North Carolina A&T Aggies

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&nbsp; NORTH CAROLINA -- The biggest void new Aggie head coach Lee Fobbs and his staff must fill along the defensive line is finding someone to replace two-time All-MEAC selection Rickie Lewis.

Lewis led all MEAC defensive line in tackles for two straight seasons including many tackles behind the line of scrimmage. Even with Lewis, the Aggies allowed almost 5 yards per carry last year and over 200 yards per game on the ground.

Although they didnt have huge stats, the Aggies will miss the talent, athleticism and versatility of Marshall Glenn and Brandon Trusty. Both Glenn and Trusty were in the top 5 in rushing, passing and receiving on the team.

The biggest intangible will be the loss of their leadership on a very young and inexperience Aggie offensive unit this year. Trusty was by far the team's leading receiver with 63 catches last season.

The key to success this year on offense for the Aggies is their quarterback position. Coach Fobbs will have a tough job this year with three freshman quarterbacks on the roster- two of them are redshirts.

Fobbs will have to implement a new system with inexperienced quarterbacks along with an offense that hasn’t ranked higher than fifth in the MEAC in the last four seasons.

The two men likely to battle to be the number one quarterback will be Wayne Campbell and Herb Miller. Miller was the No. 1 quarterback in the spring and started the Aggies annual Spring Game in April.

<center><p><a href="http://www.blackathlete.net/artman/publish/article_02179.shtml" target="_blank">The rest of the story</a>

by L.A.Batchelor
labatchelor@peoplepc.com
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Miller, who was converted to a wide receiver when he arrived at N.C. A&T, was moved back to quarterback during his redshirt freshman season. Miller is very athletic and mobile.

He rushed for 930 yards and 10 touchdowns as a senior at Carver High in Winston-Salem. He also threw for 1,939 yards and 25 touchdowns and was a part of Carver’s 2002 State Championship team.

Campbell is a Division I transfer from Eastern Michigan. He too is a redshirt freshman after redshirting last season at Eastern Michigan. Campbell is big but not as agile.

At 6-foot-6, 215-pounds, he can see over most defenders and can throw the ball deep down the field. At Charlotte High School in Punta Gorda, Fla., he threw for a combined 3,451 yards and 37 touchdowns in his last two seasons.

When the Aggies had success on offense it was because of their balance. They averaged 138 yards rushing per game and 158 yards passing. All-Star candidate Brandon Sweeney returns after rushing for 877 yards and 8 touchdowns and averaging 5.2 yards per carry 205 yards against Morgan State at FedEx Field in Maryland.

They also have a very capable Quante Speight(407 yards rushing and a 5.6 yards per carry average). Having All-American candidate Andre Garth leads a talented list of players at wide receiver that should also help take some of the pressure and burden off the inexperienced quarterbacks the Aggies have.

Garth was an All-District and All-Division wide receiver out of Armory High in Fulton, Miss. He decided to attend Itawamba Community College for two seasons before transferring to N.C. A&T.

He is a big target for any quarterback standing at 6-5 and weighing 225 pounds. In two years at Itawamba, Garth caught 67 passes for 1,300 yards and 16 touchdowns.


The Aggies also have talented pass catching tight ends. A year ago, Brian Johnson and Joshua King combine to catch 10 passes for 99 yards. It may not seem like an abundance of receptions but it's significant considering the last time any Aggie tight end had double-digit receptions was in 2001.

DEFENSE

If the Aggies are going to have success on defense, they must start with stopping the run. The Aggies allowed over 200 yards per game and almost 5 yards per carry on the ground. They also gave up 25 points per game and over 366 total yards of offense per game.

These are stats that will be hard to improve on with only so many starters gone from the defense this season. The Aggies return just one starter from their front seven and just two starters from the secondary.

The Aggies are inexperience but they brought in some talent and speed at defensive end. Junior College transfer Antonio Johnson and freshman Andre Thornton. Johnson, out of Palomar Community College, runs the 40 in 4.5 seconds and should give the pass rush a boost if the Aggies can put opponents in 3rd and long situations.

