apaladin wrote: ↑Sun Sep 22, 2024 4:49 pm
Conference season heats up a little this week. VMI and WCU are idle.
1:30. MERCER @ WOFFORD Mercer looking to go 3-0 already. Should know more about WC after this one.
2:00. ETSU @ CITADEL ETSU the surprise so far. Maybe the best in SoCon? Look for a blowout.
2:00. SAMFORD @ FURMAN Must win for both struggling teams, a loss and you’re done.
6:00 PORTLAND STATE @ CHATTANOOGA Interesting intersectional game.
Mercer/Wofford should be a good game. I still expect Mercer to win. Wofford is improved, but to this point Mercer has still looked better. Wofford defended the run against W&M better than we did though. So, if they can take away the run enough against Mercer to make the QB throw more than they want, then maybe they'll have a chance? Still feels like more than a 1 score win for Mercer.
ETSU/The Citadel: ETSU was always going to be the team with the largest variance of possible win/loss total this year. They weren't good last year, but they have a new coach who brought a lot of his guys from Gardner Webb, so the learning curve isn't as steep as it used to be. To this point, they certainly look like they are going to be on the high end of expectations. Lamb is obviously a good young coach. Citadel is definitely better as well, but losing to the Citadel after ETSU's last two weeks would be shocking.
PSU/UTC: This one shouldn't be close. PSU is not good and is only a couple weeks removed from a pertussis outbreak on their team that caused them to cancel a game. Add in coming across the country to a team coming off a bye week and you wouldn't expect this one to be close.
Samford/Furman: I'm hopeful Furman can win this one. Crittendon's running ability does concern me a little, but you would hope after W&M that we'll be better there with a week of practice. Need to have a week where Hedden doesn't turn it over 3 times. I still feel like there are so many things that we aren't doing well that Furman teams normally do well. Too many penalties, missing short FGs, not being able to run the ball consistently (resulting in not being able to sustain drives), etc. I'm going to choose to believe that we will eventually get it cleared up. If we do that, we'll have a chance to win every game left on the schedule...I think. Not saying any of them will be easy.
