There are but a precious few coaches in America that would not be pleased with their teams having a 7-3 overall record, 3-1 in league play, with a potential berth on the line heading into their last game.
At 7-3 and 3-1 in the MEAC, this is the position that North Carolina Central finds themselves in, and while for many coaches this would be a banner year, NCCU head coach Trei Oliver is not breaking out the pom-poms for the season his team has had. Asked on the most recent MEAC Coaches Media Call how he would sum up the season his team’s season in a single word, the Eagles head man simply said, “Disappointing.”
“It’s about championships, we want to win championships. It’s good to have 8 and 9-win seasons [but] we still want to cut down nets and win championship rings. I’m still proud of the team, I think we’ve accomplished a lot. When you have an opportunity to win 7, or 8 games that’s a solid season but at the end of the day, it’s about winning championships and that’s what we want to do. We did come up a little short with that but our other goal is playoffs and we do want to have the opportunity to make the playoffs.”
The Eagles’ non-conference portion of their schedule commenced with a 31-24 win over Alabama State in the Orange Blossom Classic, it was then followed with a disappointing and surprising 41-19 loss to Elon and a 45-10 loss at North Carolina whose score does not belie the competitiveness of the contest. Following those losses, North Carolina Central finished non-conference play with beatdowns of North Carolina ( 66-24), Norfolk State (37-10), Campbell ( 45-14), and Virginia Lynchburg, (68-0).
After defeating Morgan State 16-7 in their MEAC opener, N.C. Central then was defeated 24-21 by South Carolina State in a highly anticipated matchup that was the de facto MEAC CHampionship game. With South Carolina having sewn up the MEAC with their 54-7 dismantling of Morgan State last week ithe Eagles hope to position themselves for a postseason berth, provided they can defeat Delaware State on Saturday.