Thornton is from tradition-rich Independence High School in Charlotte. Three returnees should also compete for the job in Lionel Brown, Michael Haye and Justin Amos.

The interior of the line does have some experience. Senior Jermaine Brantley has been a situational player during his career at N.C. A&T, but has quickness and has seen significant game action. Brandon Reliford, a starter in 2004, is returning from a foot injury that sidelined him for the entire 2005 season.

Sophomore LaShawn McLean made five tackles behind the line of scrimmage as a redshirt freshman starter last season. The D-Line will also need to be strong in stopping the run and pressuring the quarterback to put the offense in good scoring position and protect an extremely young and inexperience linebacking corp.

The Aggies lost three excellent linebackers in Charmar Milton, Montray Jackson and Monte’ Daniels. Converted defensive back Brandon Long will play linebacker this season. Redshirt freshmen Darius Martin will see some time at linebacker as well. Highly touted and talented Quante Grant will see significant playing time at linebacker too.

Grant, from A.L. Brown high school in Kannapolis, North Carolina runs a 40 in 4.5 seconds and made 150 tackles as a senior and was an All-State player last season. He also played in the Shrine Bowl, a game that features the top football players in North Carolina and South Carolina.

Morgan Vincent is another talented freshmen who will get his chance at the lineback position. Vincent was the PAC-6 Defensive Player of the Year as a senior at Person County.

The secondary should be a solid area for the Aggies this season. The Aggies also signed to talented freshmen this off season in Quentin Caple and J.J.Yates. Caple, a freshman out of Morven, was a three-time all-conference selection at Anson County high school.

As a senior, Caple was an All-State player with four interceptions and 17 pass breakups.

Yates, another junior college transfer out of Itawamba, broke up 11 passes, intercepted five more passes and returned one of those interceptions for a touchdown for Itawamba. He also had two kickoff returns for touchdowns and one punt return for a TD.

Johnson and Billingsley are two-year starters at the free safety and strong safety positions respectively. Marques Ruffin also earned significant playing time at safety in 2005 and Jonathan Metcalf, who played a role on specials teams last season, could earn some minutes at the cornerback spot. In total, the Aggies signed eight defensive backs to help coach Thomas Lavigne’s defensive backfield.

OVERALL

The Aggies are very young and inexperience on both sides of the ball.Losing starters is one thing, but asking freshmen or inexperience players at key positions such as quarterback or linebacker is a lot to ask of young warriors like the Aggies have any when they are trying their very best to get the job done in a very touch conference like the MEAC.

With tough games at Division I Louisiana-Lafayette, a home game against Florida A&M and conference games on the road versus Hampton, Norfolk State and Bethune-Cookman and their traditional clash versus South Carolina State makes the road to a winning season extremely difficult for Coach Fobbs in his first year.

The Aggies will be competitive and Fobbs is a winner with a proven track record or working for and with winners and if given time he will have the Aggies on the winning road years to come. Unfortunately, not this year.

TEAM CAPSULE

Head Coach: Lee Fobbs Jr.

Coaching record at North Carolina A & T State University: No record (1st year at the school)

Overall coaching record: 1st year as a head coach

2005 Record: 3-8 (2-6 IN THE MEAC)

Number of returning starters: 9 (3 on offense, 4 on defense and 2 on special teams)

Number of departures: 17 (8 on offense, 7 on defense and 2 special teams)

Key losses on offense: Marshall Glenn, Brandon Trusty

Key losses on defense: Rickie Lewis,Chamar Milton, Monta’ Daniels, Montray Jackson

Key losses on special teams: Joseph Arroyo, K, Dominique Brown, P

Players to watch: Brandon Sweeney, WR Andre Garth, J.J. Yates

All-Star Candidates: Brandon Sweeney, WR Andre Garth, J.J. Yates

All-American candidates: WR Andre Garth

Notes: 2006 marks a new era for Aggie football, new responsibilities for Lee Fobbs Jr., which is all designed to continue an old tradition at North Carolina A&T.Lee Fobbs Jr., became the 16th head coach in Aggie football history and his first head coaching job in his career. The two men who had taken the majority of the snaps for the Aggies over the past three seasons - Marshall Glenn and Rico Watkins - had completed their eligibility.

