As bad as last week was in the Big South, it was that good this week.
(1-3) Presbyterian BYE
Presbyterian had the weekend off which means no one got hurt. No news is good news.
(3-2) Monmouth 42, (2-2) Fordham 41 OT
A week after getting humbled at home to Charleston Southern, Monmouth got one more chance at home to take on a playoff team from 2015 as they faced off against Fordham. This same Fordham team had poured out 51 points onto Monmouth in their only previous meeting a year ago and returned the two primary culprits from that bath, QB Kevin Anderson and RB Chase Edmonds.
Early on, it looked Fordham was going to repeat last year’s performance. Edmonds broke loose on the Rams’ second series and scored from 77 yards away. After a quick Hawks turnover, Anderson engineered a quick three-minute drive that put Fordham up 13-0 halfway through the first quarter. But, Monmouth wouldn’t go away. MU QB Cody Williams put together two drives that ended with field goals before masterminding a 16-play, 89-yard drive that took nearly eight full minutes off the clock and tied the game at 13-all with a minute and a half left before halftime. That, however, was more than enough time for Fordham. Forty-five seconds later, Anderson threw a 54-yard strike to put the Rams back up a touchdown. Twenty-seven seconds after that, and following a Monmouth fumble on their first play of the next series, Chase Edmonds punched the ball into the end zone again and Fordham took a 27-13 lead into halftime.
At that point, with the game firmly in hand, Fordham loaded the buses and left only Edmonds and Anderson to finish. OK, that’s not completely accurate but it may as well have been. The rest of the game belong entirely to Monmouth, specifically to WR Reggie White, Jr. and third-string RB Ed Royds. In the third quarter, White took a screen pass on the far sideline and raced untouched for 72 yards to get Monmouth back within seven. After Fordham failed to convert on 4th-and-3, Monmouth went down the field again and, again, Williams found White on the far sideline who broke two terrible attempts to tackle him and walked into the end zone to tie the game. In between the highlights from White, Royds was finding gaping holes in the Fordham defense and, after the Monmouth D held again, Royds got the call and scored to give the Hawks their first lead of the day and Fordham was clearly on their heels. They were not, however, done. On the next Rams possession, Edmonds – being Edmonds – took a handoff just beyond midfield and wove through traffic on his way to his third touchdown of the day, tying the game back at 34 points apiece.
Thanks to a holding call, Monmouth found themselves in bad field position and gave Fordham the ball back with one last shot at ending the game in regulation. Fordham very nearly converted on that chance but a 47-yard FG as time expired bent wide right and Monmouth headed to their first overtime game of the season.
Fordham made quick work of the first chance with the ball. Edmonds was into the end zone again after four plays and, after kicking the PAT, gave Monmouth their own opportunity. Monmouth just went back to Royds, back to White, back to Royds again, Royds one more time for score and then made the ballsy decision to go for two on the conversion. Given the course of Monmouth’s offense in the second half, the ball was obviously going to go one of two places, to either Royds or White, and Fordham had to know that. It’s, therefore, absolutely mystifying how in the world White found himself standing all alone in the end zone with no other player within ten yards of him, waiting patiently for a high, floating pass from Williams to simply land gently in his hands.
Which it did. Ballgame.
What does this win mean for Monmouth? – It’s huge. As in of mammoth proportions. After losing two straight in poor fashion, this team badly needed to beat anyone. For that win to come against a program that still retained the skill players from their pounding a year ago and to come at home in a year where those games are in small supply cannot be undersold. This is the kind of win that can re-shape the Hawks’ season.
(2-3) Liberty 41, (1-4) Robert Morris 7
Liberty needed to finally play someone whose roster didn’t consist of FBS players. A Robert Morris team that lost their opener to a D2 school and registered negative total rushing yards at Youngstown would seem to fit that bill. Liberty also made a change at quarterback for this game, starting true freshman Steven ‘Buckshot’ Calvert for the first time.
On the first couple series, however, Calvert looked unsettled, allowing RMU to hang around for a little bit and pull off a bit of substitution fakery that left a receiver near the visiting sideline completely unrecognized and uncovered. He took a pass and sprinted downfield and, though he was eventually run down before he could score, the Colonials were in business in the red zone. That turned into a touchdown three plays later and the home crowd held their collective breath. They needn’t have bothered because that was it for the RMU scoring.
