2021 FCS Season Preview: Sacramento State Hornets
Sacramento State had a magical 2019 championship run, but the Hornets have not played since then.
2021 FCS Season Preview: Portland State Vikings
The top recruiting class from just a few years ago seems to be on of mostly duds. Can the Vikings set sail for a legacy bigger than their high school home field?
Lehigh Mountain Hawks Looking To Draw Crowds This Fall With Defense
The success of the 2021 Mountain Hawks will start with the defense – a unit that was, quietly, outstanding last spring and will be the rock on which Lehigh leans as the offense tries to get back to the teams of its offensive-minded past.
2021 FCS Season Preview: Northern Colorado Bears
One of the biggest headlines in the FCS was lost behind the dust of the Spring headlines. Ed McCaffrey (NFL veteran and 3-time Super Bowl Champ) is the new head coach of Northern Colorado.
2021 FCS Season Preview: Northern Arizona Lumberjacks
The Lumberjacks know how to defend the dome, but can they go on the offense successfully?
2021 Southern Conference Season Preview
How performance during the spring season will translate to the fall is completely unknown. The FCS has never had a season like the previous one.
2021 FCS Season Preview: VMI
VMI was the surprise of the spring season. Now the key is: can they back it up?
2021 FCS Season Preview: Wofford
In the Spring, Wofford tried to incorporate more passing into their offensive game plan. The result was a 70 yard per game drop in rushing offense, but only a 20 yard per game bump in the pass game.
2021 FCS Season Preview: Southern Utah Thunderbirds
The Heartbreak Kids were five drives away from a 6-0 season in the Spring.
GAME PREVIEW: Hawai’i At UCLA
UCLA takes on Hawai’i in one of seven games Saturday involving FBS or FCS teams. For the Bruins, it makes the earliest season opener in the history of the Bruin program.
2021 FCS Season Preview: East Tennessee State
The Buccaneers will be a factor in the SoCon title race this year.
GAME PREVIEW: Eastern Illinois at Indiana State
The Panthers and Sycamores began their rivalry in 1901 and Saturday’s game will be the 88th meeting between the two schools. Eastern Illinois holds a narrow 43-40-4 advantage in the series to date.
2021 FCS Season Preview: Mercer
Going in to their last game against Samford, the Bears had an outside chance to win the Southern Conference if a couple games broke their way. Mercer wound up losing that game, but it gives them hope that they can take the next step this year.
2021 FCS Season Preview: Furman
There were big expectations for the Paladins coming into the spring but they did not live up to them. Furman wound up 3-4 and was never a factor in the conference race.
2021 FCS Season Preview: The Citadel
The Citadel was expecting to make a little jump and be a playoff contender in 2020 after hovering around .500, but the emergence of COVID made for a long fall and spring season, where they played a grand total of 11 games. The Citadel really struggled through their season. But they never quit and played their entire schedule.
2021 FCS Season Preview: Western Carolina
The high level stats show the struggles that Western Carolina has endured. The last three seasons they have allowed 38, 39 and 41 points per game on average while going from 30 scored per game in 2018 to 19 to 18 over the last two seasons.
College Sports Journal Sagarin FBS G5 Top 25–Preseason 2021
Below are the Top 25 Group of Five (G5) preseason rankings based on the Sagarin rankings for the 2021 season. CSJ will show weekly rankings from the Sagarin rankings throughout the season and will have a final ranking after the national championship game in January. Cincinnati is rated at the top spot in the preseason.
2021 FCS Season Preview: James Madison
The Dukes return to action in the fall with a Frisco or Bust mentality. They are loaded throughout the entire lineup and have Cole Johnson returning to be the starting quarterback.
2021 FCS Season Preview: Delaware
This spring, it all came together for the Blue Hens and they went unbeaten in the regular season and won two playoff games before falling in the semifinals to South Dakota State.
2021 FCS Season Preview: Villanova
Villanova has, in recent memory, battled two things: the injury bug and the ill-timed loss. They always have the talent to be one of the top teams in the CAA and FCS, but injuries derail them or they lose to a team they shouldn’t. They’ll need to avoid that this fall.
2021 FCS Season Preview: Richmond
Richmond was down for the last few seasons after the graduation of Kyle Lauletta. But if the spring is any indication, with a strong defense and capable quarterback, the Spiders should contend for a playoff berth all season.
2021 FCS Season Preview: New Hampshire
To lose at home is rare for the Wildcats. They’ve only lost seven total games on their home turf since 2015. That’s an advantage they will look to regain this year. They have two of the teams projected to finish above them in the standings – James Madison and Richmond – at home this year.
2021 FCS Season Preview: Maine
Maine was an uneven 2-2 in the spring but enter the fall season with hopes of returning to the playoffs.
2021 FCS Season Preview: Towson
Towson opted out of the spring season. When we last saw them, Towson had a high flying offense and an improving defense.
2021 FCS Season Preview: Albany
Albany struggled to a 1-3 record in the spring, but that doesn’t really tell the story of what kind of team they have.
2021 FCS Season Preview: William and Mary
William & Mary only played three games in the spring. But what we were able to see from Hollis Mathis showed a lot of potential for growth as we head into the fall.
2021 FCS Season Preview: Elon
Elon had a dreadful spring season going 1-5 with the lone win coming against non-scholarship Davidson by three points. To be fair, the Phoenix were riddled with injuries for the spring and never really had a chance.
2021 FCS Season Preview: Stony Brook
Stony Brook went 1-3 in the spring season before pulling the plug and cancelling their last two games. It was good for the Seawolves to get their players live reps.
