Blount for the first time in his four-year coaching tenure.

 

From Standard To Unconventional...The Rams are sporting a new defensive look this season as they have trashed the conventional 4-3 defensive scheme in favor of a more unconventional 3-5-3 defense under the tutelage of new defensive coordinator Mike Ketchum.  The 3-5-3 utilizes three defensive linemen, three linebackers, two "spurs" or strong safeties, and three defensive backs (two cover corners and a free safety).  The new look posed matchup problems for the Indians last week as the Rams posted a much better showing defensively than 2004's squad that finished near last in the CIAA in every defensive statistical category.  The Rams recorded five pass break ups and an interception in the contest and gave up only three passing plays of 20 yards or more.  WSSU cornerback Maurice Reid led the Rams with four pass break-ups.

 

New Threads For The Rams...The Rams will have one set of new threads for the 2005 season as they have brand new Russell road white uniforms.  WSSU unveils the new uniforms this weekend (September 3rd, 2005) when they travel to Washington, DC to face MEAC member, and Division I-AA opponent Howard University.  WSSU will wear the uniforms next weekend as well when they travel to MEAC member, and Division I-AA South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, SC.  The uniforms were designed following a collaborative effort between head coach Kermit Blount and fourth-year equipment manager Jay Robinson.

 

Rams Picked Third...The verdict came in on July 21st, 2005 at the CIAA Football Kick-Off Luncheon that took place in Petersburg, VA, and to many Ram fans, it was a surprise.  The powerhouse Rams were picked to finish the 2005 season third in the ultra-competitive CIAA Western Division.  WSSU was picked to finish behind 2004 Western Division Champion Fayetteville State University, who was tabbed as the favorite to defend their Western Division title and the Rams were also, surprisingly, predicted to finish behind the Eagles of North Carolina Central University.  WSSU looks to prove the "experts" wrong in 2005 by winning the CIAA Western Division and the CIAA Championship.  The Rams have not won a CIAA title since winning back-to-back championships during the 1999 and 2000 seasons.

 

South Atlantic AGAIN...The meeting between the Rams and Indians marked the fifth consecutive season that the Rams have opened play versus a team from the South Atlantic Conference.  The past four seasons it was the Eagles of Carson-Newman that WSSU faced on opening-weekend.  The Rams have posted a 1-4 record over that span as they won the season opener during the 2001 season, a 27-16 win over nationally-ranked Carson-Newman.  The Rams are 2-6 versus the South Atlantic Conference during the Kermit Blount coaching era as he has led the Rams to wins over Carson-Newman College (2001) and Wofford (1994).

 

Only Scoring Once...The Rams' defense will have to step up in 2005 as WSSU only scored one defensive touchdown in 2004.  That touchdown, a 94-yard interception return for a TD versus Saint  Augustine's College by the since-departed Edwin Jones was the lone score for the Ram defense during the season.  The Rams posted a 1-0 record when the defense scored.

 

WSSU Jumps Out Early...The 2004 Rams liked to jump out on opponents early as the Rams posted a 4-2 record when they scored the first points of the game.  This season, in the Rams' only action, WSSU jumped out to an early 10-0 lead before relinquishing it to the Indians of Catawba who rallied for 20 fourth-quarter points to defeat WSSU 20-10.

 

Leading...Not So Much...The Rams have played only one contest this season, but led the entire time, until the fourth quarter.  The Rams led 3-0 after the second quarter, and 10-0 after the third but fell 20-10 to Catawba College last Saturday.

 

No 100-Yarder...A Rarity...Last week versus Catawba College, the Rams failed to have a 100-yard rusher for the first time in 13 games.  With the talented Jed Bines and Martin Hicks on the roster, the fact that the Rams were unable to break for at least one 100-yard rusher is a rarity indeed.

 

Possession Time Not Kind...Again...The Rams once again controlled the clock, and once again lost.  The 2005 Rams are 0-1 when leading the possession battle.  The 2004 Rams were 3-6 when leading  in possession time.  WSSU won the only game of the season in which they were out-possessed (versus Saint Augustine's College in 2004's final game.)

