FCS Roundtable: Taylor Heinicke & Top Individual Performances; Breakout Teams

Sept 22, 2012; Raleigh, NC, USA; Citadel Bulldogs running back Darien Robinson (22) is tackled by North Carolina State Wolfpack linebacker Sterling Lucas (7) and defensive end Forrest West (97) in the first half at Carter Finley Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Rob Kinnan-US PRESSWIRE

Old Dominion quarterback Taylor Heinicke set an NCAA Div. I record on Saturday with 730 yards passing. Heinicke set the bar high for individual performances across all divisions of college football, but particularly the FCS.

The Roundtable details some of the other great performances of recent FCS memory. And while Heinicke has Old Dominion 4-0 and looking like a contender for the playoffs, our panel examines some other teams that have emerged to possibly factor into the postseason landscape.

Ben Moore, PantherTalk.com

The greatest individual performance that I’ve witnessed live in the FCS ranks was Georgia State Punter Matt Hubbard’s day to open this season. He punted the ball 5 times for 311 yards including an 80 yard bomb. Absolutely unreal.

The best game this season was the Youngstown State road victory over Pitt. The Penguins dominated Pitt and were leading 28-10 in the 4th Quarter. This was an FCS beat down over a Big East school.

I’m sticking with Youngstown State as my surprise this season. They are 4-0 and were not ranked in the preseason Top 10. They were also picked 3rd in the Missouri Valley. Tremendous start for the Penguins.

Kyle Roth, MVFC Fans & College Sports Journal
Sep 1, 2012; Lawrence, KS, USA; South Dakota State Jackrabbits quarterback Eric Kline (8) drops back to pass against the Kansas Jayhawks in the second half at Memorial Stadium. Kansas won the game 31-17. Mandatory Credit: John Rieger-US PRESSWIRE
For greatest individual performance, have to hand it to my man Brock Jensen, North Dakota State quarterback, who grew up watching Brett Favre play his Iron Man role with the Green Bay Packers. Jensen came down with the flu just before the semifinal game last year between North Dakota State and Georgia Southern, but that didn’t slow him down as he putu p over 200 yards of total offense (including 94 rushing yards), threw a TD pass, dished a monster block that helped spring Warren Holloway loose on an end-around for another score, and perhaps most impressively, went sixty yards on a QB-keeper that put the final nail in the coffin for the Eagles. Jensen didn’t come out after halftime because he was getting an IV of fluids in the locker room, then trotted out just before kickoff and stayed in until the end. Jensen was so succinct in the postgame press conference that I thought he was about to pass out, and still he helped pave the way for NDSU’s spot in the title game last season.

I have to tip my hat to the Shootout in Normal two weekends ago when Illinois State and Eastern Illinois went down to double overtime in a 54-41 final that saw Illinois State QB Matt Brown throw five touchdowns and score another pair on the ground in addition to 473 passing yards. The game was Instant Classic material through-and-through.

Finally, on breakout teams, from the Valley my gaze has to turn to South Dakota State. The Jacks are a surprising 3-1 and are doing it without the kind of star performance I expected from sophomore QB Austin Sumner. Instead, the Jacks have found new hope in sophomore rusher Zach Zenner, who leads the FCS with a ludicrous 895 rushing yards on 107 carries in just four games. The Jacks’ defense held the sensational Shakir Bell of Indiana State to just 54 yards this past weekend, and if Northern Iowa folds don’t be surprised if SDSU can make a little noise as the season closes and make a dark horse bid for a playoff berth.

SoCon John, Saturday Blitz

I have been fortunate enough to witness two truly astonishing performances in my time covering FCS football. One of those occurred in the 2000 meeting between Furman and Georgia Southern. Furman came in battling to stay in FCS playoff conversations, while Georgia Southern looked to clinch the outright Southern Conference crown with a win.

Without reigning Walter Payton Award winner Adrian Peterson, who missed the game with a minor injury, Georgia Southern’s offense sputtered, and it would set the stage for a record-breaking performance I will truly never forget.

Furman running back Louis Ivory will always put a gold star by that first Saturday in November of 2000, as he proceeded to rush for a Furman single-game record 301 yards and three scores in leading Furman to an astonishing 45-10 win over the Eagles. It was fitting for Ivory, who grew up no all that far away from Statesboro, in Fort Valley, GA. It would propel Ivory to a record-breaking season, becoming the first back in SoCon regular-season history to rush for 2,000 yards in 11 regular-season games.

