With the FCS Kickoff out of the way, everyone else finally gets a turn and, frankly, we’ve waited long enough. Let’s get right to it:
Presbyterian @ Central Michigan – Thursday, Sept 1st, 7:00pm (ESPN3)
The Presbyterian College Blue Hose begin this season, as they do nearly every season, on the road. On Saturday, PC will make their third visit to a MAC opponent in as many years but their first-ever visit to The Mitten State to take on the Chippewas of Central Michigan. The Chippewas – or ‘the Chips’, for the more monosyllabically-inclined – hail from the city of Mount Pleasant which, if you imagine the the state of Michigan as a glove, is located right at the base of the middle finger. Make of that fact what you will.
Last June, first-year CMU head coach John Bonamego was diagnosed with early-stage tonsil cancer and underwent chemotherapy treatment during the 2015 season. He lost 75 pounds over the next several months but, by Christmas, was pronounced cancer-free. So a sincere hats off to him, the Bonamego family and to the CMU program who supported him during the ordeal.
As for the football stuff, CMU returns 14 starters, including 4th-year starter at QB, Connor Rush, off a team that were chosen 5th pre-season in the MAC West but went on to win 7 games, tie for the MAC West title and be honored with an invite to the Quick Lane Bowl in Detroit. Rush threw for nearly 4,000 yards and 25 TD’s in his junior season and will certainly hope to get a jump start on that against the Blue Hose.
Presbyterian comes into the 2016 season needing to find answers virtually everywhere except the quarterback spot and top running back spots. QB Ben Cheek is the incumbent starter and, while he wasn’t particularly impressive in 2015, he’s at least a known quantity. RB Darrell Bridges was a breakout player for PC in 2015 but, by necessity, played hurt the last half of the season and wasn’t at his most effective. In both cases, the question of who backs these guys up as well as who starts pretty much everywhere else is very much up in the air.
What PC has to do against CMU: Central Michigan averages around 18,000 in attendance. While that may seem like a massive audience to Presbyterian’s younger players, the returning players for PC have played in front of bigger crowds and won’t be intimidated or impressed. Those players have to be able send a message, both to the Chips as well as to their own team. The older guys have to get their game faces on, bring some energy, be physically aggressive and they absolutely need the younger players to see them do it. This game is less about scoring a major upset win for PC but, rather, about earning some valuable money for the program and setting a tone for the rest of the season. On offense, PC will try to control and manage the clock using the running game and short, manageable passes. The Chips defense, however, should be very alert for the trick play. Nichols likes to roll out one or two gadgets in these kind of games in order to have a little fun, keep the other team’s defense honest and give defensive coordinators farther down the schedule one more headache to deal with. Also, getting on SportsCenter every so often doesn’t hurt either. On defense, PC wants to play a smart but highly-aggressive style and this is where “setting the tone” really matters. The struggle on that side of the ball will be playing an attacking style while mixing in a fair number of new players. Mistakes will be made and they will likely cost the Blue Hose points in this game but it’s better to learn from those mistakes now as opposed to when the consequences matter more toward the result of the season. On special teams, Presbyterian needs to be consistent, particularly in the punting game. PC must replace an outstanding punter lost to graduation who was as much a part of their effective defense as anyone else. It’s likely that they will get a lot of punts in on Thursday so this will be a good time to solidify the position.
Best case scenario for PC – Play hard, play aggressive, avoid injury and establish a mindset and a style of play for the rest of the season. On offense, score a touchdown on some wacky play and maybe get on Top10 Plays again.
Worst case scenario – Cheek and/or Bridges gets hurt, the team lays down in the second half and the team flight out of Michigan gets delayed allowing everyone way too much time to sit around in the airport and stare at each other, wondering what all their non-football-playing friends at SEC schools are doing right now.
Kentucky St (0-0) @ Charleston Southern (0-1) – Saturday, Sept 3rd, 11:45am (no TV)
With the FCS Kickoff out of the way, Charleston Southern can now move on to a game on the schedule that’s just slightly less-hyped, their home opener versus the Thorobreds of D2 Kentucky State (no, that’s not a typo; Kentucky State’s nickname is, in fact, misspelled). Kentucky State finished 4th in the SIAC West in 2015 and, in the offseason, named former Idaho/Utah State/Louisville/Michigan State/Weber State/Arkansas/Fort Lewis College head coach John L. Smith to lead their program. Unsurprisingly, these two programs have never played each other. Kentucky State is an HBCU located in Frankfort, KY an eight-hour bus ride from CSU’s campus. Fortunately, this game will kick off at 11:45am so the visitors should realistically be back on the road by dinner time.
