BSC Week 3 Preview
Kris Kallem & Lance Berndt, BSC Contributors | September 17, 2015
Kris Says-
Idaho State @ Boise State
Both teams are coming off of disappointing losses. The Bengals have a ton of Idaho kids on their roster. Kids that grew up Bronco fans and might have thought they were good enough to play at Boise State. I would expect Idaho State to come out chippy and swinging. I’d also look for Coach Kramer to have a couple of tricks up his sleeve. With a brutal remaining schedule, ISU really needs to pick off one of its FBS opponents to have a shot at the playoffs.
Montana State @ Eastern Washington
Question marks surround both teams. Bobcat quarterback Dakota Prukop was rusty in his first game of the season against Fort Lewis. Has Montana State’s defense improved under new defensive coordinator Kane Ioane? Eastern Washington is already riddled with key injuries. Do they have the leadership to pull things together and minimize the mistakes from a week ago. Expect a shootout with a battle over stops and turnover margin determining the outcome.
Northern Colorado @ Southern Utah
It’s early and the wins have come against a Division II team and an FCS startup, but the Bears have a chance to come out of Cedar City 3-0 on the season and with some confidence. The Tbirds on the other hand are reeling after a poor performance against South Dakota State and need their senior leaders James Cowser and Ammon Olsen to step up.
Northern Iowa @ Cal Poly
Both teams are in the midst of a brutal early schedule. In fact, Northern Iowa plays 5 of its first 6 games on the road against an FBS and 5 ranked FCS opponents. It will be interesting to see if the Panthers settle on a quarterback and I’d expect the Mustangs to attempt to pop a few passes over the top against a seemingly talented Northern Iowa secondary that was exposed a bit last week.
UC Davis @ Hawaii
The Rainbow Warriors already have a nice win against Pac 12 Colorado and only trailed #1 FBS ranked Ohio State by 17 in the 4th quarter last week, holding the Buckeyes to under 400 yards for the first time in 9 games. Davis will have it’s hands full.
Lance says-
(ORV) North Dakota @ #3 North Dakota State
Sometimes there are games that are much bigger for the fans than for the players, and considering these two haven’t played since 2003, the fans of the two schools have literally been waiting for this for over a decade. On the field, this will be a battle of two very good defenses. With the balance between the two in that category, NDSU easily holds the advantage on the offensive side. There aren’t many defenses that can keep this offense at bay, so UND will need to be efficient on offense to hang with the Bison. That especially means cleaning up the turnover problem they had against Drake. In the end, I think NDSU will win this non-conference rivalry game by at least 3 touchdowns, but it should be fun for these fans to finally have another face-off to talk about.
#8 Montana @ #17 Liberty
Under the lights and over 2,000 miles away, the Griz will have yet another exciting non-conference game. This time they face a Liberty Flames team that has made a lot of noise the past couple seasons. Liberty will be led by a running back duo that combined for over 200 yards in their first win over Delaware State. Hometown boy Desmond Rice is the lead back, but don’t go to sleep on the backup D.J. Abnar who ran for over 1300 yards last season. Veterans Josh Woodrum at QB and Darrin Peterson at WR also can be just as dangerous on offense for this four horseman attack the Flames seem to have. It will be another immense challenge for the Grizzly defense who has had to face arguably the toughest group of offenses of any FCS team in non-conference play. Kendrick Van Ackeren and Tyrone Holmes will once again need to step up to keep the defense off the field as much as possible. Also, quarterback Brady Gustafson and the rest of the Griz offense will need to clean up their play after a sloppy outing against Cal Poly.
Sacramento State @ Weber State (non-conference)
With so many of the top tier Big Sky teams having big games this weekend, these two have a chance to make some noise on their own with this battle. Weber State’s schedule in October is about as tough as anyone’s in the Big Sky, so if they want to get some momentum going, this will be the time to do so. The duo attack of Jadrian Clark and Cam Livingston should find some success against the usually porous Sacramento State pass defense. For the Hornets, Daniel Kniffin will have his first look at an FCS defense. He does have a talented group of receivers led by Nnamdi Agude and Isiah Hennie. I think Weber State will keep the homecoming fans happy with a 10 point win.
#25 Northern Arizona @ FBS #19 Arizona
I was wrong about last weekend’s Cal Poly/Arizona State game being a blowout, so I’m going to guess that this one will be close. Yes Arizona is a ranked FBS team, but their defense hasn’t looked impressive yet and NAU brings a balanced offense in Freshman QB Case Cookus, Sophomore WR Emmanuel Butler, and Senior RB Casey Jahn. The real challenge for the Lumberjacks will be defending one of the best offenses in all of college football. This will be quite the opportunity for potential All-American Marcus Alford to show his capabilities can transfer at any level.