Last week’s chaos did not extend to this week, and what carnage there was in the poll took place either at the hands of higher-ranked teams or down at the bottom of the ladder… with one notable exception.
There will be carnage this week, though; several massive games this week, including the nation’s second 1v2 matchup of the fall, and we have our first potential title-clinching game of the season:
#2 Delta State at #1 North Alabama
#11 Colorado State-Pueblo at #4 Nebraska-Kearney
#6 Wayne State (MI) at 4-2 Ashland
#17 West Texas A&M at #10 Abilene Christian
#22 West Alabama at #12 Valdosta State
#13 Winston-Salem State at 1-5 Livingstone (WSSU clinches CIAA South with a win)
#14 California (PA) at 5-1 Slippery Rock
5-1 Fairmont State at #21 West Virginia Wesleyan
4-2 American International at #18 New Haven
CENTRAL:
Well, I said Elizabeth City State/Virginia Union was too sketchy to call, and I think three overtimes provides plenty of evidence I was right. When VUU’s Richard Rodwell was stuffed trying to get into the end zone on the two-point conversion try in the third overtime, Elizabeth City escaped with the victory. ECSU’s Daronte McNeill ran for 233 yards in the win.
Winston-Salem escaped Saint Augustine’s by a single touchdown, after allowing Falcon QB Teddy Bacote to throw for 464 yards, breaking the modern Saint Augustine’s record by 74 yards. SAC wideout Jamain Smith, who hauled in 16 passes for 152 of those yards, also set a school record for career receptions. On the ground? WSSU held SAC to -3 yards rushing.
WSSU now has a full two-game lead over the field in the Southern Division, and they only have two conference games remaining. Since they already have wins over Johnson C. Smith and Fayetteville State, that means we’ve got our first CLINCH ALERT of the season. If the Rams can get past 1-5 Livingstone this week, they secure the Southern Division title. Fayetteville should handle Shaw, preventing any chance of WSSU backing into the title with a loss this week. Saint Augustine’s will likely lose out of conference to West Georgia, and JCSU/VUU, the week’s crossover game, is too goofy to predict. In the North, Bowie will beat Lincoln, Chowan will lose a non-conference game at Stillman, and ECSU will host Virginia State in a game that’s also too close to call.
One final CIAA note: next week, Saint Augustine’s will host JCSU for homecoming; it’s a big game for them, as it’s their first on-campus game since reinstating football in 2002. (They’ve been playing at various venues in the Raleigh area for the last nine years.)
GREAT AMERICAN:
In the final week of crossover play with the Gulf South, clearing off those pesky former conference games, the GAC got riddled. Delta State pounded Arkansas-Monticello, with QB Micah Davis accounting for 384 yards of offense, and Dominique Davenport picking off two UAM passes. North Alabama piled up 601 yards of offense in crushing Arkansas Tech. Valdosta State bounced back from last week’s upset loss to UAM, as Cayden Cochran threw for 424 yards in a rout of Ouachita Baptist. There’s a fourth Gulf South team in the rankings now, as West Alabama hammered Southern Arkansas with the aid of 14 points on kick returns in just the first five minutes as WAU rolled to a 24-3 lead in the first quarter.
In conference action, East Central’s Dontae Smith blocked two punts, helping the Tigers to a win and keeping them just off the pace in the league tussle.
Now that the Gulf South Nightmare has ended, conference play really begins in earnest this week, although Harding plays at Northeastern State in a probable non-conference loss. Frankly, all four conference games are too close to call.
GREAT LAKES IAC:
Well, I swung and missed here last week. Hillsdale stumbled despite 262 rushing yards and five touchdowns from Joe Glendening (including an 80 yard run and a 66 yard TD reception), allowing a 12-point lead to escape them in the final three minutes and losing by a point at home to Ohio Dominican, and leaving only one GLIAC team ranked. That hasn’t happened in… a long, long time.
Meanwhile, turnovers pinned Ferris State to a 22-0 halftime deficit against Findlay, and they were unable to recover. That loss allowed Saginaw Valley State the opportunity to take sole possession of first place, but they almost didn’t as they went to overtime. Michigan Tech had the ball first, and Tyler Scarlett threw a pass that was picked off by Grant Caserta; Saginaw then kicked the field goal to win.
And then there was Grand Valley State, making me look stupid by flat-out manhandling Northern Michigan. I guess they finally woke up.
