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Advance: UNH at NC A&T

PRESSER POINTS

News and notes from the University of New Hampshire’s weekly press conference in advance of Saturday’s road game against North Carolina A&T (noon):

This will be the first meeting between UNH (2-4, 1-2 CAA) and NC A&T (1-5, 1-2 CAA). The Wildcats are coming off a 30-23 victory over Elon.

“Really big one for us,” UNH coach Sean Goldrich said. “I think the challenge for us is that we’re on the road in the CAA and in order to win these types of games you gotta play clean.  … As we’ve seen in this conference, anybody can beat anybody and if you don’t play well you have a shot to lose in the end.

“Excited about this opportunity. I think we have some momentum right now. Let’s see if we can build off it.”

UNH STATISTICS | NC A&T STATISTICS

CAA STANDINGS

— NC A&T’s lone victory came against Rhode Island (22-18). “They seem like a momentum team,” Goldrich said. “If you give them opportunities to make plays they’re going to find way to get after you. They are a very, very high-energy operation. You see that on the film. When they make plays their whole sideline erupts and they find ways to compound those mistakes you keep making.”

— The Aggies are allowing 32.8 points per game, 194.2 yards rushing per game, 226.7 yards passing per game and 420.8 yards per game. NC A&T has allowed opponents to convert on 8 of 10 fourth-down situations this season.

— NC A&T allowed 10 points in the final 39 seconds in a 31-30 loss to Bryant last weekend. Bryant scored 24 points in the fourth quarter of that win.

— “We don’t look at (UNH’s) record because if somebody looks at our record and takes us lightly they’re gonna be in trouble, so understand that we have to respect everybody,” NC A&T coach Shawn Gibbs said. “What we have to learn how to do is to finishing people. We gotta execute better in the red zone. We gotta be better on fourth-down defense.”

— UNH has allowed one sack in its last two games after giving up 18 sacks in its first four games. “I’d like to think it’s us settling in as a unit and being able to lean on some of our core guys who kind of know the (defensive looks) a little more,” Goldrich said. “Being able to get us in the right calls up front has been really good.”

— UNH QB Brooks Bentley passed for a season-high 296 yards and two TDs against Elon last Saturday. He also picked up 26 yards on the ground. Ja’Carree Kelly led the receivers with nine receptions for 82 yards.

— UNH center Luke Swain: “We are competing at a much higher level in practice. We’re going at it with starters versus starters. We’re going at each other to start practice every morning and I think that gets everybody fired up. It’s been great for us to just keep the competitive level super high.

— Elon was 0 for 12 on third down during last week’s loss to UNH.

— Swain said Buck linebacker Eddie Conover and defensive tackle Amondi James are players who stand out on the NC A&T defensive front.

— Goldrich said slot receiver Elijah Kennedy is an NC A&T player who stood out on film. Kennedy leads the Aggies in receptions (25), receiving yards (259) and receiving touchdowns (three). “Elijahm great kid,” UNH defensive back Nyair Domnie said. “I played against him two or three years ago with coach Goldrich at Delaware. He was one of the guys who we scouted, so he’s been doing this a while now. He’s a vet who’s taken a lot of snaps. He lines up inside and outside. He’s definitely a guy we have our guy on. We’ll have to stop him for sure.”

— “Gotta play penalty-free, gotta win the turnover battle and you gotta respond to adversity,” Goldrich said. “Those are things we have to do at a high clip if we want to be able to go beat this team on the road. It’s going to be a momentum week, so a fast start is going to come into play.”

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