You won’t catch Howard head football coach Larry Scott looking ahead following the Bison’s wire-to-wire 50-20 win over North Carolina Central this past weekend.
“Football in the course of the season has plenty of ups and downs, highs and lows, so we have to become a team that has a line straight ahead,” Scott said during Monday’s Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference coaches’ call. “We don’t want to be a rollercoaster type of team. It’s something we focus on throughout the season.”
Howard (5-5 overall, 3-1 MEAC) now controls its own destiny with regard to the MEAC championship as they host Morgan State (4-5, 3-1 MEAC) this Saturday in the regular season finale.
A Bison win would give Howard its first outright conference championship since 1993 and a trip to Atlanta to play the Southwestern Athletic Conference winner in the Cricket Celebration Bowl on Dec. 16.
Scott doesn’t think it will be a challenge to keep his team focused on the task at hand.
“You’ve got two really good defenses that are going to square off against each other; these kids living along the Beltway have played against each other in high school,” he said. “Coach Wilson has done a fantastic job retooling that roster. It’s going to be a physical, fun, and competitive game.”
Scott said the team was already in preparation mode for Central following a stunning 27-24 loss at South Carolina State and considers Saturday’s performance an important point in his tenure at Howard.
“It speaks to the character of these young men and what they’re all about,” Scott said. “We had a come to Jesus meeting right there in that locker room at South Carolina State. The line’s in the sand now – what are we going to do?”
With NC Central in the past tense, Scott’s sole focus is the Battle of the Beltway that will hopefully lead his team to Mercedes Benz Stadium.
“I’m worried about November 13 and how do we win this day,” he said plainly. “We have a routine that sticks to – being brilliant in the basics. We try to take this thing one day at a time.”