John L Smith was reasonably successful at Fort Lewis, going 7-4 last season which was the first time FLC had won seven games since 2006. He brings with him to the Misspelled Horses program a run-oriented offense based primarily out of the pistol formation. Kentucky State only had 50 players on the roster at the end of spring drills but have added 70 new players since then. To say that they might be a young team is a bit of an understatement.
What Charleston Southern has to do against Kentucky State: Dominate. The flag of the Buccaneers’ program has never flown higher than it’s flapping right now and CSU needs to take advantage of that fact. There should be a sizeable home crowd on hand Saturday – sizeable relative to Charleston Southern anyway – and they will want to see the football equivalent of blood in the water. CSU needs to give it to them. On offense, CSU must execute quickly, score early, score often and get QB Kyle Copeland off the field. Copeland took quite a physical beating at the hands of North Dakota State and getting him out of the game early as well as getting the other quarterbacks some valuable game experience would benefit everyone involved. On defense, the Bucs can’t let up. Their defensive style is aggressive and attacking which only works when it’s run at full speed. If the players on the field relax and play less than 100% simply because they’re going up against a lower-division opponent, it opens too many holes and a halfway decent offense will make them pay. Under the circumstances, I doubt that Kentucky State has a halfway decent offense but CSU can’t take that chance.
Best case scenario for Charleston Southern – CSU scores many, gets their starters out of the game and gets in the second team, the third team and whoever has remaining eligibility and happens to be present in the stadium. Depth is an issue for the Bucs so saving the starters and developing depth are paramount.
Worst case scenario – More player injuries and Kentucky State exploits a post-NDSU hangover for points. CSU should win this game handily but how they win it is important.
Liberty @ Virginia Tech – Saturday, Sept 3rd, 12:30pm (ACC Network, Liberty Flames Sports Network)
Here’s an odd but almost completely meaningless fact: 2016 will mark the second year in row and third time in the last four years that Liberty has gone into their season opener facing off against a brand new head coach on the far sideline. This situation is slightly different from many others in that Virginia Tech’s defense is a known quantity. VT defensive coordinator, Bud Foster, has been the mastermind behind the Hokies’ defense for two decades and last winter’s change at the top from retiring head coach Frank Beamer to current head coach Justin Fuente hasn’t changed that. What will be different will be the up-tempo spread attack that Fuente brings with him from Memphis. Oddly enough, Liberty also went through a similar schematic shift this past offseason. While DC Robert Wimberly is still calling the defense, quarterback coach Joe Dailey was promoted to being the Flames’ offensive coordinator and installed a – you guessed it – up-tempo spread attack.
At Liberty, questions abound all over the field. How do you replace the most productive quarterback, wide receiver, kicker and sack artist in school history all at once? How quickly can the returning players adapt to the new offensive scheme? Can Liberty re-establish a running game that was so effective in 2014 but was wildly inconsistent in 2015? How will a relatively young defensive secondary with only one senior in it respond to Virginia Tech’s athleticism?
What Liberty has to do against Virginia Tech – On offense, Liberty must execute execute execute. Many of the Flames’ struggles on offense a year ago came down to lost opportunities. A bad pitch, a missed block, a dropped pass, a flubbed snap, they all seemed to come at the worst possible moments. Newly-anointed starting quarterback Stephone Masha and the rest of the LU offense must take advantage of the new start that their offensive change-up has given them. On defense, Liberty has to keep everything in front of them. Virginia Tech’s team speed should be, at least on paper, the year’s biggest test for the Flames defenders and if the Hokies can start completing passes over the top, it’s going to be a very long day for the visitors. On special teams, keep field goals manageable. Liberty’s kicker from 2015 is gone to the NFL and his replacement is a true freshman. There are probably more humane environments to break in a young kicker than Lane Stadium but, hey, if you can split the uprights with 65,000 people screaming and ‘Enter Sandman’ blaring at you, you can probably do it anywhere.
