September 9, 2025 • 45 mins
On this episode, Sam and Zach discuss:
-3 Game Balls and a Flag from Week 2
-SDSU's big win at Montana State
-Abilene Christian gets a ranked win over SFA
-The Pioneer gets two more big non-conference wins
-Lamar knocks off South Dakota
-Bryant and LIU earn FBS wins
-Week 3 top games
-And more
The podcast is presented by HERO Sports and BetMGM. Visit HERO Sports for FCS coverage and BetMGM for online betting odds.
-3 Game Balls and a Flag from Week 2
-SDSU's big win at Montana State
-Abilene Christian gets a ranked win over SFA
-The Pioneer gets two more big non-conference wins
-Lamar knocks off South Dakota
-Bryant and LIU earn FBS wins
-Week 3 top games
-And more
The podcast is presented by HERO Sports and BetMGM. Visit HERO Sports for FCS coverage and BetMGM for online betting odds.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
All right, welcome in FCS tackle football fans to another
episode of the FCS Football Talk podcast. We are presented
by hero Sports and bet MGM. I'm your host, Sam
Herder of hero Sports and I'm joined as always by
my co host, Zach mckinnal of FCS Football Central and
the Blue Bloods. A lot to dive into once again.
(00:37):
We have a lot of results and performances touch to
touch on from week two, and time permitting, we will
we will talk a little bit about Week three, you know,
some of the top games that's that we have kind
of circled. As far as paying attention to, Zach, let's
I'll have you kick it off right away here with
your first game ball from this last weekend.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Yeah, there is no doubt who deserves the first game
ball here, Sam, and I know you were in attendance.
It is South Dakota State and the win over Montana
State in Bozeman for the goal rush game, hostile crowd,
thirty to twenty four. They get it done in overtime
and the main reason that I picked South Dakota State
in this game, Sam, was I thought Chase Mason was
(01:20):
maybe a little bit more of a refine passer, and
I thought the defense could make enough key plays down
the stretch, and I kind of feel good about that
pick now because they were the ones that made the
plays down the stretch to win the games, including that
big fourth down stop in overtime. I know, the only
three for one hundred and seventy four yards, Sam, but
I thought Chase Mason played outstanding man three touchdowns. A
(01:41):
few of those passes were I mean that pass in
overtime over the middle was on the money and I
don't think you could have placed it any better. And
I think we saw the breakout performance of Lofton Ogrosky.
That kid can really be a star. It's a little
bit of shades of the Griffin Wilde breakout that we
saw last year. Twelve for one to twenty five two touchdowns, Sam.
(02:01):
No one talks about how much this team had to overcome,
from the death of a teammate to a complete coaching
staff overhaul, to a complete roster overhaul where you had
you might have had ten of eleven guys come back, Sam,
but you only had one returning starter on this defense.
And you look at what they've accomplished these first two
weeks against a really good Montana State team and one
of the most hyped offenses in the country coming into
(02:23):
the year and the go go offensive Sacramento State. South
Dakota State earns a game ball for just the entire
season thus far. Man no one's had a more impressive
first two weeks than the Jacks.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Yeah, the fact that they are too and er just
so impressive with all of the offseason turmoil that they
had to deal with, and you know, going to Montana
State and the gold Rush game just an electric environment,
a super tough place to play, and being able to
be there in experienced at environments was awesome. And there
(02:54):
were there were moments when you felt like, Okay, Montana States,
you know, going to win this game. You kind of
have that feeling in your gut. But then you know,
a couple of sequences happen. You go, I think South
Dakota State is gonna get this one, and I know,
like South Kota State definitely feels like they should have
won that game in regulation with some of the mistakes
they made. And then Montana State on their end, you know,
they feel like, you know, they should have won that
(03:15):
game with you know, some of the mistakes that that
they made that you could probably consider uncharacteristic of the Bobcats,
And so that that's what you get when you have
two heavyweight teams, high pressure moments atmosphere like that, you
know you're gonna have a little bit of sloppiness. And
you know, I think because because after the game, you know,
(03:37):
I I tweeted about how you know, for the most part,
I was impressed with with both of these teams, and
they're they're certainly in the national title pitcher. And there
are some responses saying, if this is the number two
and three teams in the FCS, then then holy crap.
You know that's that's not a good sign. Because there
were some fans that sounded like they weren't super impressed
with South Kota State and Montana State. And I kind
(03:59):
of pointed to last year's NBCU Southcota State game in
the regular season, which you know, set offenses back ten
years with how much of a rock like that was.
But like, sometimes you just kind of get these type
of games where no, I will say some of the
special team sloppiness that was just like that that was
just gross, But some of the offensive stuff I kind
(04:19):
of chucked that up to how good both defenses were.
I thought the defensive lines and linebackers for both teams
were really, really, really good. I thought the running backs
in this game were really good. I thought we show
we saw Chase Mason step up and make some huge throws.
And you know, even Lampson from Montana State not the
most efficient day, but I still thought he was solid,
(04:40):
not great, I still thought he was solid. So big
Pitcher viewpoint, how do you view South Goota State in
Montana State right now? Obviously the Jacks are two and oh.
Montana State on the flip side is zero and two.
How do you just view these two teams and where
they go from here?
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Yeah, I'm just gonna say this. Any voter that did
not keep these two teams in the top four, I
don't know what you were looking at on Saturday night. Sam,
you said it perfectly, and I think that kind of
exposes some people who don't watch enough football. Sometimes you
just get two really good teams and you have a
game that looks like that. If you remember Sam back,
(05:16):
what was it. I don't remember how many years ago.
I remember the Pats Rams Super Bowl that was what was
at like six to three going into the fourth quarter
and everybody was like, this is the worst game ever.
Sometimes when you just have two really good teams, you're
going to have ugly games sometimes because they're just that good.
And I thought Montana States defense played really well. I
thought eiden Off the edge was great. They were still
(05:37):
missing a starter at linebacker, right, and so for Montana
State to play as well as they did, I was
really impressed. I think both offensive lines shows some positives.
Now there's some new starters on both of them that
I think you saw some growing pains with. But at
the end of the day, man, these are two of
the best teams in the country and I don't think
there's any question to that, and I think you put
out a tweet about this. In my opinion, there's there's
(06:00):
always there always seems to be a clear separation of
the top two, top three, top four teams from the
rest of the country. Right now, these two teams are
firmly in that top four, and I would group them
with North Dakota State and I'm even gonna throw Tarlton
State in there. Right now, those are the four best
teams in the country, and I think there is a
significant gap between them and the rest of the country
(06:22):
right now at the FCS level.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Yeah, my first game ball. I'm gonna combine this one.
I'm gonna give it to Bryant's and LU Long Island
University both grabbed their first ever FBS wins. And you know,
especially for l IU, I mean they've they're relatively new,
you know, somewhat to the FCS. Long Island they beat
Eastern Michigan twenty eight to twenty three, and then Bryant
(06:46):
they beat UMass twenty seven twenty six, and kind we
talk about this sometimes about how when you go through
the list of FCS over FBS wins, like half of
those teams are top twenty five teams and playoff teams
and the other half are like you go back and like,
how did this team beat this FBS opponent And they
go on and finish like four and eight, and so,
(07:07):
I mean, shout out to these two teams. I don't
necessarily think this for sure moves them into the top
twenty five or anything like that, but it's huge for
both programs. You look at Brian they went two and
ten last year and they hit a game winning field
goal from Bryce solely as time expired to win this
game at LU. They went four and eight last year,
(07:29):
and they actually had a pretty I don't I guess,
I don't want to say decisive, but they did have
a two score lead with under two minutes to go
on Eastern Michigan, then Eastern Michigan. They made it twenty eight,
twenty three with forty one seconds left, but you know
by that point that they were pretty much, you know,
out of time, and so LU was a bit more
of a decisive one than maybe what the score showed.
(07:50):
But a huge, huge win for both of those programs.
And we are now up to four FCS over FBS
wins this season.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
This is kind of what we were missing last year. Sam,
I think we had one, right, I forget who it
was last year, it was just a random team. It
was at Saint Francis last year. They came out of
nowhere and picked up an FBS win. But we need
more of these. I think it just shows that on
any given Saturday, right, Sam, I don't think either one
of us are picking Long Island or Bryant to win
(08:19):
their respective conferences right now, but what wins and hey,
it's to Florida hangover, right, and maybe Long Island took
it out of Florida and they had to hangover against
USF this past week. I'm gonna go to my second game,
Ball is going to go to a team that I
was high on coming into the season, but I just
thought the conference was going to be too hard for
(08:40):
them to compete, and that's West Georgia. I've been so
impressed with them over the first two weeks. Sam, if
I would have told you they were going to beat
Samford and Nichols by double digits to start the season,
I think you might have not asked me to be
your co host anymore and you would have told me
I need to watch more FCS football. But here we
are thirty four to ten wins, and they did this
(09:01):
against a Nickels defense that I think me and you
were both very very high on after what they did
do in Cardinate Word, and they performed well even in
their FBS game. They absolutely dominated the line of Scrimmas
three hundred and forty two yards rushing two touchdowns. They
held a Nichols rushing attack that does have a lot
of talented pieces to two point eight yards per carry.
(09:22):
Deuce Hogan was inefficient, really struggled and Sam I think
all my worries for Nichols kind of came to fruition
because I do think they're good defensively, but if that
defense doesn't play well, I still question if this offense
has enough firepower to get it done against a good opponent.
And I don't even think West Georgill played their best game.
They only threw for sixty three yards him in put
the seven passes through two big interceptions. But on the ground,
(09:46):
man Latrell Murle had a big game. And I'm gonna
just give y'all a nugget here. I'm a massive fan
of TJ. Lester, and I'm gonna be honest him. I
don't say this much. I do pay a lot of
attention to recruiting. I know some FCS fans just cringed.
