Socon Review week 2

[Reign of Terrier]

El Cid upset GSU
Wofford put up John Wilkes Booth numbers over Lincoln
App beat Montana
Western lost to Marshall
Furman lost to CCU in OT
Samford beat a D2 team
Chatty lost a heartbreaker.

Discuss.

[CID1990]

Where was Chattown's dominating victory?? I was so primed for it.

Suck it, Chattown. (though I feel for UTC... I like to see the SoCon win those OOC games)

[Squealofthepig]

App State/Montana was pretty much a classic - love to see these two teams play, even if we lost this one.

The Citadel win is the big news for me - very curious to hear Citdog's take on the game, as I haven't seen anything other than a box score. Is The Citadel that improved, or is GSU suddenly not the 500 pound gorilla I thought they were?

Furman losing guarantees that FurmanWins posts 500 fewer videos per week.

What this really says to me is that suddenly Citadel's trip to The Rock is next week's game of the week for me.

[Smitty]

Where was Chattown's dominating victory?? I was so primed for it.

Suck it, Chattown. (though I feel for UTC... I like to see the SoCon win those OOC games)

With all the crap that comes spewing from his mouth I don't really care...

Western (while still playing) hung in there for the first 1.5 quarters but just got beat all around. Still hard to figure out what we exactly have.

[theasushow]

Furman and UTC are both diggin a hole....a really deep one.

[CID1990]

App State/Montana was pretty much a classic - love to see these two teams play, even if we lost this one.

The Citadel win is the big news for me - very curious to hear Citdog's take on the game, as I haven't seen anything other than a box score. Is The Citadel that improved, or is GSU suddenly not the 500 pound gorilla I thought they were?

Furman losing guarantees that FurmanWins posts 500 fewer videos per week.

What this really says to me is that suddenly Citadel's trip to The Rock is next week's game of the week for me.

We have improved steadily each year since going back to the option. We knew we would be able to win the close ones this year that escaped us last year.

BUT

We are still not quite there yet. Our run defense is significantly better than our defense against a balanced team like App State. We seem to always play up to GSUs level, and to be honest, they played a sloppy 1st quarter, and we capitalized on it (another improvement... last year we had a hard time making opponents pay for their mistakes).

TBH I haven't looked at the schedule yet, but if Wofford plays any SoCon team not named Elon or WCU, that would be my game of the week.

I'll still take an upset in Boone, though. We can do it, but we need to improve significantly this week. Not impossible, considering our defensive improvements from last week to this week, but before looking back at our film and before looking at the ASU-Montana film, my prediction would have to be along the lines of ASU 31 The Citadel 20.

[whoanellie]

guess We will not discuss an Elon win 34-14 over NCCU
as it was not listed in your recaps


El Cid upset GSU
Wofford put up John Wilkes Booth numbers over Lincoln
App beat Montana
Western lost to Marshall
Furman lost to CCU in OT
Samford beat a D2 team
Chatty lost a heartbreaker.

Discuss.

[WataugaDave]

So glad to see Appalachian take down the Grizz! It was a hell of an awesome game.

You should have heard the cheers in the stadium when they announced The Citadel over Georgia Southern. I think I have somewhat of an idea of how Ohio State fans felt after App beat Michigan. But there's some trepidation too, since we play them next week.

[CID1990]

guess We will not discuss an Elon win 34-14 over NCCU
as it was not listed in your recaps

Hmm. I predicted a loss there, Elon looked so hapless against UNC. Congrats on the win!

Maybe Elon just got overwhelmed and made some midweek adjustments.

[Gringer1]

GSU just didn't know what to do on offense. The QB was making his first start against a scholarship team and his rawness really showed. Fumbles, bad pitches, poor decisions, all really hampered the offensive production. Citadel only got touchdowns off of 2 GSU turnovers in their own territory early on. Basically, the Eagles' offense just isn't ready yet. Lots of Eagles fans have been talking about speed and whatnot for a while, but the guys don't know which way to run right now. If GSU can get the passing game going and clean up the pitches from the QB, the offense could really knock people over. As it stands right now, they might not be ready to bowl anyone over on offense for a while.

[WataugaDave]

Elon looked so hapless against UNC.
Meanwhile, despite UNC's blowout and Wake's near loss to Liberty, Wake Forest came out on top over UNC.

