Ram Ramblings: Is this the best CIAA football team ever?

I guess it’s time to pose the question about this year’s Winston-Salem State Rams football team.

There have been a lot of great CIAA teams in its history but is this WSSU team the best ever?

It’s certainly a valid question because now that the Rams have beaten California (Pa.) 35-28 on Saturday afternoon in front of nearly 8,000 fans they will venture into unknown territory.

No CIAA school has ever gone to the Division II quarterfinals, but the Rams are there and will get to play another home game this Saturday at noon against New Haven (Conn.).

The 12-0 Rams have the most wins in school history in a season and coach Connell Maynor is now 20-2 over two seasons. Maynor, who never turns down a chance to brag about his team, was in full throat afterward. He gave his thoughts on where this Rams team ranks in WSSU history.

“Greatest team in the history of Winston-Salem State University and they proved it,” Maynor said. “Nobody has ever won 12 games so they proved it. We’ve got 12 wins and we’ve got three more wins and we are the national champions.”

The Rams also broke a nine-game CIAA losing streak in the playoffs and the conference improved to 3-28 overall. WSSU has two of those three wins having also won a playoff game in 1978 with coach Bill Hayes running the show.

Hayes is the Rams’ athletics director and earlier this season I had a chance to ask him how his ’78 team would fare against these Rams.

“I think if the weather was bad and it was cold and rainy my ’78 team would do pretty well because that team was very physical,” Hayes said about those Rams that had a great running game and a great defense. “But I would have to say this team that Connell has probably has better athletes.”

When I pressed Hayes about which team would win, he only laughed and said: “I’ll guess we’ll never know.”
Looking at the scores of the other playoff games it’s interesting to note that the Rams have a chance to play at home for the next two games since the top seed in the Super Regional Three bracket, Colorado State-Pueblo, lost on Saturday to Minnesota Duluth 24-21.

The Rams will play New Haven on Saturday at home and if they win that game will play a semifinal game on Dec. 10 against lower seeded teams. With two more possible home games at Bowman Gray Stadium that can only help the Rams as they try to get to the championship game in Florence, Alabama on Dec. 17.

Even though the WSSU students were on break for Thanksgiving there were a lot of students at the game. The band was in full force and the atmosphere was very good.

Two of California (Pa.) coaches, offensive coordinator Mike Kellar and defensive coordinator, Mike Conway, offered their assessment of WSSU’s first playoff game at home in 20 years.

“We’ve played a lot of playoff games here at California,” Conway said about the Vulcans who were in the playoffs for the fifth straight season. “This was a great atmosphere and we’ve played at some places with some good atmosphere. But this was a great venue and a great job by the Winston-Salem area. It was a great turnout and we’d like to commend them and the town on a great job.”

Conway also offered his take on how good the Rams are. 

“I think they are a very good team,” Conway said. “They have great talent and I think in the region they will be tough to beat. And plus, with the fan support and all the people they will be tough to beat.”

Kellar said offered his opinion of the Rams chances to win it all. “They’ve got as good a chance as anybody,” he said.

Maynor was pleased with the fan support.

“I think we had a lot of students that came back,” Maynor said. “They supported the guys and the team and it was a short week. You know, freshmen want to go home on break but when you are a sophomore or junior or senior you don’t want to go home…. The fans were really big and played a big part.”

And the upset of the game was how the public address announcer, the energetic B-Daht, was objective the whole game just the way the NCAA orders it. I’m guessing B-Daht had more pressure on him than any coach or player who was on the field.