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Marlon Watson talks year one at Fort Valley State, overcoming close losses
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- Marlon Watson talks year one at Fort Valley State, overcoming close losses
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In a recent interview on HBCU Gameday's podcast, The SIAC Sitdown , Fort Valley State head coach Marlon Watson reflected on his first year at the helm of the Wildcats. While Fort Valley State ultimately finished 4-6 under the leadership of Watson, they found themselves competitive in several games against competitive Division II programs.
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Per Watson, the team overachieved as he dealt with a rush to put together his coaching staff and facilitate his team heading into spring 2025.
"I didn't get in until February 14th. I didn't get the staff in till March. Eight days of spring ball, 20 guys in summer. And we had to stop fall ball for a couple days because of COVID. We all know the spring and the summer is where you build football teams."
Fort Valley State was competitive in several early-season games against the best teams in Division II. Particularly in the first three weeks, they had narrow losses against the University of West Alabama, Clark Atlanta, and Delta State University. Delta State ultimately went on to be an NCAA Division II playoff team and the Wildcats held the lead for a significant portion of the game.
But Watson identified even more games that the Wildcats were unable to close out.
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"As you saw throughout the season, [six] out of those 10 games that we played, we could not finish. We were winning in the fourth quarter. And that's where you learn to finish this time of year right now."
But even through the losses, the competition against some of the best teams in Division II gave confidence to the Fort Valley State University Wildcat football team.
"They found out that they can compete with some of the best teams in the nation…We came out of that game confident, but again it's that finishing aspect of things where we just couldn't finish."
Watson now has more clarity heading into year two leading Fort Valley State.
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"Last year, we were feeding you milk. We were trying to usher you through, but now we got a year under our belt. There's no more milk. We want meat now. And so we're teaching these guys right now on how to hunt."
He also emphasized that the issues that they ran into in year one won't occur in year two.
"Those little discipline things, the little things that matter in that fourth quarter where we lost those [six] games, we won't have that problem going forward."
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