Calvert and the Flames went the length of the field on their next drive and Calvert found TE Zac Foutz from a yard out for the tying score. That drive was helped along by a targeting penalty on RMU where, in an odd sequence, the defender came off his man to hit one LU receiver in the head while the LU receiver he was originally covering caught the ball and raced thirty yards downfield. RMU’s next possession would end in an interception in the end zone and Liberty would work their way down the field once more, this time culminating in a touchdown pass to WR Antonio Gandy-Golden. The Colonials would throw another INT in the first half and Calvert hit WR Dante Shells for 69 yards and a touchdown as Liberty was up 21-7 at half.
That advantage went up after two plays in the second half as LU DB Solomon McGinty picked off a pass in the flat and trotted into the end zone for a defensive score. On the whole, RMU – who, in fairness, was playing a converted safety at QB – threw 3 interceptions on the night and never got past mid-field the rest of the night. Meanwhile, Liberty tacked on two field goals and another touchdown pass from Calvert for the final margin.
In his first career start, Calvert completed 62% of his passes for 340 yards and 4 touchdowns. Not bad, freshman, not bad.
What does this win mean for Liberty? – It’s really big because the Flames just needed to beat someone. They also needed Calvert to get some experience and confidence going in to conference play.
(3-1) Kennesaw State 52, (0-5) Furman 42
I admit it, Kennesaw proved me wrong. They rolled into Greenville, SC and flat out dominated one of the historically strong programs in FCS football.
In the first half, Kennesaw could do no wrong and Furman could do no right. KSU ran the ball around the edges, up the middle and then threw the ball over the top, all pretty much at will. The score at halftime was 49-14 in favor of the visitors. It’s worth noting that the Owls had as many points at the half against Furman as they had in an entire game against NAIA Point University three weeks ago. Even when Furman held KSU in check or Furman moved the ball, an ill-timed penalty or turnover would move the Owls forward and the Paladins back. The first half was a plain old butt-whoopin’ of the tradition-rich Furman program by the upstart Kennesaw State.
Look at these numbers:
- KSU had 213 yards of offense in the first quarter.
- Add on another 254 yards of offense in the second quarter and KSU had 467 yards of total offense at halftime
- By the time Furman mounted a drive past Kennesaw’s 42-yard line, they were already down 35-0
- At the half, KSU already had two touchdown drives of 90 yards or more
Then, Furman came out of the locker room with a vengeance and the second half happened. As one-sided as the first half had been for KSU, the second half was nearly so for Furman. Furman racked up more than 200 yards through the air and three touchdowns to claw back to within 49-35. Everything that had worked offensively for KSU in the first half stalled completely and the Owls went into ball-hog mode, letting the play clock wind nearly all the way down between plays, keeping the ball on the ground and doing anything they could to keep the game clock working in their favor. Kennesaw had just one scoring drive in the second half, squeezing a FG out of easily their longest possession of the day (6:30) but it that kick was huge as it pushed the Owls just out of Furman’s comeback range with the amount of time they had left.
In the end, Furman added another touchdown but had just dug themselves too deep a hole to climb out of. To their credit, KSU used their offense to milk the clock for all it was worth to turn what could have been one of the more epic collapses in college football into a really solid win for their program.
What does this win mean for Kennesaw? – Not to be redundant, but it’s a big big win for the KSU program as a whole. This is the first time that the Owls have ever faced a full-scholarship FCS team outside of the Big South conference. Granted, Furman is a shadow of what they once were but for KSU, as a startup program, to be that dominating over a team that’s usually considered a regional power is just massive. Realistically, this win isn’t not on par with third-year Coastal beating defending national champion JMU in 2005 – not even close, really –, but within the KSU program itself, the effect is the same.
(3-2) Charleston Southern 59, (3-2) Coastal Carolina 58 2OT
In probably the best game of the night that no one saw, CSU went up to perennial nemesis Coastal Carolina and handed the FBS transitional home team the loss in double overtime.
Full disclosure: I didn’t watch this game. Thanks to Coastal’s transition to FBS, they aren’t on the Big South’s video package nor are they yet on the Sun Belt’s. Their home-grown streaming operation sits behind a paywall and has a history of varying degrees of reliability. As such, this recap is drawn from released reports, stats sheets and photos.
It was a see-saw battle all night between the current Big South champ and the ex-Big South champ. Coastal jumped out to a 21-7 lead at the end of the first quarter thanks to a trio of touchdowns from RB DeAngelo Henderson. CSU jumped right back in the second quarter, rattling off 16 straight points to take a 23-21 lead at the half. The rest of the game would be a back-and-forth battle of offense as each team answered their opponents’ scores with touchdowns of their own and neither team would lead by more than five points the rest of the way. Coastal started it off in the third frame with a strip sack and a fumble recovery in the end zone which CSU followed with a TD run from RB Darius Hammond which Coastal then followed with another long scoring run from Henderson. After a short lull going into the fourth quarter, CSU backup QB Robert Mitchell got a touchdown on the ground which Coastal answered with a lob from WR Chris Jones to fellow WR Gary Bradshaw. CSU answered that with another TD run from Mitchell that put CSU up 45-42 with just forty-two seconds remaining and, for a moment, it seemed like a lead would finally be safe.
