Biggest Surprise/disappointment so far?

[Milktruck74]

2/3 tht way through the season, things are starting to hash out......so, In your conference, which team is the biggest surprise? and which team is the biggest disappointment?

There shouldn't be too much argument for the SoCon's biggest Surprise..... The Citadel comes in ranked 7 of 8 and runs right through their schedule in convincing fashion, they have a great shot at making the playoffs...and possibly with the auto-bid.

There could be some discussion about the disappointment with Mercer yet to win a SoCon game, or a struggling Samford (especially after their handling of UCA early), but I think the biggest let down goes to Furman. They had a FBS win (albeit a weak team), and still sit at 3-4, maybe they turn things around and win out to get to 7-4, but I think things are not well in Purpleville.

[CID1990]

The Citadel is probably the biggest surprise even to us El Cid fans, but we did know that we were much better than the preseason picks (which are never given much thought anyway). I am surprised that we are currently 4-0 going into the last 3 games. I would have guessed 3-1 at this point, with a likely finish of 5-2. That could still happen, BTW.

[superman7515]

New Hampsha actually falling out of the Top 25, and most likely, not making the playoffs for the first time since The Cat In The Hat with Mike Myers and Dakota Fanning was the #1 movie in theaters and Beyonce & Sean Paul had the #1 song with Baby Boy.

[bonarae]

Biggest Surprises:
1. Portland State - upset 2 FBS (1 middle of the pack and 1 cellar dweller) but just got lucky in some BSC games, except for UND.
2. Dartmouth (how did they get lucky despite all of the bad luck thrown at them e.g. penalties is quite beyond my comprehension) - my pick for the Ivies' biggest surprise. They have had improved steadily in the past 4-5 years but look at where they are now... Columbia a close second though. (They finally broke a long losing streak a few weeks ago and came close to winning since then)
3. The Citadel - see reasons above
4. Dayton - although not much of a surprise, is this squad, pending the result of the JU game, worth game film-watching for potential playoff opponents? xchinscratchx
5. Kennesaw State - we never expected the Owls to come up big against ETSU in their very first CFB game, but look where they are now, they have already upset a once-playoff contender in the Flames... what's next for this squad?

Disappointments:
1. Cornell - still winless and they always lose big in games.
2. UNI
3. Liberty
4. ETSU - words can't describe how feeble this team is, especially during second halves of games. xsmhx

[Catsfan90]

New Hampsha actually falling out of the Top 25, and most likely, not making the playoffs for the first time since The Cat In The Hat with Mike Myers and Dakota Fanning was the #1 movie in theaters and Beyonce & Sean Paul had the #1 song with Baby Boy.
Agreed here.

[Gangtackle11]

Villanova has to be up there on the disappointment side. Preseason Top 3/4 now 3-4.

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[DFW HOYA]

Lafayette is not the dumpster fire some have claimed, but injuries have certainly taken its toll. Would be a top-three team in the PL if healthy.

[bostonspider]

I would think UR has been a bit of a surprise in the CAA, picked 5th in the conference, and still undefeated at the moment. I think for disappointment you do sadly have to go with either VU or UNH. VU is tough, because it is due more to injuries, but UNH is more of a disappointing surprise to me..

[Catsfan90]

VU is a huge disappointment because they were picked as possible NC contendors. Now I'm not sure they will even make the playoffs.

[tomq04]

Portland State should be the top of everyone's surprise list!

No reason not to be cheering for them this season...lord knows they need fans.

[Catsfan90]

Portland State should be the top of everyone's surprise list!

No reason not to be cheering for them this season...lord knows they need fans.
I honestly knew nothing about them until they beat Wazzu. Now they have been on my radar since! Huge surprise.

[FUBeAR]

Biggest Surprises:
5. Kennesaw State - we never expected the Owls to come up big against ETSU in their very first CFB game, but look where they are now, they have already upset a once-playoff contender in the Flames... what's next for this squad?

Were the Liberty Flames more "upset" because they only won by 10 points or because they only led by 3 scores for most of the game?

[Grizalltheway]

Portland State should be the top of everyone's surprise list!

No reason not to be cheering for them this season...lord knows they need fans.

Idaho State is easily the biggest disappointment. Picked to finish 6th and they're fighting it out with UC Davis in the cellar...

[Catsfan90]

Were the Liberty Flames more "upset" because they only won by 10 points or because they only led by 3 scores for most of the game?
I don't really see it as a upset if they didn't win. Congrats to them for keeping it close! But still doesn't make it an upset.

[superman7515]

VU is a huge disappointment because they were picked as possible NC contendors. Now I'm not sure they will even make the playoffs.