Prediction: 4-7.

NOTE: Tommorrow, L.A. Batchelor takes a look at the Aggies' new head coach, Lee Fobbs.



LA Batchelor
labatchelor@peoplepc.com


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Originally Posted by NewsCopy

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this one will be out of hand in the 1st 5 minutes.

L'Ronte'

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Originally Posted by RonMexico

this one will be out of hand in the 1st 5 minutes.

L'Ronte'

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You know, I hope you are right. We should win this game and get some reserves in too. Bottom line for me - win, stay healthy, and don't look past these guys just because we have more BIG games right around the corner.

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Originally Posted by shof

You know, I hope you are right. We should win this game and get some reserves in too. Bottom line for me - win, stay healthy, and don't look past these guys just because we have more BIG games right around the corner.

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Defense decimated by graduation. Didn't perform well with the seniors anyway. New coach. Presumably a new system. Not many positives in that article. Hopefully the new coach brings a new attitude and gives these guys something to get excited about.

I appreciate these guys making a road trip that helped us fill a hole in our schedule. If it does get out of hand, hopefully they will be able to work on some of the things they want to work on as well.

This is the same Coach Fobbs who was a GA at UL a couple of years ago right? I believe I heard he was the coach there.

As y'all know from the article, it appears as though we should have this game in hand soon. BUT, for the same reason we know that both aLm and aTm better be on their toes is the same reason we should as well. That being said, I look forward to this first home game.

God Bless

GEAUX UL RAGIN CAJUNS!!!!!!!!!!

should be a FANTASTIC home-season opener

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HAMPTON, Va., September 16, 2006 – If he couldn’t get a win, the next best thing North Carolina A&T head football coach Lee Fobbs wanted was to see improvement. The score may not indicate it, but Fobbs got his second choice.

No. 10 Hampton totaled 405 yards of total offense, and got 204 yards and three touchdowns from Kevin Beverly to down the Aggies 48-14 in MEAC play on Saturday. The Aggies fell to 0-2 overall and 0-1 in the MEAC, while the Pirates improved to 3-0 overall and 2-0 in the MEAC.

“I think we’re on track,’’ said Fobbs. “We lost to a good football team, one of the best D-I-AA programs in the nation. But we looked better at certain aspects of the game than we did two weeks ago. Of course, we made some mistakes here and there that we need to correct, but it’s a growing process.”

Among the Aggie improvements was forcing turnovers, moving the football and cutting down on penalties. But the key aspect of the game Fobbs liked was the play of redshirt freshman quarterback Herb Miller. Miller was 10 of 16 through the air for 93 yards and one interception. He was most effective on the ground, where he ran for 67 yards on 13 carries and scored twice.

“Miller played a tough, physical ballgame,’’ said Fobbs. “That’s what we wanted from him and that’s what we got. Overall, I thought our guys played tougher, played a little smarter, but there were some plays early that turned the ballgame in their favor.”

<center><p><a href="http://www.ncataggies.com/Football/2006%20articles/game2aggiesvpirates.htm" target="_blank">The rest of the story</a>

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Things didn’t start particularly well for the Aggies. They went three-and-out on their first drive and then gave the Pirates the ball on their own 47 thanks to a 6-yard punt. The Pirates, the No. 1 team in the Sheridan Broadcasting Network Poll, took six plays to take advantage of the miscue. The drive ended a 4-yard Beverly touchdown.

With a strong Aggie presence at Armstrong Stadium on Saturday, the Aggies didn’t appear intimidated by the quick Pirate strike. Thanks to two 15-yard Hampton penalties and a 15-yard completion to Curtis Walls, the Aggies moved the ball to the Pirates 8-yard line on the ensuing drive. Miller finished off the eight-play 71-yard drive with an 8-yard touchdown on a bootleg to the right, tying the game at 7.

