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On a hot, humid late September afternoon at Murray Goodman Stadium, Gilmore won his first football game as head coach, finally outlasting visiting Merrimack 10-3 in a game where defense and special teams were the order of the day.
One of the longest days in Appalachian State football history gravitated well into the evening as the Mountaineers opened their Sun Belt Conference opener against Coastal Carolina.
But even a two-hour and three-minute lightning delay couldn’t slow down the ASU attack in the 56-37 victory over the Chanticleers.
It wasn’t the sort of game for the NFL’s Red Zone channel. It wasn’t for people who love power rushing, precision passing, or turnover-free ball. But it was a win that the Lehigh Mountain Hawks will happily take. The Lehigh Mountain Hawks had six sacks and kept Merrimack out of the end zone, and rode.
A brand-new rivalry is spawned in the NEC and a league tilt between St. Francis (PA) and Bryant feature this week.
League play starts next week, but the teams of the Patriot League need some help in out-of-conference this week if at all possible. As a conference, the Patriot League is a combined 4-20 out of conference, with one of those wins coming against a Division III school. With an FBS school, several daunting Ivies, and a CAA school, fans of Patriot League schools are hoping for upsets this week.
Jacksonville State, as usual, is carrying the banner for the OVC. The only other team having real success in the non-conference portion of the schedule is Tennessee Tech. Other than those two teams, the OVC has shown very poorly against non-conference opponents.
Campbell coach Mike Minter just wanted his kicker to have a fair chance to score the winning points. With an accurate snap and clean hold, Minter believed in Colin Gary’s leg even if the stats – 4 of 11 in his career, 1 of 2 on the night, career-long of 37 yards – said otherwise.
1/3 of the way through the season, there are still a large number of Southland teams in contention for the league title. What was already thought to be a crowded field has only gotten more crowded with the level of play of Southeastern Louisiana.
The Southern Conference continues to confound the rest of the FCS world. As soon as you think a team is heading in one direction, they turn it the other way. Samford looked lost early in the year, but now has two big wins in a row. ETSU lost to VMI, but turned around and picked up a win over Austin Peay. VMI couldn’t continue the momentum from their victory over ETSU, losing to lowly Robert Morris.
In the end, the matchup this weekend will be a show-me type of game, one that might set the trajectory for both programs.
The Ivy League had a hugely successful opening weekend, as many expected. As a whole the Ancient Eight went 6-2, the only losses coming from a missed two-point conversion attempt by Penn at Delaware, and a furious Harvard rally falling short to San Diego. This week the Ivy League seems poised to have another great week, and additionally league play is starting with two early-season conference tilts.
Villanova showed that they are not to be forgotten in the CAA race in 2019. The Wildcats went toe to toe with the best offense in the conference – Towson – and came away victorious. Daniel Smith has been spectacular through four games with 13 touchdowns passing and four more rushing. Most teams in the CAA are getting into conference play from here on out so the path to the playoffs is going to start to clear up.
It would be nice if Eastern Washington would stop making my sample FCS Playoff brackets look so foolish. The first playoff bracket of the season, I had the Eagles in the field as a seed, mostly on the backs of their potential to win the Big Sky. Two losses and a 1-3 record later, I’m.
The North Carolina A&T Aggies remain No.1 in the BOXTOROW Coaches and Media Polls for the fourth straight week. The Aggies’ reign as the top team in HBCU football goes back to Week 10 of the 2018 season. In the coaches poll, the most significant moves up were made by No. 5 Arkansas-Pine Bluff and.
North Dakota State faced down their first real test of the season and survived. UC Davis give the Bison all they could handle, but in the end, NDSU’s defense saved the day. In what turned out to be the game of the weekend, Villanova showed that their 3-0 start wasn’t a fluke with a 52-45 OT win over Towson. Most teams will be into conference play from here on, so look for the crème to really rise to the top.
The non-conference portion of the schedule is mostly over for the Big Sky with a few exceptions such as UNI vs, Weber this week, Idaho State travels to BYU in November, and a few North Dakota games. So far, the Big Sky is not off to as hot a start as many believed they would.
When Akeem Gaither-Davis partially blocked Noah Ruggles’ 56-yard field goal attempt on the final play of the game, the Mountaineers completed their first win over a Power-Five conference team for the first time since the historic 34-32 stunner over Michigan.
Without question the top FCS game of the week was the battle of FCS powerhouses in the Fargodome.Returning home after 47-22 victory the week before against Delaware, the heavily-favored Bison had a very tough battle against visiting UC Davis, ultimately winning 27-16 after scoring a late touchdown to finally put the game in the win column for North Dakota State.
