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What took soo Long!! for this to happen. As a proud aggie, I just felt he was in over his head from the standpoint of running an entire football program at the black college level. I felt that in all phases of his approach to when it came to recruiting (getting to know the local high school programs and alumni), dealing with a limited budget (of course every coach likes to have more money, but in black college sports this is everyday life, he never adapted), to play calling (knowing the strengths and weakness of his own team), play adjustment during the game, motivation of his players (I felt the players were not responding any more to his talk), last but not least, working with the program and community. I never got the feeling he ever felt part of the community and vice versa. I wish him the best but I know A&T will get a good head coach who has experience in the Black College Level, Div I-AA, that has good recruiting skills and can assess what needs to done to bring back the AGGIE PRIDE to Glory!!! AGGIE PRIDE!.

Get a life...2 wins come on .......................This guy should be coaching pee wee football........well at least he might win 3 games!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

He never should have been hired in the first place. There was nothing on his resume to suggest he would have success at this level. Go get Tom Knotts from Charlotte Independence High School.

I found Coach Fobbs to be a very nice man personally, and he is probably a very good POSITION coach. He had no prior HC experience, and what A&T needed at the time of his hiring was someone who was a proven winner who could bring back some stability after the Hayes/Small era. Fobbs did TRY to recruit some big time talent, but those 0-11 seasons scared kids off, and instead, they went to Elon, ECU, Wofford, App State, and even NCCU/WSSU. With all of the talent in Greensboro/Winston/Durham/Reidsville/Burlington/Raleigh/Charlotte metro areas alone, A&T could win the MEAC or at least be an upper echilon team annually. The next guy MUST be a great salesman of the program and somebody the Aggie faithful will give at least 4 years-1 to adjust, 2 to build, and 1 to reap the harvest! AGGIE PRIDE!

'Bout time. I support the Aggies and I would have fired him before the season. Never hire a position coach for a head coaching position. Only offensive or defensive coordinators should have the opportunity. Now let's get a coach and win some games!

A&T should not have fired Bill Hayes! Under Fobbs A&T had a 22 game losing streak. No disrespect to Johnson C. Smith, but a Division I-AA school is supposed to beat a Division II which is why that game was scheduled. Some will say a win is a win, but that victory was the equivalent of the Carolina Panthers beating the Philadelphia Soul of the Arena Football League at Bank of America Stadium 44-12. In my view Fobbs has one victory in his career at A&T and that was against Winston-Salem State.

This is so funny. A&T fires Bill Hayes, then hires a loser. Fires the loser, then hires a coach with no experience as a head coach,gives that coach two and a half years to
build a winning program, then fires the inexperienced coach in the middle of the year.
Now they appoint a coach who was not successful at a local high school. If I were Coach Fobbs id say thank you and run as fast as i can. Aggies, looks like we will continue to be the doormat of the MEAC

It's about time, now that this has been handled maybe now we can get to the root of the problem. Maybe more attention should be given to the creditability of the people that sit and evaluate the coaches that are being considered for this position, maybe they don't possess the skill sets needed to make a good decisions when hiring for this position. A bad coach suggest that a bad decision was made before he lost his first game. The coach didn't hire himself.

I'm a season ticket holder, tailgater and have been for a loooonng time (more than 25 years). My son, currently enrolled at A&T is a third generation Aggie on both my wife side and mine. I travel from Eastern, NC for every game and up and down the Eastern Seaboard for the Tidewater, Delaware games and Western, NC for the Charlotte games. Have not missed a homecoming since 1967 even when I lived in the midwest and other parts of the nation. I take at least 4 youth each year to the games in hopes of convincing them to attend A&T. I will never give up my season tickets and my ashes probably will be sprinkled on campus at my passing. Have even picked out my blue and gold Aggie Caskett. As a fellow blogger said "what took so long." How can everyone in the stands call a play and Coach Fobb and his sorry Offensive Coordinator did the exact opposite? How can anyone call defensive plays with a right side that never showed up. What happened in Norfolk, Hampton, Charlotte and Aggie field was terrrible and embarrassing these past couple of years. My highschool team did better and was smarter in their play calling. Wheeler Brown would walk up and down the field as if he did not know what to do. And he played the game!! I couldn't imagine a new chancellor tolerating the beatings and the beratings by our inferior wantabe counterparts. Coach Fobbs and his staff looked as though they were unprepared or had never played the game. Ragsdale would be the only coach on the field giving the players coaching and advice. The others were walking around in amazement. O - by the way, take the offensive coordinator and send him packing with Fobbs. He stunk!!!! Whomever was resposnbile for the right defensive line should go too! They were paper tigers. I talked with parents of the players on homecoming morning and the day after. They said the kids' morale was low and many were wanting to quit. Fobbs and his offensive coordinator had to go. We couldn't do any worst. Heck, I was prepared to go play in the games for the Aggies myself and I haven't played since the 80's. Pay 'em, out, send him, his Offensive Coordinator and whomever else was responsible for the defensive line. Next year come up with more than three plays, run to the right, run to the left and run up the hole. Last, get someone who at least looks at football on TV on Sat. and Sunday's. That play calling can't be worst than the crap we witnessed the past 2 years.

