PreSeason Poll

[FUBeAR]

AFCA FCS Coaches Poll, presented by Hudl – August 12, 2024

Rank School (1st votes) 2023 Rec. Pts. 2023 Rank Season Opener Head Coach
1 South Dakota St. (25) 15-0 649 1 Aug. 31 at Oklahoma St. Jimmy Rogers
2 North Dakota St. 11-4 614 3 Aug. 29 at Colorado Tim Polasek
3 Montana 13-2 576 2 Aug. 31 vs. Missouri St. Bobby Hauck
4 Montana St. 8-4 518 8 Aug. 24 at New Mexico Brent Vigen
5 South Dakota 10-3 512 4t Aug. 29 vs. Northern St. Bob Nielson
6 Villanova 10-3 502 9 Aug. 29 vs. No. 23 Youngstown St. Mark Ferrante
7 Idaho 9-4 473 4t Aug. 31 at Oregon Jason Eck
8 Chattanooga 8-5 403 17 Aug. 31 at Tennessee Rusty Wright
9 FURMAN 10-3 392 6 Aug. 31 at Ole Miss Clay Hendrix
10 Sacramento St. 8-5 382 15 Aug. 29 at San Jose St. Andy Thompson
11 Southern Illinois 8-5 370 13 Aug. 31 at BYU Nick Hill
12 Richmond 9-4 353 22 Aug. 31 at Virginia Russ Huesman
13 Central Arkansas 7-4 339 NR Aug. 31 at Arkansas St. Nathan Brown
14 UAlbany 11-4 275 7 Aug. 31 vs. LIU Greg Gattuso
15 UIW 9-2 259 14 Aug. 31 vs. Northern Colorado Clint Killough
16 William & Mary 6-5 196 NR Aug. 29 vs. VMI Mike London
17 UC Davis 7-4 164 NR Aug. 31 at California Tim Plough
18 Lafayette 9-3 157 19 Aug. 29 at Buffalo John Troxell
19 Western Carolina 7-4 144 NR Aug. 29 at NC State Kerwin Bell
20 Illinois St. 6-5 143 NR Aug. 31 at Iowa Brock Spack
21 Tarleton 8-3 137 NR Aug. 24 vs. McNeese Todd Whitten
22 North Dakota 7-5 131 16 Aug. 31 at Iowa St. Bubba Schweigert
23 Youngstown St. 8-5 97 21 Aug. 29 at No. 6 Villanova Doug Phillips
24 Nicholls 6-5 91 NR Aug. 31 at Louisiana Tech Tim Rebowe
25 Florida A&M (1) 12-1 71 10 Aug. 24 vs. Norfolk St. James Colzie III

26. Weber St., 66
27. North Carolina Central, 53
28. Eastern Illinois, 50
29. UT Martin, 38
30. Austin Peay, 35
31. Northern Iowa, 33
32. Harvard, 32
33. Yale, 31
34. Mercer, 27
35T. Holy Cross, 20
35T. Howard, 20
37T. Alabama St., 17
37T. Northern Arizona, 17
39. Elon, 16
40. Alcorn St., 9
41. Duquesne, 7
42. North Carolina A&T, 6
43. Fordham, 5
44. Gardner-Webb, 4
45T. Indiana St., 3
45T. Missouri St., 3
47T. Butler, 2
47T. Eastern Kentucky, 2
47T. Southeast Missouri St., 2
50T. Eastern Washington, 1
50T. Murray St., 1
50T. Samford, 1
50T. Utah Tech, 1.

[apaladin]

https://furmanpaladins.com/news/2024/8/ ... -poll.aspx

Not sure this is good. A young inexperierienced overranked team is not good for the mindset. They really need to have a “we have something to prove” mentality. Just sayin’

[The Jackal]

https://furmanpaladins.com/news/2024/8/ ... -poll.aspx

Not sure this is good. A young inexperierienced overranked team is not good for the mindset. They really need to have a “we have something to prove” mentality. Just sayin’

It's infinitely better to start higher ranked.

Again - and I sound like a broken record here - you are confusing your subjective determination of "experience" with "youth" or "talent."

