A True Passion for FCS Football

Norfolk  State    Michael  Vick

Idaho                   Thomas Ford

Sacramento State  Brennan Marion

Prairie View A &M  Tremaine Jackson

Colgate               Curt Fitzpatrick

South Dakota 17 Montana State 31 

SDSU 21 NDSU 28

Mercer 7 NDSU 31 

UC Davis 21 South Dakota 35 

UIW 14 SDSU 55

 Idaho 19 Montana State 52

CCSU 17 Rhode Island 21

 Illinois State 35 SEMO 27 

UT Martin 41  New Hampshire 10 

Lehigh 20 Richmond 16 

EKU 17 Villanova 22 

Northern Arizona 0 Abilene Christian 24 

Drake 29 Tarleton St 43 

Tennessee State 27 Montana 41

The Last 4 Teams in were 

Eastern Kentucky

Northern Arizona

Tennessee State 

UT Martin

The Last 4 Teams out

Chattanooga

Southeastern Louisiana

Stony Brook 

Southern Utah

This is the last official weekend of the FCS regular season. Sunday, November 24th, ESPNU will host the FCS selection show at 12:30 est. FCS teams who did not win their conference will be hoping to secure an at large bid. 

2024 has been a great season - congrats to all the coaches, players and athletic departments for all their hard work! 

Two  schools  that are separated by about 50 miles and one of the best rivalries in the FCS - this year's contest will take place in Cedar City on the campus of Southern Utah University.

Early in the 1st quarter Utah Tech junior DB Jagger Williams  intercepted Quincy Casey's pass to set up a Trailblazers touchdown. Utah Tech would take a 14-0 lead early.  Reggie Graffe would throw for 2 touchdown passes in the first half.  UWG would respond with Davin Wydner on a 1 yard touchdown run - then finding TJ Locksley for a 38 yard touchdown to make it 14 -21. Utah Tech would respond with a drive that lead to a field goal and would head into halftime with a 24-14 lead. In the second half UWG would take advantage of the momentum, scoring 10 points in the 3rd quarter, while Utah Tech scored 0 in the third. UWG would also score 10 in the 4th quarter and this would be the difference in the game. Utah Tech would score 7 points in the 4th to make it interesting, however UWG controlled the ball the last few minutes of the game and forced the Trailblazers to use all of their timeouts. A UWG interceception by Jay Carter would also be a key factor in the outcome of the game. UWG totals 4 wins in their first year in the FCS. Utah Tech will travel to Cedar City next week for the Battle of the Axe - the Trailblazers will take on their rival SUU in the final contest of the season. 

Lehigh 45 Colgate 17

Holy Cross 40 Bucknell 38

Lafayette 42 Stone hill 10

Fordham 31  Georgetown 3

Harvard 31 Penn 28

Columbia 21 Brown 12

Yale 42 Princeton 28

Dartmouth 22  Cornell 39

UIW 27 SFA 20

Mcnese State 35 Northwestern State 3

East Texas a&m 41

Nicholls 7 Lamar 24

On Southern Utah's first possession they put together a 7 minute Drive that went 13 plays for 84 yards and took a 7-0 lead. The next drive would be 12 plays for 72 yards;  on their next scoring drive SUU would go 9 plays for 79 yards to make it 21-0. Targhee Lampson was clutch all game for the Thunderbirds, rushing for 173 yards on 31 carries with three touchdowns. However as soon as it looked like the Thunderbirds would put this game away easy - Northern Alabama had  some quick scores! TJ Smith found Dakota Warfield  for the UNA touchdown with just 1:17 left in the second quarter. Southern Utah would make a 50 yard field goal early in the 3rd and take a 24-7 lead. Northern Alabama would reply with a quick score: 2 plays for 75 yards as TJ Smith found Justin Luke for a 70 yard touchdown. Southern Utah turns right around and goes 4 plays for 60 yards and makes the ball game 31-13. Once again North Alabama responded quickly  going 1 play for 75 yards where this time TJ Smith would find Takairee Kenebrew for a 75 yard touchdown!  The Lions would score once more before the end of the 3rd quarter and make the game 31-26 . Despite all the momentum on Northern Alabama's side, the the Thunderbirds would close the show with two huge interceptions in the 4th quarter - one by Kameron Roacha that went 48 yards for a touchdown and anther one by Raymond Crump who made a reallly athletic play on the ball. SUU travels to Central Arkansas next week to try to get above .500 and keep their FCS Playoff hopes alive.