Listen to me say that TJ. Lester. I don't know
how he wound up at West Georgia. This is a
kid that I watched a lot of Georgia high school
(10:06):
football being down here in Alabama. At Milton, he was
a superstar average eight yards per carry last year, had
twenty nine touchdowns as a senior, sam on one of
the best teams in the state of Georgia. He had
two big rushing touchdowns. I think he's on his way
to potentially your Freshman All the American year. But I'm
so impressed with the Wolves man and they absolutely deserved
(10:26):
their first ever top twenty five ranking this week.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Yeah, my second game ball, I'm going to stick in
the UAC here, And this one I think kind of
flew under the radar a little bit, just because Saturday
was so hectic with you know, you had the Highlight
game and Bosman, you had some close FCS FBS games,
you had some FCS versus FCS upsets, but there was
a second ranked matchup and we saw number sixteen Apple
(10:51):
and Christian beat number twenty five SFA twenty eight twenty
really kind of a crazy game. I was able to
rewatch parts of it, you know, a couple of days
after being in Bozeman. That is one drawback of being
at a game is sometimes your following scorers or you
see a final scorer like what the heck happened in
this one. But I felt pretty comfortable picking SFA in
(11:14):
this one to a certain extent. But it was also
kind of hard to gauge both of these teams from
their week one FBS losses. But SFA looked good to
start that They jumped up to a fourteen to nothing lead,
and then Ablin Christian just avalanched them. They scored three
touchdowns in the final seven minutes of the second quarter,
and that included I believe their second touchdown was a
Fumbler recovery by Roach. It was an excellent d n
(11:36):
for them. I believe that made it fourteen to fourteen,
and then they made it twenty one fourteen. Then they
extended the lead ACU did to twenty eight fourteen and
kind of held that lead for most of the rest
of the game. SFA did come within eight points in
the final twenty seconds there, but ACU was able to
hold on. Obviously, get a huge ranked win and big
(11:58):
time for this program that has a lot of experience
coming back on defense. Certainly a lot of question marks
offensively because they did lose most of their offense from
last year. How about Stone Earl comes back. He was
a starter for Aplin Christian in twenty twenty one as
a freshman. He transfers out, it spends a few years
and gets really good experience at the FBS level, and
then he comes back after Maverick mackiverleaves for the FBS,
(12:22):
so it does show that you can't leave your school
and you know they sometimes will welcome you back. But
Stone I had a really good game. He throws for
nearly two hundred and fifty yards on this one, So
that was a big time win for Apple and Christian
to avoid going on.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
To massive win and I again just the UA seed
this year SAM is going to be an absolute blood bath.
And with how bad the SOCOM looks, I'm very curious
to see how many bids this conference gets this year
because Sam. I mean, I think the top of the
Big SKA is better potentially, but I don't know if
(12:55):
there's as many teams in the Big SKA that are
as competitive as what's in the UAC right now. And
that's very controversial, but just through the first two and
a half leaks, I guess few include weeks zero. I'm
very curious see how deep this us HE can get.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Because you have real quick because you have Utah Tech,
who was expected to be at the bottom of the UAC.
Maybe they won't be, but they have two one score
losses to ranked Big Sky teams UC Davis and Northern Arizona.
So like if I think that's a fair argument you
can make because you can point out results and and
say like, hey, the UAC, they are expected bottom teams
are competing well with you know, some of the top
(13:31):
half of the Big Sky teams.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Yeah, and you talk about West Georgia, you talk about
Austin p B Middle Tennessee State. By Twinnie, you have
Charlton Aplene Christian Now Southern Utah's loss this weekend not great,
but they did blow out a middle a middle tier
Big Sky school who has been competitive in two FBS
games in Idaho State. So I don't know exactly what
takeaway from that, but my last game ball as a team,
(13:55):
I didn't know. I've really sam If you told me
I would have be given this team a game ball
this year, I don't know. I would have told you,
but I wouldn't have believed you. Presbyterian two toin to zero,
another win over the SoCon. They are just the SoCon
is going to be terrified to schedule this team anymore.
Saying what was lost in this game was everyone talked
about the win. No one talked about that they were
(14:17):
losing twenty eight to seven with five minutes left in
the second quarter and just went on an absolute run
after the first Furman's first drive in the third quarter
stand which they picked off. By the way, they held
Furman to four total yards for the rest of the game,
now four total yards over the next six drives.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
It was just.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Unbelievable defense for Presbyterian, and I think it was kind
of what you saw with the Mammoth comeback last week's
now where Colin Hurst just had some early turnovers, he
threw three picks, but again Presbyterian finds a way to
get it done. Colin Hurst is playing really good football.
Two seventy five and five touchdowns. They're running the ball
at almost six yards per club. They forced tray Head
(15:01):
in some bad mistakes, and Furman's offense just disappeared in
the second half. But Sam, you've got to get Presbyteria
and their flowers Man two massive SoCon upsets over a
Furman team who just knocked off William and Mary last week.
I've been really impressed with Presbyterian and I'm very, very
curious to see what the voters are gonna do with them,
because you look ahead, Sam, they have Erskine in Bluefield.
(15:22):
The next two weeks, so they're probably easily going to
be sending at four and oh, and then they got
a game of Morehead State which they should be favored in,
so Presbyteria could be five and oh going into the
month of October.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Yeah, and I mean they have a ranked win and
there on their resume. I bet they'll be in the
in the coaches pull at at some point because what
was it was either last year or two years ago
when like Saint Thomas. Saint Thomas was seventeen seventeen. Yeah,
they're they're like seven and one or something like that.
And the only Scholarship Division one team they played was
(15:55):
Northern Iowa and they lost like forty two seventeen and
Northern Iowa was like three, and at that point was
like it just did not make sense to to rank
Saint Thomas. But that's the that's the coaches Pulfaria my
last game ball. I'm gonna play off for years a
little bit. I'm just gonna give it to the Pioneer
Football League as a whole. I know, well maybe not
as a whole, just for these three teams, because the
Pioneer has some bad losses in their non conference, but
(16:18):
you touched on Presbyterian getting two wins over SoCon teams.
You also at San Diego they beat number twenty four
Southern Utah thirty to twenty seven in overtime, So that's
a that's a second ranked non conference win for the
Pioneer Football League. And then Saint Thomas gives Idaho a
serious scare. Number ten Idaho beat Saint Thomas thirty seven
to thirty. That was a very competitive game in Moscow.
(16:42):
So really, I think an impressive for the Pioneer Football
League to get these wins. And we'll see like how
good is Ferma going to be, how good is Mercer
going to be? Southern Utah. We'll see about them well,
so we'll see how these age. But I mean, anytime
a Pioneer Football League beats a non conference FCS team,
you know, that's one thing. But to get two ranked wins,
(17:04):
it's like, oh, all right, good for you, Pioneer Football League.
That's not something what you typically see.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
It's gonna be very interesting. Now the at large bids
are gonna be hilarious, right because everybody is gonna have
a Pioneer like what happens to Southern Utah and Mercer
on the bubble and it's like, okay, we got we
got to figure out which Pioneer League loss is going
to keep one of these teams out of the playoffs now.
But my flag getting to this, I don't think this
is any surprising. I know we need to talk about
(17:30):
this game, but it's going to go to South Dakota
and they might deserve multiple flags for their performance this weekend.
Just just an unbelievable loss to Lamar twenty to thirteen.
And on the flip side, real quick, Sam, I want
to give flowers to Pete Rosamondo and that coaching staff
at Lamar. Sam, I know you'll probably talk about it,
but this program was so bad before Pete took it over.
(17:53):
To see how far they've come year after year under
Pete in the in this new coaching staff is remarkable
and this is really just a culmination of all his
hard work. And I do want to give him his flowers,
because every time we see one of these upsets, Sam
we harp on what the ranked team did wrong. Lamar
deserves their flowers for pulling this off. But I don't
know what is going on offensively with South Dakota. Sam.
(18:15):
I was a little bit worried even with the FBS game,
and I don't remember if we talked about it on
this show, but there was a little bit of concern. Offensively,
they did not look good in their FBS game at all,
and Aden Bowman is just not playing good football right now.
Ten for twenty one, one eight, a pick and a touchdown,
and they cannot establish the rushing game. For I mean LJ.
(18:36):
Phillips and Charles Pierre, they were okay, but to only
average less than five yards per Carrey against Lamar for
a team that averaged almost eight last year is a
big step backwards. And I don't even think Lamar played
a good game. That's the thing. Robert Coleman eight for sixteen,
sixty five yards, two picks. I was really unimpressed with
South Dakota, and in my ballot I have both of
(18:58):
these teams outside the top twenty. I'm not ready to
put either one in the top twenty, but I think
South Dakota has to figure it out quickly, and this
was a sign of things that they need to fix
very very fast. You have Northern Colorado, Drake, you can
get it figured out there, but Sam it ramps up
after that. At North Dakota. You have a sneaky road
games at Indiana State, you and I Illinois State, North Dakota,
(19:20):
South Dakota State at Southern Illinois. If you play like
you did this weekend, we're gonna be talking about the
Yoats going from top four preseason salm to probably unranked
at the end of the year if they don't take
a big step forward.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Yeah, I'll circle back to that game. I'll first get
through my flag here and I won't touch on it
too much because you mentioned it in in your game
ball with West Georgia bed number twenty two Nichols, I
will throw the flag here on Nichols, you know, like personally,
like a part of me is like, well, you know,
(19:53):
I picked West Georgia for this upset, so I'm not
too angry about it because West Georgia maybe look smart
for once in this one. But along the same lines,
like you, me and Jamie and Kevin, like we made
a big fuss of last week at this time of
UIW still being ten plus spots ahead of Nichols, you know,
despite the fact that Nichols has the head to head
(20:14):
win and look better in week one, and I still
stand by that. I know there's a certain level of
like maybe people do project a head a little bit,
but I do think head to head matchups need to matter,
you know, this early in the season. And even if
if UIW was twelve and Nichols was thirteen last week,
(20:34):
I honestly probably wouldn't have even said anything about it,
But just the fact that there was that big of
a gap, I'm like, all right, I need to say
something with that. But then Nichols not only gets upset
but gets blown out. Now, I still think Nichols deserves
to be ranked ahead of you IW. You know, that's
a different discussion, but certainly a disappointing performance there by
Nichols to lose that one when you know they were
(20:56):
kind of the talk of the FCS at least for
a little bit there. I do want to let's circle
back to the us D game, because I was able
to rewatch that one on yesterday, I think on on Monday,
just to see what happened, and just an odd game.
And like you said, we do need to give Lamar.
You know, it's Flowers, and they did have a decently
(21:16):
breakthrough year last year, getting to seven wins, when before
that they were just an afterthought, and they're obviously, you know,
a building off of that with coach Pete. But on
the usd Angle side of things, I mean, they had
a good start, they were up ten to nothing, and
then I just feel like there were some bad turnovers
that they just couldn't climb out of. I mean, they
(21:37):
there was a kickoff where they botched the catch and
that and turn it over to Lamar Charles Pierre Junior
fumbled into the end zone and that had they not
done that, that could have been a decently decisive lead for
South Dakota. And it just seemed like they couldn't get
out of, you know, the lull that they were in.
