Alabama NewsCenter 2021 football preview: Alabama A&M University
Gary Quarles is a key player for national HBCU champions Alabama A&M going into the fall season. (Alabama A&M Athletics)
Fans of “Sesame Street” will remember Kermit The Frog singing, “It’s Not Easy Being Green.”
These days, one could be forgiven for thinking it is easy being maroon and white, the team colors of Alabama A&M. All coach Connell Maynor’s squad did in the 2021 spring season was:
- Beat rival Alabama State in the Magic City Classic.
- Knock off Arkansas-Pine Bluff for the Southwestern Athletic Conference title.
- Complete the trifecta by being declared the Black College Football National Champions.
But while A&M’s athletes are Bulldogs and not frogs, you won’t get Maynor to buy the notion that the accomplishments in the spring were stress-free.
“It wasn’t easy, I tell you that,” he said. “Like I tell the players, if it was easy, everybody would be champions. You’ve got to pay a price. What are you willing to do different from everybody else to be the starter? To be All-Conference? To be All-American? To have a shot to play at the next level? You’ve got to pay a price. You’ve got to sacrifice if you want to be a champion.”
Alabama A&M is preparing to return to the field this fall as football goes back to its traditional season even as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. Alabama NewsCenter is taking a look at the upcoming season and today is focused on the Bulldogs.
Alabama NewsCenter: What is the outlook for this season?
Connell Maynor: Our goals and aspirations are very simple. We want to win every game. The biggest game of the season is the next game, which is South Carolina State. We need to win that and win them all. We need to beat the teams we beat last year and then beat the teams that are the new teams on our schedule this year. It never changes. It’s always win the next game, win the championship, win the SWAC, get to the Celebration Bowl and win it and be Black College National Champs again. Those are our goals. That’s what we shoot for, and that’s just the way we run our program.
ANC: What is the strength of this year’s team?
Maynor: I’m not sure. We brought in a lot of guys on the defensive side of the football and we’ve got mostly everybody returning this year on offense, so of course offense is going to be a strength. It’s going to be something we can lean on with Aqeel Glass and (Abdul-Fatai) Ibrahim, and All-Americans ‘Big Play’ Zay (Zabrian Moore) and Brian Jenkins and OJ (Odieu Hilaire). Then you’ve got Gary Quarles in the backfield and we added a couple other running backs. We’re very excited about what we’ve got returning on offense, that we can put up a lot of points. Defensively, we added a lot of new faces and the defense played good in the championship game. We gave up 33 points, but the offense gave up seven on a sack-fumble-scoop-score, and then the special teams gave up a kickoff return. Really, that was 14 points of that 33. I thought defense played well only giving up 19 points in that game. I don’t think we’ve got a long way to go on defense, but I think we got a little ways to go and I think we can get there.
ANC: Who are your team’s standouts?
Maynor: Offensively, of course, Aqeel Glass, Gary Quarles. We signed a running back, (Tae) Provens, from LSU. We expect him to get some playing time. Again, the receivers — Zay, Ibrahim, Jenkins, (Terrell Gardner). And we’ve got two good tight ends. Three good tight ends, actually. We can throw the ball to any of them and those guys can get it done in the blocking game. The offensive line is all back. They were young, so we’re expecting a lot from those guys. Defensively, (Quantravis) Kelly, our middle linebacker, is a leader on that side of the football and then the (Holloway) twins, one at linebacker (Armoni) and one at safety (Amari). Trenton McGhee, at free safety, got the interception to end the championship game. (Ja’Marian) Trey Green is a corner who got an interception in the championship game. We’ve got some players over there, and we look forward to those guys stepping it up and continuing to make plays.
ANC: What game do your fans have circled on your schedule?
Maynor: We know the Magic City Classic. That’s always circled first on their schedule. That’s always the last weekend of October. That’s not ever changing, and they know that. They look forward to the last weekend in October for the Classic. Then they look at homecoming and we’ve got Jackson State this year. I know everybody will be excited for that and everybody will show up. Then probably the first game, the Lewis Crews Classic, our first home game. We play South Carolina State. Everybody will be excited, and excited for that game for our fans. Of course, we’ve got FAMU (Florida A&M) coming in here this year. We play FAMU at home, so that’s gonna be a big one. I would assume that those are probably our fans’ top four games. I don’t know for sure because I’m not a fan. I’m a coach.
ANC: What is your lingering question?
Maynor: I don’t know what that question would be. I don’t think there’s one question that everybody asks me. Can we repeat? I would say, yes. Do we have a lot of great football teams and coaches in this conference? Yes, we do. So repeat, can we do it? Yes, we can. Will it be tough? Yes, of course it’ll be tough. You know every game we play is going to be a well-coached football team with a good football coach. We’ve got to be ready to play every week and play at a high level.
Alabama NewsCenter is posting season previews for all 15 college football programs in Alabama. Read about West Alabama, Tuskegee and Samford, and look for a new preview each day.