While it never good that a coach get fired at midseason I think it was the right decision.I
think the decision of putting George Ragdale in charge until a new coach is hired is
a very good choice. Coach Ragdale, is a true
Aggie in every sense of the words. He know the landscape of black college football as well as anyone that is coaching right now.
Also, I hope that at the end of the season that they get rid of the Offensive Coordinator as well.I am still upset with the way he lost the game against North Carolina Central.

The Chancellor, BoTrustees and Athletic Dept. have to understand that the game is not just about sports. If we want to build a worldwide quality university, we've got to gain respect. The city, retailers, hotelers, local law enforcement and commerice representaitves don't respect A&T. When you go up to homecoming they bring out more cops (who have the customer service of Russia KGB agents), than in Iraq, even for the adult homecoming show, the cops disrespect our young and lock down streets after the young adults homecoming show so our children are hearded like cows, the cops ride through east Greensboro as if they're about to envade Afgahnistan and talk to us like we aren't humans, the hotels jack up the prices and treat us like dirt by instituing measures to discourage us from renting, the retailers close up shop or won't even display our pharpheneila and we want to be a worldwide respected university. I'll bet you wouldn't see in Boone, Chapel Hill, Raleigh, Greenville or Wake Forest what occurs in Grensboro behind A&T"s events. We've got to win to be respected. It's about commerce and trade and the football team must gain respect.

Well I am currently an Aggie although I don't play on the football team but this firing was overdue. He should have been fired after the Central game. Our defensive line coach is a former TE at Florida State..A TE? And the Offensive Coordinator isn't good either. It's gotten so bad I know when we're going to do a certain play because we seem to do it on the same down with about the same amount of yardage to go. The Defensive Coordinator isn't bad, the defense kept us in the close games we have been in and won the WSSU game for us. I'm begging Wheeler Brown please don't hire another position coach to coach this team because if he does then we'll see more of the same that we did in these 2 1/2 years. There's plenty of great local high school coaches to pursue so why not try one of them or hire a coach from a Divison II program that has proven himself not a position coach. We need a coach that knows and understands what AGGIE PRIDE means and stands for and with Fobbs as coach it was obvious that it was going to take a while for us to restore that AGGIE PRIDE.

Okay folks, this is the skinny. Coach Hayes had to be fired because he was about to bring a major scandal upon A&T. George Small was lazy. He wanted to be a coach in name only. This is why he was let go by three NFL teams. Dee Todd misrepresented her background when she was hired at A&T. She was a glorified seceretary before she came to A&T, but she was given an opportunity to be the AD at A&T. Riddick wanted to show that he was not a traditionalist. Fobbs should have been fired after the first six losses. It was not so much that he lost the games, it was the manner by which he lost the games which should have brought his dismissal then and not twenty-three games later.

It is about time. A change was needed. Coach Ragsdale will do a great job. I played with his son Marcus at A&T. Lets focus on getting Aggie Football back on track. I am sure Coach Fobbs gave a great effort, but in the end, it was time for a change. If Coach Ragsdale does a good job, then he deserves a shot at the HC job. If not, get a proven winner! i.e. Kenny Phillips, Fayetteville State!

I really hate to see someone lose a job in this economy. However, Fobbs has to be the worst College football coach in America. From 1989 to 2007 I had season tickets but decided not to renew this year due to his poor coaching. I went to homecoming this year and when I looked around the stadium all I could say was oh my God where are all the people? I just hope that this time we hire someone with HBCU coaching experience. If I had a vote I would vote for Kenny Phillips at Fayetteville State.

