Please note that this is NOT a team ranking, but a confidence listing as explained in the preface.
https://herosports.com/fcs/rankings-...on-elon-bzbz#1
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Please note that this is NOT a team ranking, but a confidence listing as explained in the preface.
https://herosports.com/fcs/rankings-...on-elon-bzbz#1
I'm not sure I buy Lehigh at 20 in a confidence ranking. Their defense has been dreadful for the last 5 seasons. If they're at #20 that just shows how weak the PL figures to be again this year. Colgate would seem to be the "safer bet". Although they've struggled to find consistency in recent years.
It would not shock me if the PL playoff rep has a losing record again. Colgate has a brutal OOC schedule and Lehigh's is no picnic either.
Yeah, you definitely went to Samford... xlolx
The Idaho offense will be suspect. Our D will be some of the best in the FCS. Mark it down.
Certainly possible scenarios for both Colgate and Lehigh. Raiders have almost entire depth chart returning. Reagardless of their tough OOC, agree they must be the odds on favorite going into the season.
Lehigh has to rebuild the offensive line and replace their best ever duo of WRs.Admittedly there is a lot of experienced players to move up in both areas.
Over the last 5 years I have oft said that D could not get any worse. I am 0-5 on that prediction. But this time I really mean it :).
I guess he hasn’t.
I could see us anywhere from 8-3 and missing the cut to challenging for another trip to Frisco. Who knows how badly we’ll disappoint this year.
Supposedly our new QB knows how to throw the ball to other players actually on our team but who knows. Lots and lots of questions for JSU this year.
Hype on our board is slowly coming back but I’ll believe the hype when we win a real game.
Hard to believe Nova isn’t mentioned before Delaware. Cats have their top offensive players returning from injury. QB, RB, TE, WR all back & all were starters. Throw in preseason CAA DPOY coming back on defense.
Its hard to fathom with what is returning for Nova that Delaware has the edge.
There are some high expectations surrounding Portland State this year, after going through the worst year in the history of the program. Last year was supposed to be building on the previous year so going winless was somewhat of a shock. Barnum did get a vote of "confidence" from the AD, but he will need to get some wins this year to keep off the hot seat. Unlike most teams mentioned, the Viks aren't looking for a conference championship this year, but if we can't get to at least .500 in conference, it may get ugly. This will be year 3 since going to the playoffs so typically this is the year to see results from that recruiting class.
Expectation for the OVC this year:
JSU breezes thru the conference season undefeated and gets an undeserved top 4 seed. Proceeds to lose its first game in the playoffs......again!
xlolxxnodx
First I'm not trying to "prove you wrong" but I was genuinely curious about Idaho's D. I'm very interested in Idaho's transition to FCS overall and will be watching them a little more closely then I would any other team nationally, especially an unranked team.
I figured, lets compare their 2017 stats to FCS level stats, although I acknowledge that is by no means a perfect metric as they are different levels, recruit types and talent, size, speed and just 22 more scholarship players.
Anyways, here are the four big defensive stats in 2017.
Passing Yards Allowed:
222.3, that would rank 70th in FCS.
Rushing D:
168.1, would rank 81st.
Scoring D:
25.8, would rank 60th.
Total D:
390.4, would rank 78th.
I would say among the best would be top 25 in every major statistical category. The Big Sky is also known on here as an "all O and no D" conference. Weber State was their best defensive team last year and still only ranked 40th in total D in 2017.
All I'll say is that Idaho clearly had a defense last year that was far superior to Lehigh's. Of course, having any defense at all pretty much qualifies you for that category.
https://static.bigskyconf.com/custom...7/confldrs.htm
http://www.espn.com/college-football...meId=400944827
http://www.espn.com/college-football...d/16/year/2017
I can only go off of one game. Sacramento St. vs. Idaho. Yes, the Hornets were on the road.
SAC ST. #1 Scoring Offense and #4 Total Offense in the BSC. In our game against them no touchdowns, 2 of 3 FGs.
Rushing Offense #4, as a team they gained 95 yards on the ground.
Passing Offense #10, again 95 yards between two QBs.
Passing Efficiency #1, 10/25 against the Vandals.
Red Zone Offense, #1, no touchdowns.
Sacramento St. ended the season at 6-2 in conference and 7-4 overall. Their losses were to Weber (OOC), EWU and Northern Arizona. They lost to the Wildcats by a touchdown and manhandled Southern Utah. The loss to the Lumberjacks is an odd one. Even in this loss, the Hornets scored two TDs and a FG. They moved the ball against every other team in the Big Sky with ease.
I love stats. I will still say, the Vandal defense will be the area that shines this fall.
I welcome all feedback.
Part of me is still frustrated how last year ended. So much talent undercut by a poaching of our coach before the first playoff game. Reading the players comments on Twitter and speaking with them you can clearly see the frustration they felt. But I guess it's part of the pitfalls of being FCS. But onto next year as they say. I think we will do better than most expect as we've come in second in conference nearly every year minus a couple of exceptions. But there is so much we need to retool if wouldn't surprise me if we had a rebuild year. Those come around every 5 or 6 years. No biggie.