Richmond 27 Campbell 24

Rhode Island 21 Delaware 24

UAlbany 6 Stony Brook 24

NCA&T 3 Villanova 31

Monmouth 20 New Hampshire 33

Elon 40  William & Mary 36

Bryant 26 Maine 38 

Hampton 10 Towson 27

SDSU 38 

vs

North Dakota 7

Youngstown St 33 

vs

SIU 37

Indiana  St 0 

vs

South Dakota 49

Missouri State 59 

vs

Murray State  31

Illinois State 31 

vs

Northern Iowa 9

Robert  Morris 6 Duquesne 31

CCSU 21 StoneHill  17

LIU 28 Sacred Heart  7

Lincoln (ca) 0 Mercyhurst 66

Idaho  39  Portland State 30

UC Davis 30 Montana 14

Sacramento St 7 Montana St 49

NAU 31 Cal Poly 14

Idaho State 43 Weber State 35

Eastern Washington 43 Northern Colorado 15

South Dakota State heads to Grand Forks to Take on UND on Saturday .

 Another Rivalry Game this week that will have a sold out crowd. 

October 19th 2024

LIU 31 Robert Morris 45

    Saint Francis 0  Wagner 14

 This is a Rivalry Game with national championship Implications. SDSU vs NDSU has become the Georgia vs Alabama in FCS football. It's that simple. 

The  big  sky is one of the  best conferences in FCS football. Once again this week we will have another great match up as Idaho State travels to Bozeman to take on the Montana State Bobcats.

Big time rivalry game!  I guarantee you this one will be a sellout. This  is why people love FCS  Football games like this ,the atmosphere will be amazing.

This week Richmond will travel to Elon,should be interesting most teams need a win. 

RIVALRY GAME ! If you are a fan of FCS  Football this is a must see game.

Mercer ranked number 23. Will hit the road to face Chattanooga. The Mocs were ranked 20th coming into the season.

Idaho gets the win on the road over the cowboys. Idaho defeated FBS Wyoming 17-13.The Program continues to thrive under heacd Coach Jason Eck. Although Idaho lost some players to  the transfer portal and the NFL ,the vandals still look ready to compete.

This weeks big FCS matchups

Montana vs North Dakota

UIW vs South Dakota State

Maverick Mclvor is our FCS Nation Player of the week.

FAMU holds off Norfolk State 24-23. Norfolk State jumped out to a 14-0 lead at 14-10 at halftime. Norfolk State's big mistake in the first half was a bobbled snap on special teams. In the second   half it was a different Story. In the Second half FAMU got the offense going with Senior WR Jamari Gassett . Gassett would finish the game with 8 receptions for 110 yards and 2 Touchdowns.

Montana State says thank you New Mexico for the mishaps. Montana State Started off rough ,but in the second half finally got the running game going. New Mexico Jumped out to an early lead however two missed Field goals a dropped pass by a receiver and blown assignment by a safety not filling his gap lead to the Montana State Come back.

October 5th 2024

LIU @ Duquesne

    Stonehill @ Wagner

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The Big SKY Conference always has a chance to make it to the National Championship game. The question is, what team will rise in 2024? Will it be Montana or Montana State, or will Idaho continue its recent success? Will it be NAU that will shock people again like they did in 2023 with their upset win vs Montana? Can one of the Hawkins coaches lead their team to an FCS playoff appearance? Will EWU get back to its winning ways? Hopefully Cal Poly and Northern Colorado can put together a competitive season. Whatever happens, I am excited and can't wait for BIG SKY competition in 2024!

The SoCon is a tough competitive conference. In 2023 Furman went 7-1 in the conference. They would make it  to the third round of the playoffs  losing to Montana on the road. Mercer Finished the year  9-4 overall and   6-2 in conference. The Bears would win a home playoff game against  Gardner Webb and eventually lose to national Champ South Dakota State in the next round.  Chattanooga went 6-2 in the Conference and 8-5 overall but can the mocs replace Ailym Ford and Gino Appleberry on the offensive side of the ball. WCU went 5-3 in conference and was the most improved team overall. Samford and VMI went 4-4 in conference, while ETSU and WOFFORD both went 2-6 . The Citadel finished 0-11. It was a very rough year in 2023. Maurice Drayton will have his hands full this year trying to get this program back on track.

The Patriot League has been dominated by Holy Cross the last two seasons. How will the Crusaders continue their success without all American Jalen Coker, who is now with the Carolina Panthers. Lafayette, the only team to beat Holy Cross in Conference, finished 5-1 with a tie for first place and 9-3 overall. The Leopards were the automatic playoff bid from the league last year. Colegate and Georgetown kept a competitive record. Fordham was 2-4 in league play however 6-5 overall. Lehigh and Bucknell both finished 1-5 in the league tied for last. Both Programs have great tradition and history hopefully they can get it turned  around in 2024.

