Alabama A&M Football put high expectations on display at SWAC Media Day

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WHNT) — Getting back to winning ways is a top priority for Alabama A&M Football ahead of the 2024 season, a message the program’s players and coaches made loud and clear in Birmingham Tuesday at the 2024 SWAC Football Media Day.

Head Coach Connell Maynor along with running back Donovan Eaglin and defensive back Emari Pait represented the bulldogs in the Magic City each of which said having a winning season was their main focus.

With nearly 30 new incoming recruits and a revamped defensive coaching staff, the Bulldogs hope to revitalize its program after finishing the last two seasons with losing records.

After giving up plenty of points on the defensive side a season ago, that end of the football has been a heavy talking point during the off-season.

“Coach Howard [new defensive coordinator] bringing him in on the defensive side of the ball where we gave up 37 points a game the last couple years, we’re looking for huge improvement on that side of the football,” Maynor said.

With a big-time opening matchup against the Auburn Tigers, the bulldogs’ 2023 All-SWAC second-team honoree says it’s a challenge he’s looking forward to for himself and his teammates in a game he hopes will set the tone for their entire season.

“I feel like if we stay healthy this year, we’ll go a long way,” Eaglin said. “We have a bunch of weapons, a bunch of new receivers, and we got a lot of playmakers so that’s all it is, staying healthy this season.”

Maynor knows his team will have the opportunity to make a name for themselves in their week one game against Auburn.

However, he’s not losing site of their overall goal and that’s playing well through the end of the season with Alabama A&M seeking its first SWAC Championship in over 3 years.

“We want to be competitive as long as we can in that football game but our number one goal is to get out of there healthy because we don’t want to lose our best players,” Maynor said. “We don’t want to lose Donavan Eaglin in the Auburn game and then we don’t have him against the SWAC so we want to play hard as long as we can, be competitive for as long as we can, but we want to get out of there healthy.”

The Bulldogs football coach says he feels the changes in his coaching staff and all the new players coming in will propel the program back to its winning ways.

A&M will open their season at Jordan-Hare Stadium against the Auburn Tigers on August 31.

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