Vagabond Rams in Daytona

By: By John Dell | JOURNAL REPORTER
Published: October 24, 2009

Road-weary and winless Winston-Salem State will try again today.

The Rams, 0-6 this season and losers of their past eight, will play their fifth straight road game at Bethune-Cookman at 4 p.m. After flying cross country about 2,700 miles to play, and lose to, California Davis, the Rams took a 10-hour bus trip to Daytona Beach, Fla.

Bethune-Cookman (2-4) will celebrate its homecoming and is riding a two-game winning streak, but it wasn't that long ago that Coach Alvin Wyatt and his Wildcats were trying to find their footing.

"We're still struggling ourselves," Wyatt said when asked about facing a winless team. "We're trying to find our identity and get back on track."

The Wildcats run the Wyatt-bone, a variation of the Wishbone. The offense features plenty of fakes, misdirection and tricky blocking schemes and is difficult to defend.

Coach Kermit Blount of the Rams said that the key to stopping the Wildcats will be staying home on defense.

"There's a difference in being good against the run, but against this team, you have to be disciplined against the run," Blount said. "It's an assignment-type of football team."

The teams have played competitive games the past three seasons. B-C won 10-6 at home in 2006, WSSU won 14-9 at B-C in 2007, and B-C won 27-6 in WSSU's homecoming last season.

"They have a lot of team speed, and they are a very aggressive," Blount said. "It's their homecoming, so it's going to be exciting for them, and we just have to match their excitement and their aggressiveness."

Despite the 0-6 record, Blount said that the Rams are determined to turn things around. The offense, averaging just 9.5 points per game, scored a season-high 14 in the second half last week in the 45-14 loss at UC Davis.

Offensive coordinator Alan Hall said: "I think you could see some improvement throughout the whole game out there against Cal Davis. We had the turnovers in the first half, but we moved the ball a lot better than we had in the past."

Hall said he hopes the success of scoring two touchdowns will make a difference today.

"I think it takes some success like that in order to see it themselves," Hall said. "If we can get over this hump and get that first win, I think it will snowball a little bit."

Blount said that the Rams are determined to break the losing streak, the program's longest since a nine-game skid in 1975.

"Believe it or not, it's been easy," Blount said of keeping the team focused. "… We are in survival mode, but these kids come every day to bust their humps, so I'm proud of this team in a lot of ways."

jdell@wsjournal.com | 727-4081