THIS WEEK IN THE SOCON

[apaladin]

I don't know much about VMI this year, but 12-25 for 92 yards and two interceptions isn't great.

VMI averaged 3.8 yards per passing attempt.

VMI stinks as usual but W&M has a very veteran team includng a 5th year starter at QB. W&M will be a tough game for FU.

[FUwolfpacker]

Saturday games didn't go that well.

UTC loses 69-3. Similar to Furman game with a little more success offensively. As expected.

The Citadel wins the inaugural Low Country Boil bowl 22-21 when CSU missed a FG as time expired. Didn't see much except the end. Citadel is at least somewhat competent on offense this year, but neither side looked that great. Citadel was driving and then fumbled it away only to have CSU fumble it back on the next play. CSU QB is their whole offense. Was 20-25 for 290. Not sure if that says more about him or Citadel's defense. We'll see next week.

ETSU loses 38-10 to App State. ETSU played tough for the first half. ETSU's lone score was a busted play for 80 yards. ETSU will probably be tough on defense again, and I'm sure they'll be better on offense against FCS teams.

And the bad one... Samford loses to West Georgia 38-29 in their first D1 game. West Georgia has a lot of FBS transfers. I figured Samford would have a tough time with them but didn't expect a 2 score loss. WGU hit a 44 yard hail mary to lead 26-14 at the half. Crittendon was 24-41 for 302 yards with 2 TDs (1 INT) and ran for 95 yards (on 19 carries) with 2 more TDs. Samford did have at least 2 turnovers so maybe that had something to do with it. I think WGU is going to be better than expected but hard to say at this point. Still a tough look for Samford and the conference at this point.


So for the first full week I'd say stock up on Mercer, Western, and maybe ETSU. Small bump for Wofford it was against a depleted GWU team but Odom looked good enough that they'll be tough if their defense continues to play well.

You could argue a small bump for The Citadel, but I'll reserve judgement until we see CSU in person next week.

No change or too early to say on Furman, UTC, and VMI (I think most of us expected that outcome but were hoping for better).

Stock down on Samford but I think they'll probably figure it out...maybe. Alabama St is supposed to be tough this year, so there is a chance Samford could be 0-3 when they visit Furman after their bye week.

[apaladin]

After the first week:
Good start, optimism still high.
1. WCU
2. ETSU
3. Mercer
Won barely but better than losing, optimism still alive.
1. Citadel
2. Wofford
Overmatched but looked bad, optimism took a big hit.
1. Chattanooga
2. Furman
Basketball starts in 2 months:
VMI

[The Jackal]

Observations:

- I am not reading too much into UTC/Tennessee and Furman/Ole Miss. Those are essentially scrimmages where you play a lot of players and the score doesn't matter.

- Mercer did what they were supposed to do against a non-scholarship team.

- WCU showed a lot of fight against a power program. They are certainly a dark horse.

- Wofford and the Citadel showed improvement. They won games they probably lose last season.

- VMI had a disappointing showing. They are always a tough team to figure out early in the season and have years where they are good, and years where they are terrible, and its hard to predict which they will be.

- ETSU had a good showing against App State. Their transfer running back had a good day.

- Samford went on the road to what a few seemed to suspect was going to be a tougher-than-anticipated West Georgia team. This has been the first year in a while we haven't heard a lot of buzz out of Homewood in the preseason. It looks like UWG moved the ball on them pretty easily, which isn't good. The Bulldogs new QB, Crittendon, at least through one game doesn't appear to be the pinpoint accurate gunslinger we typically see at Samford. He's got arm talent, but appears to be a bit more reliant on his legs than we've usually seen out of their offense.

[apaladin]

The score always matters. Just sayin’

[FUBeAR]

FWIW and because this is always a fun topic around these parts…

Massey now has Furman @ Mercer on 11/23 playing in the kinda-sorta de facto SoCon Championship game AND for the FCS Playoff Autobid.

Per Massey, Furman travels to Maconga having already clinched at least a share of the SoCon Championship at 7-0 in the SoCon and 9-2 overall (2nd loss ‘was’ to W&M 27-21).

Mercer ‘is’ also 9-2 overall, but ‘has’ dropped a SoCon game 28-26 @ Chatt on 9/14 (2nd loss ‘was’ @ Alabama in the week prior to the FU game) and is 6-1 in the SoCon.

A loss to Furman drops the Bears to a 6-2 tie for 2nd with Chatt (who ‘has lost’ to Furman & WCU) and quite possibly out of the Playoffs at 9-3/6-2.

Mr. Massey says the Bears clinch their 1st SoCon Football Championship (and the Autobid) with a 27-24 win over the Paladins.

[The Jackal]

Some interesting data points from the week. It's an incredibly small sample size, but interesting nonetheless.

1. Carson Jones is 4th in SoCon in completion percentage, hitting at 60% on 25 attempts.

For comparison's sake, Chase Artropeous also got fed to the wolves in Knoxville, and hit 52.2% on 23 attempts. Of the four QBs over 60% completion percentage, two of them played Presbyterian and Gardner Webb.

If Jones can hit 60% against that pack of jackals, then there's a pretty good possibility that he'll be a pretty consistent passer for us.

2. Furman had two defenders credited with a sack (Stephens and Chideo).

I don't believe Dimaggio is credited with a sack, even though he slammed into the QB and brought him to the ground, because he was credited with a facemask penalty (I guess, for grabbing the back of the helmet). I believe facemask penalties are just considered running plays in the stat book, so Dimaggio doesn't get the sack, even though he did.

Three sacks against that offense, offensive line, and QB isn't nothing. Only Mercer had more than three sacks this week, albeit against a far less formidable opponent. If we can get in Ole Miss's backfield, I like our chances against FCS competition.

3. Furman had five passes defended. That's third for the week behind Wofford and ETSU, who had 6.

4. Furman only kicked off once, but worth noting that Ian Williams was 100% on touchbacks. Furman was the only SoCon team not to give up a kick return (again, small sample).

Mercer, for instance, had 10 kickoffs, no touchbacks. Their average kickoff went 57.2 yards, so somewhere around the 8 yard line. Small sample, but that may be a weak spot for the Bears this year.

Wofford kicked off 5 times. 1 touchback, and gave up an average return of 39.7 yards. So, their guy struggled to get it down there and the Terriers appeared to have a tough time covering the kicks.

It's not a sexy stat, but I'm not sure fans appreciate how effective Williams is at giving teams virtually no shot at shifting momentum by returning a kick. If you rarely can force a touchback, eventually you're going to get popped in a big game. Just the law of averages.

[apaladin]

Thanks Jackal for picking out some positives and giving us all a lttle encouragement that we need. Looking forward to the CCH show to see what he has to say.

[The Jackal]

Thanks Jackal for picking out some positives and giving us all a lttle encouragement that we need. Looking forward to the CCH show to see what he has to say.

There were not a lot to write home about, but there are always silver linings.

When I watch these games, I'm not under any preconceived notions that we are going to keep up with a top SEC program. The gaps between these teams and virtually every other program in college football is just enormous.

What I tend to look for is what will work against teams in our own weight class. If we are getting pressure with our pass rush against Ole Miss, odds are we will be able to get pressure against Samford and Mercer.

We are not going to face another Heisman candidate QB that can flick a ball 60 yards on a dime. We aren't going to face a defense like theirs again. Some of the stuff that worked for them, or didn't work for us, won't be quite so drastic against FCS competition. The ball won't travel quite so far, be quite as accurate, the defense won't close quite as fast.