GREENSBORO – North Carolina A&T head football coach Alonzo Lee and the Aggies made their debut at home in front of 14,338 fans Saturday at Aggie Stadium under the klieg lights. Those same fans assisted the Aggies in punching Norfolk State’s lights out in a 17-13 win.

Perhaps the new head coach’s influence extends beyond the 2-0 football team. Whenever he speaks, whether it is in front of alumni, his team or the media, there always seems to be an extra gear he goes into that makes people – old and young – wish they could suit up too.

It is hard to match Lee’s enthusiasm. But the people wearing the sea of gold at Aggie Stadium Saturday night sure tried. In fact, Aggie fans acted as if they had heard a coach Lee pregame speech.

The fan participation didn’t go unnoticed.

“We knew this wasn’t going to be an easy game for us,’’ said Norfolk State head coach Pete Adrian. “We knew they were going to be a fired up football team after last week. You add that to having to come in here and play in this atmosphere with this crowd noise, and we had a tough task ahead of us.”

A smile came to sophomore running back Mike Mayhew’s face when asked about playing his first game in Aggie Stadium.

“It was unbelievable,’’ Mayhew said as he leaned forward with a big grin on his face. “To play in your first college game at an HBCU with the crowd, the band and the excitement, it’s what you live for.”

There were some crucial moments where fan support was needed. The Spartans had two excellent opportunities to put points on the board in the fourth quarter. They had the ball first-and-goal from the Aggies 6-yard line. As the Spartans inched closer, senior defensive end Tyre Glasper extended his arms horizontally and began flapping them up and down to encourage the Aggies to rise to their feet.

The Aggie players used the encouragement to stuff the Spartans at the 1 on 4^th-and-goal. A few minutes later, the Spartans had the ball inside the Aggies 30. The referee stopped the game momentarily to signal to the Aggies Blue and Gold Marching Machine (the band) to stop playing during the Spartans’ offensive drive which is in compliance with the MEAC rule that states (paraphrasing) a school’s band can not play when the opposing team has the ball.

It didn’t matter. The Aggie faithful turned up the volume instead, and the Spartans ended up turning the ball over on downs.

“We had that twelfth man out there,” Lee said, referring to the thousands of Aggie supporters who rose to their feet and cheered the defense on during the goal line stand. “I got to give a shout-out to our fans.”

Maybe the fans also want to give a thank you to coach Lee for his motivational efforts in Aggieland. “Coach Lee will make you want to run through that brick wall back there,’’ said Aggies senior defensive end Tyre Glasper referring to one of the walls inside the Bryan Fitness and Wellness multipurpose room.