There’s a new vibe surrounding the Florida A&M soccer group.
The Rattlers wanted to vary one thing after going 7-5 in 2024 beneath then-rookie head coach James Colzie, which prompted him to specific that the season-long efficiency was “not the rattling commonplace.”
“The lights had been vibrant final 12 months,” the FAMU coach stated at SWAC Soccer Media Day on Wednesday. “We’ve bought work to do. It’s a new season. I’m enthusiastic about what our group’s going to seem like.”
If final season was certainly one of adjustment and uncertainty. This offseason has been marked by assurance and readability.
“January 1 of 2024, in comparison with January 1 of 2025 ― the imaginative and prescient was clear,” Colzie stated. “We knew what we would have liked to do, and there have been issues we would have liked to and will handle.”
Colzie stated he’s noticed offseason development at each stage of the operation. Gamers. Coaches. Offense. Protection. You identify it, and the Rattlers are totally different.
Although FAMU was picked to complete second behind defending convention and HBCU nationwide champion Jackson State within the SWAC East, there’s a sense that the group understands who they’re and what’s required to get again into championship rivalry once more.
Final season, the protection struggled at each stage. The Rattlers ranked seventh general, permitting 27.2 factors per sport and 167 yards per sport on the bottom. FAMU was final within the SWAC in compelled fumbles and tenth within the convention in interceptions.
However East Carolina switch Daylyn Diston has made an affect within the secondary within the offseason. The coach additionally famous that linebacker Nay’Ron Jenkins and defensive again Chase Lloyd stood out, too.
On offense, the Rattlers added a number of quarterbacks, together with Tyler Jefferson from Central Michigan and Jett Peddy of Lengthy Seashore Metropolis Faculty.
All quarterbacks, Colzie stated, have taken snaps with the beginning offensive items throughout spring and summer season exercises.
A QB1 will probably be named, stated Colize, properly earlier than the Rattlers’ season opener in opposition to Howard on Aug. 30 within the Orange Blossom Basic in Miami, Florida.
“There’s a special aura proper now so far as the place our soccer group is, the place our workers is, and the place I’m as the top coach of this prestigious establishment,” he stated. “We’re getting into the appropriate route. Our Rattler fanbase and alumni’s expectations are what their expectations are.”