2021 FCS Season Preview: Rhode Island
The Rams went 2-1 last spring with overtime road victories against Villanova and UAlbany before having its season cut short by COVID. The glimpse we got of the Rams before the shutdown showed a lot of potential for the fall season.
2021 FCS Season Preview: Montana State Bobcats
Montana State opted out of the Spring Season and chose to only do an inter-squad spring game. Despite being out of competition for a year the Bobcats are loading up and have a host of hungry seniors ready to have a last hurrah. Between Isiah Ifanse, Lewis Kidd, Troy Andersen, and North Carolina State transfer.
2021 FCS Season Preview: Montana Grizzlies
Montana may have opted out of the spring season, but their two-game schedule of Central Washington and Portland State had tremendous results of 56 points and 41 points margins of victory. The powerhouse from Missoula is trying desperately to reclaim relevance and a conference title under Coach Hauck. Despite their best efforts, Weber State has.
2021 CSJ ASUN-WAC Challenge Fall Football Preview
Jacksonville State, Central Arkansas and Eastern Kentucky will enjoy a “challenge” with the WAC before joining the newly formed (for football) Atlantic Sun in 2022.
2021 FCS Season Preview: Sam Houston
The king of the new conference until further notice is Sam Houston (10-0, 6-0 in Southland), which became the first Division I football program in the state of Texas to win a national championship since Vince Young’s vaunted Texas squad.
2021 FCS Season Preview: Jacksonville State
The Gamecocks (10-3, 6-1 in Ohio Valley) flip-flopped quarterback injuries while playing the most games in the FCS over the fall/spring season.
2021 FCS Season Preview: Idaho Vandals
Paul Petrino and company were eight points away from being 0-6 in the spring season. The Vandals out-schemed EWU in the first game of the season, but their only other win would be a one-point escape from the clutches of Southern Utah.
2021 FCS Season Preview: Abilene Christian
Abilene Christian (1-5) struggled during an abbreviated fall season, dropping a game to D-II Angelo State, and playing three FBS opponents.
2021 FCS Season Preview: Central Arkansas
Having played last fall, but not in the spring, the Bears return 20 starters, and they also get back some former starters from injuries.
2021 FCS Season Preview: Stephen F. Austin
Stephen F. Austin (6-4) had an encouraging fall season. SFA named itself Southland Conference Fall Champions after beating Abilene Christian – the only other SLC team to play in the fall.
2021 FCS Season Preview: Eastern Washington Eagles
Can the Eagles send Barriere onto his pro aspirations with a conference title or better this season?
2021 FCS Season Preview: Eastern Kentucky Colonels
Eastern Kentucky (3-6) played a fall season and beat Stephen F. Austin 24-6 in its lone matchup against a future WAC opponent.
2021 FCS Season Preview: Lamar Cardinals
Second-year head coach Blane Morgan has a difficult task ahead of him at Lamar (2-4, 2-4 in Southland), but the Cardinals showed some fight in the spring season.
2021 FCS Season Preview: Cal Poly Mustangs
There is no way to sugarcoat just how awful the Mustangs performed in Spring. While every single team in the nation had a weird season there are few sympathies allowed for Beau Baldwin who is a proven program builder. A new coach, new quarterback, and new offense were simply too much for Cal Poly to.
2021 CSJ Missouri Valley Football Conference Fall Football Preview
Besides NDSU, North Dakota and Northern Iowa look like the toughest completion to unseat the Jackrabbits from the MVFC crown. Missouri State and Southern Illinois appear other teams that look like playoff hopefuls again this fall.
2021 FCS Season Preview: North Dakota State
The NDSU 2021 spring season was the worst team from the Fargo school in the last decade. The Bison still went to the quarterfinal round of the FCS playoffs but fell at eventual national champion Sam Houston in that round after NDSU defeated Eastern Washington in the first round.
2021 FCS Season Preview: South Dakota State
South Dakota State finally got over the hump this past spring. The Jacks beat North Dakota State in the final regular season game to earn the top seed in the FCS playoffs where they would host all playoff games in Brookings. SDSU used that home field advantage to dispatch Holy Cross, Southern Illinois, and Delaware to reach their first ever national championship game in Frisco, Texas.
2021 FCS Season Preview: North Dakota
The newest MVFC member is North Dakota had a very successful first season in the MVFC this past spring in being a tri-champion. The Fighting Hawks won their first ever DI playoff game over MVFC mate Missouri State before falling to FCS power James Madison in the quarterfinals.
2021 FCS Season Preview: Northern Iowa
Northern Iowa was just not on its game this past spring in finishing with a losing record for the first time since the 2016 season. That next season of 2017, the Panthers bounced back to make the playoffs. UNI hopes to duplicate that in the 2021 season.
2021 FCS Season Preview: Southern Illinois
Southern Illinois got over the hump this past spring with its first playoff bid since 2009. SIU used the most of their appearance in getting an upset win at Weber State in the first round and the Salukis advanced to the quarterfinals but lost at 31-26 heartbreaker to MVFC mate South Dakota State.
2021 FCS Season Preview: Missouri State
MSU finished tied for the conference crown and also received the team’s first playoff bid since 1990. While the Bears would fall in the first round to MVFC foe North Dakota, the team exceeded expectations by a long shot in Perinto’s first campaign in Springfield.
2021 FCS Season Preview: Illinois State
Illinois State lost its first three contests before defeating Western Illinois in what would be their last game of the spring. Illinois State after that win then shut down their season due to safety concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
