October 7, 2025 • 51 mins
On this episode, Sam and Zach discuss:
-3 Game Balls and a Flag from Week 6
-What do we make of multiple Top 7 teams escaping upsets?
-As we hit the midway point of the season, some hypothetical playoff seed scenarios get thrown into the discussion
-Week 7 preview
-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 6
-What do we make of multiple Top 7 teams escaping upsets?
-As we hit the midway point of the season, some hypothetical playoff seed scenarios get thrown into the discussion
-Week 7 preview
-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, presented by Hero
Sports and bet MGM. I'm your host, Sam Herder with
Hero Sports, and I'm joined by my co host Zach
mckinnal of FCS Football Central and the blue Bloods very
very close to having one of those chaotic FCS weekends
(00:37):
but not quite. Some near upsets, but for the most part,
things went chalk except for one team within the top ten.
But overall, Zach, what do you think of this last weekend?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Yeah, man, I was really I was really impressed with
even some teams that lost. I think me and you
have kind of talked about, you know, having some teams
outside of those top ones push some.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Of these teams, and I don't know about you.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
I want to say, me and you both predicted South
Dakota State North Dakota State to win pretty comfortably, and
I think Youngstown State and Illinois State played a lot
better than even I expected. And you've had some shocking
ones like Idaho State pushing Montana to the brink. Charlton
obviously has some injuries that are missing a ton of
key players, but Southern Utah has been a tough team
(01:23):
to put away, even cal Poly push UC Davis. So
I thought it was promising that we saw so many
close games across the country. But it also shows Sam
it's hard to win on the road.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. We will get started here with our
three game balls and a flay game. I'll kick off here.
First game ball, I gave it to Brown some Friday
night action, and Brown knocks off number eight Rhode Island
twenty eight to twenty one. This was a twenty eight
fourteen ballgame four. It was twenty eight fourteen for a
decent chunk of the later part of the third quarter
(01:56):
into most of the fourth quarter. James Murphy, he had
a really st on game twenty to twenty seven, over
two hundred yards, passing two touchdowns as well for Brown,
who improves to two and one. And I thought this
was a great win obviously for Brown, but also for
the IVY League as well, just to get a non
conference win over a ranked opponent like that, just because
(02:17):
it kind of gives you some different data points to
look at, whether it's for the conference as a whole,
whether it's obviously for Brown improves to a winning record,
or even you know, comparing Harvard now, because Harvard absolutely
dominated Brown a week before this, and so is Harvard
that good or was you know, Rody over ranked a
little bit somewhere in the middle. We'll have to see.
(02:37):
But this was the first FCS loss of the season
for Roady, you know, a tough, tough performance for them.
It just really really sloppy, didn't execute well. I know,
it was a neutra old feel. I believe it was
a soccer stadium they played at, and this was a
rivalry game. These two have played more than one hundred times,
and so you know, sometimes you can throw records in
(02:58):
all that and rankings out the but I just thought
that Rody did not look sharp at all in this one.
And they've played with fire a little bit and some
of their previous games where they fell behind early and
you know eventually on Friday nights. They got burned with
this one with their sloppy performance.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Yeah, they just never really found their rhythmstem. I think
those four turnovers really really hurt them, and Brown was
able to capitalize on a lot of those turnovers and
turn them into points and also to take a lot
of time off the clock, and they just rhode Island
just never looked right. I know for you, they plummeted
in your ballot, same for me, and it's just I
think of looking ahead on the schedule. Barring another massive upset,
(03:38):
they should be fine and still find themselves in playoff position.
But overall, a really, really poor performance on Friday night.
My first game ball is going to go to the
one and only to Ron dickens Man for Western Carolina
quarterback set a new instana of a record across all subdivisions.
Sam completing forty six executive passes to start the game,
(04:02):
finished fifty three of fifty six, and he had I
believe four hundred and sixty six total yard sound led
the game winning drive, which ended in a field goal.
They Western Carolina three and oh. Since he's returned since
an early season suspension for some all field academic stuff.
But Sam, he is playing at a ridiculous a ridiculous level,
(04:24):
and talking to some people just about you know how
insane it is to complete forty six consecutive passes and
some of them were checkdowns. I saw a lot of
people saying that. But if you go watchman, there were
some times where he was in danger. Salmon forced some
balls into some really really tight windows. Dickens is playing
it at an insane level, and even with this EF
fort Sam, they needed every single one of them to
(04:47):
escape Wafer this weekend with the win.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Yeah, he was on one for sure, and you'd expect
it maybe a bit of a higher scoring affair with
those type of numbers, but a little bit of a
lower scoring one there. It looked like for a little
bit that Western Carolina was on the verge of losing
to to Wafford. But yeah, they get to win there,
and there's a certain level of pressure for Western Carolina
(05:10):
to keep on winning because they set themselves back quite
a bit in the non conference. But they're gonna have
to go on on a run of wins here and
you know, potentially a dark course when it comes to
when it comes to the Silicon Race. My second game ball,
I'm going to give it to Montana State in a
weekend of like we talked about multiple top eight teams,
(05:33):
you know, being on at least upset alert, whether it's
for all the game, all four quarters, whether it's for half,
whether it's for one quarter. But Montana State was the
one where it looked like the Cats were maybe going
to be in one of those games. After one quarter
they were down seven to nothing out Northern Arizona in
a ranked matchup, and just a really sloppy start, a
(05:56):
lot of penalties, no real flow to this one, and
you felt, Okay, you know this is going to be
this is gonna be one of those games where Montana
State is going to have to cut out a close
win here. But the Cats really turned things around, started
execute very sharply. Taco Dalleer had a long punt return
I believe it's somewhere around ninety yards for a touchdown
that really turned the tide for Montana State and they
(06:16):
go on to dominate Northern Arizona, who's ranked number thirteen
at the time, thirty four to ten. And I thought
that was just a really impressive final three or so
quarters for Montana State after that really rough looking first quarter.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
And so the Cats are.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Now four and two overall, four and one versus the FCS,
that one loss being of course to South Kota State.
But it seems like the Cats are really starting to
find their stride.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Man, that defense is so good right now, Sam, I mean,
it's been a long top so I think Montana State
has had a defense that I think can play to
this level. I mean, they're in the conversation right now,
say im four arguably the best defense in the country,
at least one of them, right, And I mean they're
just so just when I've talked about this stat earlier
this week. So now, did you know, like as much
as Pennington likes to throw the football down the field,
(07:02):
did you know the Bobcats did not allow a pass
over twenty yards on Saturday night?
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (07:08):
That's crazy, insane. So a really good performance from Montana State.
My second game ball goes to another individual. I was
really big on the individual performances this week's down. But
it's Michael Wartham for Montana. Another just we knew how
big of a transfer port will pick up. It was,
but I think because he's so versatile a sam, we
really didn't know how the Griz were going to use him.
(07:30):
Two hundred and forty seven all purpose yards this weekend.
It's the most in the Big Sky this year for
a player, six most.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
In the FCS. He was so big on this.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
In this comeback win, they trailed by ten going into
the fourth quarter, they find a way to escape. He
had forty one yards with two rushing two touchdowns, rushing
a career high one hundred and twenty four receiving yards
on six catches, added another eighty two on kickoff returns,
and he was still two of two sounds at quarterback,
forty nine yards passing in a touchdown. That pass to
(08:04):
ay Yacht was huge in that trick play. And he
was involved in eleven plays a fifteen yards or five
of five of the eleven plays of fifteen yards or more,
all the explosive plays from Montana.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
He was so big, Sam, And this was.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
The first game where Eli Gilman I thought played well,
but he was really held in check by Idaho State.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
And I thought Michael.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Whortham was such an integral part in leading this comeback,
especially as a defense took a little bit to find
their rhythm. They were missing, you know, their number one quarter,
their number one corner. But I was really really impressed
with Michael Worthaman, and I think he's almost a lock
right now Sam to get that first team All Purpose
All American Award, which he won last year at Eastern
(08:48):
Washington as well. But he's been such an integral part
to this Montana offense that was replacing a ton of
talent at wide receiver.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Yeah, that Jukey had for the last touchdown when he
was in the Wildcat. I mean that was just just.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
Filthy footwork there.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Yeah, just crazy in the hole too as well. And
Montana's not this year, but in previous years, They're play
calling has always been interesting because there would be games
or points of games where they would get really creative
and uh, they would just really be humming offensively, and
whether it was a trick play or just you'd see
a wide shot of some of the passing concepts and
(09:23):
you go, okay, like that was a really you know,
well schemed, you know, passing out kind of being able
to scheme some guys open. But then there were some
other points in games or just games overall, but they
would just fall into a total funk and you would
kind of wonder like did they hand the headset to
a different play color here? Like why is it so
night and day? And I mean there was times last
year when Junior Bergen would get like three touches in
(09:44):
the games, like what what what are we doing here?
Speaker 3 (09:46):
Like we got you got to.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Get your guys the ball. And it seems like so
far this year they're not falling into kind of that
lull where they have so many different guys, Uh, they
can utilize and they can get so creative with what
they do. And if they keep on kind of having
that mindset, you know, intead of being stubborn to be like, no,
we are going to run the ball on first and
second down, you know, to establish things. I really think
this offense can continue to get better. And yeah, having
(10:08):
a guy like where of them where he can run it,
he can throw it. I mean he was two for
two I think this this last game. And he's a
good receiver as well. Like that's something maybe we didn't
give him enough credit for, was just how good of
a receiver he is, whether it be his route running.
You know, there's different points where he was high pointed,
you know, the ball. So he's not just necessarily a
you know, a gadget all purpose player where you throw
(10:29):
him a bubble screen and let him do his thing.
He's a pretty dang good receiver as well.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Down the field.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
My last game ball here, I'll give it to Austin
p they get another big ranked win, number twenty two
they're ranked at the time. They beat number sixteen West
Georgia forty four to thirty. This was the first loss
of the season for West Georgia and so a really
great start for the Wolves, but eventually lose this one.
Unfortunately for West Georgia, Davin Winner, their quarterback, left the
(10:57):
game with an injury in the third quarter and that
was really hard for them to climb out of that.
And on the opposite side, Chris Parson has just been
excellent for Austin P transfer quarterback. On Saturday, he goes
for nearly three hundred and fifty yards and three touchdowns.
He also rushes for a couple of touchdowns as well,
and so he's taken that offense to another level. And
(11:17):
you look at Austin P right now, they're four and
two overall, I only have one FCS loss, and you
know they do have an FBS win over Middle Tennessee
rather a decisive FBS win as well. So Austin P
is sitting in a good spot with that win.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
I'm actually very very high on them, And there's you know,
head to heads count for a lot, but there's a
there's a world where I can see them even maybe
jumping Ablen Christian even after that early loss. I mean,
I think their resume has a chance to get a
lot better that the UAC is going to offer a
handful of teams a bunch of opportunities to them to
rack up some ranked wins and have some key head
(11:52):
to head top breakers, And I'm very, very interested in
that conference phrase. My last game, although moving on here,
it goes to North Dakota State, I think it was
one that a lot of people probably expected, but I
know that it wasn't necessarily.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
Pretty early they opened the game with that safety.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
They were trailing I think nine to seven early in
this game, but outscored Illinois State twenty six to seven
from the late second quarter to the end of the game.
I thought Copenu had a really, really big game at
running back, probably the best game that he's had all year.