The Louisiana connection with Dodd and Fobbs was never a good match for A&T. Broadway at Grambling will be an excellent candidate. He is considered an outsider at Grambling, and a lost against Southern in the Bayou Classic; he will be pressured to step down. I understand that he's not very happy at Grambling because of alumni acceptance, and waiting for the right opportunity to leave. If A&T is willing to pay his assistances well, he'll go back to North Carolina in a heartbeat.
I also understand his family doesn't like Rustin, LA

How can you blame a guy, If you don't even give the guy enough money to hire his own staff. The next guy will be doomed for failure if he is unable to hire his own staff.

Good Jesus, Mary, and JoJo! It's about time that our cries were heard. This guy beat the AggieNation nearly to death with poor play calling and lousy execution. Good riddens! Now Ayantee, you want to be sure that you hire a TRUE coach this go 'round. No room for the pretty-pretty-kinda-like-a coach ("Sarah Palin's") of the game. How about that high school coach from Independence?

With Lee Fobbs at the coaching helm of the A & T football team, that "Old Aggie Spirit" was quickly approaching its breaking point. At Homecoming, after the fantastic halftime performance by the Blue and Gold Marching Machine (our one bright spot for the past five years), there was a mass exodus from the stadium. I had vowed to not attend any more games, but with Fobbs gone, I will show up to support the team and the interim coach for the remaining games. A quote from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar says: "There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat, And we must take the current when it serves, Or lose our ventures." Firing Fobbs on the brink of our "shallow and misery" was the best thing to happen to NC A & T since we were awarded our Engineering Research Center from the NFS.

There's plenty of blame to go around. I would have loved to see the man get a chance to recruit four years of players. But the team had begun to regress and the firing justified. Unfortunately, we will now be paying another coach to not be here. I would also suggest that the Offensive Coordinator be "relieved of his duties."
As far as the next coach, I'm not opposed to Mr. Phillips of FSU getting a look but I would love to see Connell Maynor who is a part of the FSU staff as well as the O-coordinator of the Philadelphia Soul in the position of Head coach. He's got Aggie ties and is respected by the A&T family, former players and within his profession.

YES!
As a visitor in so many stadiums that we've lost in, I've been waiting to sing this diddy myself: Nah Nah Nah Nah, Nah Nah Nah Nah, Hey Hey Hey, GOODBYE!

Winning games may get even tougher in the future - beginning in the fall of 2009 entrance requirements at A&T (and all other NC
HBCUs) will be RAISED to a SAT score of 700 and a high school GPA of 2.0 !

It would be nice to get Kenny Phillips from Fayetteville State as head coach because it would give him a chance to come back and once again coach for A&T where he was the D-Line/Linebackers coach from 88-95 and we won the MEAC in both 91 and 92 and Lloyd Hackley is the interim Chancellor at Fayetteville State so there is a connection there. As far as Tom Knotts from Independence goes, would he leave a regular powerhouse to come to a team that is right now a cellar dweller? Although if we did hire Knotts it would be a great recruiting tool for us considering he's put so many players through to Division I schools. With Fobbs as coach I found myself wondering what his recruiting pitch is to get the recruits, hopefully he didn't use his unimpressive win-loss record as a coach to get them; maybe he used the fact that he played and coached under the legendary Eddie Robinson. Whatever the pitch was, it wasn't working because there weren't many recruits coming through here. Fobbs' inability to manage the game, coach the game, call the plays and have his team prepared to win disappointed the fans, the alumni, and probably some of the players. I bet if Coach Robinson were still alive he would be disappointed too.