And you know, I didn't when I when I rewatched games,
(21:58):
I pretty much like, I see the play and then
I fast forward thirty seconds, see the play, fast forward
thirty seconds, and at some point Charles Pierrot Junior left
the game, I believe in the second half. But I
never caught like him getting hurt or what happened with that.
So that is definitely something to keep an eye on
on what exactly happened with Charles pier At Junior. I
didn't I don't know specifically, just because again, I was
(22:20):
kind of fast forwarding through the non football action. But yeah,
I mean Bauman, he made some good throws, but then
again he didn't put enough arm strength on some out routes.
He just missed like one or two deep balls by inches.
Had they completed that, maybe they could have gotten a
comeback win. So he's just off a little bit. The
offensive line up and down for sure, you know, not
(22:43):
great in past protection. I thought USTe ran the ball
okay at certain points, but yeah, there's just a lot
to fix there. And now South Dakota is staring at
a zero to two record, you know, after getting top
five preseason love. So the Oats are definitely in a
tough spot here.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
Now what's interesting, Sam? And I'm not predicting this right,
but I did get asked this. I want to get
your opinion. Is there any concern for upset alert this
next week? I mean with Northern Colorado, I.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Mean maybe I still kind of doubt it just because
you Yeah, I feel like Northern Colorado. No, wait, but
they I mean I'm going to touch on some of
the close FBS losses, but Northern Colorado dang near and
probably should have beaten Colorado State so I don't know.
I don't I won't call the upset, but I won't
be surprised if this is a seven to ten point
(23:36):
when we're South Dakota finds itself in a battle with
the Bears.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
One note, Sam, I don't know if you called this either.
Lamar loses their starting quarterback after this game.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Yeah, shoulder injury, so he'll be She'll be out for
at least a week.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
And they got a very very tricky road trip to
Texas Southern, who is only who gave them a tough
game last year. Without their starting quarterback, we could see.
I wouldn't be surprise of Texas Southern pool that went
off because I don't think Coleman played well, but they're
going to be starting a very very unproven guy in
his place. That this could be a very very interesting
(24:10):
fallout from this game for both teams if Charles pier
is out for an extend amount of time along with
Coleman at quarterback for Lamar.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Yeah, let's touch on these close FBS losses. You had
app State beating Lindonwood twenty to thirteen, Colorado State beat
Northern Colorado twenty one seventeen Northern Colorado had a game
winning touchdown or a potential game winning touchdown at thirty
or forty seconds left. They had a touchdown catch kind
of a fader out in the corner of the end
(24:39):
zone that was that was caught. They ruled it a touchdown,
and then they officials overturned it after replaying. I have
yet to really see an angle that definitively shows it
wasn't incomplete, and so I don't know if the Mountain
West Conference office and their official reviews just kind of
gave Colorado State, you know, a win. I don't know.
(25:00):
It's still kind of controversial, but the fact that Northern
Colorado nearly beats a Mountain West Conference team, you know,
it is pretty wild. Another one Nevada they beat number
eighteen Sack State twenty to seventeen. Another There's been I
think eight one score FCS versus FBS losses, and a
lot of those are just brutal finishes, and this one
was brutal for Sack State. They had a lead with
(25:24):
a few minutes left and they decide to throw the
ball and Cardell Williams was in there. He throws a
pick six that gives Nevada the lead. Then sacks State
gets the ball back, they actually drive down the field.
They scored the game winning touchdown twice in the final minute,
but both times they were called back. I believe one
was a holding call and I can't remember off the
(25:45):
top of my head what the second one was, but
both touchdowns get called back. They have to kick a
field goal, they miss it and lose to Nevada. So
a tough one for sax State. There. Then one more,
This wasn't a one score loss, but New Mexico beat
Idaho State thirty two to twenty two. Idaho State actually
had a fourth quarter lead in this one before New
Mexico came back to win. Idaho State is a tough
(26:06):
team to figure out because they they nearly have two
wins over over Mountain West Conference teams, but then they
lost rather decisively to Southern Utah, and then Southern Utah
loses to San Diego. So these these results are just
all over the place. But I wanted to point out
some of those closer FCS versus FBS games where probably
two of them, you know, really should have been FCS wins,
(26:29):
but some some brutal finishes there.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Yeah, the Northern Colorado one really really reminds me of
that Central Arkansas game last year where it was just
a blatant miscall and it happens. And also too you
see in these close Losso Sam the difference between FBS
and FCS is not much, but man, one mistake can
really turn a game on its head and it really
(26:51):
cost you a chance to pull off the upset. And
I do want to give a shout out. And Austin
P had Georgia like they they look horrible against Austin P.
And it makes me kind of look at Austin P
kind of a little bit differently right where it's like, okay,
maybe a middle to the C state A wasn't bad that.
I haven't seen a FCS school competing against Georgia L
like that. It's usually what sixteen to nothing something like that.
(27:14):
So I was a little bit surprised of that Austin
P game as well. But again, and I think FCS
schools are performing well, and like you said, it just
the difference between a win and a loss of some
of these games is so thin.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
Yeah, a couple more results to shout out here. UTR
GV they're now with two and L they get their
first ever Division one win. They beat Prairie View A
and m Rhode Islands. They're two and oh and l.
I definitely think they're deserving of top ten rankings somewhere
in there. Second. I mean, it's interesting that they start
their season with two straight CIA opponents, but they've kind
(27:47):
of they fell into a hole early on in these games,
and they found a way to to climb outs. And
Rhode Island beat Stony Brook thirty one to seventeen. Stony
Brook wasn't ranked, but I think they were, you know,
kind of pretty close to being ranked. So that's a
good win for Roadyer right there. And then Tennessee Tech.
I mean, I honestly I wasn't high on Chattanooga at
all coming into this year. I didn't even really consider
(28:09):
them for my preseason top twenty five based off of
what they lost. But Tennessee Tech made easy work over
a Chattanooga. They won forty five seventeen. It was a
twenty four to three ball game in the second quarter,
I mean, just an absolute dominant effort, and I caught
the first two to two and a half quarters of
this of this one live. Chattanooga just had no interest
(28:30):
in tackling in this game. I mean, Tennessee Tech was
doing whatever they wanted to offensively, and we know how
good Tennessee Tech is, you know, defensively, and they held
Chattanooga to twenty five rushing yards on twenty eight attempts.
And then offensively, I mean they had quite the quarterback
battle in preseason camp for Tennessee Tech and Cocoa Visparis
(28:50):
wins that job. He looks super comfortable out there to
nearly two hundred and fifty passing the yards and a touchdown.
He's he's taken that team to another level because offensively
last year is was where they fell short, which ultimately
kept them out of the playoffs. But Tennessee Tech, to me,
is looking really good.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
I was super super high on Tennessee Tech this year,
and I am so glad to see all that recruiting
kind of payoff. And we talk about all these teams
that recruited well sam in the off season have really
good transfer portal classes. Tennessee Tech might look like the
one that nailed a lot of their evaluations. I know
Chattanooga had a lot of turnover and I know me
(29:27):
nor you had them in the top twenty five but
it's still a statement when Rusty Right doesn't get blown
out a lot in FCS play at Chattanooga, and they
absolutely dominated that game. And I'm extremely excited to see
their ceiling. And I know Ut Martin's had some tough
games early. We really Simos still kind of lurking around.
But I really really liked their chances to win the
(29:49):
OVC Big South this year and make a return appearance
for the playoffs.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
Yeah, Garner Web two could make that a interesting race. There.
Let's look ahead now, I think we got a little
bit of time here. Two week three games. I want
to start with the loan ranked matchup. That's number sixteen
U and D going to number five Montana. I can't
remember where did you have you and D ranked in
your ballot?
Speaker 2 (30:11):
So this week I had them at seven in my ballot,
and then I had Montana not too far behind it none,
so it was seven and nine. So I had North
Dakota above Montana.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
Okay, yeah, so it's I have them both in my
top ten as well, with Montana a couple of spots
I had there. I kind of I thought U and
D would be ranked a bit higher overall than number
sixteen I also get why people would be a little
more patient with the un D because you're basing their
(30:45):
ranking off of they nearly beat the ranked Kansas State
team and then they dominated Portland States. I believe it
was fifty to twenty, And I know some people looked
at the twenty points they allowed. I mean it was
like forty two three or something like that in the
third quarter. Then Portland State got two garbage time touchdown,
So I'm not concerned about the twenty points und allowed,
(31:08):
but I'm high on the Fighting Hawks. I kind of
feel like the winner of this game would have a
pretty good argument to be number five, you know, potentially
jump teams like Illinois State and Rhode Islands. I think Montana,
if they get a win, they could, I mean, they
would stay at number five. But if you indeed gets
a win, I think pretty comfortably they should get a
(31:29):
decent amount of number five votes, behind the Dakota States,
Montana State, and Tarleton State as well. So what do
you make of this matchup?
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Yeah, I think I'm with you. Whoever wins this matchup
should be number five in the top twenty five next week.
And I'm gonna be honest, part I've had a really
tough time predicting this game, Salem, and I'm not really
sure who I'm going to go with, but I'll be honest,
I'm leaning toward North Dakota even on the road. I
really really like the matchup of their rushing offense against
(32:01):
Montana's pretty inexperienced front seven. And I really was not
super impressed with what I saw for Montana last week.
Even in a game against Central Washington. I thought the
defense looked like I kind of expected where they were inexperience,
made some mistakes, and I think this is the type
of game that North Dakota could potentially capitalize off of that.
(32:22):
And I'll say this, and I said it last was
it two weeks ago when we talked about that Kansas
State game. I'm really high on Kaminski and I think
they completely upgraded that quarterback spot, which is kind of
their weakness. But the biggest thing for me, man is
they gave up two hundred and twenty one rushing yards
to Central Washington last week. If that's the same type
of strategy and same type of execution, North Dakota is
(32:44):
going to run the football, control of the clock and
kind of use the same sort of game plan that
we saw them execute last year, and North Dakota is
not going to be afraid to walk into Wagriz and
get a win. The one hesitant thing I have is
I got did look a little bit better, made some mistakes,
but it's also Eli Gillmanman. What an electric playmaker, and
I think he can He can absolutely flip the game
(33:05):
on his head. The question is which one of these
teams has a wide receiver emerged. I'm still a little
bit questioned on who's going to be the number one
receiver for each team right now? Like Xavier Lee actually
leads North Dakota in receiving right now. Who's a running back?