So, after five weeks of conference play, we have two clear leaders, but neither has any distance on their pursuers. Wayne State can gain some this week, as they travel to Ashland to directly deal with one problem, while Saginaw Valley heads to Indianapolis with precisely the same goal in mind. Both will be favored; neither is assured. Hillsdale and Michigan Tech square off in a cross-divisional game which will remove one of the two from someone’s hair, but I really have no idea which it will be. Ferris should get past Northern Michigan, and Grand Valley will handle Lake Erie; Findlay, I guess, has to be a slight favorite over Ohio Dominican, while I really don’t know what to think of the pillow fight between Northwood and Tiffin.
GREAT LAKES FOOTBALL:
Urbana seized the conference lead by routing Kentucky Wesleyan in the first conference game of the season, while Missouri S&T flat destroyed South Dakota Tech in non-conference action. There’s a clear line between the mediocre and the horrible in this conference now.
A good thing for prognostication this week, at least, as I can say with relative certainty that Urbana and Missouri S&T will win Saturday, and if that happens October 29 becomes the key date on the calendar; that’s when Urbana and MUST hook up to settle things.
GREAT NORTHWEST:
Humboldt State didn’t do anything at all to help their cause in the conference race, but were the big winners on the day anyway in two respects. First, they beat FCS Cal-Davis to move to 5-0; second, Central Washington hammered Western Oregon to give Humboldt sole possession of the conference lead.
It took three overtimes, but Simon Fraser has their first conference win as an NCAA member after a wild 62-56 victory. The Clan led 17-0 after the first quarter, then Dixie roared back to a 42-32 lead in the fourth quarter before SFU came back to tie it and send it into extra frames. Dixie’s Stefan Cantwell had 476 yards of total offense in the loss, with 357 and five TDs in the air and 119 on the ground.
GULF SOUTH:
See the Great American recap for last week’s details, as all five teams once again played GAC opponents.
This week, though, we get to talk about the GSC here instead of there, as conference play kicks in — and boy, it does so in style. The undercard, as it were, is on Saturday when West Alabama visits Valdosta, and I’m not guessing. The main event, however, is on Thursday night; #2 Delta State travels to Florence to take on #1 North Alabama. I have to go with UNA here, but it should be one hell of a game. West Georgia, out of conference, hosts Saint Augustine’s and should improve to 4-2.
You can tell this by looking at the standings, but I wanted to point it out anyway: with two non-conference games yet to be played, the GSC has gone 25-5 out of conference… and two of those losses were to FCS teams, so 25-3 against D-II competition. Yikes.
LONE STAR:
Nothing surprising last week, as the leaders remained unblemished in-conference with easy victories. In a not-so easy victory, Incarnate Word took a 20-0 lead over TAMU-Commerce, before falling behind 22-20. A Thomas Rebold field goal with 1:20 remaining put UIW back on top, and the defense held for the win.
One of the leaders is going away this week. West Texas A&M travels to Abilene Christian, and despite their rankings I can’t help but feel the numbers are pointing at a WTAMU win here. Midwestern State should handle Angelo without a problem. Eastern New Mexico is going to lose a non-conference test against Northwest Missouri State. I don’t know what to make of TAMU-Kingsville/UIW, nor the awful display of football scheduled in Stephenville Saturday night.
MID-AMERICA:
Washburn found the end zone on their first four possessions and never looked back, cruising past Truman. Fort Hays kept things close for awhile, tying the game at 17 on the first drive of the second half, but Pittsburg State just shrugged and ripped off 21 straight points before the third quarter ended, and that was that. Briceton Wilson pounded out 189 yards on the ground for the Gorillas, allowing them to double up the Tigers in time of possession.
Tommy Corwin threw for 360 yards, but UCM was held to 74 yards on the ground and NWMSU simply ground them down. In Emporia, Tyler Eckenrode threw for 317 yards and led the Hornets with 51 on the ground as well, leading ESU to a comeback win over Missouri Southern. Finally, Missouri Western set the school record for points last year, rolling up 81 on Lincoln. What did they do Saturday? Ran up 81 on Lincoln again, running for 363 yards and only retaining possession for 17:21. So they weren’t “running it up”, they just… ran it up as a result of indifference, I guess.
This week, the top half of the conference plays the bottom half, and you know what that means. Expect wins from Washburn, Pittsburg, Northwest, Central Missouri, and Missouri Western. (Southwest Baptist and Lindenwood, too, while we’re at it.)
