2022 Southern Conference Season Preview
The 2021 Southern Conference football season played out the way the SoCon always seems to play out: unpredictably. This season figures to have a similar finish.
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The 2021 Southern Conference football season played out the way the SoCon always seems to play out: unpredictably. This season figures to have a similar finish.
Last season showed Furman to be about what it has been for most of the past decade: an average team.
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.
Before looking at the games this week, lets look at the playoff picture from a Southern Conference standpoint.
VMI is now in the drivers seat for the Southern Conference title. With a win this week against East Tennessee State, they would clinch that berth – and avoid a boatload of potential tiebreaker headaches for the SoCon League office in terms of autobid determination.
Last week was an excellent week of Southern Conference football with two games going to overtime and VMI continuing its hot start. Chattanooga was able to survive against The Citadel with a gutsy 2-point conversion shovel pass in over time. Furman fell behind 24-7 and 34-20 before saving their season with a touchdown and fumble recovery in overtime. With the games on tap this week, don’t be surprised to see more games come down to the final play.
Compared to the chaos of the final week of February, where we saw half the top 25 lose, the results of the first week in March could instead be called “March Mildness”.
Raise your hand if you had Chattanooga, VMI or East Tennessee State as the team that will be the last unbeaten remaining in the Southern Conference. Now put your hand down because you are lying.
Like many other football fans across the nation of FCS, we watched North Dakota State’s 39 game winning streak come to an end in Carbondale, Illinois, but it wasn’t the only event this weekend that had us shaking our heads.
The Southern Conference is playing an eight game conference only schedule this spring, meaning there are games every week with little room for error. Last week the two teams that everyone expects to battle it out for the conference title, Wofford and Furman, cruised to victory.
The conference title looks like it should come down to Furman and Wofford. But there are two teams who have enough talent to challenge the favorites for the league title – Chattanooga and The Citadel.
VMI quarterback Reece Udinski has been named the Southern Conference Preseason Offensive Player of the Year and The Citadel linebacker Willie Eubanks III has been tabbed the Defensive Player of the Year
Of our preseason poll last year, only 6 of the top 10 teams made the playoffs. 13 of the full 25 played past Thanksgiving. Its 2020, the year of complete chaos.
It took a while, but the last train to Clarksville ran all over Furman and left a mark of mammoth proportions.
Austin Peay, the winners of the OVC for the first time since 1977, plays Furman in the first round of the FCS playoffs. It is the first playoff appearance in the history of Austin Peay. The winner of Saturday’s game will move on to face No. 4-seed Sacramento State in the second round of the playoffs next weekend.
Everything has been decided in the Southern Conference with one week to go in the season. Wofford was able to clinch the conference title with its win over Furman coupled by a large blown fourth quarter lead by The Citadel against Chattanooga. Furman should also easily find its way into the field.
We are down to the last two weeks and the Southern Conference has a clear picture of its outlook for the conference title and potential playoff bids. There are three teams in the mix – Furman, Wofford and The Citadel. With a win this week, Furman will clinch the conference title and automatic bid to the playoffs. A Wofford win sets up a week 13 showdown between Wofford and The Citadel – provided The Citadel takes care of business on the road this weekend.
The crème has started to rise to the top in the Southern Conference over the last few weeks. With three weeks left in the season, there are three teams left in the mix for the conference title, and those are likely the only three teams who have a shot to make the playoffs – Furman, Wofford and The Citadel.
The SoCon race is still a wide open, with three teams with one conference loss and another three with two conference losses. There is a lot of football to be played and the Southern conference has been wildly unpredictable this year.
With Furman losing at home to The Citadel, the Southern Conference race was ripped wide open. Furman was cruising, leading many to think the league was decided, but outside of East Tennessee State and Western Carolina, there is a path for any of the other seven teams to find their way to the conference title.
It was a light week in the Southern Conference last week, but there was no shortage of fireworks. VMI hit a 56 yard field goal as time expired to send their game with Samford to overtime. In the extra frame, the Keydets were able to come away with their fourth win of the year. Everyone but Samford is in action this week.
Last week’s Southern Conference slate was headlined by an exciting 4OT game that saw Samford outlast The Citadel 61-55. Samford has rattled off three straight wins after a slow start. The SoCon looks to be shaking down into three distinct tiers with Furman, Samford and The Citadel as the top tier.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Southern Conference did not get off to a great start in 2019, picking up only two out of conference wins. The poor weekend was punctuated by early favorite Wofford getting easily handled by South Carolina State, a team most picked to finish in the middle of the MEAC. Was it a blip in the radar? Or is the Southern Conference headed for a down year?
The Southern Conference promises to be one of the most tightly contested races in 2019. While the conference champion won’t be determined in week one, there are a couple of matchups that may be remembered in November when the playoff bracket is released.
The Southern Conference is always a competitive league, and 2019. The SoCon only put two teams in the playoffs in 2018, but there was at least one other team with an argument that they belonged as well. In 2019, as many as six teams feel they have at least a shot to qualify for the.
A yearly competitor for an FCS playoff berth, Furman barely missed out in 2018 after a 6-4 season. The Paladins went 6-2 in conference play, but lost both of their non-conference games: one at Clemson and one at Elon.
Furman QB Harris Roberts, UC Davis WR Keelan Doss, Southern QB Ladarius Skelton, McNeese State DE Chris Livings, and James Madison S/RS D’Angelo Amos have been selected as the College Sports Journal FCS Football Players of the week ending October 15th 2018. The honorees are listed here with their achievements and their school, position, class,.