FCS Roundtable: Week 1 Highlights and What to Watch in Week 2

The bevy of FCS vs. FBS match-ups played in Week 1 allowed the truly special performances in the Championship Subdivision to shine. The week’s opening season does set a tone for the forthcoming campaign. Sacramento State earned three first place votes in the week’s top 25 poll and has the look of a team primed for championship contention. The Hornets are locked in another key match-up for Week 2, but the season’s second Saturday is loaded with other tremendous showdowns. This is the weekend in which the race will began to take more of a shape. The FCS Roundtable discusses top Week 1 performances, and examines what key storylines of Week 2 are worth following.

Editor’s Note: If you’re an FCS blogger/reporter and would like to contribute to the FCS Roundtable, please email saturdayblitz@yahoo.com with subject line “FCS Roundtable.”

Joe Suhoski, VBR Productions

Redshirt freshman Antonio Vaughan of Old Dominion was the breakout star of ODU’s 41-14 win over the Campbell Camels. The wide receiver was named CAA Rookie of the Week after compiling 191 all-purpose yards and accounting for two touchdowns. Monarch fans who paid attention to reports from summer camp were not surprised by such an explosive debut.

The team that impressed me most is Sacramento State, which defeated the PAC 12’s Oregon State Beavers. The University of Richmond is handicapped a bit because their victory over Duke Saturday was the program’s third consecutive win over the Blue Devils. Meanwhile, the Hornets had been winless in its last ten games against FBS opponents. They were outgained 496-367 but got eight points in overtime to escape with a win. This is a win that could propel Sacramento State to a fantastic season.

I’m going a bit off the radar for the game I’m most excited to see in Week 2. The Towson Tigers ran over, through and around the Morgan State defense in a 42-3 win Saturday. The Villanova Wildcats come to Baltimore licking their wounds from a 42-7 loss to Temple in The Third Annual Mayor’s Cup. Towson has already matched their 2010 win total of one victory, and Villanova lost about half its starters from last year’s FCS semi-finalist squad. Is Towson for real? Can Villanova overcome the loss of senior WR Norman White as the season progresses? If Towson wins Saturday, it will be the Tigers’ first CAA win since the middle of 2009. We’ll learn a lot about both teams and what impact they’ll have in the CAA in an early-season matchup.

Russell Varner, SouthernPigskin.com

While the SoCon may have struggled overall in week one, there were plenty of bright spots to be found for every team (yes, that includes App. No way they play that poorly again the rest of this year). Offensive star of the week, in my admittedly slightly biased opinion, goes to Elon wide receiver Aaron Mellette. The preseason All-American finished with 11 catches, 180 yards and a touchdown and almost single-handedly kept Elon in the game at times. Furman’s Jerodis Williams deserves an honorable mention as well, getting a career-high 142 yards and three touchdowns on just 15 carries, averaging nearly 10 yards a carry. Defensively, Wofford linebacker Alvin Scioneaux was a force to be reckoned with. The sophomore had ten tackles, three tackles for loss, two sacks and two forced fumbles. Try and find someone who had a better day than him.

As for teams that impressed me, I have to go with The Citadel, who took it to a well-respected Jacksonville squad and won 31-9. They rushed for more than 400 yards, the most for any Bulldog squad since 1994, and looked like a well-oiled machine on offense – a far cry from the sloppy mess they had last year. For the biggest disappointment, it’s really hard to not say Appalachian State. Like many, I didn’t think they would pull the upset, but you’d hope that the Mountaineers would be more competitive than they were. You blinked after the opening kickoff and suddenly App was down and it was all downhill from there. Anytime a team loses by 53, chances are you will be the disappointment of the week.

So, what should fans look out for in week two? Keep your eyes on Chattanooga and Charleston this weekend. #10 Jacksonville State takes on #25 Chattanooga and Furman faces the new and improved Citadel Bulldogs. The Gamecocks and Mocs played a classic last year that went down to the wire. I wouldn’t be surprised if the same happened this year. Paladin quarterback Chris Forcier looks to have finally found his step and could be close to reaching his potential. As I mentioned before, the Citadel looks like a completely different team this year and will be hyped up playing under the lights at Johnson Hagood Stadium. It will be the best SoCon game this weekend.