Some strange magic took place there.

[apaladin]

FU lost senior QB Dakota Derrick very late in the first half. A true freshman, Reese Hannon came in and mostly in the fourth quarter and the 3 OT's went 22-35 for 255 yds and 4 touchdowns. He was also 5-5 on fourth down conversions. He apparently threw a game winning 25 yd TD with 40 seconds left. The prevent you from winning defense let CCU go 50 yds in 2 plays and kick a game tying 45 yd FG. The 3 OT's were just unbelievable. FU scored on the first play twice. CCU did almost the same. When they went to having to go for 2 CCU got theres and FU didn't on a really bad play call. Final 47-45 3OT's. Furman if nothing else found a QB tonight.

[Reign of Terrier]

guess We will not discuss an Elon win 34-14 over NCCU
as it was not listed in your recaps

****, I knew I forgot someone

[Eaglesrus]

.......The Citadel win is the big news for me - very curious to hear Citdog's take on the game, as I haven't seen anything other than a box score. Is The Citadel that improved, or is GSU suddenly not the 500 pound gorilla I thought they were?.........


We have improved steadily each year since going back to the option. We knew we would be able to win the close ones this year that escaped us last year.

BUT

We are still not quite there yet. Our run defense is significantly better than our defense against a balanced team like App State. We seem to always play up to GSUs level, and to be honest, they played a sloppy 1st quarter, and we capitalized on it (another improvement... last year we had a hard time making opponents pay for their mistakes).

TBH I haven't looked at the schedule yet, but if Wofford plays any SoCon team not named Elon or WCU, that would be my game of the week.

I'll still take an upset in Boone, though. We can do it, but we need to improve significantly this week. Not impossible, considering our defensive improvements from last week to this week, but before looking back at our film and before looking at the ASU-Montana film, my prediction would have to be along the lines of ASU 31 The Citadel 20.

Not to take anything away from The Citadel, they definitely deserved the win, but we are definitely not a 500 pound gorilla. Unless we make marked improvement very quickly I'd consider us the underdog in at least 5 of our 9 remaining games.

I was particularly impressed with The Citadel's QB and their defense, though as CID1990 sort of points out, we didn't get to see them defend against the pass much.

Congratulations to the Bulldogs.

[PaladinFan]

Not to take anything away from The Citadel, they definitely deserved the win, but we are definitely not a 500 pound gorilla. Unless we make marked improvement very quickly I'd consider us the underdog in at least 5 of our 9 remaining games.

I was particularly impressed with The Citadel's QB and their defense, though as CID1990 sort of points out, we didn't get to see them defend against the pass much.

Congratulations to the Bulldogs.

GSU and Furman have the same problem. Talent on the roster and a defense that will keep them in games, but trying to figure out how to replace two good quarterbacks.

[T-Dog]

Meanwhile, despite UNC's blowout and Wake's near loss to Liberty, Wake Forest came out on top over UNC.

Some strange magic took place there.

Attendance
Montana @ App St - 30,856
North Carolina @ Wake Forest - 29,526

[eaglewraith]

GSU and Furman have the same problem. Talent on the roster and a defense that will keep them in games, but trying to figure out how to replace two good quarterbacks.

We played like ****, but we still played "good enough" to win. The refs really inserted themselves into the game on that Cit 4th down right after we scored to go up. We had dropped them on short to no gains on the first 3 downs, then that was way overthrown out of bounds and they get a PI to keep the drive alive. Awful, awful call...but what else should I expect from the Socon. They did a poor job of running the clock all night too.

All that being said, if we could kick a ****ing FG this wouldn't be an issue. We left 6 points on the field with everything all said and done.

[CID1990]

Not to take anything away from The Citadel, they definitely deserved the win, but we are definitely not a 500 pound gorilla. Unless we make marked improvement very quickly I'd consider us the underdog in at least 5 of our 9 remaining games.

I was particularly impressed with The Citadel's QB and their defense, though as CID1990 sort of points out, we didn't get to see them defend against the pass much.

Congratulations to the Bulldogs.

Which QB? We played both against you guys. Dupree is the starter, but Miller played in the second half and he's the guy who completed the passes on the last drive. I think he should be the starter, but Coach Higgins disagrees with me.

