NORFOLK, Va. (WTKR) — Despite the critical two-point conversion not going Norfolk State's way against Florida A&M, the attempt by Dawson Odums sent a message to green and gold players.
"We had all the momentum, and I get why Coach would go for it," said running back Kevon King. "It shows he trust our offense more than he used to."
That belief is something Odums saw throughout his team in its season opener in Atlanta. Even after enduring the 24-23 heartbreaking loss, the head coach taking away plenty of things to build on that hadn't been present in prior defeats.
"A lot of the conversations were conversations I hadn't heard since we've been here," Odums said. "You didn't see anyone pointing fingers, you didn't see arguing. That's the growth of our football team."
Norfolk State turns its attention to another road test at East Carolina on Saturday. While not fully where they want to be at the moment, the Spartans want to turn the momentum they saw in their week zero matchup into something tangible.
"We want to know. We want to know that we deserve to be there, we want to know that we're going to win," said linebacker AJ Richardson. "We want to go past belief. Our mindset has to be set on winning."
"We just have to finish games and execute our plays more," King said.
An Oscar Smith product, King got the bulk of the attention from the Spartans season-opener. He carried the ball 14 times for 146 yards, which included an 82-yard touchdown run on the first drive of the game.
"At halftime, I checked my phone and it was at like 50 messages at halftime," he said. "And it was at like 120 after the game."
"He went the distance, the question was if we had anyone that could go the distance. Checked that box," Odums said. "Do we have a running back that can run between the tackles? Checked that box."
The green and gold ran the ball 43 times in the opening game, averaging 5.3 yards per carry.
With a new challenge ahead of them this week, the Spartans aim to take that level of production on the road again. This time, however, their locked in on changing the result.
"It's not going to always go your way. You have to make winning happen," Odums said. "It don't always happen but you can see that you're gaining on it. We played start to finish, we had no sideline issues."
"It says that you're gaining on what you're trying to do and we're a lot closer than we were a year ago."
Norfolk State and East Carolina kick things off at 6:00 PM on Saturday.