Best case scenario for Liberty against Virginia Tech – The LU offense executes, the LU defense makes the new VT offense work for their yardage and getting a Hokie turnover or two couldn’t hurt.
Worst case scenario for Liberty – Any significant injury to Masha. The backup QB is a true freshman. The third QB is a grayshirt freshman. The fourth guy is a true freshman. If there’s a fifth QB, he’s TBD but probably also a freshman. You see where I’m going with this.
Monmouth @ Lehigh – Saturday, Sept 3rd, 12:30pm (SE2, PLN)
The Monmouth Hawks – hereafter known as the Jersey Hawks – begin the 2016 season in what has become a somewhat familiar venue to them, Goodman Stadium, to take on the Mountain Hawks of Lehigh University. (Go some version of Hawks!) Monmouth is 1-5 all-time against Lehigh but that lone win came in the most recent game in the series in 2014. Monmouth brings back the bulk of its offensive output for this game so it could be quite a test for Lehigh’s defense.
Generally, the Lehigh-Monmouth game has been, for Lehigh, a tune-up game heading into showdowns with the Ivies and, for Monmouth, a frustrating illustration as to why conference-imposed scholarship limits don’t really work in football. Now that both schools are on equal footing, at least on principle, in terms of athletic aid it becomes more of a true competition between non-conference opponents. I expect this to be a tightly-contested football game.
What Monmouth has to do against Lehigh – On offense, get first downs. A year ago, Lehigh came out hot against NEC also-ran Central Connecticut State but struggled to put them away late, eventually winning 20-14. What ultimately did CCSU in was the fact that they couldn’t mount a sustained drive until late in the game. Monmouth is a much better offensive unit than CCSU was and if MU can keep the chains moving, it bodes well for the Jersey Hawks. The thing that CCSU did do well on defense was force early turnovers that kept Lehigh from jumping out too far in front. In 2015, Monmouth did a decent job themselves in forcing turnovers, averaging just under two takeaways a game, so if they can keep up that trend in 2016, they’ll be all right. On special teams, don’t let it come down to field goals. MU kicker Matt White hit two huge kicks to beat a ranked Liberty team last year but he was inconsistent on FG’s of all ranges last year.
Best case scenario for Monmouth against Lehigh – Win at all costs. Any kind of win is necessary for Monmouth here. Thanks to construction on their home stadium, the Jersey Hawks are a bit of a transient team this year so any kind of success against teams in their backyard – for these purposes, the northern mid-Atlantic region – will be invaluable in keeping the MU fan base engaged and their momentum remaining on the positive.
Worst case scenario for Monmouth –Lose big. MU’s first home game isn’t until 9/24 with trips to Delaware State and Kent State in between. They should beat able to beat DSU in their sleep but a loss by a wide margin to Lehigh probably also means a loss by an even wider margin to Kent. With the next two games after that both being 2015 playoff teams (Charleston Southern and Fordham), Monmouth could very quickly find themselves in a deep hole.
Gardner-Webb @ Elon – Saturday, Sept 3rd, 3:30pm (American Sports Network)
Gardner-Webb begins 2016 by rolling up I-85 to Elon in the return game from last year’s home opener hosted by the Runnin’ Bulldogs. GWU is 9-21 all-time against Elon and hasn’t beaten the Phoenix in Burlington since 1992 when the schools were conference rivals in Division II.
The last meeting between the two schools in 2015 was a game best described by neutral observers as “eventually completed”. In a game completely uninhibited by weather, neither team could get anything going offensively – both teams went 3-and-out on every drive in the 1st quarter – and the score at the halftime break was knotted at zero. Midway through the 3rd, Elon eventually took advantage of a short field thanks to a G-W turnover and got a touchdown on the board. The Bulldogs, meanwhile, futzed about on offense for 97% of the game before, finally, mounting a furious 4th-quarter comeback. With just two minutes and change on the clock, QB Tyler Maxwell drove his team the length of the field and, as time expired, tossed a 4th-and-goal pass to TE Mike Estes for the touchdown that tied the game. And I do mean the touchdown. It was their only touchdown on the night and the game ended regulation tied 7-7. In the first two overtimes, the two teams traded field goals before Elon finally found the end zone again in the third OT to go up a score. Given their chance with the ball, GWU again went nowhere. Maxwell was knocked out of the game after taking a hard hit on a pass attempt and his replacement promptly threw the game-ending interception.