Ironically, Miller was the QB last year who got us into FG range at the end of the game in Statesboro ( using the same receiver, too) when we missed it. He's definitely a clutch player.

[ElCid]

Attendance
Montana @ App St - 30,856
North Carolina @ Wake Forest - 29,526

Impressive. I was surprised that we only had 12,299 for Ga So, but unfortuneatly Citadel has always suffered a little from fair weather fans. Maybe this win will spark an increase next home game.

[apaladin]

GSU and Furman have the same problem. Talent on the roster and a defense that will keep them in games, but trying to figure out how to replace two good quarterbacks.

I believe that problem has been solved at Furman. True freshman Reese Hannon!!

[ElCid]

Which QB? We played both against you guys. Dupree is the starter, but Miller played in the second half and he's the guy who completed the passes on the last drive. I think he should be the starter, but Coach Higgins disagrees with me.

Ironically, Miller was the QB last year who got us into FG range at the end of the game in Statesboro ( using the same receiver, too) when we missed it. He's definitely a clutch player.

I think Miller is by far the better passer and probably the better overall athlete. Not sure how their speed matches up but Dupree looks faster. I think Dupree does has a better brain for executing the option. I think his reads are better than Miller's. Plus Dupree's height is not helping in the pass department. I actually like the rotation thing going on. Either way, it might be worth a try to start Miller to at least see how it goes. Not sure that will happen unless Dupree gets in a rut.

[Eaglesrus]

App State/Montana was pretty much a classic - love to see these two teams play, even if we lost this one.

The Citadel win is the big news for me - very curious to hear Citdog's take on the game, as I haven't seen anything other than a box score. Is The Citadel that improved, or is GSU suddenly not the 500 pound gorilla I thought they were?

Furman losing guarantees that FurmanWins posts 500 fewer videos per week.

What this really says to me is that suddenly Citadel's trip to The Rock is next week's game of the week for me.


Which QB? We played both against you guys. Dupree is the starter, but Miller played in the second half and he's the guy who completed the passes on the last drive. I think he should be the starter, but Coach Higgins disagrees with me.

Ironically, Miller was the QB last year who got us into FG range at the end of the game in Statesboro ( using the same receiver, too) when we missed it. He's definitely a clutch player.

Miller without question for me, but then that's based on very limited observation, of course.

[utcfan]

Furman and UTC are both diggin a hole....a really deep one.

Can't speak for FU, but Mocs sure have. With Presby having to back out of our game with them, Mocs have D2 coming up..Leaves 8 FCS opponents......at 0-1 vs FCS not much room for error.......1 week to get our crap together before ASU comes to town.

[LehighU11]

Wofford should be ashamed for scheduling Lincoln. They've played out of a high school stadium the past few years, and have not much more talent than some of the ChesMont League high school teams that visit there. I expect more out of a team of Wofford's stature.

[Reign of Terrier]

Wofford should be ashamed for scheduling Lincoln. They've played out of a high school stadium the past few years, and have not much more talent than some of the ChesMont League high school teams that visit there. I expect more out of a team of Wofford's stature.

Wofford scheduling terrible OOC is nothing new. We'd all rather play an Ivy/patriot/another Big South as opposed to the D2 and NAIA.

[Squealofthepig]

Wofford scheduling terrible OOC is nothing new. We'd all rather play an Ivy/patriot/another Big South as opposed to the D2 and NAIA.

Have you guys ever played an Ivy team? Going back to when you join the SoCon I didn't see a single Ivy (which, honestly, I would love to see - it would be much easier to gauge how good the top tier Ivy league teams are (see trying to get a feel for Penn two years ago).

I'm not sure most other FCS teams want to see Woff on their schedule - this is a team that historically has been able to play with the big boys (see several very competitive ten-points-or-fewer losses to SEC teams over the last decade).

[Reign of Terrier]

Have you guys ever played an Ivy team? Going back to when you join the SoCon I didn't see a single Ivy (which, honestly, I would love to see - it would be much easier to gauge how good the top tier Ivy league teams are (see trying to get a feel for Penn two years ago).

I'm not sure most other FCS teams want to see Woff on their schedule - this is a team that historically has been able to play with the big boys (see several very competitive ten-points-or-fewer losses to SEC teams over the last decade).