The Missouri Valley Football Conference did well in Week 4 in going 6-3 against its non-conference schedule in Week 4. That included going 5-0 against the Big Sky Conference in the MVFC-Big Sky challenge. The league guaranteed a winning mark against the other strong western US conference as it now sits at 6-3 with one.
Another interesting week awaits us in the NEC, featuring a battle between a NEC title contender and a Pioneer Football League contender.
Week 4 is upon us and the last of the intriguing non-conference play will be wrapping up for the majority this week. The Big Sky – Missouri Valley games will see several games this week of varying degrees of competitiveness to be observed. Missouri Valley fans will likely be harassing Big Sky fans after this week as the matchups are lopsided even when seemingly close. Despite the spreads, this week will feature two marquee matchups, even if the Big Sky is favored in neither.
Last week was a mixed one for the Patriot League. Georgetown overwhelmed a Division III team 69-0, while Fordham topped Bryant by double digits. The rest of the league was not so lucky, however, losing to two CAA schools (William and Mary, Villanova), a NEC school (Sacred Heart) and a Big Sky school (UC Davis). This week, the entire Patriot League faces daunting challenges against tough competition – three CAA teams and an Ivy League title favorite.
The Ohio Valley picked up the signature FCS win this year when they stormed back with 21 fourth quarter points to beat Eastern Washington. The Gamecocks were led by Zerrick Cooper and Marlon Bridges. Eastern Kentucky had a chance to put a solid win on its resume, but wound up losing to Indiana State. Most of the rest of the league played and lost to FCS competition.
Conference play is still a couple of weeks away, but the teams of the Big South take on some interesting challenges out-of-conference this week, including an FBS game, a trip to an iconic FCS football stadium, and a game against a Missouri Valley opponent.
Finally the wait is over – the Ivy League awakens from their annual football slumber and rejoins the college football universe almost a full month after the rest of college football has started their season. Top 25-caliber powerhouses Princeton, Dartmouth and Yale finally will be able to prove where they stand in the national picture.
Week three brought a mixed bag of results in the Southland. Houston Baptist shocked the FCS world with their exciting 53-52 upset of MVFC member South Dakota. Sam Houston State was unable to avenge their 2018 loss to North Dakota, again falling to the Fighting Hawks. In conference, Central Arkansas and Abilene Christian lived up to the pregame hype with the Bears prevailing late 31-30.
The Southern Conference continues to look like a strong league in 2019. But, the one team everyone expected to be the top team in the league, Wofford, has looked anything but strong through two games. The biggest win in week three for the conference was picked up by The Citadel who defeated FBS Georgia Tech in overtime.
Towson showed they aren’t going away in the CAA and FCS race. The Tigers easily beat Maine by 22 points last week. In the only other CAA matchup, Elon picked up its first conference win, cruising by Richmond. In a couple more weeks, conference play will be in full swing. But for this week there are only two conference matchups while James Madison plays an interesting out of conference contest at Chattanooga.
Week 3 saw another good showing for the Missouri Valley Football Conference as a whole (See the recap here). The league went 6-3 as a whole in non-conference action. This week will be the last where the full conference has out-of-conference games with another nine games this week (Youngstown State is the lone conference team.
Marquee: Jacksonville State def. Eastern Washington 49-45 A tidal wave of shock was sent across the FCS landscape as Jacksonville State pulled off a momentous upset. After the first quarter it seemed as if the fate of the game was going to be easily determined with a 28-7 EWU lead. Things would even out much.
Week three was highlighted by a couple of much maligned teams pulling off exciting upsets – Houston Baptist 53-52 over South Dakota and VMI 31-24 over East Tennessee State in overtime. The marquee matchup of the week certainly lived up to its billing. Jacksonville State stormed back with 21 fourth quarter points to beat Eastern.
Last week, we shook the dust off our first laughable attempt at picking an FCS Playoff field, and this week, we make another laughable attempt at picking an FCS Playoff field, but with a few more data points so that it’s, well, a tiny bit less hilarious. This week, we saw North Dakota State extend.
The Missouri Valley this week had another good week with its nine out-of-conference games. There were nine games with Northern Iowa being off this past week. Overall, the league went 6-3 against its competition. The top game this week as top ranked North Dakota State visiting the CAA’s Delaware, who were also ranked in the.
It was a week of high-profile Top 25 clashes in FCS this week, as the marquee games of the week pitted Delaware vs. North Dakota State and Eastern Washington vs. Jacksonville State. One was a Bison display of dominance, the other a thriller that could be the game of the year. Adding to the fun of this week’s games was a shootout in Vermillion, South Dakota and another big FBS upset in Georgia.
