Disappointment overwhelmed Rattlers fans as Florida A&M lost 48-3 to the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers.
Coming into Saturday’s game, the 0-2 Rattlers wanted to put on a show in front of the home crowd at Bragg Memorial Stadium. It was the team's first home game this season.
Senior quarterback Damien Fleming led the offense down the field for an eight play, 49 yard drive. Senior kicker Chase Varnadore finished the drive with a 25 yard field goal.
(Jewel Brown/The Famuan;)
09/20/2014
@ Bragg Stadium
Red shirt sophomore quarterback Carson Royal prepares to toss the ball for Florida A&M Saturday.FAMU lost 48-3 to Coastal Carolina University.
The Chanticleers got on a roll scoring 48 unanswered points.
Rattlers Head coach Earl Holmes, expressed the likelihood of changes to come after Saturday’s loss.
“We’re going to make some coach changes as well as personnel changes,” Holmes said.
He went on to express what the team needs to focus on winning games.
“We’re not putting points on the board, we’re getting off the field on third down, punts are being blocked and a lot of sound thing that we work on every day in practice.” Holmes said.
Fleming, who was benched in favor of redshirt sophomore Carson Royal, said he felt the first drive gave the team confidence, but the rest of the game was a struggle.
“We were able to get a couple yards but on third down we couldn’t get a first down and that’s what hurt us,” Fleming said. “Like coach said they have a pretty good offense but we didn’t do our job of staying on the field and keeping our defense off.”
Turnovers plagued the Rattlers all afternoon. A forced fumble led to a 21-yard scoop and score for the Chanticleers.
A blocked Rattlers’ punt in the second quarter lead to a Chanticleer recovery. Coastal Carolina’s freshman running back Osharmar Abercrombie would score from 13 yards out.
FAMU’s sophomore punter Colby Blanton noted the miscommunication, but said he believes it will be fixed.
“As a punter you have to forget quickly,” Blanton said.
Up next for the Rattlers is a trip Nashville on September 27th at 6 p.m., to take on the Tennessee State University Tigers.
Holmes knows he has his work cut out for him, admitting that it starts with him and his staff.
“If we have to cut the playbook in half we’ll cut it in half,” Holmes emphasized. “Whatever we have to do to put our best players to make the plays we need to make that’s what we’re going to do.”
Despite being winless, the Rattlers have not started Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference play so they can still improvement. Their conference opener is against the Morgan State Bears on Oct. 4 at Bragg Stadium.