I think we have, just not recently....but I dunno

[Squealofthepig]

I think we have, just not recently....but I dunno

I'll check into it. And shouldn't you be asleep? Don't you have school tomorrow? *heh*

[MTfan4life]

I'll check into it. And shouldn't you be asleep? Don't you have school tomorrow? *heh*

Since joining the SoCon, Wofford has mainly played Gardner-Webb and Charleston Southern for non-con FCS games. They've also played Lehigh, VMI, and Coastal a couple times, and one or two MEAC games. Nothing in the Ivy though.

[seantaylor]

Just a terrible loss. Hate it. Fking depressed. That field judge should never be employed in another college game, but what can you do.

[Gringer1]

The field judge didn't make us fumble 8 times.

[seantaylor]

The field judge didn't make us fumble 8 times.

Didn't say he did. Shouldn't have come to that, but that is call that will go down in infamy.

[CID1990]

Just a terrible loss. Hate it. Fking depressed. That field judge should never be employed in another college game, but what can you do.

You know, whenever you have said anything about The Citadel's football team it has always been derogatory. You should man up and not blame the refs. They missed quite a few neutral zone violations by your DL in that same drive.

Plus, looking at the film of the PI call, it could go either way as to whether the ball was catchable, but even if it wasn't, your DB held the receiver. There was a penalty on that play no matter what.

Nobody here cares about the depression of such an arrogant homer.

[PaladinFan]

You know, whenever you have said anything about The Citadel's football team it has always been derogatory. You should man up and not blame the refs. They missed quite a few neutral zone violations by your DL in that same drive.

Plus, looking at the film of the PI call, it could go either way as to whether the ball was catchable, but even if it wasn't, your DB held the receiver. There was a penalty on that play no matter what.

Nobody here cares about the depression of such an arrogant homer.

I have rarely (maybe never) seen GSU lose where some of their fans didn't blame the stripes.

The Citadel nearly upended GSU last year, and then pulled off the feat this year. This game is not a shocker. GSU lost their bell cow in Jaybo Shaw and the Citadel has only gotten better. Johnson Haygood is no easy venue to win a football game, regardless of your ranking.

[eaglewraith]

You know, whenever you have said anything about The Citadel's football team it has always been derogatory. You should man up and not blame the refs. They missed quite a few neutral zone violations by your DL in that same drive.

Plus, looking at the film of the PI call, it could go either way as to whether the ball was catchable, but even if it wasn't, your DB held the receiver. There was a penalty on that play no matter what.

Nobody here cares about the depression of such an arrogant homer.

If the ref had called defensive holding, I have less of an issue with that. Ball being catchable doesn't matter in that case. I wouldn't have been happy, but I really wouldn't have an argument. The ruling of PI opens the door to scrutiny however.

Apparently I missed this during the game, but our starting center got hurt sometime in the second quarter and didn't come back in until late. That makes a little more sense as to why our inside running all of a sudden got shut down. That's a tough position to experience a drop in.

I have no problem admitting Citadel played us tough, but I'm extremely frustrated because we didn't play like we should have. From the first snap on offense I knew somethign looked "off." I hate having that feeling when I watch us play. The last time I felt like that was the NDSU game and we all see how that went.

[The Eagle's Cliff]

Great Wins for App and Citadel to set up next week's game at The Rock. It'll be interesting to see the outcome of this game, but I expect App to win convincingly.

Wofford and Samford had the week off.

Chattanooga and Furman lost games they should've won and Western is Western.

Chatty will get to win a game Thursday before dropping two to App St and Citadel to set up their 1-4 showdown with a 2-4 Furman squad on Oct 13.

Elon also gets a win against DII WV State before dropping three in a row to GSU, Wofford, and App.

Samford will be 4-0 when they travel to GSU on the last Saturday of September.

Wofford will likely be 5-0 when they travel to Paulson Oct 6.

Western will be 1-10 on the season, but may eek out a win at Elon Oct 20 to make it 2-9.

[eaglewraith]

I have rarely (maybe never) seen GSU lose where some of their fans didn't blame the stripes.

Well it wouldn't be such a big deal if Socon refs weren't just terrible.

[Smitty]

Western will be 1-10 on the season, but may eek out a win at Elon Oct 20 to make it 2-9.