The other record-setting performance I will never forget comes from the FCS semifinal game between Appalachian State and Richmond in 2007. Armanti Edwards turned in one of the greatest performances ever by a quarterback at the Division I level, rushing for a school and SoCon record 313 yards in the 55-35 triumph. The 313 rushing yards still stand as the Division I record for rushing yards by a quarterback.

Kyle McGough, Yosef’s Cabin

The greatest individual performance for me is going to be a homer pick, which makes sense I guess. How many of us go to FCS games that aren’t supporting our own school? At any rate, the greatest individual performance has to be Richie Williams in Appalachian’s 2005 FCS Championship game. It wasn’t the stats that Richie put up that impressed a nation, it was his heart. He could barely walk at point in the game but we stood watching in amazement as he hopped down field on one foot trying to will Appalachian to it’s first national title. That was truly remarkable for all of us who got to witness it.

Again a homer pick, I think the best game in the first four weeks was Appalachian State vs. Montana. Not because it was Appalachian State, but because it was two perennial powers fighting to the end (as they always do) and providing great regular season entertainment. The FCS needs more of these type games as opposed to schools taking it easy to ensure playoff games or top seeding.

The biggest surprise team has to be Citadel. They are 3-1 with their loss being to NC State. They beat Georgia Southern and then turned around and manhandled Appalachian State. This team was not on anyone’s radar and I still don’t think they are getting the respect they deserve in the polls. They beat Georgia Southern but are ranked one spot below them? How does that make sense?

Russell Varner, SouthernPigskin.com

I was out of town for the weekend for a cruise, so imagine my surprise when I get back on land and look at Taylor Heinicke’s even ridiculous for video game numbers that he put up. I look at the stat line now and my jaw still drops. How? How does someone do that?

Ok, I digress. My apologies. I have seen plenty of great individual performances during my time as an Elon student and as a writer for Southern Pigskin, but there are two that stood out to me when I first read the question, and oddly enough, they both come from Elon-Furman games down in Greenville.

The first comes from my sophomore year, 2007 – a 52-49 victory for the Paladins, thanks in very large part to then-senior fullback Jerome Felton. He finished the day with 25 carries for 154 yards and four touchdowns, but was near untacklable. He had to have broken an average of 2-3 tackles every time he touched the ball because I just remember defender after defender bouncing off of him, unable to bring down the wrecking ball that was Jerome Felton.

The second memorable performance came two year later on that same field. In a 19-12 victory for the Phoenix, receiver Terrell Hudgins caught 16 balls for 209 yards and the game-winning touchdown. Never before had I seen a receiver simply take over a game the way he did. Everyone on the field, on the sidelines and in the stadium knew where the ball was going each time Elon took the snap, and yet the defense was unable to do a thing to stop or even slow Hudgins down. Just incredible to watch.

So, question number 2 – best game of the year so far. It seems pretty straightforward (at least in the Southeast) that the best FCS game has been the Citadel-Georgia Southern week two matchup. After trailing for the vast majority of the game, the Eagles, then a top-five team in the nation, took a 21-20 lead with 3:13 left to go on a Ezayi Youyoute 1-yard touchdown plunge. The Citadel then answered with a drive of its own that ended with senior Thomas Warren kicking a 37-yard field goal with 35 seconds left to take a 23-21 lead. What happens next? Georgia Southern gets a great kickoff return, a big play or two and suddenly they are in field goal range with just seconds left. And then they miss the field goal. Video of the final 35 seconds can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZJ7BA8AiA. It was easily the biggest win in Coach Kevin Higgins’ coaching career and has help catapulted the Bulldogs to the top of the conference.

And that helped lead to my answer to question number 3. The Citadel Bulldogs have definitely been the biggest surprise of the year for me. Here was a squad picked to finish in the bottom of the conference, but instead they now sit at the top of the SoCon with the Samford Bulldogs after beating the two favorites to take the conference crown in 2012. On top of that, look at the way they flat-out dominated Appalachian State in Boone. The Bulldogs won by 24, yet it felt like it was a bigger blowout than that. Oh, and the Citadel’s best defender Derek Douglas has had limited playing time as he returns from a knee injury suffered in the spring game. When he gets back to 100 percent, just imagine how much scarier this team will be.

Joe Suhoski, VBR Productions
September 1, 2012; College Park, MD, USA; William
I’ll refrain from harping on Taylor Heinicke’s performance since it received significant national media attention. Instead I’ll go with one specific play as the best individual performance I’ve seen in person. Old Dominion was beating Towson last season by less than a touchdown with less than a minute to play. The defense had forced a 4th and 29, and the Tigers used a timeout to literally draw up a play from scratch. Grant Enders rolled to his right and slung a pass about 30 yards in the air to the ODU 40. Tom Ryan made the catch in front of three Monarch defenders, who ran into each other and fell collectively to the ground. Ryan alertly sprinted down the right sideline and evaded three or four more arm-tackles, stretched out near the goalline and scored the touchdown. I can’t recall a more unique individual performance (excepting Heinicke).