Sorry to see anyone lose their job and I wish Coach Fobbs and his family the best. It's time to move forward Aggies and get this program headed in a positive direction. When Coach Hayes departed a few years ago, with assistance I might add, Aggies were described as " two dollar aggies". When Coach Small departed, with assistance once again, we were described as "lack of funding". Given the fact that we had two good coaches that didn't get the needed funding for their respected programs and were terminated, I wish Coach Fobbs the best because we supported him and Dee Todd. I can sleep tonight knowing that NCAT gave these people a golden opportunity. Additional monies where put in place for advancement in recruiting, scholarship, salaries and non-teaching coaches. We have all these things in place (not the best but improved) to hire another good COACH. We also need to improve our fund-raising efforts so we can continue to improve our stadium/coach's office facilities. Is it possible during these recessionary times? Maybe! Our day will come again in a few years, so be patient fellow Aggies with the long road ahead because this is something that we as alumni allow to happen over the years during the last administration and I question even the current administration. Don't blame the past Head Coaches, they only wanted what we have now in place and this is only the being for something special yet to come! Aggie Pride is Alive!!!!

Well it's been a long time since the Aggies could stick their chest and bellow AGGIE PRIDE. Well it will take time and patience for this to happen again. Connell Maynor is a good person, with deep Aggie Blood lines. He's a family man and can heal your wounds. But are you Aggies ready to give him a chance? Don't be like Dorothy of the Wizard of OZ. Clapped your heels together and give your alumni a chance. Young gun and ready to score some points for you Aggies. Surround him with the right staff Wheeler Brown. Oh, This would make Bill Hayes proud to see that you got one of his legends to coach your Aggies.

SEE YA. AGGIE PRIDE

First of all, Lee Fobbs is an excellent coach and a proven leader on and off the field. From recruiting to personal development of student athletes, Lee has proven this ability over the 30 plus years of coaching. It is very obvious, from reading the previous blogs, that any of you understand the degree of difficulty that comes with any coach at the helm of a black college athletic program. There's so many internal promises that were never fulfilled. One for example, his recruiting budget. Have any of you A&T supporters ever ask how much money he was promised versus what he was presented. The figures are disappointing and discouraging for any coach. Did any of you question why A&T administration deny big time transfer recruits from being admitted? He had a following of D-1 transfers from big time conferences willing to accept A&T as their institution of choice. Why dont you Aggies do your homework and take a look behind the scenes. Being in the business myself, you'll find that there's more people to blame. Unfortunately Lee was a victim of poor decisions and mispromises. Anyone can point the blame, pass judgement, or critic from a distance but until you're exposed to the internal process, negotiations, and discussions, you'll find the true root to the problem. And it's not Lee Fobbs. It's black college athletic program and how "we" do business and make decisions.
We'll see what your "A&T Alumni" do and what change he will make. Will you then "boo" him? Or will you face the fact and question your Board , Chancellor, AD, and Alumni on the basis of their decision making?

By the way, you guys can have Coach Broadway from Grambling if you like. Yes, he's winning games but how ironic is it that his players walk away from Grambling with no sense of integrity and confidence in themselves to take on the next phase of life. In 2 1/2 season Lee has improved the moral fabric of student athletes. Thats what it's all about, folks. We'll take Lee Fobbs in a heartbeat and show you AGGIES what PRIDE really is on the field. Ever heard of Coach Eddie Robinson? Did you know in the first years of coach folks like you wanted him out because he didnt produce the wins immediately on field? Well, thank God no one listen to people like you back then or we would not have celebrated him being the winningest coach in not only in black college football but in college football, period.

Hey Aggies, get down off your high horses and give the next coach time to build a dynasty. Maybe one day A&T will be as popular as Grambling. But then again, you guys want "fast food" results. After all it takes time to build a dynasty.

Good luck on the rest of your season and i'll be back on this blog to comment on the soon to be firing of your Coach Ragsdale.

If you want to be part of a winning tradition, perhaps you should have went to Grambling. We have a waiting list of people like you Aggie fans. Pick a number and get in line!

A&T Advisor

It's been a long time. I feel a little sorry for Coach Fobbs. I know the feeling when A&T is in the top rankings of the MEAC - like back in da day. I look forward to that day again.

I agree with you A&T Advisor.
Those kids couldn't even catch the ball when he started, last season they started putting points on the board, this year they at least won 2 games.
Roman was not built in day. God took 7 days to create earth.
If this is what ya'll do to your coaches you will never get the quality team, A&T wants.

Good Luck Aggies

Take a look at coaches that have been successful in the CIAA (Fay. State and ECSU hint, hint). If they can recruit at the D II level with no resources, they should be successful at
A&T. They have established networks in VA,
NC and SC. Do not bring in someone who does not understand the area and does not understand HCBU's.