But the Aggies, who had trouble slowing down the Pirates offense, couldn’t stop the Pirates from regaining the lead. A crucial mistake followed when Miller thought Hampton cornerback Travarous Bain was going to sit on short route. Instead Bain broke long and Miller threw the ball long leading to a Bain interception. Bain returned the pick 19 yards to the Aggies 27.

A personal foul penalty added 15 more yards to play, setting up the Pirates at the Aggies 12. Three plays later Hampton quarterback Princeton Shepard found Onrea Jones cutting across the middle for an 8-yard touchdown pass and a 21-7 Hampton lead.

“He is a veteran ballplayer and he made a veteran play,’’ said Fobbs about Bain. “In a couple of years, Herb is not fooled by that move because hopefully today he learned from it. I tell you what, I wish our second drive would have been our first drive, and would have worked with a lead. But things didn’t go our way today.”

Rebounding next week will not be easy for the Aggies; they travel to Lafayette, La., to play Division I Louisiana-Lafayette at 5 p.m.

“It gets no easier,’’ Fobbs said. “But our guys have to find out early that each every week you’re going to have to come to play.”




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Originally Posted by redcajun

This is the same Coach Fobbs who was a GA at UL a couple of years ago right? I believe I heard he was the coach there.

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No. The GA here was coach Fobbs son, Roderick.

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&nbsp; LAFAYETTE — Rickey Bustle views his team’s 2006 season much the same way he looks at a football game — it’s four quarters, not one.

That’s the reason he isn’t pushing any panic buttons in the wake of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s 0-2 start.

“Those were two measuring sticks that we just got finished playing that were tough for us,” said Bustle, alluding to the Cajuns’ 45-3 loss at LSU and their 51-7 loss at Texas A&M. “The rest of these 10 games, I think you’re going to able to better see where you’re at.”

The first of those 10 remaining games will be Saturday when the Cajuns open their home season at 4 p.m. against Division I-AA opponent North Carolina A&T. The Aggies have struggled as well, losing their first two games while being outscored 89-28.

Saturday’s game will be followed by non-conference games against Eastern Michigan and Houston. The Cajuns, preseason favorites in the Sun Belt Conference, then begin league play Oct. 18 in a nationally-televised game at Florida Atlantic. “That (LSU and A&M) was the first quarter of our season,” said Bustle. “The next three opponents that we’re playing are non-conference games; it’s the second quarter. And then we’ll have the second half of our season where we get into conference play.

“We’ve got 10 games left to play and I think we’ll be on a lot more even playing field. We’ve just got to put those (first) two games behind us.”

<center><p><a href="http://www.2theadvocate.com/sports/3950896.html?showAll=y&c=y" target="_blank">The rest of the story</a>

By GLENN QUEBEDEAUX
Special to The Advocate
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Bustle said his team appeared to do that — for the most part — during practices last week during their open week. However, there were lingering after effects from the losses, effects he was quick to address.

“I told our football team: ‘I’m not going to let LSU and Texas A&M tear your hearts out,” he said. “They (players) were very disappointed in the way they played; we were very disappointed in the way we played.

“I’ve had other teams that played those big schools and it didn’t seem to bother them too much. But this team was very disappointed.. The thing I told them is: ‘the reason why is because you have expectations.’ There were times in the past, in some of those games, where we hadn’t had some of those expectations.

“So that (disappointment) is good. But we’ve got to get over those two games.”

The focus now for the Cajuns, said Bustle, is improving as a team — regardless of who the opponent might be.

“We had a heckuva week last week,” said Bustle. “We were trying to get things corrected and that’s what the players wanted; they wanted to practice last week.

“And it was about us; it wasn’t about A&T or anything else; it was about us. Last night we had a heckuva practice, too, and I told them that if they were listening to what everyone are saying about this game (A&T) then they weren’t thinking about the game in the right way.