But then I know the box score doesn't necessarily tell it. Sam,
but I thought Cole Peyton played way better than what
(12:29):
the stats showed. I thought he had some outstanding runs
to hurdle was insane. You talk about Whartham's juke, Cole
Payton's hurtle is right there, and it just shows what
kind of freak athlete he is. And he made so
many plays with his legs and I feel almost bad
for Illinois State Sam because there was a bunch of times.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
Where they played really good defense.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
And Cole Peyton just beat them on pure athleticism and
just being a playmaker. And I thought this was a
huge win for North Dakota State in a game that
could potentially have served as a really big track game
for them on this run. And it looks like they
got one more this weekend to get Southern Illinois and
then all roads leading to the marker game where they're
really really, we're really going to find out how good
(13:10):
this North Dakota State team could be. But even when
they didn't play their best games, now they won this
game by more than more two scores, and so I
think it shows how good the Bison really are this year,
even when they don't play a complete game.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Yeah, I know. It was the first time really so
far this season that NDSU got you know, some sort
of pushback, you know from the opposing team, where you know,
the opponent gave NDSU some trouble offensively or defensively, And
so for NDSU, I thought looked really good to be
able to climb out of some of that adversity that
they faced. And yeah, I thought Illinois State got to
(13:45):
Peyton you know a few times, but he was just
able to escape that pressure, whether it be with his
with his speed, with his strength and you know what
is he six three two thirty five, you know something
like that, and most people know he has really good
top end speed when he gets out in the open field.
But yeah, does a really good burst you know as
well when when it seems like someone has them crawld
in the pockets, you know, he can really get to
(14:05):
that edge, you know, in a hurry. So that was
another great performance for Cole Payton. Now off to the
flag here, I'm gonna throw mine on UIW. The Cardinals
lose to Stephen F. Austin thirty one to seventeen, but
this was much more decisive than that. It was thirty
one to six at one point in the third quarter.
And for UIW, it seemed like they were on the
(14:27):
rebounds because they played decently well a couple of weeks
ago at Northern Arizona. Then last week they won rather
decisively at home over Ablin Christian and you know it
was a pretty dominating final score and you fell. Okay,
this was kind of the turning point for ui W.
But then they they turn around and just really lay
a dud and losing pretty decisively to SFA. And you
(14:49):
look at UIW. Now they're two and four overall, they're
zero and two in Southland play, and so you know
they're sitting behind SFA. You know, I think Southeastern Louisiana
has looked really good as well, Lamar. You know, still
undefeated overall against or against FCS opponents. They're they're undefeated.
So I wrote that uiw's playoff hopes are hanging on
(15:09):
by a thread. But there's also a chance that there's
not even a thread anymore, that it could be snapped,
because they're gonna need a lot of things to go
their way before they even start thinking about playoffs.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
I think I think it's probably over them. And here's
and this is the only reason why Southeast and Louisiana
doesn't play Steven f Alston. So what are the odds
that those two teams lose two conference games not playing
each other, right, Because you probably that that means they
both played Northwestern State, which is probably almost a guaranteed whin,
(15:41):
they both play Houston Christian, and they all play UTRGV.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
Who's look good, by the way, who.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Also got a big southend whin we got not take
it away from them, but they're probably Southeast and Louisiana
has already beat them. And I don't think UTRGV is
expecting to beat Stephen F. Auston this year. So where
did the losses come like? And then if Lamar beat
both those teams, Lamar is probably not losing two conference games.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
It's just a bad situation to be in. So I'm
with you.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
I don't even know if there's a thread to hang
on for them. My flags going to Morgan State, Sam,
I know this game probably the average listener to this
show probably didn't pay attention to because they probably didn't
tune into the Morgan State Georgetown game. But Sam, I
don't know if you saw how this game ended. Morgan
State has some real questionable play calling late on their drive,
(16:28):
left enough time for Georgetown to put together a game
winning drive and listen, Jimmy Kibble hit a forty had
a forty nine yard hell Mary catch from Des Thomas
just absolutely lost of Morgan State defensive back and it
was This was just an excusable loss from Morgan State,
(16:49):
who came into the year with all the hope in
the world to compete in the MIAC SAM Now they're
sending at two and four, their only wins over miles
in Central State, which are sub D one programs. They
have another sub D one game this weekend. But you
look ahead to conference play, with how North Carolina Central's looked,
with how Delaware States looked, with how Howard's looked, it
(17:10):
looks like this could be a really, really long gear
from Morgan State. Man, and this was a big disappointing
loss for the Bears, who you should never allow a
wide receiver to get behind you, and then especially in
single coverage on a hell Mary attempt, it just made
no sense. The offense sputtered again, left the way too
much time on the clock. They were throwing passes late
and it was just a late game. Clock management was
(17:33):
poor from Morgan State. So they get my flag this week.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Yeah, and especially you know, you got to keep your
eye on where Kibble is at as well, because he's
their a top wide receiver and he's had a couple
of seven hundred yard seasons receiving wise for Georgetown, so
he's he's a good receiver, and yeah, you got to
account for him. And yeah, that was a crazy hill.
Mary finished right there. A couple of more results to
touch on number eighteen. Villanova I thought looked really impressive.
(17:58):
They get a road win at New Hampshire thirty seven
to seven. Nova has won two straight now since they
lost pretty handily to mommth David Abbott, you know, continues
to be one of the top running backs in the FCS.
He looked really good again. But Villanova I think has
a chance to pile up some some wins here. Then
two more teams, Furman and Mercer, they just keep on winning.
(18:19):
They're both four and oh overall. They're both of their
losses are come against Presbyterian. I think maybe you could
argue for sure Mercer. You know, if they were to
play again, Mercer probably gets that win because Braydon Atkinson,
you know, freshman quarterback for Mercer that they've put in
now as the starting quarterback. He continues to impress. He
threw for three hundred and sixty five yards and five
(18:40):
touchdowns no interceptions in a forty five twenty one win
over Samford. Then Furman they're looking good as well. They
got a thirty one to twenty two win over Etsu.
I thought that was kind of a sneaky under the
radar game nationally because I thought that was a really
key game in the SoCon and you know, Furman keeps
on winning and their defensive and Joshua stone King, he's
(19:01):
just a red shirt sophomore, but he's already up to
thirty two tackles, thirteen and a half tackles for lost,
nine and a half sacks so far this year. He's
really you know, emerged and has had a splash year
so far as kind of being in underclassman for firm.
And so those our two good teams out of the
Silicon right there, and it could be an interesting race,
(19:22):
especially as Western Carolina is racking up some wins as
well within that conference standings. Let's go back to kind
of nashally, because like we talked about, there were multiple
top eight teams that were in danger at one point
you know in the game. I mean we saw Montana
State poll away in the second quarter. We saw NDSU
pull away late in the in the third quarter into
(19:44):
the fourth quarter. But yeah, Taroton State that was in
a shootout with Southern Utah. You had Montana as well
that was in a really close game with Idaho State,
even UC Davis was in a pretty dang close game
when it comes when they played cal Poly, South got
to States, was down ten at halftime two Youngstown State
before building a double digit lead in the fourth quarter,
(20:06):
and then Youngstound State made it a one score game
with about forty ish seconds left to give themselves a
chance at the end. What do you make of just
these close games in the top five we can even
extend it out to the top seven with UC Davis
as well. Is that a sign that we're gonna get
actually some parody in the FCS or is just was
this just one of those weekends where you know, these
(20:29):
top five teams went on the road, got the other
team's best shots, kind of started a little bit slow,
but eventually found a way to get to get some wins.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
I think it, I don't know necessarily enough it means
we're gonna have more parody late in the season.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
I just think what it means is this one.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
It's hard to win on the road in conference play,
and to be fair, like you mentioned, like North Dakota State,
this was really their first true test. I don't think
you could say any of the first few opponents that
they played, even South Dakota were good enough to really
give the Bison this. Garret also thought Illinois State Youngstown
both those teams probably played their best games of the year. Man,
(21:06):
I went back and watched watched the film, and Tommy
Brittenhouse made some really good throws that might not be
really represented in the box score. And I thought Bo
Brounnguard and Max tom Zach were great in that South
Dakota State game. The biggest thing I kind of take
away from this is that both of these teams. I
think we kind of knew this about South Dakota State
(21:28):
because they did it against Montana State, but we can
add North Dakota State to the freight. Now, both those
programs can respond to adversity. Both faced adversity early. Starting
with South Dakota State. You look at how Chase Mason
played in the first half.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
Man, he was off. It just nothing was really clicking
for him.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
He was missing on some throws, footwork looked a bit sloppy.
In the second half, he hit on some deep passes
that really sparked some some scoring drives. And then also too,
they got the rushing attack going with Julius Loffridge. They're
running back and I think for North Dakota State, you
finally saw some explosiveness in the run game outside of Colpayton.
I talked about Copinu earlier. Some of those runs were
(22:08):
huge in terms of getting that offense going and the
defense finally locked in. I think they had a really
tough matchup Sam. Let's just be honest, Daniel Soskowitz is
a problem on the outside. So I just think they
ran into two teams that are that are good enough
to make little runs in the playoffs. I still don't
know if it means we're gonna have more parody later
on in the postseason. I just think it means that
(22:29):
the middle of the FCS or even some of these conferences,
these teams still can't compete with the top teams on
any given weekend. And it's college football, man, anything can happen.
I think when you look at some of the other
close calls, I think Montana had a really tough matchup.
You're missing your number one corner, Sam, and you're playing
one of the best passing attacks in the FCS. That's
(22:51):
just that's a tough matchup. They even had some true
freshmen getting some barnet corner this weekend. You look at
Charlton State. When you're missing your starting quarterback, you're missing
some key pieces on defense. It just took a minute
to have everything gel And you look at the adjustments
they made in the second half of this game. In
the first half they were allowing over ten yards per play.
(23:13):
In the second half som they only allow sixty four
yards on nineteen plays. After that first scoring drive from
Southern Utah, they completely they completely shut down Southern Utah.
And I thought Daniel Greek's been playing well. I love
what Trey Page is doing. And you mentioned UC Davis.
I thought it was a tough matchup for them. You're
missing Rex Connors and you have a bona fide NFL
(23:34):
prospect on the outside in Michael Brisco, who's not getting
enough credit right now, is one of the better wide
receivers in the country. So I think it was a
combination of a little bit of everything you touch on.
It was tough, it was tougher matchups some people expected.
These teams also played really good games, and again it's
tough for a lot of these teams. I know Talton
was at home, but it's tough to win on the road,
(23:54):
and it's tough to win in conference.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
Now we talk about the.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Familiarity that these teams have with each other, you're not
surprising anybody anymore. And I think that all kind of
culminated in what we saw this weekend, which was a
bunch of scares in come very very competitive games, which
I think is healthy for the FCS because we need
to see these Rather, I'd rather see what happened this weekend, Sam,
than what North Dakota State did South Dakota two weeks ago.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Absolutely, I like you said, it was a combination of
those things, being on the road and matchup wise. And
I think too, these these teams, these underdogs, I mean,
when they're playing the number one, two, three, four or
five whatever teams in the country, I mean, they're gonna
throw some things at you that they haven't shown, you know,
on film before, whether it's I mean, I knew Southern
Utah was going to do some tricky things, you know,
(24:39):
before the game even happened, and I saw like fake
punts you know, on there. I think they probably did
some things offensively that they hadn't shown, especially with their
backup quarterback in as well. And you know, Joshua dies
is one of the best running backs in the FCS
for Southern Utah, and he was running wild for a
little bit before. Like you said, Charlton State was able
to make some adjustments in really just lean on some
(25:01):
of their depth on the on the defensive side of
the football. And I think these sometimes it's easier to
come out swinging when you are, you know, the underdog
rather than being the hunted. And we saw like Youngstown
State was against South Kota State. I mean, they're playing
with with so much passion and fire, and but you know,
like I usually say, like it's it's all funny games
(25:21):
when you can stop the run in the first half
and puff out your chest. But you know what separates
good and great teams is, you know, is the depth.