And I think Michael Wortham showed a lot of promise
for the Grizz, but he's not really that true outside receiver.
(33:26):
So can Blake Bohan and Drew Deck someone step out
on the outside for the Grizz and become a number
one threat as that primary like x receiver.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
Yeah, the Grizz we're in a battle there in the
first half against Central Washington, who's a Division two opponent,
before you know, pretty much dominating the second half there
and pulling away for a decisive win. Yeah, it'll be
interesting to see. You know, I do think Montana, despite
the fact that they replace their entire starting defense from
(33:55):
last year, I feel like they have a chance to
be better on that side of the ball. But they
do go up against a U and D offense that
has a really good rushing attack. I mean, they have
three different backs that can hurt you, a super experienced
offensive line. I believe they brought back four full time
starters for you and D. One of them I think
is still going to be out with an injury, but
still a really good offensive line for you and D.
(34:17):
And with what Montana does, you know, just create chaos
across the defensive line and you know, send blitzes, like
if you time that out on the offensive line, you
can get some gash running plays as well. So that's
a that's an interesting matchup. Going to Missoula is going
to be incredibly tough. You know, anytime you go there,
it's it's going to be a difficult time to to
(34:37):
get a win. But a really good test I think
for both quarterbacks. I thought I got for the most part,
looked more comfortable for Montana. Certainly a couple of mistakes there,
but I thought he looked comfortable and then, yeah, Jerry Kaminski,
I think is going to be a really good quarterback
for you and d I believe he's only a sophomore,
I want to say, but he looks like he has
(34:58):
total comfortability. I mean that started role, you know is
arm strength isn't necessarily going to wow you, but he
can get it there. You'll find enough. And he's a
dual threat guy as well, for being what like six
to two, like he can he can tuck it in run.
So that is certainly the highlight matchup of this weekend.
Another one that I'm very interested in that's Etsu going
(35:18):
to number twenty five West Georgia. The SoCon, I mean,
Etsu obviously would love to get a win here, but
the SoCon in general needs a win like this because
they've i mean, their best non conference win is probably
Furman beating William and Mary. So they need some type
of headlining non conference win. And if they were able
(35:40):
to go to number twenty five West Georgia gonna win,
they'd be huge for Etsu as well, but would certainly
help out the Sokon a little bit as well.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
Yeah, I so I picked Etsu to win the SoCon
this year. So I'm still, i'll be honest, Offul really
good about my pick after watching the rest of the
SOOCA so far. But at the same time, this is
really Etsu's first major tests. I mean, I don't think
we've learned a ton about them against Murray State, no
offense to Murray, and I definitely don't think we learned
(36:09):
anything against Tennessee.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Right.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
I don't know what the expectation was there, but it
wasn't really to be competitive. The one thing I am
curious to see is if West Georgia could continued to
be successful against a run. Right now, West george is
allowing forty five yards per game on the ground one
point seven yards per carry in zero rushing touchdown Sam.
That is an amazing stat line given the two teams
(36:32):
that they've played, and they've really David Hoage, who was
the Northern Colorado transfer a few remembers and he was
an All American like three years ago. He's already got
four tackles for loss this year, two forced fumbles. He's
wreaking havoc off the edge. Just front seven is really good,
but you're going up against a rushing attack that also
has a you talk about North Dakota having a stable
(36:52):
of running backs, so does Etsu led by Devonte Houston. There,
I'm very very curious see if this two quarterback system
continues to rotate through k mcnamore to Colby Chris Well.
I don't know if you have an opinion, but to me,
I think Caid's look like the more efficient quarterback for
right now. And I'm just very curious that if that
(37:13):
QB battle is going to continue or they're going to
settle on Kid here as they get into some of
these tougher games. But I was still leaning Etsu here.
But if West Georgia gets this one, Sam, we're talking
top fifteen potential potentially maybe even a little bit higher
for some voters, depending on how much they value the
resume resume, because they would have three Division one wins
(37:33):
and now two ranked wins over two really good opponents
and Nickels and Etsu.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
Yeah, and they are playoff ineligible. And I can't remember
if it's a three year transition now or a four
year I can't remember if they changed that or not.
But regardless, West Yard just still is just in its
second year in the FCS, and now I think they
have potential, you know, in that area of the country.
They take football seriously at the school. They have a
nice stadium, you know, funding wise, I'm not sure specifically
(38:02):
where they're at, but that is there's definitely some D
two teams that come into the FCS and you kind
of go, okay, that's that does not move the needle
at all. But there are also some others like Tarlton
State obviously, but I think you have West Georgia with
some some big time potential and we'll see if, like
a team like West Florida, it makes the jump up soon.
(38:23):
I know there's like a moratorium on D two to FCS,
but if you get your your paperwork in in time,
you can still potentially, you know, make that move. And
I want to say West Florida at least has filed
that paperwork. We'll see if they actually make the jump
or not. But there's potential there for West Georgia to
really have a good season here.
Speaker 2 (38:42):
You know, there was a lot of rumors about who
the like if the SoCon expanded again, who would they get.
West Georgia is just staring them right in the face
right now. I think you go in the direction they're going,
what to add that would be and you would get
West Georgia and Mercer in the SoCon even kind of
locked down Georgia to a point that would be a
massive addition and it So, if I'm not mistaken, I
(39:04):
think West george is eligible for the postseason in twenty
twenty seven, So I think they still got another year
to wait, if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 1 (39:10):
Okay, yeah, I'm curious too about it. If we're talking
to realignment, it's kind of rumors circulating that the UAC
could be aggressive here and I don't know who specifically
they're going to target, whether it's another FC or more
FCS teams or go down to the D two ranks,
but potentially some FCS realignment coming up before the season ends.
(39:31):
A few more here as far as FCS versus FCS.
Number seventeen, Southern Illinois goes to UT Martin. I think
our first true gauge of Southern Illinois after playing a
non D one but then competing decently well against Purdue.
This is a good road test for UT Martin, who,
while you know they're not ranked, but there UT Martin
is consistently at least in the playoff hunt. So this
(39:53):
is a good test for Southern Illinois. Number eighteen, Northern
Arizona goes to Southern Utah, which Southern Utah team is
going to show up like. It wouldn't surprise me at
all if if they pull off this upset just because
of the kind of jeckle in high nature of Southern Utah.
Number three Tarleton State goes to Central Arkansas. I feel
like Tarleton State is good enough to finish this year undefeated,
(40:15):
go undefeated through throughout the UAC, and that would be
interesting to see where they would stack up in the seating.
At the same time, the UAC is so competitive that
anytime you go on the road you're at least a
little bit worried about an upset potential here. So a
good test for Tarleton State. Then number six Rhode Island
goes to holy Cross. Holy Cross has been competitive in
(40:36):
some tough matchups, so I think they are despite their record,
they're a pretty good outfit right now. Another good test
for number six Rhode Island. Who I mean these first
these first three games, they're challenging roady. So any additions
for FCS versus FCS or anything you want to touch
on with with these few.
Speaker 2 (40:52):
Games, Yeah, maybe not FCS FCS. I am going to
be watching mom as Charlotte. I'm very very curious to
see if they can get another FBS one. If you
remember they outscored FIU last year and Derek Robertson right now,
Man has a strangleholder on the Walter Payton Race. I
mean Sam, he's on pace for like six thousand passing
yards right now, I think, and he's going to have
(41:13):
to throw for every bit of six thousand if they're
gonna win the CIA with that defense, So he is
going to have to throw that much to get it done.
I'm also just I guess across the subdivision just kind
of looking at this. There's a lot of money games
this week. New Hampshire Ball States one I'm kind of
looking at as a potential FCS over FBS upset, Very
(41:34):
very interested to see what that looks like. Also, to
Leha Ducaine, I think could be a sneaky game to watch.
I don't I think Lehis should be safe if they
play up to par, but to go on the road
this early in the season, Sam was always what could
be looked at as a potential trap game. So those
are some of the other games I would just mention
it for fans to watch.
Speaker 1 (41:55):
Yeah, I had those two FCS versus FBS jotted down
another one as well that I'm in trigued with number fourteen.
UIW goes to UTSA, a popular preseason pick for a
potential fcsover FBS win. I feel like that the confidence
has has lowered there, just with how UIW has has
looked in their first couple of games. But you know,
(42:15):
who knows if I think we're still while well UIW
has plummeted in both of our ballots. I still feel
like we're both sitting in a spot where you're like, well,
if things start to click for UIW, like they still
have the potential to be a dangerous team, and who
knows that if things will click this early. But that
is another FCS FBS game that I'll be tuned into
just to see how UIW stacks up there.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
Yeah, I'll be honest, I didn't have them in my
ballot this week, Sam, and it wasn't because I don't
think they can't be top twenty five. It's just that
other teams have earned the ranking on the field, and
if Nichols had to drop out, they also had to
drop out for now and proved to me that that
might have just been a one off game or Nichols
just has to fall off the face of the earth.
(42:57):
But for teams like West Georgia New Hampshire team that
are two and zero, it's really really hard to say, Oh,
I'm just projecting UIW to rebound. They're gonna have to
show me they can rebound. So this is the chance.
I don't. I don't even if they don't win it, Sam,
I do want to see them take a step forward
off the bye week is show that they're improved. A
really sneaky game between non two ranked teams, Sam, the
Citadel Gardner Webb at six o'clock. That could be the Citadel.
(43:21):
I know everyone's gonna be like, well, they got murdered
by NDSU. Everyone's going to outside of like a handful
of teams. The Citadel has continued to improve under Maurice
Straton and Gardner Webb has has looked good this year.
That that could be a sneaky game to watch, a
super competitive game and one that Gardner Web can maybe
put in their cap as a really good out of
(43:42):
conference win for them.
Speaker 1 (43:43):
Yeah, that's another good one as well, and we'll see
if I mean we saw this last year with NSU.