[apaladin]

Agree it’s a no brainer to be ranked higher. Just thinking of the mental aspect.

[gofurman]

Certainly not representative of where we finished in ‘23. And, Chattanooga ahead of us? Didn’t we beat them last year… twice!?

Based on returning players and QB and defensive player of the year and two key LB injured for etc I don’t think that is an odd pick to put them
Ahead of us at all. Last year is only a piece of the puzzle. Have we not beaten teams that we lost to the prior year??? Absolutely we have.

By “who won last year logic” Wofford should be picked ahead of us

[Paul C]

No

[FUpaladin08]

I’m glad UTC is ranked high. Hopefully they still are when we play them.

[The Jackal]

Certainly not representative of where we finished in ‘23. And, Chattanooga ahead of us? Didn’t we beat them last year… twice!?

Based on returning players and QB and defensive player of the year and two key LB injured for etc I don’t think that is an odd pick to put them
Ahead of us at all. Last year is only a piece of the puzzle. Have we not beaten teams that we lost to the prior year??? Absolutely we have.

By “who won last year logic” Wofford should be picked ahead of us

I think the oddity is that UTC is usually picked immediately ahead of Furman.

I think folks look at Artropeous retuning with the usually good defense and give them the edge. Of course, Carson Jones already beat Artropeous in Chattanooga.

Artropeous had a decent statistical day that day, but my recollection is we put him on the turf a bunch and he had one long touchdown pass that was just a freakish play (might have been tipped and right to his receiver in stride downfield).

[Davemeister]

No worries.

Sagarin rates UT-C 3 points better than Furman. Since we have Home advantage it's a virtual toss-up. The game will be decided on the field of play and that's all any Sportsman can ask.

[FUBeAR]

Phil Steele sez it’s FINALLY time for the Cantamounts to win their 1st-ever SoCon Football Championship…

[FUBeAR]

No worries.

Sagarin rates UT-C 3 points better than Furman. Since we have Home advantage it's a virtual toss-up. The game will be decided on the field of play and that's all any Sportsman can ask.

Here’s the full Sagarin ratings of SoCon & by FCS Conference…

D1 Rank | FCS Rank | Team | Rating
19 | 6 | SoCon | 43.66
131 | 14 | Chattanooga | 54.36
150 | 24 | Furman | 51.01
166 | 36 | Western Carolina | 47.09
170 | 40 | Mercer | 46.46
180 | 49 | Samford | 44.64
195 | 62 | East Tennessee State | 41.03
208 | 75 | VMI | 38.43
219 | 86 | Wofford | 36.51
242 | 109 | The Citadel | 32.35


D1 Rank | FCS Rank | Rating | CONFERENCE | # of TEAMS
11 | 1 | MISSOURI VALLEY (MVFC) | 57.23 | 10
14 | 2 | BIG SKY | 50.90 | 12
16 | 3 | UNITED ATHLETIC (UAC) | 44.56 | 9
17 | 4 | IVY LEAGUE | 44.34 | 8
18 | 5 | COASTAL (CAA) | 43.97 | 15
19 | 6 | SOUTHERN (SoCon) | 43.66 | 9
20 | 7 | SOUTHLAND | 40.84 | 9
21 | 8 | BIG SOUTH/OVC | 40.18 | 9
22 | 9 | PATRIOT | 38.75 | 7
23 | 10 | SWAC-EAST | 35.90 | 6
24 | 11 | MEAC | 34.55 | 6
25 | 12 | I-AA IND. | 34.08 | 2
26 | 13 | SWAC-WEST | 33.98 | 6
27 | 14 | PIONEER (PFL) | 31.44 | 11
28 | 15 | NORTHEAST (NEC) | 31.17 | 8

[Sad Din]

rankings.. and even with not havng 1 game played

[Paul C]

Nothing means less than preseason computer rankings.

It’s like Yelp reviews on a restaurant that hasn’t yet opened for business.

[apaladin]

Anyone that ranks the Ivy as fourth best FCS conference loses all credibility.

[Davemeister]

Phil Steele sez it’s FINALLY time for the Cantamounts to win their 1st-ever SoCon Football Championship…

Good bulletin board material.