And whether it was NDSU, I think they kept on
leaning on Illinois State or certainly South Dakota State, I
don't know if they necessarily changed a whole lot after halftime.
For South Kota State. They kept on with the run.
I feel like maybe they were going a bit more
(25:42):
downhill rather than lateral on Youngstown State, but they just
they just kept on chipping away and all of a sudden,
those one yard runs were turning into four yard runs
and then six ered runs and then Lofridge would you know,
break one out for you know, fourteen yard run. So
I do think that Tier two of the FCS is
at least good enough to push these top tier teams.
(26:02):
But at the end of the day, I think great
teams find a way to win even when they're playing
you know, perhaps you know, a B level or C
level type of game and kind of utilize their depth
to to take over in the second half.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Yeah, I agree with you, and I also think too,
I look at the two teams that let's focus on
the top two matchups. I think me and you were
I would say Youngstown State outplayed their previous and expectations
for both of us, because I think we both had
them in the top twenty five starting like last week,
(26:36):
maybe the week before. And I think me and you
both talked what was it two weeks ago about how
we really wanted to see Illinois State show that they're
as good as the talent on the field might suggest,
and I thought they both did that this weekend. Like
for me, Sam, I feel better about Youngstown and Illinois
State right now than I did last week before the game.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
Yeah, and now the test is to do it to
play like this every week, because it's easy to get
up when you have the number one team or the
number two team come into your place. But if I mean,
if Illinois State goes to Murray State and wins twenty
eight to twenty one in a sloppy performance, you go, okay, like,
who is the real Illinois State? Or if Youngstown goes
(27:18):
to un D and loses thirty five to seven, you go, okay,
it was Youngstown? Did they played that good? Because it
was against South Goota State and they got up for
that game and then they lose, and you know, kind
of that that sense of urgency and that energy and
kind of that attention to detail that you're putting in
during the week of prep, that's all kind of taking
a step back because you kind of just not necessarily exhale,
(27:41):
but you don't have that that level of urgency when
you play, you know, a different opponent. So now I
think is really the proving grounds for a team like
Illinois State or a Youngstown State to continue to play
like this at.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
At a high level.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
And you know, it'll be interesting for some of the
other teams as well because Tarlton State. I think is
is going to continue to get tested. I don't necessarily
think I'm gonna pick Tarleton State to lose any games,
but their toughest FCS opponents are still to come. I
believe they have three ranked opponents still to come that
be Austin, p West Georgia and Happling Christian you know,
(28:18):
I believe. And so they're toughest opponents are still to come.
You know, Montana, you know, matchup wise, it just seems
like Idaho State has always given them fits. I believe
this is the third year in a row that the
Bengals have played Montana to a one score game. And
so there's just some you know something something about that
matchup where the Bengals can at least compete decently well
(28:39):
with you know, with with with the grizz and you know,
when you're losing your top corner in a matchup like this,
that is also gonna gonna hurt Montana quite a bit.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
So the Valley Rays too, man, that like looking at
the Valley right now, when you got North Dakota State,
South Dakota State, Southern Illinois, North Dakota Illinois State, Youngstown State,
and God forbid. South Dakota gets it together, Sam, that
is going to be like outside of the top. I
think the top two we're going to get through it, right.
(29:07):
I think me and you are both confident. Northd Coast State,
South dakost they are going to be fine. But man,
from southern Illinois down to Youngstown State, it is going
to just be chaos. And I mean, any given weekend,
depending on how you play, could could change the trajectory
of someone's season. And I think it's I think that race,
I know it. I know some I know what big
Sky fans and other CS fans are like, great, we're
(29:29):
talking about the Valley again. But that conference race, Sam,
is just going to be pure chaos behind those top
two schools.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
Yeah, and I don't. I mean, I guess we'll have
to see what the bubble looks like, but I don't.
Is there going to be room for six Valley teams
this year? I don't know. I mean, because you have Harvard,
so that's one or not Harvard, I mean maybe a
slip there, but you have an Ivy League champ, which
will probably be Harvard. But you have the Ivy League
idle bid in there now, so that is one less
(29:56):
at large bid, but I also feel like the CIA
is probably going to have one less you know, at
large bit out of their conference. But you know, the
UAC is probably good for three bids. I think the
Southland will probably get two.
Speaker 3 (30:07):
Not sure.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
The SoCon still might be at one just because of
their non conference. But there there could be some some
really high level, you know, seven eight win valley teams
that are going to be nervous on selection Sunday. And
I know we brought up this before as well as
far as when it comes to the race for top
two seeds, and we don't have to have an in
depth discussion about this right now, but you know, as
(30:29):
as we're halfway through the season and you're looking ahead
to okay, this team has this many ranked win opportunities.
I mean, if Tarleton State goes undefeated, they're going to
have three ranked wins plus an FBS win. Let's say
Montana goes undefeated, they're gonna have three ranked wins, but
they're gonna have one less Division one win because they
played a non counter they're projected strength to schedules or
(30:52):
for Tarlton and Montana are like within three of each other,
like Tarleton is only three behind Montana, So I mean
pretty much the same when we're talking strength of schedules,
and so now all of a sudden we have this
discussion of like if Montana goes undefeated, Tarleton goes undefeated,
what happens to a one loss NDSU slash SDSU team.
(31:14):
All of a sudden, like we're gonna really start paying
attention to these resumes and how things shake out when
it comes to the top four seeds. And I mean
Montana State wins out, like what where does where does
that land them? If they go to Montana and get
a win plus you have I mean, I don't think
these teams are going to slip into the conversation. But
I think Tennessee Tech is going to go undefeated. I
don't They're not gonna have any ranked wins though, I
(31:35):
think Lehigh has a decent chance to go undefeated. Uh,
they beat Richmond, who's number twenty five at the time,
no other ranked opponents upcoming. What happens if Harvard, you know,
goes undefeated. So I don't know, I just feel like
the top eight seeds this year, it could could get fascinating,
especially the top four.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
Yeah, it's gonna it's gonna be insane.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
I mean, especially because you talk about I think the
the X factor here is Harvard because I think we
can kind of lean on a little bit of history
with some of the other teams, right, because we have
comparable moments in time.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
But how does the committee view an.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
IVY League school that's undefeated, right, because they've never had
to evaluate one and you talk about one less win.
Do they take into account they didn't start their season
until like week four, right, I.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
Mean, they're gonna have Division one wins is a big
criteria point. They'll have what to less than if they
go on defeeded, They'll they'll have two less than a
twelve to zero Montana team or Tarlton team.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
Right.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
But then at the same time, like what happens when
you get into those sub D one wins Because if
I'm not mistaken, Tennessee Tech has a non D one win, Yeah,
Montana has a non D one win. Southern Illinois do's
Southern yeah, Southern Illinois does. So how do they compare
those schools to Harvard, who, Like, let's just say, because
(32:56):
I mean, if Southern Illinois goes nine and three, that's
only eight Division one wins. How does that compare it like,
or do they give them the strength to schedule debate?
Or if there's a ten and two team, right, ten
and two Montana they only have non Division one wins.
Do you put a ten Division one win Harvard above
them with no ranked wins though?
Speaker 3 (33:17):
Right?
Speaker 2 (33:17):
So it's just there's a whole bunch of conversations that
I think the biggest one too, is is what happens.
I think those top three seeds are going to be
the interesting ones, right because I think at the end
of the day, you want one of the top two seeds.
Speaker 3 (33:32):
How it I guess.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
For you what is the best best pass for Tarlton
to get into those top two seeds?
Speaker 3 (33:38):
Because I think.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Valley fans would argue that whoever wins out of North
Dakota State South Dakota State is gonna probably be the
number one overall seed. Then you have Montana or Montana
State in the conversation, then you have Tarlton. Do you
think a one lost South Dakota State, If South Dakota
State it's only losses in North Dakota State, do you
think an undefeated Tarlton would jump them? Uh?
Speaker 1 (34:02):
So, I I think there would definitely obviously be a
really good argument for Tarleton to be the number two seed.
I still feel like Southcota State would probably have the
better resume because they would have two at one or
two more ranked wins than Tarleton States. They would also
(34:23):
have you know, a tougher strength to schedule as well,
you know, assuming they play NDSU tough. But they lose
that game, I think style of loss in that one
and and how how much you lose by would matter
in this one. And I still think, like we'll see
what happens with Army as well. Tarleton State, no doubt
has to be cheering for Army to go on and
finish strong. But to me, like I, I think South
(34:46):
Gota State winning at Montana State is more impressive than
Tarleton State winning you know, I had Army. I think
that's that's a higher quality win. So I would if
I was on the playoff committee. And to remind people,
this isn't necessarily a group think thing where the committee goes, okay, guys,
you know how we feeling about the number one seed
this team. Okay, all right, n see number one seed.
(35:07):
All right, let's all talk about who's the number two seed. Okay,
Montana State or Montana, Tarlton State, Southcota State, Okay, we
all eventually get to it being Tarleton State. Okay, Tarleton
State's number two. That's not exactly how it works. Each
committee member has an individual vote and then they compile
that vote, and then whoever you know has has the
most points, you know, it's the one seed, two seed,
(35:27):
and onwards. So it isn't necessarily a group think thing.
If I was on the committee, I would probably have
in this scenario, South Dakota States number two, and then
who's number three? I think that would be a pretty
decent argument between Tarleton State and Montana. Between those two,
I would probably lean undefeated Tarleton State over undefeated Montana
(35:50):
because they would have the same number of ranked wins
and the Grids would have one less d one win
while Tarleton would have what would have that that FBS win.
To me, ranked wins I think are are really really important.
I think that ranked wins and strength the schedule is
what stands out most to me. And so for the
South Gota State Tarleton arguments, I would probably lean Southcota
(36:13):
State because of that strength to schedule and because of
having you know, one or two more ranked wins.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
I think the other thing too is I don't know
how because you know, obviously we'd have to write this
out and and see how obviously how many you know,
losses and stuff like that, but what happened? Like I
think the excuse me, hiccup there, But an interesting one
would be momth if they finished undefeated against the FCS
(36:42):
versus an undefeated Tennessee Tech team.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
Yeah, who would who would you give that?
Speaker 2 (36:48):
Because mamth would have the ranked ranked win over Villa Nova,
who's probably also in the postseason.
Speaker 3 (36:56):
And then outside of that, I mean.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
They maybe you might be ranked by then.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
Probably not, Actually yeah, I don't know because that Yeah,
so they would have one ranked win, but they would
have no sub D one win. Wins are only loss
to be to an FBS Charlotte team which they really
had a chance to beat. How much does the dominance
of Tennessee Tech change the conversation though, because they've been
(37:25):
dominant in all their games.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
Yeah, So I do think style points matter, Like I know,
some people say a win is a win, and I
just I totally disagree with that because style points do matter,
and when we're talking about playoff positioning and the difference
between the one and the two, or difference between two
and the three, three and four, difference between eight and nine.
Sometimes it is you know, very very nitpicky. You know,
(37:51):
how much like how much Montana beats Montana State by
or vice versa, like that could be compared to how
South Dakota State played Montana State. If you're if you're
if you're a team and I know, like in past
year Sam Houston ran into this problem, or you know
one year McNees went went nine to two and didn't
make the playoffs. If you have a resume that your
(38:15):
strength of schedule is in the eighties, nineties over one hundred,
you don't have any ranked wins, and you're beating opponents
by an average of eight points. Like the committee is
going to look at you, go, Okay, you might be
undefeated versus the FCS, but like, you haven't played anyone
that good and you're winning, but you're only winning by
seven or ten points against these teams that we don't
think are very good. So yeah, you're you're in the playoffs.
