Kienus Boulware doesn’t get too excited too often.
As the coordinator of Winston-Salem State’s defense, he has used his steady hand and quiet nature to help make an already talented unit even better.
On Saturday, Boulware will face his old boss, Coach Darrell Asberry of Shaw. Boulware spent the previous four seasons as Shaw’s defensive coordinator, and his players sense something different this week.
“When you are playing a school you used to coach, there’s a different feeling,” defensive lineman Juan Corders of WSSU said. “Of course Coach Boulware wants us to be successful on Saturday.”
Not long after WSSU hired Connell Maynor to be its head coach, Maynor called Boulware, who had 10 years of experience as a college assistant and seemed to be a perfect fit for the program.
As a player, Boulware, who went by his middle name of Perez, starred at Thomasville High and played linebacker for two seasons at North Carolina in the late 1990s.
As a college assistant, he has been associated with four CIAA-championship staffs — at Livingstone in 1997 and 1998 as linebackers coach and at Shaw in 2007 and 2008.
Maynor hopes the fact that Boulware is familiar with Shaw will be an advantage.
“As far as their offense, Boulware knows it like the back of his hand because he was there, and he knows what to expect,” Maynor said. “But we still have to stop it.”
Boulware’s unit leads the CIAA in total defense (234 yards a game allowed) and has had only one major injury — linebacker Carlos Fields missed three games. Now, the Rams are healthy and focused on finishing the regular season with a win and a 9-1 record.
“I think we are peaking at the right time,” Boulware said, “but we’ve had injuries here and there, and I think when we had Carlos Fields banged up for a while, that hurt us. That slowed us down with our chemistry, but when he came back into the fold, it really helped us.”
Boulware gives high praise to Shaw’s offense. Running back Raymond Williams is fourth in the CIAA in rushing (748 yards), and the Bears are second in the league in scoring (35.4 ppg) behind only the Rams (38.3 ppg).
“I know their most dangerous guy on the field is (Raymond) Williams,” Boulware said. “He has experience, and he is a very skilled athlete and one of the best running backs I’ve ever been around.”
Boulware says that the Rams have one goal Saturday — to win and put themselves in position for a possible berth in the CIAA championship game.
“The road to the championship has to go through Shaw,” he said. “If we can pull this one out and everything falls into place and they beat St. Aug’s next week, it would come down to a three-way tie.”
Boulware hasn’t changed much since moving to WSSU. He likes to attack with a four-man front and loves to blitz a weak-side linebacker on obvious passing situations.
“My philosophy is about the same,” he said. “This year I think personnel wise we have a little more depth than we had when I was at Shaw. That first wave of guys we had over at Shaw those last four years was pretty good.”
Corders, one of six senior starters on defense, said it took a little more time to come together this season.
“We started jelling when the season started, and then it just got better because we got to know each other better,” Corders said. “We have been playing up to our competition, and that’s been the biggest reason we’ve been playing pretty well.”
In the last two games (wins over Livingstone and UNC Pembroke), WSSU’s defense has allowed just one touchdown.
“We’ll need to play like that against Shaw,” Boulware said.
jdell@wsjournal.com
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