Kyle Roth, Bison Illustrated & Bison Sports Blog

Two things jumped out at me during Week 1 of college football. Firstly, I was a little surprised the Missouri Valley went a pretty disappointing 3-6 during opening week (with only North Dakota State, South Dakota State and Southern Illinois notching out-of-conference wins). SIU had the most impressive of those garnered by the conference winners, defeating Southeast Missouri State in a convincing 38-10 rout of a team ranked by most polls in the lower 20s. The consensus is that perhaps we may have underestimated the team the Salukis will field this season, though I’m not entirely convinced that they’ll live down their 5-6 record of last season in too significant of fashion. The MVFC simply needs to get better in OOC games, particularly against those respectable opponents like Eastern Illinois and Sam Houston State.

Secondly, I was surprised that so many strong FCS teams got manhandled vs. FBS squads. One has to think that after the handful of wins the FCS schools were able to scrape together last season that ADs across the country thought “Hey, we’d better make sure that doesn’t happen to us.” The result: Virginia Tech over App. St. 66-13, Nebraska over Chattanooga 40-7, Temple over Villanova 42-7, Toledo over New Hampshire 58-22…the list goes on. It’s those kind of defeats that make the wins the FCS did get all the more impressive, particularly Sacramento State stealing one from Oregon State. This is a Beavers team that was expected to contend for the Pac-10/12 crown last season, and for a middle-to-bottom of the barrel Big Sky team to steal it on a two-point conversion in OT is pretty impressive.

Regarding star players, a tip of the cap has to go to North Dakota State’s Warren Holloway, who notched 157 yards and 2 TDs on 6 catches. The NDSU passing game faced plenty of question marks coming into the opener, and still does, but even with the loss of fellow starter Zach Vraa to a broken collarbone, Holloway shows that he can be a go-to guy with Brock Jensen’s polished deep ball. Elsewhere, check out Tirrell Rennie’s 127 yards rushing against Iowa State. We knew the guy could do things with his feet, but to gash a Big 12 defense like he did is fun to watch. Add to that 181 yards on sub-50% passing and you can tell Rennie is going to have a big year in the MVFC.

A few really exciting games on the docket for next week, starting with Northern Iowa hosting Stephen F. Austin. The Lumberjacks racked up 86 points in their game last week and are a perennially strong team, so this test vs. the Panthers’ strong defense will be an entertaining one. Also, check out three FCS-FBS matchups that could be a little more even-sided than their counterparts this week: SDSU heads to Illinois to take on an Illini squad that’s been a doormat in the Big Ten for years, while Wofford and their rock-solid defensive line head to Clemson to try and steal one from a team that’s put linemen in the NFL consistently. Finally, Southern Illinois, fresh off taking down SEMO, faces Ole Miss to try and emulate the success Jacksonville State had last season against the Rebels.

Ben Moore, Panther Talk & SBNation Atlanta

Week 1 Stars

Locally, Georgia State RS Sophomore QB Bo Schlechter – He finished 13/18 for 193 yards and 3 TDs through the air in his first collegiate game at QB leading the Panthers to a 41-7 win over Division II Clark Atlanta. He served as the Panther’s starting Punter in 2010 and had not started a game at QB since December 2008 when he was a Senior at Glades Day HS.

Team Most Impressed With: Richmond winning at Duke. While many believe that Duke football is a joke, they were actually being discussed as a possible bowl team out of the ACC. Great win for the CAA and the second consecutive year a CAA Football team has beaten an ACC opponent as James Madison beat Virginia Tech in Blacksburg last season.

Disappointing Team: Georgia Southern. They did win over Samford but turning the ball over 4 times and looking sloppy all afternoon was not what a #2 ranked FCS team should look like. Samford is a lower tier OVC team slated and the Eagles needed a 99 yard kick off return by Laron Scott to pull away.

Week 2 Matchups

I’m locked in on Jacksonville State at UT-Chattanooga which I predict could be an upset win for the Mocs. Jacksonville State lost their starting QB last week for the year and Coty Blanchard played well in relief. Now that he is the guy on the practice field, how does he respond and, more importantly, the team rally around him.

Old Dominion at Georgia State: Will be there live and ODU is one year ahead of Georgia State on the field. Last year’s game was a 34-20 Monarch win in a game that was not as close as the score indicates as the Panthers rallied from a 34-6 deficit to score 2 TDs late. Both teams have improved and it will be the first test for either team this year as ODU enters CAA play in earnest this season.