They beat up on Tennessee State and no one really
gave and you see much credit for that win other
than how you dominated a bad team. But then you know,
Tennessee State goes on and has a decent season. So
we'll see if the Citadel can do that. They looked
really good this last weekend against Sanford, which I mean,
(44:05):
I don't Sanford might be real, real bad after making
the quarterfinals not too long ago. But yeah, that's another
good FCS versus FCS game. So we will be back,
of course next week to recap all these matchups and
also look ahead to Week four of the FCS football season.
Kind of crazy that we are, you know, closing in
on being one third of the way through the season already.
(44:26):
But until then, thank you everyone for listening, and we'll
catch you guys on the flippity flip
All right, welcome in FCS tackle football fans to another
episode of the FCS Football Talk podcast. We are presented
by hero Sports and bet MGM. I'm your host, Sam
Herder of hero Sports and I'm joined as always by
my co host, Zach mckinnal of FCS Football Central and
the Blue Bloods. A lot to dive into once again.
(00:37):
We have a lot of results and performances touch to
touch on from week two, and time permitting, we will
we will talk a little bit about Week three, you know,
some of the top games that's that we have kind
of circled. As far as paying attention to, Zach, let's
I'll have you kick it off right away here with
your first game ball from this last weekend.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Yeah, there is no doubt who deserves the first game
ball here, Sam, and I know you were in attendance.
It is South Dakota State and the win over Montana
State in Bozeman for the goal rush game, hostile crowd,
thirty to twenty four. They get it done in overtime
and the main reason that I picked South Dakota State
in this game, Sam, was I thought Chase Mason was
(01:20):
maybe a little bit more of a refine passer, and
I thought the defense could make enough key plays down
the stretch, and I kind of feel good about that
pick now because they were the ones that made the
plays down the stretch to win the games, including that
big fourth down stop in overtime. I know, the only
three for one hundred and seventy four yards, Sam, but
I thought Chase Mason played outstanding man three touchdowns. A
(01:41):
few of those passes were I mean that pass in
overtime over the middle was on the money and I
don't think you could have placed it any better. And
I think we saw the breakout performance of Lofton Ogrosky.
That kid can really be a star. It's a little
bit of shades of the Griffin Wilde breakout that we
saw last year. Twelve for one to twenty five two touchdowns, Sam.
(02:01):
No one talks about how much this team had to overcome,
from the death of a teammate to a complete coaching
staff overhaul, to a complete roster overhaul where you had
you might have had ten of eleven guys come back, Sam,
but you only had one returning starter on this defense.
And you look at what they've accomplished these first two
weeks against a really good Montana State team and one
of the most hyped offenses in the country coming into
(02:23):
the year and the go go offensive Sacramento State. South
Dakota State earns a game ball for just the entire
season thus far. Man no one's had a more impressive
first two weeks than the Jacks.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Yeah, the fact that they are too and er just
so impressive with all of the offseason turmoil that they
had to deal with, and you know, going to Montana
State and the gold Rush game just an electric environment,
a super tough place to play, and being able to
be there in experienced at environments was awesome. And there
(02:54):
were there were moments when you felt like, Okay, Montana States,
you know, going to win this game. You kind of
have that feeling in your gut. But then you know,
a couple of sequences happen. You go, I think South
Dakota State is gonna get this one, and I know,
like South Kota State definitely feels like they should have
won that game in regulation with some of the mistakes
they made. And then Montana State on their end, you know,
they feel like, you know, they should have won that
(03:15):
game with you know, some of the mistakes that that
they made that you could probably consider uncharacteristic of the Bobcats,
And so that that's what you get when you have
two heavyweight teams, high pressure moments atmosphere like that, you
know you're gonna have a little bit of sloppiness. And
you know, I think because because after the game, you know,
(03:37):
I I tweeted about how you know, for the most part,
I was impressed with with both of these teams, and
they're they're certainly in the national title pitcher. And there
are some responses saying, if this is the number two
and three teams in the FCS, then then holy crap.
You know that's that's not a good sign. Because there
were some fans that sounded like they weren't super impressed
with South Kota State and Montana State. And I kind
(03:59):
of pointed to last year's NBCU Southcota State game in
the regular season, which you know, set offenses back ten
years with how much of a rock like that was.
But like, sometimes you just kind of get these type
of games where no, I will say some of the
special team sloppiness that was just like that that was
just gross, But some of the offensive stuff I kind
(04:19):
of chucked that up to how good both defenses were.
I thought the defensive lines and linebackers for both teams
were really, really, really good. I thought the running backs
in this game were really good. I thought we show
we saw Chase Mason step up and make some huge throws.
And you know, even Lampson from Montana State not the
most efficient day, but I still thought he was solid,
(04:40):
not great, I still thought he was solid. So big
Pitcher viewpoint, how do you view South Goota State in
Montana State right now? Obviously the Jacks are two and oh.
Montana State on the flip side is zero and two.
How do you just view these two teams and where
they go from here?
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Yeah, I'm just gonna say this. Any voter that did
not keep these two teams in the top four, I
don't know what you were looking at on Saturday night. Sam,
you said it perfectly, and I think that kind of
exposes some people who don't watch enough football. Sometimes you
just get two really good teams and you have a
game that looks like that. If you remember Sam back,
(05:16):
what was it. I don't remember how many years ago.
I remember the Pats Rams Super Bowl that was what was
at like six to three going into the fourth quarter
and everybody was like, this is the worst game ever.
Sometimes when you just have two really good teams, you're
going to have ugly games sometimes because they're just that good.
And I thought Montana States defense played really well. I
thought eiden Off the edge was great. They were still
(05:37):
missing a starter at linebacker, right, and so for Montana
State to play as well as they did, I was
really impressed. I think both offensive lines shows some positives.
Now there's some new starters on both of them that
I think you saw some growing pains with. But at
the end of the day, man, these are two of
the best teams in the country and I don't think
there's any question to that, and I think you put
out a tweet about this. In my opinion, there's there's
(06:00):
always there always seems to be a clear separation of
the top two, top three, top four teams from the
rest of the country. Right now, these two teams are
firmly in that top four, and I would group them
with North Dakota State and I'm even gonna throw Tarlton
State in there. Right now, those are the four best
teams in the country, and I think there is a
significant gap between them and the rest of the country
(06:22):
right now at the FCS level.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Yeah, my first game ball. I'm gonna combine this one.
I'm gonna give it to Bryant's and LU Long Island
University both grabbed their first ever FBS wins. And you know,
especially for l IU, I mean they've they're relatively new,
you know, somewhat to the FCS. Long Island they beat
Eastern Michigan twenty eight to twenty three, and then Bryant
(06:46):
they beat UMass twenty seven twenty six, and kind we
talk about this sometimes about how when you go through
the list of FCS over FBS wins, like half of
those teams are top twenty five teams and playoff teams
and the other half are like you go back and like,
how did this team beat this FBS opponent And they
go on and finish like four and eight, and so,
(07:07):
I mean, shout out to these two teams. I don't
necessarily think this for sure moves them into the top
twenty five or anything like that, but it's huge for
both programs. You look at Brian they went two and
ten last year and they hit a game winning field
goal from Bryce solely as time expired to win this
game at LU. They went four and eight last year,
(07:29):
and they actually had a pretty I don't I guess,
I don't want to say decisive, but they did have
a two score lead with under two minutes to go
on Eastern Michigan, then Eastern Michigan. They made it twenty eight,
twenty three with forty one seconds left, but you know
by that point that they were pretty much, you know,
out of time, and so LU was a bit more
of a decisive one than maybe what the score showed.
(07:50):
But a huge, huge win for both of those programs.
And we are now up to four FCS over FBS
wins this season.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
This is kind of what we were missing last year. Sam,
I think we had one, right, I forget who it
was last year, it was just a random team. It
was at Saint Francis last year. They came out of
nowhere and picked up an FBS win. But we need
more of these. I think it just shows that on
any given Saturday, right, Sam, I don't think either one
of us are picking Long Island or Bryant to win
(08:19):
their respective conferences right now, but what wins and hey,
it's to Florida hangover, right, and maybe Long Island took
it out of Florida and they had to hangover against
USF this past week. I'm gonna go to my second game,
Ball is going to go to a team that I
was high on coming into the season, but I just
thought the conference was going to be too hard for
(08:40):
them to compete, and that's West Georgia. I've been so
impressed with them over the first two weeks. Sam, if
I would have told you they were going to beat
Samford and Nichols by double digits to start the season,
I think you might have not asked me to be
your co host anymore and you would have told me
I need to watch more FCS football. But here we
are thirty four to ten wins, and they did this
(09:01):
against a Nickels defense that I think me and you
were both very very high on after what they did
do in Cardinate Word, and they performed well even in
their FBS game. They absolutely dominated the line of Scrimmas
three hundred and forty two yards rushing two touchdowns. They
held a Nichols rushing attack that does have a lot
of talented pieces to two point eight yards per carry.
(09:22):
Deuce Hogan was inefficient, really struggled and Sam I think
all my worries for Nichols kind of came to fruition
because I do think they're good defensively, but if that
defense doesn't play well, I still question if this offense
has enough firepower to get it done against a good opponent.
And I don't even think West Georgill played their best game.
They only threw for sixty three yards him in put
the seven passes through two big interceptions. But on the ground,
(09:46):
man Latrell Murle had a big game. And I'm gonna
just give y'all a nugget here. I'm a massive fan
of TJ. Lester, and I'm gonna be honest him. I
don't say this much. I do pay a lot of
attention to recruiting. I know some FCS fans just cringed.