UTMartin won the newly Formed conference last year with a 5-1 record. What impressed me was the road win early in the season vs Missouri State. Bryant ,Eastern Illinois ,and Gardner Webb all put together good seasons in 2023. In the Middle of the pack SEMO had the best conference record finishing 3-3 in conference. Tennessee Tech ,Robert Morris ,Charleston Southern and  Tennessee State all finished 2-4. Lindenwood finished 1-5 not bad the Lions are relatively new to the FCS level. 

Notable week 1 Games

EIU @ Illinois

Lindenwood @Kansas

WIU @ NIU

UTMartin @ Kansas State

Tennessee Tech @ MTSU

SEMO @ New Mexico State

South Dakota State will return as the favorite. South Dakota was impressive in 2023 but can they finish ahead of NDSU in 2024? Youngstown State also had a pretty good 2023. Meanwhile SIU, UNI,  North Dakota and Illinois State all hung around in the middle of the pack. Petrino left Mizzou State to be the Offensive Coordinator at Arkansas - hopefully the new coach can get things turned around. Murray State, Indiana State and WIU need to find a way to compete in a tough MVFC conference: all three programs would love to forget about 2023.

Last year in the Southland Conference UIW led in all offensive categories. However, Nicholls State led the conference in wins.  Lamar and Houston Christian (Formerly Houston Baptist) stayed around the middle of the pack. Southeastern finished 3-8 and Texas A&M Commerce, who is relatively new to FCS, finished with one conference win, like McNeese State, who went 0-10 outside of that.  Northwestern State cancelled their season in October 2023 after losing a player to gun violence. Hopefully they can get things back on track in 2024. 

WEEK 1
HCU@SMU
Lamar@Texas State
McNeese@Tarleton
Nicholls  @ Louisiana Tech
Northwestern State @ Tulsa
SFA vs North American
Southeastern @ Tulane
Texas A&M Commerce @ SDSU
UIW vs No. Colorado

The CAA Conference is probably the largest conference in FCS football. Many times people are upset about postseason bids, however the CAA does have 16 teams. In 2023 Villanova,   Albany and Richmond all tied for first place with a 7-1 record in the league. Delaware and Elon both finished 6-2 in the conference and tied for 2nd. Surprisingly, last year William & Mary had an off year finishing .500 in Conference at 4-4.  Campbell, Towson, Hampton, Monmouth, Maine, NCA&T, Rhode Island and Stony Brook all will compete hard for a chance to get in the FCS playoffs.  Bryant will be the league's new addition in 2024. 

Florida A&M won the SWAC last year however they lost coach Willie Simmons to Duke. Grambling State fired head coach Hue Jackson after just 2 seasons.  Well FAMU won the east and Alcorn State won the west. Prairie View finished 2nd in the west . Jackson State and Alabama State tied for 2nd in the east. Alabama A&M ,Southern and Grambling State all had decent conference records in 2023. Bethune Cookman got a New Coach after the 2022 season which saw them make multiple moves after hurricanes hit Daytona Beach. Another Exciting season awaits, full of classics and rivalries in the SWAC. I can't wait !

1.   Austin Peay won the UAC last year finishing 6-0 in Conference and 9-3 overall. The Governors also got a new Coach, Jeff Faris. Head Coach Scotty Walden left to become the head coach at UTEP. Tarleton State, Southern Utah, Central Arkansas and Eastern Kentucky all finished 4-2 in conference. Tarleton would have the best 2nd place record finishing 8-3. At the bottom half of the conference  Abilene Christian went 3-3 and 5-6 overall.  North Alabama and Utah Tech both finished 1-5  in Conference. SFA went 0-6 in Conference and 3-8 overall. Also, in 2024 UWG will join the Conference. 

 The MEAC Conference went as follows in 2023:  NCCU 4-1, Howard 4-1, South Carolina State 3-2, Morgan State 3-2, Norfolk State 1-4, Delaware State 0-5. NCC lost to University of Richmond in the first round of the FCS Playoffs.  Howard accepted the Celebration Bowl bid but would lose to Florida A&M. Overall it was a good year for the MEAC. The favored this 2024 season is obviously NCCU, however, this is anybody's conference - anything can happen in this fall!

Duquesne finished #1 in the NEC Conference in 2023. Finishing 7-5, the Dukes lost on the road to Youngstown State, which is fairly close to Pittsburgh. NEC 2nd place was hard to call as Stone Hill Merrimack, Saint Francis, and LIU all finished 4-3 in conference. The league is definitely competitive from top to bottom. Wagner finished 3-4, Sacred Heart 2-5, and Central Connecticut 1-6. Central Connecticut opens up at FBS Central Michigan on August 29th.