Nope. Henderson took the ball on three of the next four plays and Coastal K Ryan Granger booted through a 35-yard field goal as time expired to send the game to overtime.
Coastal took the ball first in OT and made quick work of the 25 yards between them and the end zone. CSU responded by bringing starting QB Shane Bucenell back into the game to lob a touchdown pass into the end zone to tie the game once again. In the second OT, Bucenell worked his magic again, hitting receiver Jared Scotland for the score and the Bucs kicked the PAT to go up 59-52. On their turn, Coastal struggled slightly, forced to convert a 4th-and-5 to keep the drive going but, eventually, punched the ball into the end zone to pull within a point, pending the PAT.
A little back story here: Coastal has recently found themselves with a bad history with game deciding kicks at the scoreboard end of Brooks Stadium. In 2014, #1-ranked and undefeated Coastal Carolina lost to Liberty when LU blocked what should have been a walk-off-as-time-expired chip-shot FG from 24 yards out, roughly the same distance as an extra point. Coastal’s K Ryan Granger didn’t take that kick but he was on the sidelines that day and it’s worth wondering if that moment was in his head at all. Because, to a degree, history repeated itself Saturday night. Charleston Southern blocked the extra point and won the game.
It’s no surprise that a run-heavy team like Charleston Southern and team on their 4th-string quarterback with an all-world running back like Coastal Carolina would run the ball. It’s still a little surprising to see these highly-ranked teams surrender 500+ yards of rushing offense. Coastal has been relatively weak against the run for the last several years and gave up nearly 300 yards on the ground. Coastal’s hurry-up style of offense may have actually worked against them in this case. Despite, gaining over 400 yards of offense and putting 45 on the board in just 59 plays during regulation, it allowed CSU to hold the ball for more than 42 minutes. CSU got touchdowns from seven different players in this game.
CSU has now defeated Coastal two straight years for only the second occasion in the series’ history. The previous time was from 2008-2009.
What does this win mean for CSU? – It’s a good team win and it’s a good win for the program. There is obviously a familiarity between the two programs that hasn’t existed in the first several games of CSU’s season, Monmouth included. Coastal is still, obviously, a good team and this can only help CSU’s resume come November.
(2-3) Gardner-Webb 45, (3-2) Benedict 0
Gardner-Webb returned home to face Benedict out of Division 2. Benedict is a defensive-minded but offensively-challenged team, much like Gardner-Webb has been for the last couple seasons. In a battle between resistible force and slow-moving object, something would eventually give. Just not in the first quarter.
G-W and Benedict traded punts for the first part of the game with neither being able to mount much of an offensive threat. Eventually, in the second quarter, Benedict found themselves backed up deep and shanked a punt out of their own end zone. The resulting field position at the 35-yard line gave GWU prime field position and, eight plays later, RB Khalil Lewis turned that into the game’s first touchdown. This opened a floodgate of sorts. The Bulldogs got the ball back on the next possession near midfield and turned that into another touchdown. G-W held Benedict to a punt yet again and then made it three straight touchdowns on their next possession, when a couple explosive plays brought Gardner-Webb in close to the goal line and QB Tyrell Maxwell then tossed a short touchdown to his most dependable receiver, TE Mike Estes.
The second half was much the same. Benedict never mounted a credible threat on offense and bad punts and turnovers gave G-W great field position for the rest of the night. Khalil Lewis punched in two more short touchdowns and the defense got a scoop-n-score early in the fourth quarter. All in all, it may have been the least eventful 45 points ever scored.
What does this loss mean for Gardner-Webb? – Meh. G-W did what they were supposed to do. That’s it. Sure, they didn’t lose to the D2 on their schedule but literally everyone else in the conference got a win that was either important for them as a team or a program on Saturday. It’s almost not fair to downplay a 45-point win just because the defeated team was from a lower division but it was such a slow-moving affair that seemed to simply wear down the opponent – and the audience – rather than overwhelming them.
Biggest surprise of the week: Kennesaw’s first-half destruction of Furman.
Biggest disappointment of the week: None. Everybody won. Can’t argue with that.