Hopefully against Elon, and maybe 1 more upset win

[ASUMountaineer]

You know, whenever you have said anything about The Citadel's football team it has always been derogatory. You should man up and not blame the refs. They missed quite a few neutral zone violations by your DL in that same drive.

Plus, looking at the film of the PI call, it could go either way as to whether the ball was catchable, but even if it wasn't, your DB held the receiver. There was a penalty on that play no matter what.

Nobody here cares about the depression of such an arrogant homer.

That's seantaylor's MO. Remember the meltdown last year after the GSU-ASU game?

[ASUMountaineer]

I have rarely (maybe never) seen GSU lose where some of their fans didn't blame the stripes.

The Citadel nearly upended GSU last year, and then pulled off the feat this year. This game is not a shocker. GSU lost their bell cow in Jaybo Shaw and the Citadel has only gotten better. Johnson Haygood is no easy venue to win a football game, regardless of your ranking.

According to several GSU fans, before the season, they weren't going to miss Jaybo because he was slow and "just not that good."

As to blaming the refs, it's annoying. Calls are missed and screwed up in every game. Hell, ASU went the entire SoCon season last year without ever having offensive holding called on a SoCon opponent--playing three TO teams. The refs didn't cause ASU to lose at WoCo, FUrman, and against Nova...ASU did that.

[eaglewraith]

According to several GSU fans, before the season, they weren't going to miss Jaybo because he was slow and "just not that good."


I think you're applying one poster to the rest of us.

[seantaylor]

I have rarely (maybe never) seen GSU lose where some of their fans didn't blame the stripes.

The Citadel nearly upended GSU last year, and then pulled off the feat this year. This game is not a shocker. GSU lost their bell cow in Jaybo Shaw and the Citadel has only gotten better. Johnson Haygood is no easy venue to win a football game, regardless of your ranking.

LOL. Jaybo dominated Citadel in Paulson last year.

[MTfan4life]

LOL. Jaybo dominated Citadel in Paulson last year.

Where at in this box score is this "domination?"

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/boxscore?gid=201111050175

[CID1990]

LOL. Jaybo dominated Citadel in Paulson last year.

Heh.

Domination means the losing team is not within a field goal on your home field, Homer.

[GunsAndGuitars]

Where at in this box score is this "domination?"

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/boxscore?gid=201111050175

Can't you read? It clearly says "Jaybo Shaw 7-MINUS 13" in rushing and "Jaybo Shaw 4-7-129- 1" xrotatehx

[ASUMountaineer]

I think you're applying one poster to the rest of us.

Well, I did say "several" and not "all." xlolx

[The Eagle's Cliff]

I'm not sure why this conversation is even taking place. Jaybo was talented, experienced and smart with the ball. Izzy and Jerrick are talented, inexperienced, and not-as-smart-as-Jaybo with the ball - yet.

Izzy and Jerrick are capable of "taking it to the house" any time a la Jayson Foster, but it'll take more development to be the QB Jaybo was. Fortunately, Izzy Youyute is just a sophomore and Jerrick McKinnon a junior. We also have Matt Dobson, true freshman, who shows signs already of being like Jaybo, but more athletic.

The Citadel outplayed Georgia Southern and deserved to win. The Citadel will present challenges to everyone on their schedule, but lacks the depth to be a serious contender. Georgia Southern is rich in talent, but inexperienced. As a fan, every loss is tough. If I'm optimistic, I see that Georgia Southern played a horrible football game, but still had a chance to win. I'm not sure how many teams can fumble 8 times, miss two field goals, kickoff out of bounds twice and still only lose to a last minute field goal.

[Reign of Terrier]

Could it be possible that GSU has its first slump in the Jeff Monken era? Don't get me wrong, I'm not predicting, just spit-ballin. GSU is in year 3 of its return to the flexbone, loses some really talented players on defense, loses its very much experienced QB as well as some offensive linemen.

perhaps I'm just making something out of nothing, but is it possible that GSU is at an empass where offensively they have talent (on the OL) but not necessarily experience? In other words, how often did the starting OL play in the last couple of years? At Wofford, our OL don't generally see the playing field as starters until their 3rd year on campus. In a relatively new system, I think it's possible for something like to occur within the first 4 years of the new staff, especially in the triple option. Look at Georgia Tech and the fast start they got to their first 2 years and seemingly they ran into a road-block their third year, going 6-7.