 

Players To Watch (WSSU)...#1 Jed Bines, junior running back; #27 Martin Hicks, senior running back; #4 Monte Purvis, sophomore quarterback; #9 Brandon Hussey, senior wide receiver and kick returner; #5 Chad Oakley, senior, punter.

 

99 Problems, But Numbers Ain't One...The Rams are loaded...literally.  Last Saturday, versus Catawba, the Rams had 97 players dressed in uniform.  That 97 players is only two short of the NCAA maximum of 99 players that can dress for a team's home games.  That means that the Rams have a roster that is 97.9% full.  According to head equipment manager Jay Robinson, the Rams may very well fill all 99 uniforms on Saturday, September 17th, when they host Elizabeth City State University at Bowman-Gray.

 

Running For Home...The Rams are very proficient at running the ball.  There is no doubt about that.  As a team, the Rams averaged 246.7 yards per game on the ground last season.  However, in home games, the Rams averaged a stunning 298.7 yards per game on the ground. 

After One Game, Darrian Bynum Leads The Rams With 12 Total Tackles (6 Solo, 6 Assisted)

 

Secondary Solution...If there was one glaring weakness in the 2004 Rams, it would have been the WSSU secondary.  The Rams were ranked second to last, or last, in every pass defense statistic in the CIAA.  WSSU has tried to remedy the situation by bringing in a new defensive coordinator in Mike Ketchum, and has switched from a 4-3 to a 3-5-3 formation on defense.  The change in formation yielded immediate dividends this past weekend as the Rams batted away four Catawba passes and intercepted two more (one of which was called back due to an offsides penalty).

 

New Season, New Announcers...The 2005 season will mark the debut of the new WSNC Radio 90.5 FM radio broadcast crew.  The Rams' flagship station has recently revamped its entire WSSU Football broadcast crew.  Ram fans will now hear all the on-field action brought to them by George Croom and Doc Love.  The pair will combine for a tag-team play-by-play effort that will keep all those displaced Ram fans "in the know" with live action.  As well, the duo are planning to launch a coaches show live, every Monday, starting on August 29th, 2005 at 6:30 pm on WSNC 90.5 FM.  For additional information, contact WSSU Assistant Director of Athletics for Marketing and Promotions, Chris Zona in the WSSU Office of Sports Information.

 

Blount, All-Time...Most Ram fans know that current WSSU Head Football Coach Kermit Blount has amassed a career record of 71-53-3, for a career winning percentage of .559 en route to earning the Rams, and WSSU, a pair of CIAA football championships.  However, very few people realize that, during his 12 year tenure, Blount has coached 36 players to All-CIAA First-Team honors.  Among those 36 different players, 11 have earned the honor more than once, and two have earned the honor three times during their four-year career.  Current Rams Martin Hicks and Jed Bines will look to earn the honor for their third time this season, and Brandon Hussey and Chad Oakley will look to earn the honor for the second time.  Blount has coached four players that have gone on to play professional football in the NFL  in Tory Woodbury (NY Jets and Denver Broncos), Richard Huntley (Atlanta Falcons, Pittsburgh Steelers, and Carolina Panthers), Orande Gadsen (Miami Dolphins) and Stephon Kelly (Cincinnati Bengals - since released).

 

18 Out Of 50...One look at the Howard University football roster and you can see that the Bison are from a very diverse geographical group.  The 2005 roster has players on it from 18 of the 50 states.  There are student-athletes from Florida, Virginia, South Carolina, California, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Connecticut, Maryland, The District of Columbia, New York, Delaware, Michigan, Ohio, Louisiana, Alabama, Nevada and New Jersey.

 

The Tarheel State, Represented...Despite having players on the roster from 18 of the 50 United States, Howard University has six active team members from the Tarheel State, all of them from different cities within North Carolina.

 

Sophomore Sensation...The Rams' Darrian Bynum currently ranks third in the CIAA in tackles with 12.  Bynum recorded six solo tackles and six assists versus Catawba this past Saturday.  He also ranks sixth in the CIAA in tackles for loss as he recorded 2.5 tackles behind the opponent's line of scrimmage versus the Indians as well.