NORTHEAST TEN:
I figured we’d have five teams within a half-game of one another at the top, and so we do. New Haven kicked SCSU out of the lead behind 423 passing yards from Ryan Osiecki. James Suozzo hit Isaiah Voegeli with an 83-yard strike late in the fourth quarter to clinch the win for Merrimack, booting Bentley out of the lead as well. American International joined the party in second place after handling Saint Anselm.
New Haven will likely eject American International from the discussion, while Bentley should do the same to SCSU. Merrimack will remain part of the lead as they travel to Assumption, where they’ll almost certainly win. Pace and Stonehill, who’ve already played a non-conference tilt this year, meet again; Pace won the first one in overtime at home, but this one’s at Stonehill, so expect revenge there. Saint Anselm, of course, is going to get snothammered by FCS Stony Brook.
NORTHERN SUN:
Mary put a scare into Wayne State, but the Wildcats held off the Marauders on the final possession to remain unbeaten in conference play. Bemidji State held off Concordia-Saint Paul thanks to the singular effort of Brody Scheff, who picked off three passes (all between the BSU five-yard line and the back of the end zone) and added 11 tackles and a sack as well. Warren Matthews ran for 166 yards and a TD, while Gannon Moore added 159 and two scores, as Southwest Minnesota State ran all over MSU-Moorhead. Augustana needed an 80-yard, 38-second drive late in the fourth to get past Northern State.
End result, as all these games were conference games but not divisional games, is that the divisional races remain unchanged… and, really so does the conference race. Wayne is still alone in front, with four teams a game off the pace. None of the five teams in question appear to be at much risk of losing this week. The net impact of that should be Bemidji pulling back into view of UMD and Saint Cloud in the North, while the South remains unchanged as Wayne, Mankato, and Augustana should all win.
PENNSYLVANIA:
Josh Mastromatto ran for 96 yards and a TD, caught seven passes for 57 yards, and had a 100-yard kickoff return in Kutztown’s shootout win over East Stroudsburg. On the other side of the ball, ESU QB Ray Wagner threw for 522 yards and two TDs. Clarion got off the winless board in style, ripping Lock Haven 54-6 behind four Ben Fiscus, who ran for 204 yards and found the end zone four times, twice on the ground and twice through the air. The loss was Lock Haven’s 37th in a row; their last win was against Clarion in the season finale in 2007.
Bloomsburg’s Danny Hale notched career win #200 as the Huskies downed Cheyney. Franklin Quiteh had four TDs, and now has 2,501 career rushing yards. Edinboro falls from the rankings after being unable to get past Slippery Rock. Indiana was down by 10 with eight minutes to go, before coming back to tie it and then getting the win in overtime. LIU-C.W. Post started 10 of 17 drives inside the 50, but only came away with 24 points; of course, the fact that they started all those drives inside the 50 helps explain why Millersville only scored once.
Bloomsburg slipped to #3 despite their win, as Delta State jumped over them. It doesn’t really matter, since if Delta beats North Alabama this week, they’d have moved to #1 next week anyway, and Bloomsburg will move back up to #2 anyway regardless of the DSU/UNA outcome. Assuming, of course, they win a game they should this week against Shippensburg. C.W. Post should keep pace with the Huskies, and Kutztown and West Chester will almost certainly remain a game back. Out west, California travels to Slippery Rock with first place on the line. These teams are about equal on paper so far, so no call here. Indiana and Gannon should win; So should Edinboro, but nothing’s assured there.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN:
New Mexico Highlands got upset for the second week in a row, as they frittered away a 14-0 lead (including negative offensive yardage in the second half) before losing in overtime to Adams State. CSU-Pueblo, who missed the playoffs last year, now has the longest winning streak in D-II (10 games) as a result following their national TV victory over Colorado Mines. Western New Mexico’s Daveon Barner had no carries in the first half against Western State. In the second, he had 14 for 146 yards, and scored the half’s only three touchdowns, leading WNMU to the win.
Western New Mexico should stay right where they are, notationally in third place, after Saturday; that’s because they should probably win, while the loser of the Kearney-Pueblo clash will notationally be in second place even after the loss. Oh, yeah. Kearney-Pueblo. Undefeated vs undefeated. The RMAC title basically on the line, barring interference from WNMU. You should probably watch that game, online, I guess. Kearney should win this game, but it’s going to be a tough go.