(38:37):
Maybe you'll be a nine or ten seed. Obviously in
the scenario, you'd also be the auto bit but if
you're absolutely crushing these teams and you're beating them like
Tennessee Tech is like sixty to twenty and fifty five
to ten. Like to a certain extent, I also get
the argument if you can't help you know your your
schedule like you you can't you can't help who you
(38:57):
play against. But at the same time, how you beat
those opponents, that is something that you can control. So
I do think style points matter. And if I'm comparing
the two and I'm looking at Tennessee Tech is absolutely
running rough shot over their opponents, and Mamath is beating
teams like Delaware State forty nine to thirty eight, and
you know Delaware State. Delaware State is decent, but if
(39:19):
you're a top eight seed worthy team, you should probably
be beating Delaware State a little bit more convincedly, especially
at home. Like to me, I would give the edge
to Tennessee Tech because of their margin of victory and
because I would imagine their strength of schedule is probably
going to be in the same ballpark without looking it
up right.
Speaker 3 (39:37):
Now, Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 2 (39:41):
The other question too, as you mentioned this last week
about the bubble too, is that how do they how
does the committee view Western Carolina right without Tron Dickens,
because then you kind of get to the conversation of
you know, I think you mentioned we're probably going to
have what two valley teams on the bubble, probably someone
like a South Dakota versus beyond the bubble. Yeah, yeah, Youngstown,
(40:08):
And then you're probably gonna have one big Sky school
on the bubble.
Speaker 3 (40:11):
I would imagine.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
I think it's gonna be right on that bubble with
seven to eight wins.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
Yeah, So that'd be a very interesting conversation because obviously
the strength of schedule would go to the valley in
big Ski schools, but also too, I mean we've had this,
We had this conversation with Northern Arizona last week. Does
a Western Carolina win over like a Mercer out, I
(40:36):
would say, have hold more value than a bunch of
good losses for a team like Idaho, Like what if
Idaho doesn't beat an equality opponent sam right, their best resume,
their their best highlight on their resume is close losses?
Speaker 3 (40:50):
Is that more valuable.
Speaker 2 (40:52):
To the committee than a signature win over Mercer for
Western Carolina? Like that would be the interesting conversation for
me because I think that's what got Northern Arizona and
last year isn't. They really didn't have any signature wins,
but because they were in the big Sky, they got
boosted and they just had some you know, competitive losses
and that got them in. So I'll be very curious
(41:13):
to see how that factors in as well, quality losses
versus quality wins. And I know that sounds weird, but
that does play a role because we've seen it. We've
seen it play a role historically.
Speaker 1 (41:23):
All Right, I'll throw one more at you, just just
to piss people off. Presbyterian finishes second in the in
the Pioneer Football League. They only have one loss. That's
the team that wins it double overtime loss. Mercer wins
the Silicon. Furman keeps on winning except for against Mercer
and finishes second in the Silicon. Mercer and Furman are
(41:44):
both in the playoffs. This Presbyterian getting that large bid
into the bracket.
Speaker 3 (41:49):
Oh my god. One, I would have to see the bubble.
Speaker 1 (41:54):
But I mean they do have two none d one wins,
but they have wins to make up for that over
Mercer and Furman.
Speaker 2 (42:03):
Okay, should they get in if we're if we're keeping
the logic consistent across everything.
Speaker 3 (42:10):
Probably will they get in.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
No, Yeah, I mean if you put Patriot League in
front of them instead of Pioneer Football League, they probably
get in. But they have to get over that. I mean,
image and perception and reputation not only a favorite team,
but your conference goes a long way. Like we know that, right,
if you're an eight and four Big Sky team moves
the needle more than an eight and four Patriot League
team just because you're you're you know you're in the
(42:34):
Big Sky for example.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
Yeah, I mean because also too, you look at their schedule, right,
if they like they play Butler, Stetson, Dayton, Valpo, Davidson,
Saint Thomas, Marist, if they any of those losses probably
knock them out, right, I mean, you can't even excuse
(42:59):
any of those laws. Yeah, so that's gonna be the
hold up. Is as good as the two wins over
Furman and Mercer. Are you played Erskine and Bluefield, which
don't count, and then you might have a loss to
Saint Thomas or Butler or someone on your resume, And
I think that is a worse loss than almost Indie
(43:20):
lost any of the other at large teams are going
to have because like, what if it's a Southeast and
Louisiana on the bubble sam Like, are we gonna say,
Like I know that hypotheticals shouldn't come into this, but
how many points would Southeast and Louisiana be favored over
Presbyterian if they played in the first round?
Speaker 1 (43:39):
A touchdown?
Speaker 2 (43:41):
Probably at least, Yeah, and so like, I think that
has to play a role. And I know Presbyterian fans
and you know, coaches and stuff don't want to hear this,
but I think I think if Presbyterian wants to get in,
they're gonna have to win out. And I know that
might sound unfair, but at the end of the day,
it I think that's what's going to have to happen.
Speaker 1 (44:02):
Yep, yeah, probably. All right, let's go to some on
field action here. We got three more ranked matchups come
in this weekend. I thought it would have been four,
but Youngstown State just barely dips out of the top
twenty five. They go to number thirteen UND Also in
North Dakota we have number eight, Southern Illinois going to
number one, NDSU number fourteen. Northern Arizona goes to number
(44:27):
six UC Davis. Then another ranked matchup in the UAC.
We have number nineteen Aplene Christian goes to number twenty
one West Georgia. Which one of those sticks out to
you the most is at the top eight showdown in Fargo.
Speaker 2 (44:42):
Yes, and it's not even just because it's top eight.
I am so excited to see how DJ Williams plays
against US North Dakota State defense. It's such an intriguing
stylistic matchup to me, because Sam, let's just be honest,
that defense has played really well. But you saw Rantonhouse
out there making so plays last Saturday, and I no
(45:03):
offense to Renton House. I think DJ Williams is a
better quarterback than Tommy Rittenhouse right now, and I think
he brings so much more to the table.
Speaker 3 (45:11):
This is the first, like true test that we're going to.
Speaker 2 (45:14):
See this North Dakota State defense go up against an
elite level quarterback, and I'm so interested. Now, a little
bit of the concern here is Southern Illinois defense hasn't
been the best. Are they going to be able to
get a stop and that's going to be the tough thing.
And then again, we just talked about how hard it
is to win on the road right extremely extremely hard.
And I think the other matchup that really sticks out
(45:36):
is I think we probably have our swack championship matchup
this weekend Alabama State at Jackson for Jackson's homecoming Sam.
I just don't whoever wins this game probably is on
the fast track and they would probably be my favorite
to win the Celebration Bowl right now. Andrew Body versus
at Jackson defense Jacobean Morgan has been playing really, really well.
I think that matchup would be my number two matchup
(45:58):
in terms of intriguing game games this weekend that is
our must see.
Speaker 1 (46:03):
Yeah, the I'm curious about Northern Arizona going to UC Davis.
This is a really good test for Davis. And you know,
if we if we don't include the mercer game, you know,
their first opportunity for uh you know our ranked matchup
here and you know, is Davis the sixth best team
in the country. I will have to see, but I
(46:24):
do think this is a strong test for the Aggies, who,
unfortunately they'll be They'll be without Rex Connors, uh All
American safety season ending knee injury, which unfortunately he suffered
on the offensive side of the football when they were
using him, you know, on the goal line. So that's
a tough injury for UC Davis, But I really like
the offense for the Aggies. Caden Pinnock has been exceptional
(46:47):
this year, and he's just another name and a long
list of names. Like when we're at this point of
the season, you know, midway through, uh, there isn't necessarily
like a huge separation when it comes to the season
end awards and it's like, okay, we put Cole Payton
in that conversation, you know last week talking about him,
you know, potentially being a top candidate for the Walter
Payton Ward. But then you go, well, if you put
(47:09):
him in there, then you have to put Chase Mason,
you know, in there. And then after this weekend a
U and D fan account and said, well, if you
put those two in there, what about Jerry Kaminski. Look
at his numbers compared to those two, and you're like,
all right, fair enough. But then then you have Bo
Brungguard yea, you know, the Excellent State fans want him
in the conversation, and there's just everywhere you look there's
one guy that pops up, you know, And then it's like, oh,
Kateen Pinnock, you see Davis look at his numbers like
(47:29):
he deserves to be in this conversation as well. So
there's just a lot of really good offensive playmakers in
the FCS, and I think there's so many guys that
are fun to watch. You know, Derek Robertson is Robertson,
you know, is fun to watch just a pocket passer.
Then you have you know, DJ Williams and Cole Payton,
you know, electric guys to watch as well with their
dual threat abilities. And then you know Kateen Pinnock another
(47:51):
dual threat guy, a little bit different stylistically because he's
not as physical of a runner or a physical presence
compared to Williams or you know, Peyton Mason, you know
those type of guys. But he's very, very fun to watch.
That's a that's a great matchup as well. Some under
under the radar ones. I think Villanova at Elon is interesting.
(48:11):
Mercer goes to Princeton. I think this one is fascinating
as well to see. You know, it's potentially another data
point for for the Ivy League. And then you know,
sticking in the Silicon, Furman goes to Western Carolina. I
really like how Furman has looked this year. They definitely have.
They're they've been a joint up bounce back year compared
to last year. They're getting good quarterback play as well.
(48:34):
Can they go to Western Carolina and get a win?
You know, Western's maybe you know the hottest team in
the Silicon right now. Then you mentioned the one you
know in the Swack as well. With Alabama State playing
Jackson State, that's gonna determine quite a bit. Both squads
that are undefeated versus FCS opponents so far. So that's
that's a really really exciting slate for Week seven. We're
(48:54):
getting to the about the halfway points of of the
regular season, so a lot more ranked matchups means, uh,
we get a better sense of where these teams are at.
So before we wrap it up, Zach, any any final
thoughts on in the world of FCS football.
Speaker 2 (49:09):
No, I mean, I mean, if you want to check
out some pot in a league football too, man, there's
the Presbyterian at Butler, Drake and San Diego. There's some
big matchups in the Pioneers.
Speaker 3 (49:18):
That race ramps up to.
Speaker 2 (49:19):
That race is going to be I know, no one
wants to talk about it, but like that race for
the conference title is.
Speaker 3 (49:24):
Going to be very interesting too.
Speaker 2 (49:25):
There's a few teams that can win that one, and
I'll be very curious to see. I think that Apple
and Christian West Georgia games SAM is super interesting to me.
Speaker 3 (49:33):
But I will say this, man.
Speaker 2 (49:34):
If Davin Winder is down and out this weekend, which
I don't know if we have an official update on
his health, but if he's not there, man, I think
West Georgia's chances take a significant hit.
Speaker 3 (49:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (49:45):
The backup just never found seem to look comfortable in
that one, and that would be a tough loss for
West Georgia, man, which has been a remarkable story this year.
And I really really hope he's healthy. And like you
mentioned that UC Davis and a U games big, but yeah,
I mean that a bunch of bunch of good games.
And hopefully the past two weeks filling out our ballot
SAM have not been as stressful, so I'm hoping we
(50:07):
can we can have another relaxing weekend of filling out
this top twenty five because man, we were very very
close to me just texting Craig.
Speaker 3 (50:16):
And being like I'm good man. I don't even worry
about my ballot this weekend. I have no idea.
Speaker 1 (50:20):
Yeah, we would have had to skip this this last
week if we would have seen as many upsets as
as potentially we're looking at. But uh, yeah, we'll see.
I've said earlier this week that there always seems to
be that one chaotic week in the FCS, and you know,
at some point it seems like potentially that could hit.
And you know, as voters, sometimes it is easier if
things go chocked because it makes our lives easier. But
(50:41):
at the same time, a little bit of chaos is
is is enjoyable and entertaining and fun to talk about.
