Albany State head coach Quinn Gray is on a mission. Last season, the Golden Rams just didn’t finish like he or the team felt they should have. In 2023, they would make it to the SIAC conference championship, where they would fall to Chennis Berry’s Benedict Tigers.
With a hoard of re-aligning, transfers, and coaching changes, the SIAC is virtually wide open this season. Albany State wants to stake its claim on the title by rebuilding and improving the program. With a solid core of veterans, Quinn Gray could be in a position to return Albany State to the pinnacle of the SIAC, which was last reached by Gabe Giardina.
The ASU Coliseum was the site of the Blue & Gold game. It was a festive atmosphere as the university was hosting an open house for visiting families interested in attending the plush southern Georgia campus. With a full squad of cheerleaders and an impressive 346-member band playing, it was the perfect opportunity for the players to display what they had worked on for 15 days.
The first half belonged to the “Dirty Blue” defense. Led by cornerback Deven Foster, the defense thwarted most attempts by the offense. It would lead to the offense only scoring on field goals in the first half. Foster picked off a pass and ran it down to the offense’s one-yard line before being tackled.
The second half belonged to the offense. All-SIAC quarterback Isaiah Knowles got things in gear, and the offense scored some touchdowns. Uncharacteristically, Quinn Gray had all quarterbacks except Knowles as live targets in the game.
Albany State senior kicker Kyle Wright was spot-on all game. He nailed every field goal attempt and did a great job performing in swirling wind conditions. “Kyle has done a tremendous job for us in the kicking game when it comes down to field goals and putting points on the board when we aren’t able to put the ball in the end zone,” Gray said. “He understands situations and what his role is when it comes down to putting points on the board. We call him Mr. Automatic.”
Gray commended the play of his team as he used the Spring to evaluate the talent and what holes might need to be filled for the Fall. “Defense played a tremendous first half today and rightfully so. We’ve been at each other all spring and, and here in the Blue and Gold game we really just simplified a lot of things and didn’t, really call everything that we could simply because it is on national TV but at the end of the day, we had enough in that we can put on a good show for the folks and then also get the work that we were trying to get, but defense flew around, pretty good,” Gray said.
Gray went on to explain the live quarterbacks in the game. Knowles wore a white jersey to indicate that he was not live, but backups were in play. “We wanted to make the quarterbacks besides Isaiah live because you’re talking about, Jayden Kenney who played his last meaningful snap in high school in fall of 2023. So with that you’re talking about a guy who hadn’t really seen or felt the hit in a year and a half. So we wanted to make those, those two guys live just to see how they react and what they do with the football in terms of decision making. It was fairly good for us obviously there’s some things we need to clean up, but overall I’m happy with the way it turned out most importantly we’re healthy,” Gray said.
Quinn Gray has overhauled his defensive line position with a coach he experienced at both Delaware State and Alcorn State. “Damon Francis came over from, Fort Valley, who was, who was with myself, Coach Cash, and Matt Brown at Alcorn State, back in 2021. Francis has been doing this for the last 30 plus years. His mindset and the way he coaches and the way he teaches our guys has our guys playing with a different mindset in terms of how we attack and I think we did too much thinking versus reacting and attacking last year and I and it’s evident in what you see on the field now,” Gray Concluded
With the era of coaches and players moving around fluidly on all NCAA levels, the landscape of college football has rapidly changed, and that holds true for Division II as well. Gray has a philosophy in dealing with all that is going on. “As the cliche, you gotta focus on you, right? We can’t necessarily focus on what’s going on in and around the SIAC. We can only handle what we’ve got in front of us, and that’s an opportunity for us to get better as a team with our spring season,” Gray concluded.