“I told them that we’ve got to get back to doing things right, doing things the way we know how to do them. You take one play at a time and don’t put the horse before the cart.”

Bustle acknowledged that the Cajuns are not where he had hoped they would be when the season began, not that the 0-2 start surprises him. It was how the Cajuns played in the two losses and how they reacted. He said he planned to address that with his 17 seniors this week.

“Everybody’s disappointed, not just a few people or one side of the ball or anything else,” he said. “We’re all kind of wanting to feel a little sorry for ourselves. We’ve just got to on through that and get on with it.”

That is especially true if the Cajuns hope to live up to their preseason billing as the Sun Belt Conference’s premier team. Other teams — Troy, Arkansas State, Middle Tennessee in particular — are quickly establishing themselves as teams to be reckoned with. Florida International, despite an 0-3 record, and Louisiana Monroe are also raising eyebrows.

“Our conference right nowl is playing well for the most part, outside, and it’s going to be a tough conference,” he said.

Troy, 1-2, shocked perennial power Florida State before losing 24-17 and then gave Georgia Tech everything it wanted in a 35-20 loss. Meanwhile, Arkansas State defeated an Army team, 14-6, that last weekend lost to Texas A&M by only four points.

“I think right now that if I compared them to our team, it would look like, on paper, that they’re further along than we are; maybe better prepared than we are,” said Bustle. “Us as coaches, we’ve got to look at what we do, too. But we’ve got a plan for what we want to do.

“They (Troy and Arkansas State) have had some success and success breeds everything. And that’s where we need to get to.”

Hopefully beginning this Saturday.

Story originally published in The Advocate



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&nbsp; They've had two losses to open the season, neither of which were close. They haven't been able to mount a consistent offense, averaging less than 205 yards per game in those two losses. They're desperate for a solid performance, much less a win.

Sound familiar?

North Carolina A&T holds two losses to Division I-AA partners Winston-Salem (41-14) and Hampton (48-14). Now, the Aggies will play their second-ever game against a Division I-A opponent when they come to Cajun Field Saturday to meet the 0-2 and equally-struggling University of Louisiana squad.

"<b>Lafayette</b> is no different from Hampton, or N.C. A&T, or any other team," said Aggie linebacker Davion Hemphill, who leads NCA&T with 20 tackles through two games. "A team is a team. Eleven individuals go out and play. I have to get my assignment done and push my teammates to get their assignments done."


<center><p><a href="http://www.theadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060921/SPORTS/609210336/1006" target="_blank">The rest of the story</a>

Dan McDonald
dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com
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Those assignments have been a struggle, but first-year head coach Lee Fobbs saw some bright points between the Winston-Salem loss and last Saturday's outing against the I-AA 10th-ranked Hampton squad - one that already beat Grambling this season.

"I think we're on track," Fobbs said. "We lost to a good football team, one of the best D-I-AA programs in the nation. But we looked better at certain aspects of the game than we did two weeks ago. We made some mistakes here and there that we need to correct, but it's a growing process."

Fobbs came to A&T after three years as running backs coach at Texas A&M, and watched on video his former A&M running back charges roll up 225 yards and five rushing touchdowns against the Cajuns in a 51-7 win two weeks ago.

"I feel like there are some things we can exploit offensively and defensively," he said. "It's the same thing as last week, but we just didn't put points on the board."

Those scoring opportunities may become more prevalent now that A&T has settled on quarterback Herbert Miller, after using a two and three-quarterback system through the first two games. Miller has hit on 17-of-28 passes, a 60.7 percentage, with only one pick in two games.

"From an offensive standpoint we've improved," Miller said, "but we're not where we need to be. It's gonna come. We have great leadership, we keep working hard and if we get our mental errors right, we're gonna win."

"He is our starter," Fobbs said. "We've given each of them a chance, and last week we said someone had to step up and he did. Getting him on the corner where he could either run it or throw it would be vital for us."