After we get our ballots sorted out, so we shall
see what happens this weekend and in a handful of
of awesome matchups. So until then, thank you guys for listening,
and we'll catch you guys on the flippity flipp p
Speaker 2 (51:13):
P
All right, Welcome in FCS tackle football fans to another
episode of the FCS Football Talk podcast, presented by Hero
Sports and bet MGM. I'm your host, Sam Herder with
Hero Sports, and I'm joined by my co host Zach
mckinnal of FCS Football Central and the blue Bloods very
very close to having one of those chaotic FCS weekends
(00:37):
but not quite. Some near upsets, but for the most part,
things went chalk except for one team within the top ten.
But overall, Zach, what do you think of this last weekend?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Yeah, man, I was really I was really impressed with
even some teams that lost. I think me and you
have kind of talked about, you know, having some teams
outside of those top ones push some.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Of these teams, and I don't know about you.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
I want to say, me and you both predicted South
Dakota State North Dakota State to win pretty comfortably, and
I think Youngstown State and Illinois State played a lot
better than even I expected. And you've had some shocking
ones like Idaho State pushing Montana to the brink. Charlton
obviously has some injuries that are missing a ton of
key players, but Southern Utah has been a tough team
(01:23):
to put away, even cal Poly push UC Davis. So
I thought it was promising that we saw so many
close games across the country. But it also shows Sam
it's hard to win on the road.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. We will get started here with our
three game balls and a flay game. I'll kick off here.
First game ball, I gave it to Brown some Friday
night action, and Brown knocks off number eight Rhode Island
twenty eight to twenty one. This was a twenty eight
fourteen ballgame four. It was twenty eight fourteen for a
decent chunk of the later part of the third quarter
(01:56):
into most of the fourth quarter. James Murphy, he had
a really st on game twenty to twenty seven, over
two hundred yards, passing two touchdowns as well for Brown,
who improves to two and one. And I thought this
was a great win obviously for Brown, but also for
the IVY League as well, just to get a non
conference win over a ranked opponent like that, just because
(02:17):
it kind of gives you some different data points to
look at, whether it's for the conference as a whole,
whether it's obviously for Brown improves to a winning record,
or even you know, comparing Harvard now, because Harvard absolutely
dominated Brown a week before this, and so is Harvard
that good or was you know, Rody over ranked a
little bit somewhere in the middle. We'll have to see.
(02:37):
But this was the first FCS loss of the season
for Roady, you know, a tough, tough performance for them.
It just really really sloppy, didn't execute well. I know,
it was a neutra old feel. I believe it was
a soccer stadium they played at, and this was a
rivalry game. These two have played more than one hundred times,
and so you know, sometimes you can throw records in
(02:58):
all that and rankings out the but I just thought
that Rody did not look sharp at all in this one.
And they've played with fire a little bit and some
of their previous games where they fell behind early and
you know eventually on Friday nights. They got burned with
this one with their sloppy performance.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Yeah, they just never really found their rhythmstem. I think
those four turnovers really really hurt them, and Brown was
able to capitalize on a lot of those turnovers and
turn them into points and also to take a lot
of time off the clock, and they just rhode Island
just never looked right. I know for you, they plummeted
in your ballot, same for me, and it's just I
think of looking ahead on the schedule. Barring another massive upset,
(03:38):
they should be fine and still find themselves in playoff position.
But overall, a really, really poor performance on Friday night.
My first game ball is going to go to the
one and only to Ron dickens Man for Western Carolina
quarterback set a new instana of a record across all subdivisions.
Sam completing forty six executive passes to start the game,
(04:02):
finished fifty three of fifty six, and he had I
believe four hundred and sixty six total yard sound led
the game winning drive, which ended in a field goal.
They Western Carolina three and oh. Since he's returned since
an early season suspension for some all field academic stuff.
But Sam, he is playing at a ridiculous a ridiculous level,
(04:24):
and talking to some people just about you know how
insane it is to complete forty six consecutive passes and
some of them were checkdowns. I saw a lot of
people saying that. But if you go watchman, there were
some times where he was in danger. Salmon forced some
balls into some really really tight windows. Dickens is playing
it at an insane level, and even with this EF
fort Sam, they needed every single one of them to
(04:47):
escape Wafer this weekend with the win.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Yeah, he was on one for sure, and you'd expect
it maybe a bit of a higher scoring affair with
those type of numbers, but a little bit of a
lower scoring one there. It looked like for a little
bit that Western Carolina was on the verge of losing
to to Wafford. But yeah, they get to win there,
and there's a certain level of pressure for Western Carolina
(05:10):
to keep on winning because they set themselves back quite
a bit in the non conference. But they're gonna have
to go on on a run of wins here and
you know, potentially a dark course when it comes to
when it comes to the Silicon Race. My second game ball,
I'm going to give it to Montana State in a
weekend of like we talked about multiple top eight teams,
(05:33):
you know, being on at least upset alert, whether it's
for all the game, all four quarters, whether it's for half,
whether it's for one quarter. But Montana State was the
one where it looked like the Cats were maybe going
to be in one of those games. After one quarter
they were down seven to nothing out Northern Arizona in
a ranked matchup, and just a really sloppy start, a
(05:56):
lot of penalties, no real flow to this one, and
you felt, Okay, you know this is going to be
this is gonna be one of those games where Montana
State is going to have to cut out a close
win here. But the Cats really turned things around, started
execute very sharply. Taco Dalleer had a long punt return
I believe it's somewhere around ninety yards for a touchdown
that really turned the tide for Montana State and they
(06:16):
go on to dominate Northern Arizona, who's ranked number thirteen
at the time, thirty four to ten. And I thought
that was just a really impressive final three or so
quarters for Montana State after that really rough looking first quarter.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
And so the Cats are.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Now four and two overall, four and one versus the FCS,
that one loss being of course to South Kota State.
But it seems like the Cats are really starting to
find their stride.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Man, that defense is so good right now, Sam, I mean,
it's been a long top so I think Montana State
has had a defense that I think can play to
this level. I mean, they're in the conversation right now,
say im four arguably the best defense in the country,
at least one of them, right, And I mean they're
just so just when I've talked about this stat earlier
this week. So now, did you know, like as much
as Pennington likes to throw the football down the field,
(07:02):
did you know the Bobcats did not allow a pass
over twenty yards on Saturday night?
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (07:08):
That's crazy, insane. So a really good performance from Montana State.
My second game ball goes to another individual. I was
really big on the individual performances this week's down. But
it's Michael Wartham for Montana. Another just we knew how
big of a transfer port will pick up. It was,
but I think because he's so versatile a sam, we
really didn't know how the Griz were going to use him.
(07:30):
Two hundred and forty seven all purpose yards this weekend.
It's the most in the Big Sky this year for
a player, six most.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
In the FCS. He was so big on this.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
In this comeback win, they trailed by ten going into
the fourth quarter, they find a way to escape. He
had forty one yards with two rushing two touchdowns, rushing
a career high one hundred and twenty four receiving yards
on six catches, added another eighty two on kickoff returns,
and he was still two of two sounds at quarterback,
forty nine yards passing in a touchdown. That pass to
(08:04):
ay Yacht was huge in that trick play. And he
was involved in eleven plays a fifteen yards or five
of five of the eleven plays of fifteen yards or more,
all the explosive plays from Montana.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
He was so big, Sam, And this was.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
The first game where Eli Gilman I thought played well,
but he was really held in check by Idaho State.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
And I thought Michael.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Whortham was such an integral part in leading this comeback,
especially as a defense took a little bit to find
their rhythm. They were missing, you know, their number one quarter,
their number one corner. But I was really really impressed
with Michael Worthaman, and I think he's almost a lock
right now Sam to get that first team All Purpose
All American Award, which he won last year at Eastern
(08:48):
Washington as well. But he's been such an integral part
to this Montana offense that was replacing a ton of
talent at wide receiver.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Yeah, that Jukey had for the last touchdown when he
was in the Wildcat. I mean that was just just.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
Filthy footwork there.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Yeah, just crazy in the hole too as well. And
Montana's not this year, but in previous years, They're play
calling has always been interesting because there would be games
or points of games where they would get really creative
and uh, they would just really be humming offensively, and
whether it was a trick play or just you'd see
a wide shot of some of the passing concepts and
(09:23):
you go, okay, like that was a really you know,
well schemed, you know, passing out kind of being able
to scheme some guys open. But then there were some
other points in games or just games overall, but they
would just fall into a total funk and you would
kind of wonder like did they hand the headset to
a different play color here? Like why is it so
night and day? And I mean there was times last
year when Junior Bergen would get like three touches in
(09:44):
the games, like what what what are we doing here?
Speaker 3 (09:46):
Like we got you got to.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Get your guys the ball. And it seems like so
far this year they're not falling into kind of that
lull where they have so many different guys, Uh, they
can utilize and they can get so creative with what
they do. And if they keep on kind of having
that mindset, you know, intead of being stubborn to be like, no,
we are going to run the ball on first and
second down, you know, to establish things. I really think
this offense can continue to get better. And yeah, having
(10:08):
a guy like where of them where he can run it,
he can throw it. I mean he was two for
two I think this this last game. And he's a
good receiver as well. Like that's something maybe we didn't
give him enough credit for, was just how good of
a receiver he is, whether it be his route running.
You know, there's different points where he was high pointed,
you know, the ball. So he's not just necessarily a
you know, a gadget all purpose player where you throw
(10:29):
him a bubble screen and let him do his thing.
He's a pretty dang good receiver as well.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Down the field.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
My last game ball here, I'll give it to Austin
p they get another big ranked win, number twenty two
they're ranked at the time. They beat number sixteen West
Georgia forty four to thirty. This was the first loss
of the season for West Georgia and so a really
great start for the Wolves, but eventually lose this one.
Unfortunately for West Georgia, Davin Winner, their quarterback, left the
(10:57):
game with an injury in the third quarter and that
was really hard for them to climb out of that.
And on the opposite side, Chris Parson has just been
excellent for Austin P transfer quarterback. On Saturday, he goes
for nearly three hundred and fifty yards and three touchdowns.
He also rushes for a couple of touchdowns as well,
and so he's taken that offense to another level. And
(11:17):
you look at Austin P right now, they're four and
two overall, I only have one FCS loss, and you
know they do have an FBS win over Middle Tennessee
rather a decisive FBS win as well. So Austin P
is sitting in a good spot with that win.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
I'm actually very very high on them, And there's you know,
head to heads count for a lot, but there's a
there's a world where I can see them even maybe
jumping Ablen Christian even after that early loss. I mean,
I think their resume has a chance to get a
lot better that the UAC is going to offer a
handful of teams a bunch of opportunities to them to
rack up some ranked wins and have some key head
(11:52):
to head top breakers, And I'm very, very interested in
that conference phrase. My last game, although moving on here,
it goes to North Dakota State, I think it was
one that a lot of people probably expected, but I
know that it wasn't necessarily.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
Pretty early they opened the game with that safety.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
They were trailing I think nine to seven early in
this game, but outscored Illinois State twenty six to seven
from the late second quarter to the end of the game.
I thought Copenu had a really, really big game at
running back, probably the best game that he's had all year.