UC Davis QB Jake Maier had a tremendous evening in the Aggies’ home opener in UC Davis Health Stadium, going 38-for-49 passing for 389 yards in a 41-13 win over Lehigh Saturday Evening in front of 9.908 fans. Maier threw for four touchdown passes, all coming off of long drives of more than 50 yards. .
Things pretty much played out as expected when the teams of the NEC stepped up in class, losing some games against tough competition. It was the losses to D-II squads that were an issue, with Wagner and Robert Morris losing some bad games against sub-D-I competition. This week, the NEC has another mixed back of play-up and play-down competition.
Last week, Holy Cross stunned many with their 13-10 upset of New Hampshire, the Patriot League’s first win over a CAA school this season. This week Colgate hopes to make it a second when they face William and Mary on the road. NEC, Big Sky, and even a D-III opponent graces the Patriot League schedule this week.
The non-conference gauntlet continues in Week 3 with PAC 12 and Mountain West FBS matches, long distance FCS games, and one D-II game. Weber State has the best chance to make a “Fear the FCS” moment, but all of the FBS games this week have the potential to be ugly. Looking ahead at the FCS games is a different story, as Big Sky teams have the talent to win big. NAU versus Western New Mexico will be an obvious win barring a strong Lumberjack performance.
Only one Ohio Valley team picked up a win last week – Jacksonville State – while everyone else lost. Of course six of the teams played FBS opponents, so those results are not too surprising. In FCS action, both Austin Peay and Southeast Missouri State lost well hyped out of conference games last week. Week three brings even more competitive non-conference games, including the game that probably got the most hype of any non-conference game over the summer.
The Southland did not have many FCS vs FCS games last week. However, two of its teams – Northwestern State and Stephen F. Austin – lost to Division II opponents. The one team we continue to be impressed by is Central Arkansas. The Bears used another comeback to defeat Austin Peay.
The Missouri Valley Football Conference did well in Week 2 as the league as a whole. The biggest win in the league was Southern Illinois’ 45-20 win at UMass. Te MVFC now has had at least one FBS win in each of the last 10 seasons. The MVFC recorded a 1-7 mark vs. the FBS.
The Southern Conference continued its slow start to 2019 with only one team picking up a win against an FCS opponent. The one bright spot, Furman, gave Georgia State all it could handle, but just couldn’t finish the job in the end.
Week two brought a mixed bag of results. The highlight of the weekend was the triple OT thriller in Meade Stadium that saw Delaware outlast the host Rhode Island Rams. That game set the stage for what should be an excellent season of conference matchups.
The Lehigh Mountain Hawks (0-2) make a trip to Davis, California to take on the UC Davis Aggies (1-1). It’s a game that promises to be an interesting clash of East Coast vs. West Coast in UC Davis Health Stadium – a Big Sky vs. Patriot League matchup, which is a rarity during the regular season.
There truly is a never-ending search for content, a fact I was reminded of when I was politely and earnestly asked this week about coming up with an FCS playoff projection for the 2019 season.
Marquee: Montana State def. SEMO 38-17 The Redhawks gave their best effort, but the Bobcats prevailed dominant. A close halftime score did not define the game as Montana State went on a 28-7 run to win. Casey Bauman performed adequately, while the running game established itself as a deciding factor. Bauman passed for 136 yards.
Week two was a little more tame than week one from a top 25 standpoint. At the bottom of the FCS, six teams lost to sub D1 opponents while only one FCS team was able to beat and FBS team – Southern Illinois easily defeated Massachusetts. Over the first two weeks there have been 100 games against non-FCS teams. This week there are 30, so the FCS picture will start to sharpen. Conference play will swing into full gear over the next two weeks as well.
Most years, it’s FCS teams stunning FBS teams, but this week, it was non-scholarship FCS and sub-Division-I teams stunning FCS squads instead. In their home opener, non-scholarship Dayton (1-0) stunned Indiana State (0-2) 42-35. Flyer QB Jack Cook accounted for four touchdowns, two rushing and two passing, while RB Sean Prophit scored on a 13-yard.
As sprinters, Darrynton Evans and Jalen Virgil would make a fine start to building a successful track relay team.
And at Kidd Brewer Stadium on Saturday afternoon, Appalachian State needed all of that speed and more to hold off upset-minded Charlotte, 56-41 in a non-conference football game.
The Villanova Wildcats (2-0) surged to a 17-3 halftime lead over Lehigh, and ultimately cruised to a 38-10 win on Saturday evening on the Main Line.
It was a game where the Mountain Hawks (0-2) would make way too many mistakes to pull off the upset on the road of a nationally-ranked FCS football team on the road.