I think GSU definitely has talent, especially at DL and the skill position, to keep them in games this year and even whip people pretty badly. With that said, it wouldn't surprise me if they went something like 7-4 or 8-3, because of the inexperience at QB and the OL. It also wouldn't surprise me if they win the conference title. I just think the progression and the performance of the OL/QB is something to watch this season. GSU lost a lot in the last couple of years, between a QB that knew the system, a very good D-coordinator (if I'm not mistaken, you may have to check me on that), and some very good players on defense. They return a lot of players too, but the few they did lose were very impact-ful. There's a chance that this year could be a down year in comparison to the last 2 years, but GSU's off years are probably going to be good enough to with AT LEAST 5 or 6 games in conference.

[blueballs]

I think GSU definitely has talent, especially at DL and the skill position, to keep them in games this year and even whip people pretty badly. With that said, it wouldn't surprise me if they went something like 7-4 or 8-3, because of the inexperience at QB and the OL. It also wouldn't surprise me if they win the conference title. I just think the progression and the performance of the OL/QB is something to watch this season. GSU lost a lot in the last couple of years, between a QB that knew the system, a very good D-coordinator (if I'm not mistaken, you may have to check me on that), and some very good players on defense. They return a lot of players too, but the few they did lose were very impact-ful. There's a chance that this year could be a down year in comparison to the last 2 years, but GSU's off years are probably going to be good enough to with AT LEAST 5 or 6 games in conference.

I think that is a great observation and I agree with it 100%....

This bunch has a lot in common with the 2002 team IMO... that bunch graduated the great class of 2001 and started out 1-2 with losses at UD and Wofford at home in an UGLY game before reeling off 10 in a row and losing a heartbreaker to WKU in the semis. The 2002 team looked dead in the water offensively and something clicked with Chaz Williams in the fourth game at WCU and he went on to be conference POTY. It wouldn't surprise me if history repeated itself but as of this minute that is a LONG way off.

[PaladinNation]

I think most of us knew that Furman could start the season 0-3 as well as 2-1. Furman has struggled to find it's offense, as well as the defense has given up the big play. But, this is going to be a team that I don't think APP and The Citadel will find easy at the end of the season. With a true freshman QB and 16 other freshmen all over the depth chart. we're building for the future. I'm not giving up on this season, if it's going to be anything like last Saturday it's going to be a crazy season. But, Furman has new life as a program, Fowler is changing the attitude, he's getting in his type of players (guys that are football players),
and finally a stadium to compete with the rest of the SoCon as well as the rest of FCS.

[PaladinFan]

I think most of us knew that Furman could start the season 0-3 as well as 2-1. Furman has struggled to find it's offense, as well as the defense has given up the big play. But, this is going to be a team that I don't think APP and The Citadel will find easy at the end of the season. With a true freshman QB and 16 other freshmen all over the depth chart. we're building for the future. I'm not giving up on this season, if it's going to be anything like last Saturday it's going to be a crazy season. But, Furman has new life as a program, Fowler is changing the attitude, he's getting in his type of players (guys that are football players),
and finally a stadium to compete with the rest of the SoCon as well as the rest of FCS.

Have not seen the team live yet, but watched the Coastal highlights and the team looks as big and strong as I can remember seeing since the mid-2000s. I think they will still win a good number of games, and I believe they will give run-first teams fits with their athletic front four.

I'm not totally worried yet. Furman lost to these two teams last year and held their playoff fate in their hands. Is it annoying? Yes. Do I feel like Furman coughed away two winnable games? Yes. Is it the end of the world? No.

[PaladinFan]

I think that is a great observation and I agree with it 100%....

This bunch has a lot in common with the 2002 team IMO... that bunch graduated the great class of 2001 and started out 1-2 with losses at UD and Wofford at home in an UGLY game before reeling off 10 in a row and losing a heartbreaker to WKU in the semis. The 2002 team looked dead in the water offensively and something clicked with Chaz Williams in the fourth game at WCU and he went on to be conference POTY. It wouldn't surprise me if history repeated itself but as of this minute that is a LONG way off.

I may be overestimating Furman and GSU, but I would certainly rather see those teams early in the season before they find their sea legs. Both of those programs have talent, and will make life tough on opponents once they tighten up.