But then I know the box score doesn't necessarily tell it. Sam,
but I thought Cole Peyton played way better than what
(12:29):
the stats showed. I thought he had some outstanding runs
to hurdle was insane. You talk about Whartham's juke, Cole
Payton's hurtle is right there, and it just shows what
kind of freak athlete he is. And he made so
many plays with his legs and I feel almost bad
for Illinois State Sam because there was a bunch of times.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
Where they played really good defense.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
And Cole Peyton just beat them on pure athleticism and
just being a playmaker. And I thought this was a
huge win for North Dakota State in a game that
could potentially have served as a really big track game
for them on this run. And it looks like they
got one more this weekend to get Southern Illinois and
then all roads leading to the marker game where they're
really really, we're really going to find out how good
(13:10):
this North Dakota State team could be. But even when
they didn't play their best games, now they won this
game by more than more two scores, and so I
think it shows how good the Bison really are this year,
even when they don't play a complete game.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Yeah, I know. It was the first time really so
far this season that NDSU got you know, some sort
of pushback, you know from the opposing team, where you know,
the opponent gave NDSU some trouble offensively or defensively, And
so for NDSU, I thought looked really good to be
able to climb out of some of that adversity that
they faced. And yeah, I thought Illinois State got to
(13:45):
Peyton you know a few times, but he was just
able to escape that pressure, whether it be with his
with his speed, with his strength and you know what
is he six three two thirty five, you know something
like that, and most people know he has really good
top end speed when he gets out in the open field.
But yeah, does a really good burst you know as
well when when it seems like someone has them crawld
in the pockets, you know, he can really get to
(14:05):
that edge, you know, in a hurry. So that was
another great performance for Cole Payton. Now off to the
flag here, I'm gonna throw mine on UIW. The Cardinals
lose to Stephen F. Austin thirty one to seventeen, but
this was much more decisive than that. It was thirty
one to six at one point in the third quarter.
And for UIW, it seemed like they were on the
(14:27):
rebounds because they played decently well a couple of weeks
ago at Northern Arizona. Then last week they won rather
decisively at home over Ablin Christian and you know it
was a pretty dominating final score and you fell. Okay,
this was kind of the turning point for ui W.
But then they they turn around and just really lay
a dud and losing pretty decisively to SFA. And you
(14:49):
look at UIW. Now they're two and four overall, they're
zero and two in Southland play, and so you know
they're sitting behind SFA. You know, I think Southeastern Louisiana
has looked really good as well, Lamar. You know, still
undefeated overall against or against FCS opponents. They're they're undefeated.
So I wrote that uiw's playoff hopes are hanging on
(15:09):
by a thread. But there's also a chance that there's
not even a thread anymore, that it could be snapped,
because they're gonna need a lot of things to go
their way before they even start thinking about playoffs.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
I think I think it's probably over them. And here's
and this is the only reason why Southeast and Louisiana
doesn't play Steven f Alston. So what are the odds
that those two teams lose two conference games not playing
each other, right, Because you probably that that means they
both played Northwestern State, which is probably almost a guaranteed whin,
(15:41):
they both play Houston Christian, and they all play UTRGV.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
Who's look good, by the way, who.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Also got a big southend whin we got not take
it away from them, but they're probably Southeast and Louisiana
has already beat them. And I don't think UTRGV is
expecting to beat Stephen F. Auston this year. So where
did the losses come like? And then if Lamar beat
both those teams, Lamar is probably not losing two conference games.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
It's just a bad situation to be in. So I'm
with you.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
I don't even know if there's a thread to hang
on for them. My flags going to Morgan State, Sam,
I know this game probably the average listener to this
show probably didn't pay attention to because they probably didn't
tune into the Morgan State Georgetown game. But Sam, I
don't know if you saw how this game ended. Morgan
State has some real questionable play calling late on their drive,
(16:28):
left enough time for Georgetown to put together a game
winning drive and listen, Jimmy Kibble hit a forty had
a forty nine yard hell Mary catch from Des Thomas
just absolutely lost of Morgan State defensive back and it
was This was just an excusable loss from Morgan State,
(16:49):
who came into the year with all the hope in
the world to compete in the MIAC SAM Now they're
sending at two and four, their only wins over miles
in Central State, which are sub D one programs. They
have another sub D one game this weekend. But you
look ahead to conference play, with how North Carolina Central's looked,
with how Delaware States looked, with how Howard's looked, it
(17:10):
looks like this could be a really, really long gear
from Morgan State. Man, and this was a big disappointing
loss for the Bears, who you should never allow a
wide receiver to get behind you, and then especially in
single coverage on a hell Mary attempt, it just made
no sense. The offense sputtered again, left the way too
much time on the clock. They were throwing passes late
and it was just a late game. Clock management was
(17:33):
poor from Morgan State. So they get my flag this week.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Yeah, and especially you know, you got to keep your
eye on where Kibble is at as well, because he's
their a top wide receiver and he's had a couple
of seven hundred yard seasons receiving wise for Georgetown, so
he's he's a good receiver, and yeah, you got to
account for him. And yeah, that was a crazy hill.
Mary finished right there. A couple of more results to
touch on number eighteen. Villanova I thought looked really impressive.
(17:58):
They get a road win at New Hampshire thirty seven
to seven. Nova has won two straight now since they
lost pretty handily to mommth David Abbott, you know, continues
to be one of the top running backs in the FCS.
He looked really good again. But Villanova I think has
a chance to pile up some some wins here. Then
two more teams, Furman and Mercer, they just keep on winning.
(18:19):
They're both four and oh overall. They're both of their
losses are come against Presbyterian. I think maybe you could
argue for sure Mercer. You know, if they were to
play again, Mercer probably gets that win because Braydon Atkinson,
you know, freshman quarterback for Mercer that they've put in
now as the starting quarterback. He continues to impress. He
threw for three hundred and sixty five yards and five
(18:40):
touchdowns no interceptions in a forty five twenty one win
over Samford. Then Furman they're looking good as well. They
got a thirty one to twenty two win over Etsu.
I thought that was kind of a sneaky under the
radar game nationally because I thought that was a really
key game in the SoCon and you know, Furman keeps
on winning and their defensive and Joshua stone King, he's
(19:01):
just a red shirt sophomore, but he's already up to
thirty two tackles, thirteen and a half tackles for lost,
nine and a half sacks so far this year. He's
really you know, emerged and has had a splash year
so far as kind of being in underclassman for firm.
And so those our two good teams out of the
Silicon right there, and it could be an interesting race,
(19:22):
especially as Western Carolina is racking up some wins as
well within that conference standings. Let's go back to kind
of nashally, because like we talked about, there were multiple
top eight teams that were in danger at one point
you know in the game. I mean we saw Montana
State poll away in the second quarter. We saw NDSU
pull away late in the in the third quarter into
(19:44):
the fourth quarter. But yeah, Taroton State that was in
a shootout with Southern Utah. You had Montana as well
that was in a really close game with Idaho State,
even UC Davis was in a pretty dang close game
when it comes when they played cal Poly, South got
to States, was down ten at halftime two Youngstown State
before building a double digit lead in the fourth quarter,
(20:06):
and then Youngstound State made it a one score game
with about forty ish seconds left to give themselves a
chance at the end. What do you make of just
these close games in the top five we can even
extend it out to the top seven with UC Davis
as well. Is that a sign that we're gonna get
actually some parody in the FCS or is just was
this just one of those weekends where you know, these
(20:29):
top five teams went on the road, got the other
team's best shots, kind of started a little bit slow,
but eventually found a way to get to get some wins.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
I think it, I don't know necessarily enough it means
we're gonna have more parody late in the season.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
I just think what it means is this one.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
It's hard to win on the road in conference play,
and to be fair, like you mentioned, like North Dakota State,
this was really their first true test. I don't think
you could say any of the first few opponents that
they played, even South Dakota were good enough to really
give the Bison this. Garret also thought Illinois State Youngstown
both those teams probably played their best games of the year. Man,
(21:06):
I went back and watched watched the film, and Tommy
Brittenhouse made some really good throws that might not be
really represented in the box score. And I thought Bo
Brounnguard and Max tom Zach were great in that South
Dakota State game. The biggest thing I kind of take
away from this is that both of these teams. I
think we kind of knew this about South Dakota State
(21:28):
because they did it against Montana State, but we can
add North Dakota State to the freight. Now, both those
programs can respond to adversity. Both faced adversity early. Starting
with South Dakota State. You look at how Chase Mason
played in the first half.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
Man, he was off. It just nothing was really clicking
for him.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
He was missing on some throws, footwork looked a bit sloppy.
In the second half, he hit on some deep passes
that really sparked some some scoring drives. And then also too,
they got the rushing attack going with Julius Loffridge. They're
running back and I think for North Dakota State, you
finally saw some explosiveness in the run game outside of Colpayton.
I talked about Copinu earlier. Some of those runs were
(22:08):
huge in terms of getting that offense going and the
defense finally locked in. I think they had a really
tough matchup Sam. Let's just be honest, Daniel Soskowitz is
a problem on the outside. So I just think they
ran into two teams that are that are good enough
to make little runs in the playoffs. I still don't
know if it means we're gonna have more parody later
on in the postseason. I just think it means that
(22:29):
the middle of the FCS or even some of these conferences,
these teams still can't compete with the top teams on
any given weekend. And it's college football, man, anything can happen.
I think when you look at some of the other
close calls, I think Montana had a really tough matchup.
You're missing your number one corner, Sam, and you're playing
one of the best passing attacks in the FCS. That's
(22:51):
just that's a tough matchup. They even had some true
freshmen getting some barnet corner this weekend. You look at
Charlton State. When you're missing your starting quarterback, you're missing
some key pieces on defense. It just took a minute
to have everything gel And you look at the adjustments
they made in the second half of this game. In
the first half they were allowing over ten yards per play.
(23:13):
In the second half som they only allow sixty four
yards on nineteen plays. After that first scoring drive from
Southern Utah, they completely they completely shut down Southern Utah.
And I thought Daniel Greek's been playing well. I love
what Trey Page is doing. And you mentioned UC Davis.
I thought it was a tough matchup for them. You're
missing Rex Connors and you have a bona fide NFL
(23:34):
prospect on the outside in Michael Brisco, who's not getting
enough credit right now, is one of the better wide
receivers in the country. So I think it was a
combination of a little bit of everything you touch on.
It was tough, it was tougher matchups some people expected.
These teams also played really good games, and again it's
tough for a lot of these teams. I know Talton
was at home, but it's tough to win on the road,
(23:54):
and it's tough to win in conference.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
Now we talk about the.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Familiarity that these teams have with each other, you're not
surprising anybody anymore. And I think that all kind of
culminated in what we saw this weekend, which was a
bunch of scares in come very very competitive games, which
I think is healthy for the FCS because we need
to see these Rather, I'd rather see what happened this weekend, Sam,
than what North Dakota State did South Dakota two weeks ago.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Absolutely, I like you said, it was a combination of
those things, being on the road and matchup wise. And
I think too, these these teams, these underdogs, I mean,
when they're playing the number one, two, three, four or
five whatever teams in the country, I mean, they're gonna
throw some things at you that they haven't shown, you know,
on film before, whether it's I mean, I knew Southern
Utah was going to do some tricky things, you know,
(24:39):
before the game even happened, and I saw like fake
punts you know, on there. I think they probably did
some things offensively that they hadn't shown, especially with their
backup quarterback in as well. And you know, Joshua dies
is one of the best running backs in the FCS
for Southern Utah, and he was running wild for a
little bit before. Like you said, Charlton State was able
to make some adjustments in really just lean on some
(25:01):
of their depth on the on the defensive side of
the football. And I think these sometimes it's easier to
come out swinging when you are, you know, the underdog
rather than being the hunted. And we saw like Youngstown
State was against South Kota State. I mean, they're playing
with with so much passion and fire, and but you know,
like I usually say, like it's it's all funny games
(25:21):
when you can stop the run in the first half
and puff out your chest. But you know what separates
good and great teams is, you know, is the depth.
And whether it was NDSU, I think they kept on
leaning on Illinois State or certainly South Dakota State, I
don't know if they necessarily changed a whole lot after halftime.
For South Kota State. They kept on with the run.