Listen to me say that TJ. Lester. I don't know
how he wound up at West Georgia. This is a
kid that I watched a lot of Georgia high school
(10:06):
football being down here in Alabama. At Milton, he was
a superstar average eight yards per carry last year, had
twenty nine touchdowns as a senior, sam on one of
the best teams in the state of Georgia. He had
two big rushing touchdowns. I think he's on his way
to potentially your Freshman All the American year. But I'm
so impressed with the Wolves man and they absolutely deserved
(10:26):
their first ever top twenty five ranking this week.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Yeah, my second game ball, I'm going to stick in
the UAC here, And this one I think kind of
flew under the radar a little bit, just because Saturday
was so hectic with you know, you had the Highlight
game and Bosman, you had some close FCS FBS games,
you had some FCS versus FCS upsets, but there was
a second ranked matchup and we saw number sixteen Apple
(10:51):
and Christian beat number twenty five SFA twenty eight twenty
really kind of a crazy game. I was able to
rewatch parts of it, you know, a couple of days
after being in Bozeman. That is one drawback of being
at a game is sometimes your following scorers or you
see a final scorer like what the heck happened in
this one. But I felt pretty comfortable picking SFA in
(11:14):
this one to a certain extent. But it was also
kind of hard to gauge both of these teams from
their week one FBS losses. But SFA looked good to
start that They jumped up to a fourteen to nothing lead,
and then Ablin Christian just avalanched them. They scored three
touchdowns in the final seven minutes of the second quarter,
and that included I believe their second touchdown was a
Fumbler recovery by Roach. It was an excellent d n
(11:36):
for them. I believe that made it fourteen to fourteen,
and then they made it twenty one fourteen. Then they
extended the lead ACU did to twenty eight fourteen and
kind of held that lead for most of the rest
of the game. SFA did come within eight points in
the final twenty seconds there, but ACU was able to
hold on. Obviously, get a huge ranked win and big
(11:58):
time for this program that has a lot of experience
coming back on defense. Certainly a lot of question marks
offensively because they did lose most of their offense from
last year. How about Stone Earl comes back. He was
a starter for Aplin Christian in twenty twenty one as
a freshman. He transfers out, it spends a few years
and gets really good experience at the FBS level, and
then he comes back after Maverick mackiverleaves for the FBS,
(12:22):
so it does show that you can't leave your school
and you know they sometimes will welcome you back. But
Stone I had a really good game. He throws for
nearly two hundred and fifty yards on this one, So
that was a big time win for Apple and Christian
to avoid going on.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
To massive win and I again just the UA seed
this year SAM is going to be an absolute blood bath.
And with how bad the SOCOM looks, I'm very curious
to see how many bids this conference gets this year
because Sam. I mean, I think the top of the
Big SKA is better potentially, but I don't know if
(12:55):
there's as many teams in the Big SKA that are
as competitive as what's in the UAC right now. And
that's very controversial, but just through the first two and
a half leaks, I guess few include weeks zero. I'm
very curious see how deep this us HE can get.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Because you have real quick because you have Utah Tech,
who was expected to be at the bottom of the UAC.
Maybe they won't be, but they have two one score
losses to ranked Big Sky teams UC Davis and Northern Arizona.
So like if I think that's a fair argument you
can make because you can point out results and and
say like, hey, the UAC, they are expected bottom teams
are competing well with you know, some of the top
(13:31):
half of the Big Sky teams.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Yeah, and you talk about West Georgia, you talk about
Austin p B Middle Tennessee State. By Twinnie, you have
Charlton Aplene Christian Now Southern Utah's loss this weekend not great,
but they did blow out a middle a middle tier
Big Sky school who has been competitive in two FBS
games in Idaho State. So I don't know exactly what
takeaway from that, but my last game ball as a team,
(13:55):
I didn't know. I've really sam If you told me
I would have be given this team a game ball
this year, I don't know. I would have told you,
but I wouldn't have believed you. Presbyterian two toin to zero,
another win over the SoCon. They are just the SoCon
is going to be terrified to schedule this team anymore.
Saying what was lost in this game was everyone talked
about the win. No one talked about that they were
(14:17):
losing twenty eight to seven with five minutes left in
the second quarter and just went on an absolute run
after the first Furman's first drive in the third quarter
stand which they picked off. By the way, they held
Furman to four total yards for the rest of the game,
now four total yards over the next six drives.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
It was just.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Unbelievable defense for Presbyterian, and I think it was kind
of what you saw with the Mammoth comeback last week's
now where Colin Hurst just had some early turnovers, he
threw three picks, but again Presbyterian finds a way to
get it done. Colin Hurst is playing really good football.
Two seventy five and five touchdowns. They're running the ball
at almost six yards per club. They forced tray Head
(15:01):
in some bad mistakes, and Furman's offense just disappeared in
the second half. But Sam, you've got to get Presbyteria
and their flowers Man two massive SoCon upsets over a
Furman team who just knocked off William and Mary last week.
I've been really impressed with Presbyterian and I'm very, very
curious to see what the voters are gonna do with them,
because you look ahead, Sam, they have Erskine in Bluefield.
(15:22):
The next two weeks, so they're probably easily going to
be sending at four and oh, and then they got
a game of Morehead State which they should be favored in,
so Presbyteria could be five and oh going into the
month of October.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Yeah, and I mean they have a ranked win and
there on their resume. I bet they'll be in the
in the coaches pull at at some point because what
was it was either last year or two years ago
when like Saint Thomas. Saint Thomas was seventeen seventeen. Yeah,
they're they're like seven and one or something like that.
And the only Scholarship Division one team they played was
(15:55):
Northern Iowa and they lost like forty two seventeen and
Northern Iowa was like three, and at that point was
like it just did not make sense to to rank
Saint Thomas. But that's the that's the coaches Pulfaria my
last game ball. I'm gonna play off for years a
little bit. I'm just gonna give it to the Pioneer
Football League as a whole. I know, well maybe not
as a whole, just for these three teams, because the
Pioneer has some bad losses in their non conference, but
(16:18):
you touched on Presbyterian getting two wins over SoCon teams.
You also at San Diego they beat number twenty four
Southern Utah thirty to twenty seven in overtime, So that's
a that's a second ranked non conference win for the
Pioneer Football League. And then Saint Thomas gives Idaho a
serious scare. Number ten Idaho beat Saint Thomas thirty seven
to thirty. That was a very competitive game in Moscow.
(16:42):
So really, I think an impressive for the Pioneer Football
League to get these wins. And we'll see like how
good is Ferma going to be, how good is Mercer
going to be? Southern Utah. We'll see about them well,
so we'll see how these age. But I mean, anytime
a Pioneer Football League beats a non conference FCS team,
you know, that's one thing. But to get two ranked wins,
(17:04):
it's like, oh, all right, good for you, Pioneer Football League.
That's not something what you typically see.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
It's gonna be very interesting. Now the at large bids
are gonna be hilarious, right because everybody is gonna have
a Pioneer like what happens to Southern Utah and Mercer
on the bubble and it's like, okay, we got we
got to figure out which Pioneer League loss is going
to keep one of these teams out of the playoffs now.
But my flag getting to this, I don't think this
is any surprising. I know we need to talk about
(17:30):
this game, but it's going to go to South Dakota
and they might deserve multiple flags for their performance this weekend.
Just just an unbelievable loss to Lamar twenty to thirteen.
And on the flip side, real quick, Sam, I want
to give flowers to Pete Rosamondo and that coaching staff
at Lamar. Sam, I know you'll probably talk about it,
but this program was so bad before Pete took it over.
(17:53):
To see how far they've come year after year under
Pete in the in this new coaching staff is remarkable
and this is really just a culmination of all his
hard work. And I do want to give him his flowers,
because every time we see one of these upsets, Sam
we harp on what the ranked team did wrong. Lamar
deserves their flowers for pulling this off. But I don't
know what is going on offensively with South Dakota. Sam.
(18:15):
I was a little bit worried even with the FBS game,
and I don't remember if we talked about it on
this show, but there was a little bit of concern. Offensively,
they did not look good in their FBS game at all,
and Aden Bowman is just not playing good football right now.
Ten for twenty one, one eight, a pick and a touchdown,
and they cannot establish the rushing game. For I mean LJ.
(18:36):
Phillips and Charles Pierre, they were okay, but to only
average less than five yards per Carrey against Lamar for
a team that averaged almost eight last year is a
big step backwards. And I don't even think Lamar played
a good game. That's the thing. Robert Coleman eight for sixteen,
sixty five yards, two picks. I was really unimpressed with
South Dakota, and in my ballot I have both of
(18:58):
these teams outside the top twenty. I'm not ready to
put either one in the top twenty, but I think
South Dakota has to figure it out quickly, and this
was a sign of things that they need to fix
very very fast. You have Northern Colorado, Drake, you can
get it figured out there, but Sam it ramps up
after that. At North Dakota. You have a sneaky road
games at Indiana State, you and I Illinois State, North Dakota,
(19:20):
South Dakota State at Southern Illinois. If you play like
you did this weekend, we're gonna be talking about the
Yoats going from top four preseason salm to probably unranked
at the end of the year if they don't take
a big step forward.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Yeah, I'll circle back to that game. I'll first get
through my flag here and I won't touch on it
too much because you mentioned it in in your game
ball with West Georgia bed number twenty two Nichols, I
will throw the flag here on Nichols, you know, like personally,
like a part of me is like, well, you know,
(19:53):
I picked West Georgia for this upset, so I'm not
too angry about it because West Georgia maybe look smart
for once in this one. But along the same lines,
like you, me and Jamie and Kevin, like we made
a big fuss of last week at this time of
UIW still being ten plus spots ahead of Nichols, you know,
despite the fact that Nichols has the head to head
(20:14):
win and look better in week one, and I still
stand by that. I know there's a certain level of
like maybe people do project a head a little bit,
but I do think head to head matchups need to matter,
you know, this early in the season. And even if
if UIW was twelve and Nichols was thirteen last week,
(20:34):
I honestly probably wouldn't have even said anything about it,
But just the fact that there was that big of
a gap, I'm like, all right, I need to say
something with that. But then Nichols not only gets upset
but gets blown out. Now, I still think Nichols deserves
to be ranked ahead of you IW. You know, that's
a different discussion, but certainly a disappointing performance there by
Nichols to lose that one when you know they were
(20:56):
kind of the talk of the FCS at least for
a little bit there. I do want to let's circle
back to the us D game, because I was able
to rewatch that one on yesterday, I think on on Monday,
just to see what happened, and just an odd game.
And like you said, we do need to give Lamar.
You know, it's Flowers, and they did have a decently
(21:16):
breakthrough year last year, getting to seven wins, when before
that they were just an afterthought, and they're obviously, you know,
a building off of that with coach Pete. But on
the usd Angle side of things, I mean, they had
a good start, they were up ten to nothing, and
then I just feel like there were some bad turnovers
that they just couldn't climb out of. I mean, they
(21:37):
there was a kickoff where they botched the catch and
that and turn it over to Lamar Charles Pierre Junior
fumbled into the end zone and that had they not
done that, that could have been a decently decisive lead for
South Dakota. And it just seemed like they couldn't get
out of, you know, the lull that they were in.
And you know, I didn't when I when I rewatched games,
(21:58):
I pretty much like, I see the play and then
I fast forward thirty seconds, see the play, fast forward
thirty seconds, and at some point Charles Pierrot Junior left
the game, I believe in the second half. But I
never caught like him getting hurt or what happened with that.
