Porter looking for competitive spirit

After a seven-year stint under Donald Pittman ended in March, the Fort Valley State football program will have a new face on the sidelines this season: former NFL All-Rookie team safety Kevin Porter.

The Wildcats finished 5-4 last season after losing their regular-season finale, a win that would have propelled the team into the SIAC championship game.

But Porter didn’t talk about tangible benchmarks, like reaching a conference championship, for his first year. He said the goal for the Wildcats simply will be to be competitive.

“Everyone wants to get out and be competitive every week, and that’s what we want to do,” he said. “We want to get our program to where we can compete at the highest level in Division II, and it’s going to require a tremendous amount of effort from our staff, our university and our football players. But ultimately, that’s what we’re looking for.”

Reaching that level of competitiveness will be more challenging for Fort Valley State because of the program’s current amount of scholarships. Division II programs can have up to 36 scholarships. Right now, Fort Valley State has around nine.

Despite those those challenges, Porter said he can’t spend too much time worrying about things he can’t control.

“We have to, basically, play the cards we’re dealt,” Porter said. “Our goal is to put the best football team that we can possibly put on the field and have them play at a high level. We understand that we’ve got to raise money at the university, not only for athletics but for the university at large, so we’ll go on and put our team together. (We will) try to get out and attract the best student-athletes that we possibly can to come and that want to be a part of what we’re trying to get started.”

The competitive program Porter is trying to develop will not bloom without a plan. The first-year head coach said the university’s leaders have a long-term plan on how they will grow the program, one that is supported by the university.

“It’s not going to be something that happens overnight,” Porter said. “We understand that we’re in an area where a lot of really good student-athletes are looking for a place to play — a place to go to school. We think that we are a very good option along those lines. We will continue to try to keep our head down and try to execute the long-term plan, which is to ultimately get the program fully funded at the Division II level and be able to continue to attract good kids.”

And while Porter has had very limited time with players on the field, he said he likes the talent in the team’s secondary and believes quarterback Otis Brown has the ability to be productive this season.

Brown played six games last year — splitting starting time primarily with Malcolm Eady — and passed for 771 yards and three touchdowns. Porter said, while Eady has graduated, there will be a competition at the position.

“We’ve gone and looked back at every game from the last two years. We feel like we’ve got some good athletes and some good prospects at quarterback,” Porter said.

Porter said the coaches will create a competition that will allow the best player to receive the majority of the snaps with the goal of putting the best players in the right positions. By doing that and following his long-term plan, Porter said he hopes to one day achieve some of the results previous Fort Valley State coaches have seen.

“For me as the football coach, the benchmark has to be Coach Doug Porter and Coach (Leon) Lomax,” Porter said. “The impact that they were able to have on the program and to have on the young men who played for them. For me, if I can get into that class of coach at Fort Valley, then I think I’ll have done my job.”

This story was originally published August 27, 2016 at 6:47 PM with the headline "Porter looking for competitive spirit."