FCS Roundup Week 5

There’s nowhere else I can lead off the article than with East Tennessee State. The Buccaneers had one of the craziest, scariest travel stories the sport has ever seen, if you haven’t seen it I recommend reading it. The Buccaneers somehow made it to Charleston late the night before the game, kickoff was pushed back a little bit but with everything they encountered and what all was going on back home it was a major accomplishment just to play the game. Not only did ETSU play it, after a slow start they rolled past The Citadel in a 34-17 win. This is a team that has already looked good this season (and probably belongs in the top 25) but this performance is one to hang their hats on. Most teams will never have to display such resilience but you have to credit Tre Lamb and his team for overcoming so much. This team has my eyes the rest of the season.

Currently some of the best football is being played in the Dakotas, but it isn’t just the usual suspects. Sure, North Dakota State rolled a top 15 Illinois State squad with ease, but that wasn’t even the most impressive performance in the conference. That notion belongs to the South Dakota Coyotes who jumped all over a highly ranked Southern Illinois squad right away and never looked back. The Coyotes led 35-7 at halftime and eventually won 42-13 but could have won by a lot more if they wanted to. North Dakota meanwhile continues to show the Montana win wasn’t a fluke, the Fighting Hawks had an eye popping 72-35 win over Murray State.

The best defense in FCS is no where you’d expect it to be. You’ll have to look down in Macon, Georgia because it belongs to the Mercer Bears. They absolutely smothered Wofford to win 22-3 in a top 25 battle. The Bears are rolling strong and have a bye week before a rare home game against an Ivy League team (Princeton.)

Mentioning the Ivy League there was a major shocker in conference play as the Brown Bears hit a Hail Mary to upset Harvard. The Ivy League only began play last week, but already Brown and Dartmouth are the last remaining unbeaten teams in the conference…just like we all expected.

One of the biggest MEAC games is the Circle City Classic, and this year’s edition was a blowout. NC Central once again made a statement that they are the team to beat in the MEAC. They ran away from Norfolk State in a 37-10 win. If someone challenges NC Central in the MEAC, could it be South Carolina State? The Bulldogs had a great 2nd half to beat their rivals NC A&T for a 45-25 win.

The SWAC had one of the wildest games of the weekend. In the State Fair Classic at the Cotton Bowl Prairie View A&M took down Grambling 36-34 in 5 Overtimes! Entering this week Grambling had the appearance of being the best challenger to Florida A&M in the SWAC, but now it’s a muddled mess behind the Rattlers.

UT Martin is a good team that was staring down their season going down the wrong path after a double OT loss SE Missouri State and recent loss to Missouri State, but instead the Skyhawks responded with a great effort to beat Kennesaw State 24-13 for only the 6th FCS over FBS win. This is potentially a game that will get the Skyhawks season back on track.

How about the Maine Black Bears? Their season seemed to be going in the wrong direction after a blowout loss to Monmouth but it turns out that loss had aged fine and Maine has won 2 in a row after beating a previously ranked Albany team on the road.

Central Arkansas was expected to be a top team entering the season, and they lived up to it. They were robbed of a potential win over Arkansas State, rolled since but faced their first test since then against Lamar. The Bears handled it with no issues, winning 34-14.

Finally, wrapping this up with the conference that had some of the wildest action on Saturday, the Big Sky. Montana continues to slip by opponents each week, this time winning a ridiculous shootout 52-49 over Eastern Washington on the Red Turf. It was actually a pretty big win for Montana because the Red Turf has historically been a house of horrors for them, in fact this was Montana’s first win there. Still, the Griz have a lot to clean up as conference play intensifies. The Griz had the QB situation sorted with Ah Yat as the starter but he got hurt after a big game against Western Carolina, Logan Fife stepped in and played an excellent game against the Eagles. Ah Yat is more of a runner while Fife is the better passer, it seems the Griz offense will operate fine no matter which QB plays. At some point they will need to sort out the defensive side of the ball where they have struggled this year.

The upset of the day was Idaho getting upset by UC Irvine in Big Sky After Dark. This was yet another tough game for the Vandals in an opening stretch that’s been nothing but tough games. The Vandals had a sloppy second half and eventually were down to their 3rd string QB in the loss. They don’t get much rest because Northern Arizona is next and Montana State follows. Buckle up, Vandals! Meanwhile this was a massive quality victory for UC Davis. The Aggies have only lost to Cal so far and don’t face another big challenge until November so they have a great opportunity to rise in the polls before a tough closing stretch.

Mentioning Northern Arizona they picked up a huge statement win in the Skydome over Sacramento State. It was a defensive battle early on but Northern Arizona broke the game open with defensive TDs on back to back drives. With a first year head coach this was a big victory the Lumberjacks can hang their hat on.

Montana State traveled to face Idaho State. It was their biggest test since the opener against New Mexico. The ICCU Dome was rocking but the Bobcats handled business, jumping ahead 17-0 early to eliminate the threat from the Bengals.