That’s the kind of hype that this year’s meeting has to live up to. For the sake of the football-watching world, let us all hope it surpasses its precedent.
But, what’s all that different this time around for the Runnin’ Bulldogs? Over the course of last season, Maxwell struggled badly in head coach Carroll McCray’s offense but did occasionally show flashes of adequacy. In the offseason, however, there was a bit of an outcry from the Gardner-Webb faithful for the Bulldogs to find a viable alternative. The case for someone else may have been answered by the arrival of Ramsey Rigby, a one-semester grayshirted transfer from Troy University. Based on high school film, Rigby seems to be a dual-threat athlete much in the same vein as Maxwell so it remains to be seen how quickly he can acclimate the offensive scheme and separate himself in the quarterback competition.
What Gardner-Webb has to do against Elon: Neither team has given any indication that, schematically, they’ll be that much different than they were a year ago. In order to win this game, Gardner-Webb has to do…anything better. Or something better. Literally, any little thing they do better in any phase of the game will be progress. In 2015, the O did almost nothing and they still nearly came away with the win. This, of course, assumes that the defense is still on point. Last year’s defensive coordinator, Randall McCray –the head coach’s brother – got quite a bit of credit for the relative strength of the Bulldog defense. However, he left for Texas State in the offseason and it will be interesting to see if new DC Travis Cunningham can keep the defense going in a positive direction. On a completely unrelated note, Cunningham is the nephew of ETSU head coach Carl Torbush and both men have outstanding mustaches.
Best case scenario for Gardner-Webb – The offense scores three touchdowns, the defense holds serve and they win the game. G-W averaged just over 12 points a game last year so it’s imperative that the offense get going early in the season. Also, as we look at the rest of their schedule, if the Bulldogs hope to be favored in any of the games they have left, they have to win this one.
Worst case scenario for Gardner-Webb – The offense is, again, stuck in neutral for the entire game while the defense goes in reverse allowing Elon to put the contest away early. GWU will have to go back to the drawing board while still staring down a September slate of The Citadel, Western Carolina and Ohio U.
Kennesaw State vs. East Tennessee State – Saturday, Sept 3rd, 7:00pm (Peachtree TV)
Kennesaw opens their second-ever season of football hosting East Tennessee State, the same opponent that the Owls faced off against in their first-ever game a year ago. It was a relatively tight game until halftime but, in the second half, KSU opened up and blew ETSU’s doors off for a 56-16 win. The Owls went on to win 6 games and earned as much respect as a first-year program could expect to gain. The Buccaneers, on the other hand, went on to lose to every Division 1 and Division 3 team on the schedule. Neither team really has any history to build on here so let’s move straight to the focus.
At this writing, KSU is a 26-point favorite on 5dimes. ETSU has had a full year to mature since the last meeting so I think a nearly four-touchdown spread is extreme but I still expect the the Owls to win and win going away. KSU’s triple-option runs smoothly so long as QB Trey White is at the helm. If he’s 100% recovered from the injury that ended his part in the 2015 campaign, ETSU’s still-young defense is going to have a hard time containing him.
What Kennesaw has to do against ETSU – On offense, the Owls have to do what they do best which is run the football and eat the clock. Don’t do anything weird. KSU may have ETSU out manned but the triple-option is an offense that usually needs all three downs to get firsts and the Buccaneers head coach, Carl Torbush, is an outstanding defensive mind. If ETSU can catch a break or two and KSU tries to get cute on offense, it could get a little scary for the home team. Just get to 1-0 and save the experimental stuff for NAIA Point University the following week. On defense, contain ETSU’s rushing attack. A year ago, the Buccaneers weren’t particularly good at anything offensively but they did, at least, try to establish a ground game. If the KSU defense can force ETSU to the air where they are less productive, it plays right into the hands of the KSU offense.
Best case scenario for Kennesaw – Win, get younger players (well, they’re nearly all younger so younger-er players) some reps and move on.
Worst case scenario – Lose the game. I don’t say that lightly. KSU can overcome injuries but losing to a team they throttled a year ago could be devastating to a young team. Yes, KSU only has Point on deck for Week 2 but Duquesne and Furman are lined up right behind them. At no point in its short history has the KSU program ever had a losing record and going into conference play below .500 is not a position the Owls want to be in.