So that is definitely something to keep an eye on
on what exactly happened with Charles pier At Junior. I
didn't I don't know specifically, just because again, I was
(22:20):
kind of fast forwarding through the non football action. But yeah,
I mean Bauman, he made some good throws, but then
again he didn't put enough arm strength on some out routes.
He just missed like one or two deep balls by inches.
Had they completed that, maybe they could have gotten a
comeback win. So he's just off a little bit. The
offensive line up and down for sure, you know, not
(22:43):
great in past protection. I thought USTe ran the ball
okay at certain points, but yeah, there's just a lot
to fix there. And now South Dakota is staring at
a zero to two record, you know, after getting top
five preseason love. So the Oats are definitely in a
tough spot here.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
Now what's interesting, Sam? And I'm not predicting this right,
but I did get asked this. I want to get
your opinion. Is there any concern for upset alert this
next week? I mean with Northern Colorado, I.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Mean maybe I still kind of doubt it just because
you Yeah, I feel like Northern Colorado. No, wait, but
they I mean I'm going to touch on some of
the close FBS losses, but Northern Colorado dang near and
probably should have beaten Colorado State so I don't know.
I don't I won't call the upset, but I won't
be surprised if this is a seven to ten point
(23:36):
when we're South Dakota finds itself in a battle with
the Bears.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
One note, Sam, I don't know if you called this either.
Lamar loses their starting quarterback after this game.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Yeah, shoulder injury, so he'll be She'll be out for
at least a week.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
And they got a very very tricky road trip to
Texas Southern, who is only who gave them a tough
game last year. Without their starting quarterback, we could see.
I wouldn't be surprise of Texas Southern pool that went
off because I don't think Coleman played well, but they're
going to be starting a very very unproven guy in
his place. That this could be a very very interesting
(24:10):
fallout from this game for both teams if Charles pier
is out for an extend amount of time along with
Coleman at quarterback for Lamar.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Yeah, let's touch on these close FBS losses. You had
app State beating Lindonwood twenty to thirteen, Colorado State beat
Northern Colorado twenty one seventeen Northern Colorado had a game
winning touchdown or a potential game winning touchdown at thirty
or forty seconds left. They had a touchdown catch kind
of a fader out in the corner of the end
(24:39):
zone that was that was caught. They ruled it a touchdown,
and then they officials overturned it after replaying. I have
yet to really see an angle that definitively shows it
wasn't incomplete, and so I don't know if the Mountain
West Conference office and their official reviews just kind of
gave Colorado State, you know, a win. I don't know.
(25:00):
It's still kind of controversial, but the fact that Northern
Colorado nearly beats a Mountain West Conference team, you know,
it is pretty wild. Another one Nevada they beat number
eighteen Sack State twenty to seventeen. Another There's been I
think eight one score FCS versus FBS losses, and a
lot of those are just brutal finishes, and this one
was brutal for Sack State. They had a lead with
(25:24):
a few minutes left and they decide to throw the
ball and Cardell Williams was in there. He throws a
pick six that gives Nevada the lead. Then sacks State
gets the ball back, they actually drive down the field.
They scored the game winning touchdown twice in the final minute,
but both times they were called back. I believe one
was a holding call and I can't remember off the
(25:45):
top of my head what the second one was, but
both touchdowns get called back. They have to kick a
field goal, they miss it and lose to Nevada. So
a tough one for sax State. There. Then one more,
This wasn't a one score loss, but New Mexico beat
Idaho State thirty two to twenty two. Idaho State actually
had a fourth quarter lead in this one before New
Mexico came back to win. Idaho State is a tough
(26:06):
team to figure out because they they nearly have two
wins over over Mountain West Conference teams, but then they
lost rather decisively to Southern Utah, and then Southern Utah
loses to San Diego. So these these results are just
all over the place. But I wanted to point out
some of those closer FCS versus FBS games where probably
two of them, you know, really should have been FCS wins,
(26:29):
but some some brutal finishes there.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Yeah, the Northern Colorado one really really reminds me of
that Central Arkansas game last year where it was just
a blatant miscall and it happens. And also too you
see in these close Losso Sam the difference between FBS
and FCS is not much, but man, one mistake can
really turn a game on its head and it really
(26:51):
cost you a chance to pull off the upset. And
I do want to give a shout out. And Austin
P had Georgia like they they look horrible against Austin P.
And it makes me kind of look at Austin P
kind of a little bit differently right where it's like, okay,
maybe a middle to the C state A wasn't bad that.
I haven't seen a FCS school competing against Georgia L
like that. It's usually what sixteen to nothing something like that.
(27:14):
So I was a little bit surprised of that Austin
P game as well. But again, and I think FCS
schools are performing well, and like you said, it just
the difference between a win and a loss of some
of these games is so thin.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
Yeah, a couple more results to shout out here. UTR
GV they're now with two and L they get their
first ever Division one win. They beat Prairie View A
and m Rhode Islands. They're two and oh and l.
I definitely think they're deserving of top ten rankings somewhere
in there. Second. I mean, it's interesting that they start
their season with two straight CIA opponents, but they've kind
(27:47):
of they fell into a hole early on in these games,
and they found a way to to climb outs. And
Rhode Island beat Stony Brook thirty one to seventeen. Stony
Brook wasn't ranked, but I think they were, you know,
kind of pretty close to being ranked. So that's a
good win for Roadyer right there. And then Tennessee Tech.
I mean, I honestly I wasn't high on Chattanooga at
all coming into this year. I didn't even really consider
(28:09):
them for my preseason top twenty five based off of
what they lost. But Tennessee Tech made easy work over
a Chattanooga. They won forty five seventeen. It was a
twenty four to three ball game in the second quarter,
I mean, just an absolute dominant effort, and I caught
the first two to two and a half quarters of
this of this one live. Chattanooga just had no interest
(28:30):
in tackling in this game. I mean, Tennessee Tech was
doing whatever they wanted to offensively, and we know how
good Tennessee Tech is, you know, defensively, and they held
Chattanooga to twenty five rushing yards on twenty eight attempts.
And then offensively, I mean they had quite the quarterback
battle in preseason camp for Tennessee Tech and Cocoa Visparis
(28:50):
wins that job. He looks super comfortable out there to
nearly two hundred and fifty passing the yards and a touchdown.
He's he's taken that team to another level because offensively
last year is was where they fell short, which ultimately
kept them out of the playoffs. But Tennessee Tech, to me,
is looking really good.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
I was super super high on Tennessee Tech this year,
and I am so glad to see all that recruiting
kind of payoff. And we talk about all these teams
that recruited well sam in the off season have really
good transfer portal classes. Tennessee Tech might look like the
one that nailed a lot of their evaluations. I know
Chattanooga had a lot of turnover and I know me
(29:27):
nor you had them in the top twenty five but
it's still a statement when Rusty Right doesn't get blown
out a lot in FCS play at Chattanooga, and they
absolutely dominated that game. And I'm extremely excited to see
their ceiling. And I know Ut Martin's had some tough
games early. We really Simos still kind of lurking around.
But I really really liked their chances to win the
(29:49):
OVC Big South this year and make a return appearance
for the playoffs.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
Yeah, Garner Web two could make that a interesting race. There.
Let's look ahead now, I think we got a little
bit of time here. Two week three games. I want
to start with the loan ranked matchup. That's number sixteen
U and D going to number five Montana. I can't
remember where did you have you and D ranked in
your ballot?
Speaker 2 (30:11):
So this week I had them at seven in my ballot,
and then I had Montana not too far behind it none,
so it was seven and nine. So I had North
Dakota above Montana.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
Okay, yeah, so it's I have them both in my
top ten as well, with Montana a couple of spots
I had there. I kind of I thought U and
D would be ranked a bit higher overall than number
sixteen I also get why people would be a little
more patient with the un D because you're basing their
(30:45):
ranking off of they nearly beat the ranked Kansas State
team and then they dominated Portland States. I believe it
was fifty to twenty, And I know some people looked
at the twenty points they allowed. I mean it was
like forty two three or something like that in the
third quarter. Then Portland State got two garbage time touchdown,
So I'm not concerned about the twenty points und allowed,
(31:08):
but I'm high on the Fighting Hawks. I kind of
feel like the winner of this game would have a
pretty good argument to be number five, you know, potentially
jump teams like Illinois State and Rhode Islands. I think Montana,
if they get a win, they could, I mean, they
would stay at number five. But if you indeed gets
a win, I think pretty comfortably they should get a
(31:29):
decent amount of number five votes, behind the Dakota States,
Montana State, and Tarleton State as well. So what do
you make of this matchup?
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Yeah, I think I'm with you. Whoever wins this matchup
should be number five in the top twenty five next week.
And I'm gonna be honest, part I've had a really
tough time predicting this game, Salem, and I'm not really
sure who I'm going to go with, but I'll be honest,
I'm leaning toward North Dakota even on the road. I
really really like the matchup of their rushing offense against
(32:01):
Montana's pretty inexperienced front seven. And I really was not
super impressed with what I saw for Montana last week.
Even in a game against Central Washington. I thought the
defense looked like I kind of expected where they were inexperience,
made some mistakes, and I think this is the type
of game that North Dakota could potentially capitalize off of that.
(32:22):
And I'll say this, and I said it last was
it two weeks ago when we talked about that Kansas
State game. I'm really high on Kaminski and I think
they completely upgraded that quarterback spot, which is kind of
their weakness. But the biggest thing for me, man is
they gave up two hundred and twenty one rushing yards
to Central Washington last week. If that's the same type
of strategy and same type of execution, North Dakota is
(32:44):
going to run the football, control of the clock and
kind of use the same sort of game plan that
we saw them execute last year, and North Dakota is
not going to be afraid to walk into Wagriz and
get a win. The one hesitant thing I have is
I got did look a little bit better, made some mistakes,
but it's also Eli Gillmanman. What an electric playmaker, and
I think he can He can absolutely flip the game
(33:05):
on his head. The question is which one of these
teams has a wide receiver emerged. I'm still a little
bit questioned on who's going to be the number one
receiver for each team right now? Like Xavier Lee actually
leads North Dakota in receiving right now. Who's a running back?
And I think Michael Wortham showed a lot of promise
for the Grizz, but he's not really that true outside receiver.