I feel like maybe they were going a bit more
(25:42):
downhill rather than lateral on Youngstown State, but they just
they just kept on chipping away and all of a sudden,
those one yard runs were turning into four yard runs
and then six ered runs and then Lofridge would you know,
break one out for you know, fourteen yard run. So
I do think that Tier two of the FCS is
at least good enough to push these top tier teams.
(26:02):
But at the end of the day, I think great
teams find a way to win even when they're playing
you know, perhaps you know, a B level or C
level type of game and kind of utilize their depth
to to take over in the second half.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Yeah, I agree with you, and I also think too,
I look at the two teams that let's focus on
the top two matchups. I think me and you were
I would say Youngstown State outplayed their previous and expectations
for both of us, because I think we both had
them in the top twenty five starting like last week,
(26:36):
maybe the week before. And I think me and you
both talked what was it two weeks ago about how
we really wanted to see Illinois State show that they're
as good as the talent on the field might suggest,
and I thought they both did that this weekend. Like
for me, Sam, I feel better about Youngstown and Illinois
State right now than I did last week before the game.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
Yeah, and now the test is to do it to
play like this every week, because it's easy to get
up when you have the number one team or the
number two team come into your place. But if I mean,
if Illinois State goes to Murray State and wins twenty
eight to twenty one in a sloppy performance, you go, okay, like,
who is the real Illinois State? Or if Youngstown goes
(27:18):
to un D and loses thirty five to seven, you go, okay,
it was Youngstown? Did they played that good? Because it
was against South Goota State and they got up for
that game and then they lose, and you know, kind
of that that sense of urgency and that energy and
kind of that attention to detail that you're putting in
during the week of prep, that's all kind of taking
a step back because you kind of just not necessarily exhale,
(27:41):
but you don't have that that level of urgency when
you play, you know, a different opponent. So now I
think is really the proving grounds for a team like
Illinois State or a Youngstown State to continue to play
like this at.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
At a high level.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
And you know, it'll be interesting for some of the
other teams as well because Tarlton State. I think is
is going to continue to get tested. I don't necessarily
think I'm gonna pick Tarleton State to lose any games,
but their toughest FCS opponents are still to come. I
believe they have three ranked opponents still to come that
be Austin, p West Georgia and Happling Christian you know,
(28:18):
I believe. And so they're toughest opponents are still to come.
You know, Montana, you know, matchup wise, it just seems
like Idaho State has always given them fits. I believe
this is the third year in a row that the
Bengals have played Montana to a one score game. And
so there's just some you know something something about that
matchup where the Bengals can at least compete decently well
(28:39):
with you know, with with with the grizz and you know,
when you're losing your top corner in a matchup like this,
that is also gonna gonna hurt Montana quite a bit.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
So the Valley Rays too, man, that like looking at
the Valley right now, when you got North Dakota State,
South Dakota State, Southern Illinois, North Dakota Illinois State, Youngstown State,
and God forbid. South Dakota gets it together, Sam, that
is going to be like outside of the top. I
think the top two we're going to get through it, right.
(29:07):
I think me and you are both confident. Northd Coast State,
South dakost they are going to be fine. But man,
from southern Illinois down to Youngstown State, it is going
to just be chaos. And I mean, any given weekend,
depending on how you play, could could change the trajectory
of someone's season. And I think it's I think that race,
I know it. I know some I know what big
Sky fans and other CS fans are like, great, we're
(29:29):
talking about the Valley again. But that conference race, Sam,
is just going to be pure chaos behind those top
two schools.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
Yeah, and I don't. I mean, I guess we'll have
to see what the bubble looks like, but I don't.
Is there going to be room for six Valley teams
this year? I don't know. I mean, because you have Harvard,
so that's one or not Harvard, I mean maybe a
slip there, but you have an Ivy League champ, which
will probably be Harvard. But you have the Ivy League
idle bid in there now, so that is one less
(29:56):
at large bid, but I also feel like the CIA
is probably going to have one less you know, at
large bit out of their conference. But you know, the
UAC is probably good for three bids. I think the
Southland will probably get two.
Speaker 3 (30:07):
Not sure.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
The SoCon still might be at one just because of
their non conference. But there there could be some some
really high level, you know, seven eight win valley teams
that are going to be nervous on selection Sunday. And
I know we brought up this before as well as
far as when it comes to the race for top
two seeds, and we don't have to have an in
depth discussion about this right now, but you know, as
(30:29):
as we're halfway through the season and you're looking ahead
to okay, this team has this many ranked win opportunities.
I mean, if Tarleton State goes undefeated, they're going to
have three ranked wins plus an FBS win. Let's say
Montana goes undefeated, they're gonna have three ranked wins, but
they're gonna have one less Division one win because they
played a non counter they're projected strength to schedules or
(30:52):
for Tarlton and Montana are like within three of each other,
like Tarleton is only three behind Montana, So I mean
pretty much the same when we're talking strength of schedules,
and so now all of a sudden we have this
discussion of like if Montana goes undefeated, Tarleton goes undefeated,
what happens to a one loss NDSU slash SDSU team.
(31:14):
All of a sudden, like we're gonna really start paying
attention to these resumes and how things shake out when
it comes to the top four seeds. And I mean
Montana State wins out, like what where does where does
that land them? If they go to Montana and get
a win plus you have I mean, I don't think
these teams are going to slip into the conversation. But
I think Tennessee Tech is going to go undefeated. I
don't They're not gonna have any ranked wins though, I
(31:35):
think Lehigh has a decent chance to go undefeated. Uh,
they beat Richmond, who's number twenty five at the time,
no other ranked opponents upcoming. What happens if Harvard, you know,
goes undefeated. So I don't know, I just feel like
the top eight seeds this year, it could could get fascinating,
especially the top four.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
Yeah, it's gonna it's gonna be insane.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
I mean, especially because you talk about I think the
the X factor here is Harvard because I think we
can kind of lean on a little bit of history
with some of the other teams, right, because we have
comparable moments in time.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
But how does the committee view an.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
IVY League school that's undefeated, right, because they've never had
to evaluate one and you talk about one less win.
Do they take into account they didn't start their season
until like week four, right, I.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
Mean, they're gonna have Division one wins is a big
criteria point. They'll have what to less than if they
go on defeeded, They'll they'll have two less than a
twelve to zero Montana team or Tarlton team.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
Right.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
But then at the same time, like what happens when
you get into those sub D one wins Because if
I'm not mistaken, Tennessee Tech has a non D one win, Yeah,
Montana has a non D one win. Southern Illinois do's
Southern yeah, Southern Illinois does. So how do they compare
those schools to Harvard, who, Like, let's just say, because
(32:56):
I mean, if Southern Illinois goes nine and three, that's
only eight Division one wins. How does that compare it like,
or do they give them the strength to schedule debate?
Or if there's a ten and two team, right, ten
and two Montana they only have non Division one wins.
Do you put a ten Division one win Harvard above
them with no ranked wins though?
Speaker 3 (33:17):
Right?
Speaker 2 (33:17):
So it's just there's a whole bunch of conversations that
I think the biggest one too, is is what happens.
I think those top three seeds are going to be
the interesting ones, right because I think at the end
of the day, you want one of the top two seeds.
Speaker 3 (33:32):
How it I guess.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
For you what is the best best pass for Tarlton
to get into those top two seeds?
Speaker 3 (33:38):
Because I think.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Valley fans would argue that whoever wins out of North
Dakota State South Dakota State is gonna probably be the
number one overall seed. Then you have Montana or Montana
State in the conversation, then you have Tarlton. Do you
think a one lost South Dakota State, If South Dakota
State it's only losses in North Dakota State, do you
think an undefeated Tarlton would jump them? Uh?
Speaker 1 (34:02):
So, I I think there would definitely obviously be a
really good argument for Tarleton to be the number two seed.
I still feel like Southcota State would probably have the
better resume because they would have two at one or
two more ranked wins than Tarleton States. They would also
(34:23):
have you know, a tougher strength to schedule as well,
you know, assuming they play NDSU tough. But they lose
that game, I think style of loss in that one
and and how how much you lose by would matter
in this one. And I still think, like we'll see
what happens with Army as well. Tarleton State, no doubt
has to be cheering for Army to go on and
finish strong. But to me, like I, I think South
(34:46):
Gota State winning at Montana State is more impressive than
Tarleton State winning you know, I had Army. I think
that's that's a higher quality win. So I would if
I was on the playoff committee. And to remind people,
this isn't necessarily a group think thing where the committee goes, okay, guys,
you know how we feeling about the number one seed
this team. Okay, all right, n see number one seed.
(35:07):
All right, let's all talk about who's the number two seed. Okay,
Montana State or Montana, Tarlton State, Southcota State, Okay, we
all eventually get to it being Tarleton State. Okay, Tarleton
State's number two. That's not exactly how it works. Each
committee member has an individual vote and then they compile
that vote, and then whoever you know has has the
most points, you know, it's the one seed, two seed,
(35:27):
and onwards. So it isn't necessarily a group think thing.
If I was on the committee, I would probably have
in this scenario, South Dakota States number two, and then
who's number three? I think that would be a pretty
decent argument between Tarleton State and Montana. Between those two,
I would probably lean undefeated Tarleton State over undefeated Montana
(35:50):
because they would have the same number of ranked wins
and the Grids would have one less d one win
while Tarleton would have what would have that that FBS win.
To me, ranked wins I think are are really really important.
I think that ranked wins and strength the schedule is
what stands out most to me. And so for the
South Gota State Tarleton arguments, I would probably lean Southcota
(36:13):
State because of that strength to schedule and because of
having you know, one or two more ranked wins.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
I think the other thing too is I don't know
how because you know, obviously we'd have to write this
out and and see how obviously how many you know,
losses and stuff like that, but what happened? Like I
think the excuse me, hiccup there, But an interesting one
would be momth if they finished undefeated against the FCS
(36:42):
versus an undefeated Tennessee Tech team.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
Yeah, who would who would you give that?
Speaker 2 (36:48):
Because mamth would have the ranked ranked win over Villa Nova,
who's probably also in the postseason.
Speaker 3 (36:56):
And then outside of that, I mean.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
They maybe you might be ranked by then.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
Probably not, Actually yeah, I don't know because that Yeah,
so they would have one ranked win, but they would
have no sub D one win. Wins are only loss
to be to an FBS Charlotte team which they really
had a chance to beat. How much does the dominance
of Tennessee Tech change the conversation though, because they've been
(37:25):
dominant in all their games.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
Yeah, So I do think style points matter, Like I know,
some people say a win is a win, and I
just I totally disagree with that because style points do matter,
and when we're talking about playoff positioning and the difference
between the one and the two, or difference between two
and the three, three and four, difference between eight and nine.
Sometimes it is you know, very very nitpicky. You know,
(37:51):
how much like how much Montana beats Montana State by
or vice versa, like that could be compared to how
South Dakota State played Montana State. If you're if you're
if you're a team and I know, like in past
year Sam Houston ran into this problem, or you know
one year McNees went went nine to two and didn't
make the playoffs. If you have a resume that your
(38:15):
strength of schedule is in the eighties, nineties over one hundred,
you don't have any ranked wins, and you're beating opponents
by an average of eight points. Like the committee is
going to look at you, go, Okay, you might be
undefeated versus the FCS, but like, you haven't played anyone
that good and you're winning, but you're only winning by
seven or ten points against these teams that we don't
think are very good. So yeah, you're you're in the playoffs.