I don't really consider a team that falls due to injury to be a disappointment. Sure, it sucks to be them and they had high expectations, by in my eyes, there's a big delineation between a team that had star quality quarterbacks go down and teams that just flat out under-produced. To me, Villanova (and James Madison if things go off the tracks) isn't a disappointment from a performance point of view. I would say Cal Poly has been a disappointment, Stony Brook, Stephen F Austin, New Hampshire as I mentioned before, Liberty, maybe even Montana to an extent of where we expected them to be (especially after the NDSU game).

[Mattymc727]

UNH's fall from the semi-finals is a bit shocking more than puzzling. They did lose quite a bit of firepower on offense since last year, but we had no idea there was a gaping hole behind that. Its also pretty clear that Goldrich was never an elite QB in the FCS, or for UNH standards, but was propped up by the talent around him. Now that the talent is gone, he is there and hasnt done a damn thing but get hurt and throw interceptions. The defense was great last year, but seems to have taken a step back, probably because of a few losses on the defensive line.

Some fans are also blaming the coaching, but I think the lame play calling and decision making is based on the fact that the UNH offense actually STINKS for the first time in a long time. Not much can be done about play calling when the personnel out there cant run the basic stuff. The defense can keep us in games, but until UNH can figure it out on offense we arent getting back to the playoffs.

There seems to be some nice young talent on the roster that is getting some good PT this season. That coupled with the growth of the program around the field is a good indicator the drop in play is short lived.

Hard to imagine a team that was in the semifinals in 2014 that returns its starting QB the next year is 3-4, but that goes to show you how good last years senior class actually was IMO.

[Mattymc727]

I am also shocked by SBU too. They made UNH look putrid (which they might) and I got the feeling they would compete for the CAA after that one. Then they took a nosedive.

[eiu1999]

EKU is a very solid team, better than what I thought they would be. I see them knocking of JSU on Sat.

JSU taking Auburn to OT.

EIU honestly isn't as bad as I thought, still pretty flawed, but the offense is coming around.

[Catsfan90]

I don't really consider a team that falls due to injury to be a disappointment. Sure, it sucks to be them and they had high expectations, by in my eyes, there's a big delineation between a team that had star quality quarterbacks go down and teams that just flat out under-produced. To me, Villanova (and James Madison if things go off the tracks) isn't a disappointment from a performance point of view. I would say Cal Poly has been a disappointment, Stony Brook, Stephen F Austin, New Hampshire as I mentioned before, Liberty, maybe even Montana to an extent of where we expected them to be (especially after the NDSU game).
I don't consider them a disappointment on performance necessarily. But at the same time, if a team drops off that much because of an injury to one player there is a deeper issue.

The same argument was brought up last year when VU lost to SHSU, that VU would have won had Robertson went down. If they can't win without him. Than there is something wrong. After their backups performance against W&M I thought they would be okay. But then losing Penn and Towson? Granted they beat Albany, but that are horrible this year.

[rokamortis]

For the Big South, I'm disappointed that Coastal isn't playing better. Liberty had a disappointing start for sure and is trying to win out to get to 7-4. Charleston Southern is looking surprisingly strong so far.

[2ram]

biggest disappointment: how ****ty the PL turned out to be.
biggest surprise: villanova going 3-4.

[BlackNGoldR3v0lut10n]

Disappointments:
1. Cornell - still winless and they always lose big in games.
2. UNI
3. Liberty
4. ETSU - words can't describe how feeble this team is, especially during second halves of games. xsmhx

This is exactly what happens when you hire someone who has never been a head coach in 14 years who turns around and builds the football team very poorly. Any questions?

[CSU18]

Biggest surprise to me is the fact that NDSU has actually lost some games.

Other than that, The Citadel has surprised me. After beating them for the 3rd straight year, I didn't expect much out of them the rest of the season (sorry....had to throw that little jab in there). Honestly it's good to see because it only helps Charleston Southern's resume.

[Catsfan90]

Biggest surprise to me is the fact that NDSU has actually lost some games.

Other than that, The Citadel has surprised me. After beating them for the 3rd straight year, I didn't expect much out of them the rest of the season (sorry....had to throw that little jab in there). Honestly it's good to see because it only helps Charleston Southern's resume.
Same here. Who ever saw their loss to USD coming? Especially in the Dome.

[Catsfan90]

I am also shocked by SBU too. They made UNH look putrid (which they might) and I got the feeling they would compete for the CAA after that one. Then they took a nosedive.
This. Against UNH SBU looked like the next big thing. I was hoping they would be IOT make our loss not so bad.