Having focused strictly on the CAA this season, I think the best game was Towson’s home win over William and Mary. The Tigers led 13-10 in the fourth when they got a touchdown midway to put them up 20-10. The Tribe’s Nolan Kearney answered a few minutes later with a touchdown reception of his own and W&M was down only 20-17. At that score later, Raphael Ortiz appeared to have thrown a late touchdown to put the visitors ahead of Towson with less than two minutes remaining. Nevertheless, there was a holding call on the play negating the touchdown, and the Tribe failed to score on their last two plays from scrimmage.

The Citadel immediately comes to mind as a surprise team. In this season’s first FCS Roundtable post I guess that Wofford could have a SHSU-type season so I’m not surprised by their start, but I don’t think anyone would’ve predicted The Citadel to have beaten Georgia Southern and Appalachian State in consecutive weeks. I’ll give Monmouth acknowledgement as well, given their 3-1 start after a 5-6 season. Following an opening week loss to Lehigh, the Hawks have won their last three games by an average of 23 points.

Shaun Bummer, Griz Nation Blog

Although it may not be the best performance I’ve ever seen live, given its relevancy and impact on the FCS picture this season I’ll showcase Northern Arizona running back Zach Bauman’s performance against Montana last week. As a biased Montana blogger/fan it’s tough for me to say it, but Bauman made the Griz defense look silly with 253 yards on the ground and three touchdowns, including a 75-yard touchdown run on the opening play of the game. The Lumberjack offensive line dominated in the trenches creating holes for Bauman all day long.

For the game of the year so far I’ll go back to week one and take William & Mary’s 7-6 loss to Maryland… Not. For real though, I’ll actually highlight two games decided by a last second field goal. First, we’ll show some love to one of the FCS non-qualifier conferences, the SWAC, where Texas Southern beat Prarie View A&M 44-41 on a last second field goal by Robert Hersh in week one. The Tigers were down by 13 points at one point in the second half and came back to survive a roller coaster of a second half in Reliant Stadium. Additionally, I really enjoyed Sacramento State’s stunner against Colorado 30-28 thanks to a last second field goal by Edgar Castaneda in week two. Hornet QB Garrett Safron had a solid day passing for 312 yards and two touchdowns.

With wins over Georgia Southern and Appalachian State, The Citadel has got to be the FCS’s breakout team. However, I’ll also give some love to the Central Arkansas Bears. Not only are the Bears 3-1, but they knocked off a strong Sam Houston State team 24-20 that I was almost certain would run the table in the Southland this year given its talent in the ground game. Additionally, Central Arkansas hung around with Ole Miss for awhile, even leading 20-14 at halftime. Part of the Bear’s success is thanks to a strong quarterback in Wynrick Smothers who has passed for 1102 yards and 12 touchdowns in four games with a 72.2% completion rate.

Rob Abbott, JMUSportsBlog.com

The best FCS individual performance I’ve witnessed live was probably seeing Rodney Landers lead JMU past Villanova in the 2008 playoffs. Looking at the stat sheet from that game and it’s clear that Landers had an impressive afternoon. He ran for 143 yards and 1 TD and then threw for 157 more with 3 TDs. Obviously, those numbers seem pretty tame compared with what Heinicke is throwing up there. The numbers don’t tell the story though. Sitting in the stadium that day you got to see first hand how tough Landers was. He wasn’t just scampering for 5 or 6 yards on the option. He was blowing guys up and moving the pile. When JMU got the ball back down 27-24 in the 4th quarter, everyone knew Landers was going to lead them on a TD drive. And he finished it off himself pounding the ball into the endzone on the ground for the winning score. Statistically, it holds up as a good individual performance. Everyone that saw it live however, knows it was a truly great performance.

It’s tough to think of anything that could top last weekend’s 64-61 ODU win over UNH in terms of excitement (unless you actually like defense of course). The Citadel simply upsetting Georgia Southern would have been exciting enough. The way they did it, coming behind to win with a late FG, made it even more exciting.

And to answer your final question, I never saw the Citadel coming. The win over Georiga Southern was tremendous. Following it up by manhandling App State showed that the Bulldogs are for real and a threat not only to win the SoCon, but to make some noise in the playoffs.