Fobbs has a world of connections to Louisiana. A native of Monroe and former player at both Carroll High in Monroe and Grambling, Fobbs' first six coaching jobs were in the state with stops at Grambling, Wossman High and Carroll High, UL Monroe, Tulane and LSU.

"Going to Lafayette, taking the kids into a different environment, it's tremendous," he said. "We must venture into different environments, we must learn, we must know different things. I've told the kids that it's a teaching process. I want to expose them to this level of play so it can help us down the road."





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&nbsp; North Carolina A&T plays its official homecoming game on Oct. 21, and the Aggies will have a lot of chances to improve on their 0-2 start between now and then.

Saturday's game against UL's Ragin' Cajuns shouldn't be one of those chances, but homecoming for the Aggies' head man starts today when A&T touches down at Lafayette Regional Airport.

Lee Fobbs knows that airport. He probably knows every airport, every highway and every back road in Louisiana.

"It's home for me," Fobbs said this week. "It'll always be home. My profession has taken me a few places and I've enjoyed every moment and I continue to enjoy it. But it's a pleasure to come back home."

Fobbs coached in Louisiana for two decades, on both the prep and collegiate levels, before leaving LSU for a job at Southern Mississippi in 1995.

He's since been on staffs at Minnesota, Baylor, Alabama and Texas A&M before finally getting a college head coaching opportunity last December when A&T came calling.

Fobbs was the running backs coach at A&M, a place where traditions run deeper than just about anywhere in college athletics. The Cajuns saw up close and personal - try 51-7 and five rushing scores - what kind of athletes Fobbs was mentoring in College Station.

He's watched the video of the UL-A&M game more times than he can count, mostly for scouting purposes. But more than once he caught himself eye-balling his former Aggies.

<center><p><a href="http://www.theadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060922/SPORTS/609220322/1006" target="_blank">The rest of the story</a>

Dan McDOnald
dmcdonad@theadvertiser.com
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"It was different," he said. "I could sit there and point out each player by name. Those were some great times.

"I had a great situation at Texas A&M, being with Dennis (A&M head coach Dennis Franchione) and coming with him from Alabama. But I always had some goals and ambitions to do some things in this profession, while I had fresh legs (he turned 56 last July). The opportunity came, I looked at it, surveyed it for a long time, and the more I looked the more intriguing it was.

"I've always told by sons that if you're going to be in this profession, don't go halfway."

Ah, the sons. Jamaal is the quarterback coach for A&T and was born in Monroe while his father was coaching at Wossman High. Older brother Broderick, two years a Cajun graduate assistant, is the wide receivers coach at Northwestern State, adding to those Louisiana roots.

Except for that one-year far-flung assignment in Minnesota, he's never lived much more than a half-day's drive from his Monroe birthplace. And he always wound up spending time back in the state, beating the recruiting trails that were so familiar.

"I pretty much had Louisiana everywhere I've ever been," he said. "For a while at Alabama, we broke the state up so we could cover it better, but the guys working the other parts would always come back to me asking questions about coaches, places. Finally, Dennis just said why don't you take the whole thing again."

Fobbs recruited a handful of players on this year's Cajun squad, including UL quarterback Jerry Babb while still at 'Bama. "I remembered him from high school," he said. "I remember how much it looked like he understood the game, and that's even more obvious now. The coaches there (at UL) have done a great job with him and with their scheme and what they're trying to accomplish. We've got to match everything they throw at us."

That won't be easy. The I-AA Aggies have played only one other I-A team in their history, and Fobbs' first A&T team is in a building mode. Only one offensive starter and five regulars overall are back from a 3-8 team, and the roster includes 34 new faces including 26 freshmen.

That youth has been exposed in two early losses, and Fobbs would probably like to be carrying a bigger stick into his return to the state. But he knew this year's toll might be high.

"I'm encouraged and pleased with the progress of our kids," he said. "They're continuing to grow and learn. We're young, but we're competitive and that's all you can ask."





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