Excellent points vandal. It is just one big sky team but one of the better offenses and they won 7 of 11, so not a bad team overall.
You’ll probably have a top 50 defense if I were to guess. Having two fbs games on the road with lead to higher than usual defensive stats though.
Yes, we aren't playing SJSU and Vanderbilt. I will have to take a look at the numbers based on FCS level games to truly determine how well our team is stacking up. The game against Western New Mexico will also have to be left out unless I am looking to pad our numbers.
Go Vandals.
We suck again!!!!
Doc
Hmm, sometimes I don’t know what to think when reading a Hero article. The group seems to put out an acceptable product most of the time. Sometimes they miss the mark with me, but where they placed most teams seems okay. Glad they recognize that anything less than a playoff appearance is failure for the Kats. Why Is Monmouth on the list though?
Samford's an interesting case.
In 2017, with perhaps the best team perhaps they've ever had, the Bulldogs were still were bounced in the first round (by a team they had already beaten). With a senior QB looking to set NCAA passing records in 2018, I can imagine the expectations are sky high.
With Samford, I am still interested to see if they suffer from Elon's fate after Scott Riddle graduated. The current Samford team reminds me a lot of the Elon team from 10 years ago. Both were mediocre SoCon teams before riding a transcendent long-term starter at QB running virtually identical offenses. Both teams elevated themselves to playoff contender, but developed a reputation of being soft late in the season and the post season. Elon fell off a cliff after Riddle graduated. Hopefully Samford has a better go of it.
http://govandals.com/boxscore.aspx?id=998&path=football
It should be a fun game. I hope the UND fans can make it out to the Kibbie Dome. Everyone forgets about outdoor games on the Palouse in November.
It is fair to ask that question, and I am biased, of course, but I will try to answer. In Elon's case, Riddle's senior year(6-5) was a stepdown from the previous high watermarks. Sure hope this isn't the case for Devlin this year. As for having 4 straight years of losing afterwards, like Elon, I seriously doubt it. Samford has far too much talent and fertile recruiting grounds for that. Also, Samford couldn't be considered soft late this past season, winning their last 3 SoCon games. A Devlin Hodges doesn't come along very often, and he will be missed, but NO, there will be no scenario equivalent to the Elon plunge.
I do not think there is an easy answer. From my years watching football (especially SoCon football), it is hard to replace good QBs. Especially good QBs who are probably the best player your program ever had.
Realistically, the next guy up is a good player (a D-1 QB), but he may throw balls that are not quite on target, maybe not quite as much zip, and not quite as accurate as Hodges did. Just from watching Furman play at Samford this year, the Bulldogs relied on Hodges to make a number of throws in that game Samford had no business completing. Does the next man up make those same throws to preserve a six point win? Samford has not been blowing teams off the field - they are winning gutty games based in no small part on their QB play.
One thing I find incredibly interesting is that Samford does not let any QB other than Hodges take snaps. Last season, Samford threw the ball 531 times, and all but three of those passes were by Hodges. Two were by wide receivers (the other by "team" - maybe a fumbled FG snap?). None was by a QB. In fact, I think you have to go back to October 2016 to find the last time a QB not named Devlin Hodges threw a pass for Samford.
The only justification for that I can come up with is Chris Hatcher wants Hodges to break records. If 2017 is any indication, Samford could go two years without another QB taking a live snap. I just cannot see how that is a good idea.
Former Georgia All-State QB Liam Welch is the heir apparent to Hodges. Welch was red-shirted last season, thus you didn't see a back-up. I think you will see Welch at least in some mop up action this season. At any rate, Samford will NOT have the fallout that Elon did. I imagine that losing Coach Pete Lembo was also a factor for Elon's struggles.
I think the failure to put a backup in the game is a clear decision by Hatcher to let Hodges take every snap he can. There were several games (UGA, the Citadel, VMI, ETSU) where mop up duty would have been warranted to protect a star player. The fact that not a single QB took a snap last season is a calculated decision by the coaching staff; I doubt it has much to do with the backup's status.
Again, I don't think anyone knows what is going to happen. Welch I am sure will be a good player, though GHSA Class A schools are not necessarily known for producing top flight QBs. Running backs, yes. Defensive players, yes. Passing QBs, not as much.
At bottom, they go into next season with a completely unproven commodity at QB in an offense that throws it 500+ times a season. That's not everything. It is also not nothing.
It's still NDSU to lose. They will be the front runner. Everyone else is playing for Number 2
This list is pretty arbitrary as to where he put teams. It’s based off of what teams he’s most confident will “reach their expectations” allowing a moving scale from team to team to be able to justify having teams like San Diego ranked highly for once and get people wound up.
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People sleeping on APSU? I see us as a 25-30 type team to start the year possibly higher if our offense shows up this year and we actually beat JSU. Can we win a playoff game? Probably not but the fact that we even stand a chance to make the Playoffs is a crazy thought considering where we were as a program just a few years prior.
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