Well there comes a time when all good things come to an end. Although, Mr. Wheeler Brown took all the heat for the firing I'm sure there were more peoples involved in the decision. I guess that's what makes him a "team" player. So sorry that Lee had to go at such a terrible time in our economy but I want to look forward to a winning season too. Good luck coach Rags... I hope you can cut it!!

I don't agree with Coach Fobbs being fired. In no way, shape or form is it fair to expect a coach to come in and completely turn a program around in 3 years, especially when he was dealt a crappy hand to begin with! To go from no wins to two is an achievement and shouldn't be overlooked. A&T is too concerned with revenue and their fans/alumni's opinion rather than logic and common sense!! Any dummy can see that Coach Fobbs was doing some good things with the program and the kids and should have been given at least one more season to prove himself. And as for recruiting NC kids, he has to have help (asst coaches). A&T won't see a change until they get some better administration and more quality players!

Fobbs was simply the worst coach I've ever seen.....
Who do we get next - I don't know. But I know one thing.....WE NEED DIVERSITY WITH OUR COACHING CANDIDATES. I am tired of HBCUs just looking at just black candidates or coaches with only HBCU backgrounds.

There's no prerequisite that says to be an outstanding coach at an HBCU, that you either have to be
1) Black or
2) Of an HBCU background

An HBCU team has not won a DI-AA or DII championship since FAMU in 1978 - so why should A&T or any HBCU limit its coaching candidates to such a background??????

I want the best possible coach for A&T - I'm tired of seeing the poor brand of football the Aggies (and frankly the rest of the MEAC) play. We look like a bunch of clowns when we play out of conference games, and a lot of times, it is due moreso to the POOR QUALITY OF COACHES--- NOT THE POOR QUALITY OF ATHLETES.

The key is to find the BEST COACH - irrespective of his color and where he came from.

It simply isn't that hard to win in the MEAC, which shows you how bad of a coach Fobbs was. A&T has to look beyond the HBCU label and focus on being one of the best in I-AA football....this has to be the major premise by which the next head coach is selected.

In general, ALL AGGIES have to start thinking bigger - just trying to make A&T a premeire HBCU football program again is played.

FYI #1 - there's a team in our state's mountains that's won 3 straight I-AA titles....

FYI #2 - there's a team 20 miles east of us that's in the top 5 of the I-AA (Elon)....

I truly believe A&T can reach similar heights, but our MINDSET COLLECTIVELY NEEDS TO CHANGE ON VARIOUS FRONTS!!!!!

Fobbs should have been sent packing 2 years ago. At least it's good to have Wheeler Brown as as the AD especially after the recent line of losers. Aggie Pride!

the next coach must put a emphasis on selling a&t, the whole a&t. a&t is a great school with a lot offer to offer a young man. the next coach must be a excellent recruiter as we have got to have better players. in the past a&t football meant winning hard nosed tough football. whatever happened to the "BLUE DEATH" defense.i love a&t, as far as i am concerned we cannot go anywhere else but UP!!!!

Blame the state of Aggie football on James Renick. Whatever A&T decides to do just don't go knocking on Steven Davis' door down at Dudley. We want to keep him at Pantherland so we can win a few more state titles.

Long overdue...horrible game preparation, horrible recruiter, horrible attention to detail, horrible insight about the history of the program and the conference.

Should have been sent packing after posting that embarrising 0-11 record. Better yet, should not have been given the job in the first place.

b

Lee Fobbs is a good man indeed, and has proven over time to be a good position coach, but not a very good head coach. Some have it and some don't! Dee Todd made a bad decision in selecting him as head coach to restore the Aggies' glory. He had more time than needed to turn A&T's program around. The main reason why he was fired is because he was not improving, but instead was getting worse. I think Wheeler Brown will select a proven coach who can return A&T to it's glory days, once again. I think Wheeler knows what it takes to be a good HC! And to A&T Advisor, Lee applied to Grambling a couple of times for their HC position. Why didn't you guys take him then, since he's such a good coach? Probably because he's never been anything more than a position coach on the college level!

North Carolina A&T fires coach Lee Fobbs after 28 losses in 30 games, that reason he was fired and tha's reason enough. You either get the job done or get to packing, that's not my rule it’s the nature of the business. So, I ask, how long is long enough see failure?