(38:37):
Maybe you'll be a nine or ten seed. Obviously in
the scenario, you'd also be the auto bit but if
you're absolutely crushing these teams and you're beating them like
Tennessee Tech is like sixty to twenty and fifty five
to ten. Like to a certain extent, I also get
the argument if you can't help you know your your
schedule like you you can't you can't help who you
(38:57):
play against. But at the same time, how you beat
those opponents, that is something that you can control. So
I do think style points matter. And if I'm comparing
the two and I'm looking at Tennessee Tech is absolutely
running rough shot over their opponents, and Mamath is beating
teams like Delaware State forty nine to thirty eight, and
you know Delaware State. Delaware State is decent, but if
(39:19):
you're a top eight seed worthy team, you should probably
be beating Delaware State a little bit more convincedly, especially
at home. Like to me, I would give the edge
to Tennessee Tech because of their margin of victory and
because I would imagine their strength of schedule is probably
going to be in the same ballpark without looking it
up right.
Speaker 3 (39:37):
Now, Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 2 (39:41):
The other question too, as you mentioned this last week
about the bubble too, is that how do they how
does the committee view Western Carolina right without Tron Dickens,
because then you kind of get to the conversation of
you know, I think you mentioned we're probably going to
have what two valley teams on the bubble, probably someone
like a South Dakota versus beyond the bubble. Yeah, yeah, Youngstown,
(40:08):
And then you're probably gonna have one big Sky school
on the bubble.
Speaker 3 (40:11):
I would imagine.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
I think it's gonna be right on that bubble with
seven to eight wins.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
Yeah, So that'd be a very interesting conversation because obviously
the strength of schedule would go to the valley in
big Ski schools, but also too, I mean we've had this,
We had this conversation with Northern Arizona last week. Does
a Western Carolina win over like a Mercer out, I
(40:36):
would say, have hold more value than a bunch of
good losses for a team like Idaho, Like what if
Idaho doesn't beat an equality opponent sam right, their best resume,
their their best highlight on their resume is close losses?
Speaker 3 (40:50):
Is that more valuable.
Speaker 2 (40:52):
To the committee than a signature win over Mercer for
Western Carolina? Like that would be the interesting conversation for
me because I think that's what got Northern Arizona and
last year isn't. They really didn't have any signature wins,
but because they were in the big Sky, they got
boosted and they just had some you know, competitive losses
and that got them in. So I'll be very curious
(41:13):
to see how that factors in as well, quality losses
versus quality wins. And I know that sounds weird, but
that does play a role because we've seen it. We've
seen it play a role historically.
Speaker 1 (41:23):
All Right, I'll throw one more at you, just just
to piss people off. Presbyterian finishes second in the in
the Pioneer Football League. They only have one loss. That's
the team that wins it double overtime loss. Mercer wins
the Silicon. Furman keeps on winning except for against Mercer
and finishes second in the Silicon. Mercer and Furman are
(41:44):
both in the playoffs. This Presbyterian getting that large bid
into the bracket.
Speaker 3 (41:49):
Oh my god. One, I would have to see the bubble.
Speaker 1 (41:54):
But I mean they do have two none d one wins,
but they have wins to make up for that over
Mercer and Furman.
Speaker 2 (42:03):
Okay, should they get in if we're if we're keeping
the logic consistent across everything.
Speaker 3 (42:10):
Probably will they get in.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
No, Yeah, I mean if you put Patriot League in
front of them instead of Pioneer Football League, they probably
get in. But they have to get over that. I mean,
image and perception and reputation not only a favorite team,
but your conference goes a long way. Like we know that, right,
if you're an eight and four Big Sky team moves
the needle more than an eight and four Patriot League
team just because you're you're you know you're in the
(42:34):
Big Sky for example.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
Yeah, I mean because also too, you look at their schedule, right,
if they like they play Butler, Stetson, Dayton, Valpo, Davidson,
Saint Thomas, Marist, if they any of those losses probably
knock them out, right, I mean, you can't even excuse
(42:59):
any of those laws. Yeah, so that's gonna be the
hold up. Is as good as the two wins over
Furman and Mercer. Are you played Erskine and Bluefield, which
don't count, and then you might have a loss to
Saint Thomas or Butler or someone on your resume, And
I think that is a worse loss than almost Indie
(43:20):
lost any of the other at large teams are going
to have because like, what if it's a Southeast and
Louisiana on the bubble sam Like, are we gonna say,
Like I know that hypotheticals shouldn't come into this, but
how many points would Southeast and Louisiana be favored over
Presbyterian if they played in the first round?
Speaker 1 (43:39):
A touchdown?
Speaker 2 (43:41):
Probably at least, Yeah, and so like, I think that
has to play a role. And I know Presbyterian fans
and you know, coaches and stuff don't want to hear this,
but I think I think if Presbyterian wants to get in,
they're gonna have to win out. And I know that
might sound unfair, but at the end of the day,
it I think that's what's going to have to happen.
Speaker 1 (44:02):
Yep, yeah, probably. All right, let's go to some on
field action here. We got three more ranked matchups come
in this weekend. I thought it would have been four,
but Youngstown State just barely dips out of the top
twenty five. They go to number thirteen UND Also in
North Dakota we have number eight, Southern Illinois going to
number one, NDSU number fourteen. Northern Arizona goes to number
(44:27):
six UC Davis. Then another ranked matchup in the UAC.
We have number nineteen Aplene Christian goes to number twenty
one West Georgia. Which one of those sticks out to
you the most is at the top eight showdown in Fargo.
Speaker 2 (44:42):
Yes, and it's not even just because it's top eight.
I am so excited to see how DJ Williams plays
against US North Dakota State defense. It's such an intriguing
stylistic matchup to me, because Sam, let's just be honest,
that defense has played really well. But you saw Rantonhouse
out there making so plays last Saturday, and I no
(45:03):
offense to Renton House. I think DJ Williams is a
better quarterback than Tommy Rittenhouse right now, and I think
he brings so much more to the table.
Speaker 3 (45:11):
This is the first, like true test that we're going to.
Speaker 2 (45:14):
See this North Dakota State defense go up against an
elite level quarterback, and I'm so interested. Now, a little
bit of the concern here is Southern Illinois defense hasn't
been the best. Are they going to be able to
get a stop and that's going to be the tough thing.
And then again, we just talked about how hard it
is to win on the road right extremely extremely hard.
And I think the other matchup that really sticks out
(45:36):
is I think we probably have our swack championship matchup
this weekend Alabama State at Jackson for Jackson's homecoming Sam.
I just don't whoever wins this game probably is on
the fast track and they would probably be my favorite
to win the Celebration Bowl right now. Andrew Body versus
at Jackson defense Jacobean Morgan has been playing really, really well.
I think that matchup would be my number two matchup
(45:58):
in terms of intriguing game games this weekend that is
our must see.
Speaker 1 (46:03):
Yeah, the I'm curious about Northern Arizona going to UC Davis.
This is a really good test for Davis. And you know,
if we if we don't include the mercer game, you know,
their first opportunity for uh you know our ranked matchup
here and you know, is Davis the sixth best team
in the country. I will have to see, but I
(46:24):
do think this is a strong test for the Aggies, who,
unfortunately they'll be They'll be without Rex Connors, uh All
American safety season ending knee injury, which unfortunately he suffered
on the offensive side of the football when they were
using him, you know, on the goal line. So that's
a tough injury for UC Davis, But I really like
the offense for the Aggies. Caden Pinnock has been exceptional
(46:47):
this year, and he's just another name and a long
list of names. Like when we're at this point of
the season, you know, midway through, uh, there isn't necessarily
like a huge separation when it comes to the season
end awards and it's like, okay, we put Cole Payton
in that conversation, you know last week talking about him,
you know, potentially being a top candidate for the Walter
Payton Ward. But then you go, well, if you put
(47:09):
him in there, then you have to put Chase Mason,
you know, in there. And then after this weekend a
U and D fan account and said, well, if you
put those two in there, what about Jerry Kaminski. Look
at his numbers compared to those two, and you're like,
all right, fair enough. But then then you have Bo
Brungguard yea, you know, the Excellent State fans want him
in the conversation, and there's just everywhere you look there's
one guy that pops up, you know, And then it's like, oh,
Kateen Pinnock, you see Davis look at his numbers like
(47:29):
he deserves to be in this conversation as well. So
there's just a lot of really good offensive playmakers in
the FCS, and I think there's so many guys that
are fun to watch. You know, Derek Robertson is Robertson,
you know, is fun to watch just a pocket passer.
Then you have you know, DJ Williams and Cole Payton,
you know, electric guys to watch as well with their
dual threat abilities. And then you know Kateen Pinnock another
(47:51):
dual threat guy, a little bit different stylistically because he's
not as physical of a runner or a physical presence
compared to Williams or you know, Peyton Mason, you know
those type of guys. But he's very, very fun to watch.
That's a that's a great matchup as well. Some under
under the radar ones. I think Villanova at Elon is interesting.
(48:11):
Mercer goes to Princeton. I think this one is fascinating
as well to see. You know, it's potentially another data
point for for the Ivy League. And then you know,
sticking in the Silicon, Furman goes to Western Carolina. I
really like how Furman has looked this year. They definitely have.
They're they've been a joint up bounce back year compared
to last year. They're getting good quarterback play as well.
(48:34):
Can they go to Western Carolina and get a win?
You know, Western's maybe you know the hottest team in
the Silicon right now. Then you mentioned the one you
know in the Swack as well. With Alabama State playing
Jackson State, that's gonna determine quite a bit. Both squads
that are undefeated versus FCS opponents so far. So that's
that's a really really exciting slate for Week seven. We're
(48:54):
getting to the about the halfway points of of the
regular season, so a lot more ranked matchups means, uh,
we get a better sense of where these teams are at.
So before we wrap it up, Zach, any any final
thoughts on in the world of FCS football.
Speaker 2 (49:09):
No, I mean, I mean, if you want to check
out some pot in a league football too, man, there's
the Presbyterian at Butler, Drake and San Diego. There's some
big matchups in the Pioneers.
Speaker 3 (49:18):
That race ramps up to.
Speaker 2 (49:19):
That race is going to be I know, no one
wants to talk about it, but like that race for
the conference title is.
Speaker 3 (49:24):
Going to be very interesting too.
Speaker 2 (49:25):
There's a few teams that can win that one, and
I'll be very curious to see. I think that Apple
and Christian West Georgia games SAM is super interesting to me.
Speaker 3 (49:33):
But I will say this, man.
Speaker 2 (49:34):
If Davin Winder is down and out this weekend, which
I don't know if we have an official update on
his health, but if he's not there, man, I think
West Georgia's chances take a significant hit.
Speaker 3 (49:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (49:45):
The backup just never found seem to look comfortable in
that one, and that would be a tough loss for
West Georgia, man, which has been a remarkable story this year.
And I really really hope he's healthy. And like you
mentioned that UC Davis and a U games big, but yeah,
I mean that a bunch of bunch of good games.
And hopefully the past two weeks filling out our ballot
SAM have not been as stressful, so I'm hoping we
(50:07):
can we can have another relaxing weekend of filling out
this top twenty five because man, we were very very
close to me just texting Craig.
Speaker 3 (50:16):
And being like I'm good man. I don't even worry
about my ballot this weekend. I have no idea.
Speaker 1 (50:20):
Yeah, we would have had to skip this this last
week if we would have seen as many upsets as
as potentially we're looking at. But uh, yeah, we'll see.
I've said earlier this week that there always seems to
be that one chaotic week in the FCS, and you know,
at some point it seems like potentially that could hit.
And you know, as voters, sometimes it is easier if
things go chocked because it makes our lives easier. But
(50:41):
at the same time, a little bit of chaos is
is is enjoyable and entertaining and fun to talk about.
After we get our ballots sorted out, so we shall
see what happens this weekend and in a handful of
of awesome matchups. So until then, thank you guys for listening,
and we'll catch you guys on the flippity flipp p
Speaker 2 (51:13):
P
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My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com