In other games that already don’t much matter to the conference race, Mines should handle Mesa, NMHU should get past Chadron (although the way NMHU has been playing the last two weeks, maybe I should change that), and Fort Lewis and Western State will gum one another to death.
SOUTH ATLANTIC:
Mars Hill trailed Wingate 35-14 midway through the third quarter. 22 minutes later, Mars Hill had scored four unanswered touchdowns, stolen the victory, and gotten an SAC team back into the top 25. Good show.
Lenoir-Rhyne needed three overtimes to get past Brevard, but they’re okay with that; it was the Bears’ first homecoming win since 2004. After three awful games in a row, traditional SAC power Carson-Newman decided it was time to change quarterbacks. Voila, 34-point romp.
Over in Pembroke, UNC-Pembroke scored the first 20 points of the game, then the two teams traded punches all the way to the finish line as the Braves overcame Tusculum despite 448 passing yards from Pioneer QB Torrey Slaven. Oh, yeah — Slaven did that coming off the bench at the end of the first quarter.
Brevard and Carson-Newman have winnable non-conference games this week. Mars Hill and Lenoir-Rhyne should remain atop the standings, while Wingate will likely accept sole possession of third place by eliminating Newberry.
SOUTHERN IAC:
I don’t know that I’ve ever seen this before, and I hate to say it but it smacks of racism. #12 Albany State, whose only loss coming in was a three-point loss to the current #12 team in the land, loses by two points on the road to a team that’s mediocre at worst and which has actually outscored its opponents on the year… and falls all the way out of the top 25.
Does that strike you as, perhaps, bullshit? Good. Glad you agree.
Everything else went as expected, though. Clark Atlanta lost a heartbreaker before over 20,000 homecoming fans on a Patton Chambers field goal with 23 seconds to go. Fort Valley almost snapped their losing streak, but their final drive ended with an interception in the one-point loss to the Thorobreds. Morehouse spotted Tuskegee 14 points in their quest to break a seven-game losing streak to the Golden Tigers. The Maroon Tigers then roared back, scoring 17 unanswered points for the win. Stillman, who rolled over Benedict, moved a game and a half up on the field in the West, while Morehouse now controls the East by a full game.
It could be two full games come Sunday, as Morehouse travels to face what’s likely to be a very angry Albany squad. If Albany wins, both teams will be tied for first, at least a game up on Clark Atlanta, who really shouldn’t have any trouble with Benedict. Fort Valley’s going to get slobberknocked by FCS Bethune-Cookman. Out west, Stillman will not extend their lead of their own volition, as they’re going to be busy winning a non-conference game against Chowan. However, Kentucky State is a good bet to beat Miles, which would help Stillman by making their lead two full games. Lane will get past Tuskegee, I think.
WEST VIRGINIA:
Well, you can’t say it was a surprise. And Shepherd falling out of the polls from the 14 spot isn’t egregious either, since it’s their second loss in a row. But if #14 is 4-1 and loses by a point in overtime on the road to an unranked team that’s undefeated… well, jeez, something’s not right. At least racism doesn’t account for this one. Just stupid.
Anyway, not to take anything away from WVWU. Adam Neugebauer threw for 412 and six scores. Crazy stat alert: WVWU had 426 yards of offense, 441 of them in the air. Yes, I have double and triple checked that. It is accurate.
West Liberty and Charleston both finally got on the good side of a final score, and Glenville remained tied for the lead after a defensive struggle with Concord. For Charleston, Jordan Roberts scampered for 192 yards while Adrien Jenkins added 168; both scored twice. Also, I have to mention Charleston’s kicker, just because HEY COOL NAME: Puma Nuredini.
The big game is Fairmont at WVWU, and I expect WVWU to remain unbeaten, though it’s gonna be close. Everyone is going to be hoping Fairmont pulls the upset, as Glenville, Concord, and Shepherd should win; a WVWU win means everyone but Glenville is getting really close to done for. Charleston, playing non-conference against UNC-Pembroke, probably won’t win.
INDEPENDENTS:
Nothing odd at all. Next week, Pembroke, Notre Dame, and McMurry should all win, and Panhandle State should finally record a win as well because Texas College really, really sucks. Central State is doomed; South Dakota Tech has an outside shot at picking up their first win, but I wouldn’t go betting the mortgage or anything.
A Note:
If you actually read this site, and are not a spammer, you should seriously consider retweeting or otherwise pimping it. If I continue thinking I am writing for a couple dozen people, I am very likely to just give up Real Soon Now.