North Carolina A&T and Tennessee State are set to match up in a highly anticipated HBCU football game.
For North Carolina A&T head coach Shawn Gibbs, week one isn’t about having the perfect playbook. It’s about making adjustments on the fly. As the Aggies prepare to open the 2025 season against Tennessee State, Gibbs stressed that unpredictability will define Saturday’s matchup in Nashville.
“I don’t think week one is primarily about game plan. It’s about the adjustments,” Gibbs said at his first weekly press conference. “We’ve watched film from the USFL, XFL, Virginia State, Alabama State — just to get an idea of what they might do. But ultimately, it’s going to be about who can make those in-game adjustments.”
The opener pairs two proud HBCU programs in transition. Gibbs is making his head coaching debut at North Carolina A&T after three years at Fort Valley State, while Tennessee State begins the post-Eddie George era under Reggie Barlow, a veteran coach who led Virginia State to a CIAA title and the D.C. Defenders to the XFL Championship Game.
A Battle of New Eras
The Aggies arrive with a roster that Gibbs admits is still developing its identity. He declined to name a starter for Saturday’s game.
“After spring ball, I was scared to death,” he said. “But when fall camp started, I saw how they were working and coming together as a team. Buying in to the culture, pounding the stone every day — that’s what has me most pleased.”
For Tennessee State, the intrigue comes from its new coaching staff. Barlow has surrounded himself with proven assistants, including Shannon Harris, who is pulling double duty this fall as both TSU offensive coordinator and a coach with the UFL’s Memphis Showboats and Toriano Morgan, a TSU alumnus and former Edward Waters head coach with deep HBCU ties.
The staff’s pedigree — from professional spring leagues to championship experience at the Division II level — makes scouting them an even more complicated task.
“We don’t know what they’re really going to coach,” Gibbs admitted. “That’s why it’s about being able to adjust once the game starts. Whoever makes the best adjustments in real time, that’s who will win.”
Setting the Tone for the Season
North Carolina A&T enters the season seeking to re-establish itself as a national HBCU power after recent struggles. Gibbs framed success not around the scoreboard, but around steady growth.
“Success is that we’re improving each and every day,” he said. “Saturday will be our first game. The next week, it’ll be about being better than we were Saturday. It’s a process. We’re building a program, trying to get back to where we belong.”
Players echoed that mentality. Offensive lineman Korrion Sharpe, one of A&T’s captains, said the energy is different under Gibbs.
“You just feed off the coaches,” Sharpe said. “They show us everything we need to know — not just football, but life. Be 15 minutes early, manage your time, be a better man off the field. That carries over when we step on it.”
On defense, captain Aaron Harris set the tone.
“Our mentality is simple — we gotta hit you in the mouth,” Harris said. “We want to be physical. That’s how we separate ourselves, by being the defense that flies to the ball and makes you feel us every play.”
Getting Back In The HBCU Conversation
Tennessee State is coming off a season where it shared a conference title and made it to the FCS playoffs. A&T, meanwhile, is trying to prove it still belongs in the national conversation after years of coaching turnover and back-to-back winless seasons in the CAA.
“This is the number one HBCU in the world,” Gibbs said of North Carolina A&T. “We’ve got the best fans in the world, and we need them loud and behind us. If we can improve, we’re going to make our alums happy and we’re going to get things back to where they need to be.”
With two new head coaches, two fan bases desperate for wins, and two programs eager to reassert themselves nationally, Saturday’s clash will hinge not on the first script of plays, but on who adjusts best when the game starts to bend.
“Neither one of us knows what the other is really going to do,” Gibbs repeated. “It’s going to come down to who can adjust — and that’s what will determine the outcome.”