Shawn Gibbs stood in front of a room full of reporters at CAA Media Day and said something you don’t often hear from a coach coming off a 2-10 season. He didn’t talk about needing time. He didn’t plead for patience. He said his program is a championship program, and it’s time to act like it.
That’s a notable shift for an Aggies team that spent last year trying to prove it belonged in the CAA after moving over from the MEAC. The results were ugly — two wins, both over Hampton and Campbell, and a bunch of close losses that felt like moral victories at the time. Close losses to Maine and William & Mary happened. The 62-20 beatdown from rival North Carolina Central happened. But Gibbs sees last season as the low point before the climb, not a sign of what North Carolina A&T is going to be.
What changed in Year 2
Gibbs pointed to two things. One is talent. He said the roster is deeper and more athletic than it was a year ago. The other is development — the guys who were here last year, who took those losses, have had a full offseason to get better. “We’ve brought in a lot more talent,” Gibbs said. “The guys that we had here last year have developed and become better players. So we’re excited about where we’re goin’.
Elijah Kennedy is the kind of player Gibbs is talking about. The return specialist got preseason recognition after a strong 2025 season, but he’s not treating that like a finish line. “Being recognized for your hard work, hard work paying off, it’s always a good feeling,” Kennedy said. “But for me, you know, I’m not complacent in it. I’m still hungry and ready to go get some more.” He spent the offseason in the weight room, getting faster and stronger, but also working on his receiver skills so he’s not just a one-trick returner. And he’s trying to pull the rest of the roster along with him. “Helping my guys get to where we need to be and pushing the narrative that we need to win games.”
Steven Davis II is another guy who should look different this year. The safety was coming off a torn ACL last season and clearly wasn’t at full strength. Now he says he’s fully healthy and planning to be one of the best defensive backs in the CAA. That kind of talk matters for a defense that gave up 62 to NCCU and 38 to South Carolina State.
Motivation from the bottom
The Aggies were picked near the bottom of the CAA preseason poll. That’s not a surprise given how 2025 went. But Gibbs said his team is using those projections as fuel. “Seeing where we were predicted to finish is motivating because that tells us what the people in this conference think of us,” he said. “We’re gonna go out each and every day and work to get better, and we’ll let the results take care of themselves.
It’s not hard to see the gap between where North Carolina A&T is and where it wants to be. The roster is still young in Gibbs’ system, and the CAA is a brutal league. But the coach’s tone is different this time. There’s no more trying to convince anyone that the Aggies belong. “For me, that’s no longer our approach,” Gibbs said. “Our approach isn’t to prove anything to anybody. Our approach is to honor and glorify who we’ve always been, and we’re a championship football program, and we’re gonna start carrying ourselves and conducting ourselves like that.”
Words are cheap in August. Come September, North Carolina A&T opens against Tennessee State again, and the result will say a lot more than any press conference.
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