[Ivytalk]

Biggest Surprises:
1. Portland State - upset 2 FBS (1 middle of the pack and 1 cellar dweller) but just got lucky in some BSC games, except for UND.
2. Dartmouth (how did they get lucky despite all of the bad luck thrown at them e.g. penalties is quite beyond my comprehension) - my pick for the Ivies' biggest surprise. They have had improved steadily in the past 4-5 years but look at where they are now... Columbia a close second though. (They finally broke a long losing streak a few weeks ago and came close to winning since then)
3. The Citadel - see reasons above
4. Dayton - although not much of a surprise, is this squad, pending the result of the JU game, worth game film-watching for potential playoff opponents? xchinscratchx
5. Kennesaw State - we never expected the Owls to come up big against ETSU in their very first CFB game, but look where they are now, they have already upset a once-playoff contender in the Flames... what's next for this squad?

Disappointments:
1. Cornell - still winless and they always lose big in games.
2. UNI
3. Liberty
4. ETSU - words can't describe how feeble this team is, especially during second halves of games. xsmhx

Dartmouth is no surprise. Virtually every Ivy fan expected the Big Green to duke it out with Harvard for the title this year, given what they did last year and what they had coming back.

Penn may be my "upside" Ivy surprise, particularly if they beat Brown and Princeton and head into the Harvard game with 1 league loss.

Yale is my "downside" Ivy surprise this year, but injuries have had something to do with that.

[Go Lehigh TU owl]

Biggest Surprises...so far...
1. Portland State
2. The OVC
3. The Ivy League

Biggest Disappointments...so far...
1. Liberty
2. Youngstown State
3. The Patriot League

[IBleedYellow]

Same here. Who ever saw their loss to USD coming? Especially in the Dome.

A few of us thought it was a chance halfway through the first half. No one picked it before the game other than that one amazing Nostradamus poster.

NDSU rarely loses on the road, in their past four Championship years they lost more in the Dome vs on the Road more.

[centennial]

Biggest surprise to me is the fact that NDSU has actually lost some games.

Other than that, The Citadel has surprised me. After beating them for the 3rd straight year, I didn't expect much out of them the rest of the season (sorry....had to throw that little jab in there). Honestly it's good to see because it only helps Charleston Southern's resume.


Same here. Who ever saw their loss to USD coming? Especially in the Dome.
None of the fans saw that coming as well. I would chalk it down to a few things-
- USD actually has improved, and played a great game
- Carson was injured so didn't throw that much in the 2nd half
- Hubris- NDSU was cruising, what do we do? We start experimenting, and running the ball when USD is stacking the box. It was a dose of run, run, throw, punt multiple times. Our OC is so hot and cold, the majority of the fans don't know what to make of him. Plus we have gone away from what made us good, and now are running some NIU-NDSU hybrid scheme. Our OC came from NIU.

[BisonTru]

Biggest Surprises...so far...
1. Portland State
2. The OVC
3. The Ivy League

Biggest Disappointments...so far...
1. Liberty
2. Youngstown State
3. The Patriot League

What surprised you about the OVC? Most people thought JSU was top 10. EKU looked like a return trip to the playoffs. SEMO beat SIU, I guess that's a little surprising.

[Go Lehigh TU owl]

What surprised you about the OVC? Most people thought JSU was top 10. EKU looked like a return trip to the playoffs. SEMO beat SIU, I guess that's a little surprising.

That they have two teams capable of winning the title this year. EKU has been solid recently but haven't been able to take it to the next level. This year they seam to be a legit threat. Their game against Jacksonville State this weekend is one of the must sees.

It wasn't long ago the OVC couldn't win a playoff game.

[Daytripper]

Southland:

No real surprise teams. Thought Lamar might have something after show up against Baylor and beating Sam, but they turned into Lamar.

The huge conference disappointment is SFA. The SELA win in Hammond proves that they are better than their record indicates. They lost so many close games that if they got a few friendly bounces they could be in contention.

Abilene Christian is the other disappointment.

[BisonTru]

That they have two teams capable of winning the title this year. EKU has been solid recently but haven't been able to take it to the next level. This year they seam to be a legit threat. Their game against Jacksonville State this weekend is one of the must sees.

It wasn't long ago the OVC couldn't win a playoff game.

Yeah, that was last year, 0-2 in the playoffs.

I would be absolutely shocked if EKU took the title, and I wouldn't be that surprised if JSU makes an early exit.

Time will tell, if they both make deep runs in the playoffs, I'll be in the surprised camp.

[UNIFanSince1983]

That they have two teams capable of winning the title this year. EKU has been solid recently but haven't been able to take it to the next level. This year they seam to be a legit threat. Their game against Jacksonville State this weekend is one of the must sees.

It wasn't long ago the OVC couldn't win a playoff game.

So went back to 2007 and the OVC has 3 playoff wins since then. All of them were in 2013. So until they prove otherwise it is hard to say they are a contender.

[Catamount87]

My vote for biggest SoCon Surprise - The Citadel. No one really expected much out of them. Everyone knew they were well coached but most thought they were still missing a few pieces.