 

Injury Update...The 2005 Rams havfaced several injuries already, and will be traveling to Howard University to face the Bison without several key members of the team.  #52 William Hayes, the Rams' starting middle linebacker from last week will not make the trip due to a knee injury.  Details of the severity of the injury are still being examined, but it is thought to be a hyperextended knee with no ligament damage.  Results of an MRI have not yet been returned.  Thaddeus Griffin (6'2", 225 lb., So.) will make the start with Brandon McLellan (6'0", 225 lb., So.) backing him up.  With Griffin's move to middle linebacker, the Rams will put Chris Stowe (6'1", 215 lb., Jr.) in the starting right linebacker spot.  The other defensive change is that Lamont Williamson (6'1", 220, Sr.) will not make the trip to Washington, DC due to a death in the family.  Newely-cleared Desmond Jordan will fill the vacated slot left by Williamson.  The only other change to the depth chart for the Rams comes on the offensive side of the ball where Michael Helton (6'3", 290lb., r-Fr.) will make his first start at center with last-week's starting center, Javon Hubbard (6'4", 260-lb., r-So.) being relegated to a back-up role.  

 

Quoting The Coach

Coach, one game a season does not make, but It looks as though there was a significant improvement in the secondary this season.  Care to comment?

I did think that we played very well in the secondary, at least for the first three quarters.  Mo (Maurice Reid) played far bigger than his 5'9" frame.  We, as a staff, are pleased with the improvement in the secondary, but we have to play four complete quarters, and that is what it will take for us to have a chance to win this weekend.

 

Talk about Howard.  They are balanced, but their running game, like the Rams, seems to be their forte.

They are an athletic, young team.  We have to change gears, as Catawba was a passing team, and the Bison, they are a run-first team.  Of course, they double us, almost triple us, in the number of scholarships that they have (28 for WSSU compared to 62 for Howard).  But just like us, they can only put 11 out there at a time.  We just have to step up to the challenge and keep our focus.  For the most part, I thought that we kept our focus last week, but this week will be a bigger challenge for us.  They will be a bigger, deeper, stronger, team, and we will have to play very well to earn a win.

 

You guys haven't had a ton of success playing out of conference.  How do you feel about that?  Any thoughts?

I honestly have never really looked at it that way.  We have some success out of conference, but we have struggled as well.  I think that the challenge is a good thing for us.  And this team, this year, is a far different team than last year's team.  To this team, it is a little more important than just a non-conference game.  This is a team that is not down after losing last week.  This team knows that they played a pretty good game and they have confidence heading into the game.  They came back out to practice Monday and showed that they were ready to focus on the game ahead and weren't dwelling on this past Saturday.  So that told me a bunch about this team, about what they feel.  I think that this team is coming together.

 

The injury to William Hayes, is it severe?  Will he return this season?

I think that he will be ok.  There are some more tests on it today and he has already gone through a few, and I truly believe that he will be fine.  We are pretty sure that it was just a hyper-extended knee.  We have seen it on the tape, and it looked to me like he just took a weird step on it, and I didn't see anything that would indicate that there was any severe damage, but we have had the medical staff look at it, and we should know more by the end of the day I hope.  But he wont be making the trip this weekend, no matter what the prognosis on the knee is.  We just hope that the tests come back negative.

 

How about Kelvin Sessoms?  Will he play at the fullback slot?

We hope so.  We think so, but if not, we will move Wedlock (Jonathan Wedlock) up in the depth chart, and he has some experience, so we should be fine there.  We are just trying to do things that allow us to utilize the best athletes we have a the best spots for them.

 

What changes are you going to make?

Well, like I said, we are going to play to our strengths.  We need to get Martin (Martin Hicks) and Jed (Jed Bines) the most touches that we possible can.  Obviously they get the ball a lot but, we need to get them more involved, not just from a running standpoint, but overall.  We have to get the ball in their hands, and maybe have them run some little, short, routes, and try to make things happen.  Martin Hicks is one of the toughest guys to tackle one on one, and Bines, so we have to create opportunities for them.