(33:26):
So can Blake Bohan and Drew Deck someone step out
on the outside for the Grizz and become a number
one threat as that primary like x receiver.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
Yeah, the Grizz we're in a battle there in the
first half against Central Washington, who's a Division two opponent,
before you know, pretty much dominating the second half there
and pulling away for a decisive win. Yeah, it'll be
interesting to see. You know, I do think Montana, despite
the fact that they replace their entire starting defense from
(33:55):
last year, I feel like they have a chance to
be better on that side of the ball. But they
do go up against a U and D offense that
has a really good rushing attack. I mean, they have
three different backs that can hurt you, a super experienced
offensive line. I believe they brought back four full time
starters for you and D. One of them I think
is still going to be out with an injury, but
still a really good offensive line for you and D.
(34:17):
And with what Montana does, you know, just create chaos
across the defensive line and you know, send blitzes, like
if you time that out on the offensive line, you
can get some gash running plays as well. So that's
a that's an interesting matchup. Going to Missoula is going
to be incredibly tough. You know, anytime you go there,
it's it's going to be a difficult time to to
(34:37):
get a win. But a really good test I think
for both quarterbacks. I thought I got for the most part,
looked more comfortable for Montana. Certainly a couple of mistakes there,
but I thought he looked comfortable and then, yeah, Jerry Kaminski,
I think is going to be a really good quarterback
for you and d I believe he's only a sophomore,
I want to say, but he looks like he has
(34:58):
total comfortability. I mean that started role, you know is
arm strength isn't necessarily going to wow you, but he
can get it there. You'll find enough. And he's a
dual threat guy as well, for being what like six
to two, like he can he can tuck it in run.
So that is certainly the highlight matchup of this weekend.
Another one that I'm very interested in that's Etsu going
(35:18):
to number twenty five West Georgia. The SoCon, I mean,
Etsu obviously would love to get a win here, but
the SoCon in general needs a win like this because
they've i mean, their best non conference win is probably
Furman beating William and Mary. So they need some type
of headlining non conference win. And if they were able
(35:40):
to go to number twenty five West Georgia gonna win,
they'd be huge for Etsu as well, but would certainly
help out the Sokon a little bit as well.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
Yeah, I so I picked Etsu to win the SoCon
this year. So I'm still, i'll be honest, Offul really
good about my pick after watching the rest of the
SOOCA so far. But at the same time, this is
really Etsu's first major tests. I mean, I don't think
we've learned a ton about them against Murray State, no
offense to Murray, and I definitely don't think we learned
(36:09):
anything against Tennessee.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Right.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
I don't know what the expectation was there, but it
wasn't really to be competitive. The one thing I am
curious to see is if West Georgia could continued to
be successful against a run. Right now, West george is
allowing forty five yards per game on the ground one
point seven yards per carry in zero rushing touchdown Sam.
That is an amazing stat line given the two teams
(36:32):
that they've played, and they've really David Hoage, who was
the Northern Colorado transfer a few remembers and he was
an All American like three years ago. He's already got
four tackles for loss this year, two forced fumbles. He's
wreaking havoc off the edge. Just front seven is really good,
but you're going up against a rushing attack that also
has a you talk about North Dakota having a stable
(36:52):
of running backs, so does Etsu led by Devonte Houston. There,
I'm very very curious see if this two quarterback system
continues to rotate through k mcnamore to Colby Chris Well.
I don't know if you have an opinion, but to me,
I think Caid's look like the more efficient quarterback for
right now. And I'm just very curious that if that
(37:13):
QB battle is going to continue or they're going to
settle on Kid here as they get into some of
these tougher games. But I was still leaning Etsu here.
But if West Georgia gets this one, Sam, we're talking
top fifteen potential potentially maybe even a little bit higher
for some voters, depending on how much they value the
resume resume, because they would have three Division one wins
(37:33):
and now two ranked wins over two really good opponents
and Nickels and Etsu.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
Yeah, and they are playoff ineligible. And I can't remember
if it's a three year transition now or a four
year I can't remember if they changed that or not.
But regardless, West Yard just still is just in its
second year in the FCS, and now I think they
have potential, you know, in that area of the country.
They take football seriously at the school. They have a
nice stadium, you know, funding wise, I'm not sure specifically
(38:02):
where they're at, but that is there's definitely some D
two teams that come into the FCS and you kind
of go, okay, that's that does not move the needle
at all. But there are also some others like Tarlton
State obviously, but I think you have West Georgia with
some some big time potential and we'll see if, like
a team like West Florida, it makes the jump up soon.
(38:23):
I know there's like a moratorium on D two to FCS,
but if you get your your paperwork in in time,
you can still potentially, you know, make that move. And
I want to say West Florida at least has filed
that paperwork. We'll see if they actually make the jump
or not. But there's potential there for West Georgia to
really have a good season here.
Speaker 2 (38:42):
You know, there was a lot of rumors about who
the like if the SoCon expanded again, who would they get.
West Georgia is just staring them right in the face
right now. I think you go in the direction they're going,
what to add that would be and you would get
West Georgia and Mercer in the SoCon even kind of
locked down Georgia to a point that would be a
massive addition and it So, if I'm not mistaken, I
(39:04):
think West george is eligible for the postseason in twenty
twenty seven, So I think they still got another year
to wait, if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 1 (39:10):
Okay, yeah, I'm curious too about it. If we're talking
to realignment, it's kind of rumors circulating that the UAC
could be aggressive here and I don't know who specifically
they're going to target, whether it's another FC or more
FCS teams or go down to the D two ranks,
but potentially some FCS realignment coming up before the season ends.
(39:31):
A few more here as far as FCS versus FCS.
Number seventeen, Southern Illinois goes to UT Martin. I think
our first true gauge of Southern Illinois after playing a
non D one but then competing decently well against Purdue.
This is a good road test for UT Martin, who,
while you know they're not ranked, but there UT Martin
is consistently at least in the playoff hunt. So this
(39:53):
is a good test for Southern Illinois. Number eighteen, Northern
Arizona goes to Southern Utah, which Southern Utah team is
going to show up like. It wouldn't surprise me at
all if if they pull off this upset just because
of the kind of jeckle in high nature of Southern Utah.
Number three Tarleton State goes to Central Arkansas. I feel
like Tarleton State is good enough to finish this year undefeated,
(40:15):
go undefeated through throughout the UAC, and that would be
interesting to see where they would stack up in the seating.
At the same time, the UAC is so competitive that
anytime you go on the road you're at least a
little bit worried about an upset potential here. So a
good test for Tarleton State. Then number six Rhode Island
goes to holy Cross. Holy Cross has been competitive in
(40:36):
some tough matchups, so I think they are despite their record,
they're a pretty good outfit right now. Another good test
for number six Rhode Island. Who I mean these first
these first three games, they're challenging roady. So any additions
for FCS versus FCS or anything you want to touch
on with with these few.
Speaker 2 (40:52):
Games, Yeah, maybe not FCS FCS. I am going to
be watching mom as Charlotte. I'm very very curious to
see if they can get another FBS one. If you
remember they outscored FIU last year and Derek Robertson right now,
Man has a strangleholder on the Walter Payton Race. I
mean Sam, he's on pace for like six thousand passing
yards right now, I think, and he's going to have
(41:13):
to throw for every bit of six thousand if they're
gonna win the CIA with that defense, So he is
going to have to throw that much to get it done.
I'm also just I guess across the subdivision just kind
of looking at this. There's a lot of money games
this week. New Hampshire Ball States one I'm kind of
looking at as a potential FCS over FBS upset, Very
(41:34):
very interested to see what that looks like. Also, to
Leha Ducaine, I think could be a sneaky game to watch.
I don't I think Lehis should be safe if they
play up to par, but to go on the road
this early in the season, Sam was always what could
be looked at as a potential trap game. So those
are some of the other games I would just mention
it for fans to watch.
Speaker 1 (41:55):
Yeah, I had those two FCS versus FBS jotted down
another one as well that I'm in trigued with number fourteen.
UIW goes to UTSA, a popular preseason pick for a
potential fcsover FBS win. I feel like that the confidence
has has lowered there, just with how UIW has has
looked in their first couple of games. But you know,
(42:15):
who knows if I think we're still while well UIW
has plummeted in both of our ballots. I still feel
like we're both sitting in a spot where you're like, well,
if things start to click for UIW, like they still
have the potential to be a dangerous team, and who
knows that if things will click this early. But that
is another FCS FBS game that I'll be tuned into
just to see how UIW stacks up there.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
Yeah, I'll be honest, I didn't have them in my
ballot this week, Sam, and it wasn't because I don't
think they can't be top twenty five. It's just that
other teams have earned the ranking on the field, and
if Nichols had to drop out, they also had to
drop out for now and proved to me that that
might have just been a one off game or Nichols
just has to fall off the face of the earth.
(42:57):
But for teams like West Georgia New Hampshire team that
are two and zero, it's really really hard to say, Oh,
I'm just projecting UIW to rebound. They're gonna have to
show me they can rebound. So this is the chance.
I don't. I don't even if they don't win it, Sam,
I do want to see them take a step forward
off the bye week is show that they're improved. A
really sneaky game between non two ranked teams, Sam, the
Citadel Gardner Webb at six o'clock. That could be the Citadel.
(43:21):
I know everyone's gonna be like, well, they got murdered
by NDSU. Everyone's going to outside of like a handful
of teams. The Citadel has continued to improve under Maurice
Straton and Gardner Webb has has looked good this year.
That that could be a sneaky game to watch, a
super competitive game and one that Gardner Web can maybe
put in their cap as a really good out of
(43:42):
conference win for them.
Speaker 1 (43:43):
Yeah, that's another good one as well, and we'll see
if I mean we saw this last year with NSU.
They beat up on Tennessee State and no one really
gave and you see much credit for that win other
than how you dominated a bad team. But then you know,
Tennessee State goes on and has a decent season. So
we'll see if the Citadel can do that. They looked
really good this last weekend against Sanford, which I mean,
(44:05):
I don't Sanford might be real, real bad after making
the quarterfinals not too long ago. But yeah, that's another
good FCS versus FCS game. So we will be back,
of course next week to recap all these matchups and
also look ahead to Week four of the FCS football season.
Kind of crazy that we are, you know, closing in
on being one third of the way through the season already.
(44:26):
But until then, thank you everyone for listening, and we'll
catch you guys on the flippity flip
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