The SoCon's biggest disappointment - Well for me, it's a three way tie right now. Furman seemed poised to get back to the winning ways but has been Dr Jekyl/Mr Hyde like. Wofford has always been solid but seems like they are on a slow decline now. Then there's Samford, so much promise at the beginning of the year. Do they have a defensive coordinator? If so, has he been drinking on the job?

[KPSUL]

UNH is a minor disappointment, no where near the biggest. They just had too many 2-3 year starters graduate to have huge expectations for 2015: both WRs, TE, 2 leading RBs, 2 best OLs, best DT and DE and a bunch of other strong contributors. Just too many holes to fill. You could criticize the program for getting in that position, but to me it was a fair trade-off. We may have sold-out a future year or two to make it to the semi-finals of th FCS playoffs two consecutive years and going undefeated in conference play in 2014.

[BEAR]

Biggest surprise for UCA. Our defense. Dead last just one year ago..and I mean probably dead last in the FCS. This year, one of the tops in our conference and maybe the nation.

Biggest disappointment for FCS. All those 3-3 teams. xlolx

[eiu1999]

So went back to 2007 and the OVC has 3 playoff wins since then. All of them were in 2013. So until they prove otherwise it is hard to say they are a contender.

Yep..

[Bam]

EKU:

Surprise--- playing true freshman
Disappointment----losing to pUKe in OT!!

[Go Lehigh TU owl]

So went back to 2007 and the OVC has 3 playoff wins since then. All of them were in 2013. So until they prove otherwise it is hard to say they are a contender.

I think Jacksonville State and potentially EKU are title contenders which is why I have the OVC in the surprise category, so far. Time will tell....

[ElCid]

My vote for biggest SoCon Surprise - The Citadel. No one really expected much out of them. Everyone knew they were well coached but most thought they were still missing a few pieces.

The SoCon's biggest disappointment - Well for me, it's a three way tie right now. Furman seemed poised to get back to the winning ways but has been Dr Jekyl/Mr Hyde like. Wofford has always been solid but seems like they are on a slow decline now. Then there's Samford, so much promise at the beginning of the year. Do they have a defensive coordinator? If so, has he been drinking on the job?

The only people not "totally" surprised were the Bulldogs and their fans. We were 23 points from being 9-3 last year instead of 5-7. And one big play in at least three of those games determined the outcome. In 2013, we lost 5 by a total of 22 combined points. Could have easily been 10-2 instead of 5-7. Way too many 1 score losses. Discounting Clemson, the other biggest loss we had that year was by 11! The other losses wee by 7, 7, 4, 3, 1. UHG!

I will say I did not think it would be this easy, at least so far. That IS a surprise. I fully expected to drop one to Samford or Furman this year, and both being away games that it was definitely a possibility of losing both. With UTC away as well, I was (am still) dreading that trio of games. At least the last leg of it.

The one thing I love about this team is that we have a full stable in the backfield. Any injury there would be a bump in the road. I love having 6 or 7 backs getting 50-80 yards every week. It would be nice to have a few 100 yard games for them, and we have a few, but I can guarantee you that they are loving the 4-0 more than having a 100 game themselves. I will not even go in to how great our O-line has been as well. They are a well oiled machine now coming up on their 12 game together I think. I think they ought to be nominated for offensive player(s) of the week, as a unit.

[walliver]

Biggest surprise - The Citadel - I thought graduation losses would have a big effect.

Biggest letdown - Furman (although Wofford and Sammy are trying to beat them out). After their late season rally and playoff run in 2013, I had ascribed last year's poor season to injuries and expected them to bounce back this year (much like Georgia Southern did last year). Preseason, I had them pegged at #2 in the conference.
Sammy gets a pass for a coaching change, but if they don't turn things around, the Hatch Attacks second stent in the SoCon may not last much longer than his first.
Wofford has been the most disappointing to me as a fan, with almost everyone back, I expected an improvement from last year. The team has shown glimpses of greatness, but has underperformed. The injury bug has been bad, but we should still be playing better.

[MacThor]

Biggest surprise: ESPN College Gameday going to Harrisonburg.

Biggest disappointment: ESPN leaving immediately after CG was over, giving no coverage to a classic 59-49 barnburner between two ranked teams. Not even a mention on Sports Center. No highlight reel on the website. A recap on the website culled from wire reports. They were in such a hurry to give breathless coverage of Clemson 58 Miami 0 and Ohio St. 49 Rutgers 7.

[Jackal]

A few of us thought it was a chance halfway through the first half. No one picked it before the game other than that one amazing Nostradamus poster.

NDSU rarely loses on the road, in their past four Championship years they lost more in the Dome vs on the Road more.

xnodx