In round one of the FCS playoffs, SE Louisiana (9-3, 5-1) “slipped” by the Idaho Vandals last week, 45-42. UI PK Ricardo Chavez misfired wide left as he slipped attempting a 39-yard FG with six ticks left to tie the score at 45. In a fight to the finish won by the No. 23 FCS Lions over No. 24, we expect them to battle like this once again against Southern Conference champ Samford. The sixth-seeded Bulldogs (10-1) host SE LA at Seibert Stadium in Homewood, Alabama for our Week Fourteen. Despite Samford’s only loss coming to FBS No. 1 Georgia, 33-0, they have not overwhelmed many FCS opponents. Their last outing resulted in a 50-44 2-OT win over a potent Mercer team. Expect this game to finish in similar fashion.
How ‘bout these Dawgs?
These Bulldogs average 33.55 ppg while allowing 23.82. Samford relies primarily on a passing attack led by QB Michael Heirs who’s passed for 3,290 yards and 35 TDs. WRs Chandler Smith (892 yards, 10 TDs) and Kendall Watson (851 yards and 10 TDs) perform as equally favored targets. Jay Slaton leads the running game with 680 yards. Jaylon Thomas ran for more TDs with seven. LB Noah Martin leads the defense with 80 tackles including six TFLs.
However, stats indicate surprisingly low success on pressuring QBs. They totaled 14 sacks, 30 hurries, and 10 INTs. Samford HC Chris Hatcher, 1994 Harlon Hill recipient at Valdosta State, leads this program for his 11th season. He carries a record of 171-94 as a college HC of 22 years over 23 seasons.
A two QB system that works
Southland Conference co-champ SE Louisiana uses a diverse offensive scheme. Two starting QBs have seen similar playing time. QB Eli Sawyer and Cephus Johnson III both have played in 11 and 12 games respectively. Sawyer has thrown for 1,605 yard and 11 TDS. Johnson totals 1,354 yards through the air. He’s also the second leading rusher on the team with 488 yards and five TDs. Carlos Washington leads all rushers with 627 yards and 13 scores. The receiving corps includes six targets with 211 yards or more on the season. WR Gage Lavardain leads in yardage with 637 while TE Ivan Drobocky leads all Lion receivers with six TDs.
HC Frank Scelfo’s defense features three LBs, Donte’ Daniels, Hermann Christophe, and Anthony Britton, Jr. along with DB Jack Henderson. All total over 70 stops this season. Defensively, the unit recorded 21 sacks and 16 picks this season. They will look to bring pressure on Heirs during Week Fourteen. Again, this will turn out to be a very close game. We’re looking for the upset here. Scelfo has led the Lions to a 34-22 during his five years in Hammond.
Week Fourteen Conference Championship outlooks
Heading into Week Fourteen, collegefootballfan.com has seen our fair share of conference and division leaders. No. 1 Georgia (12-0, 8-0) heads into the SEC championship game to hold off LSU (9-3, 6-2). Georgia’s defense will dominate to win this, but LSU presents one of the better defenses in the SEC UGA has not faced this year. the score will be similar to what we saw when The Dawgs beat Kentucky, 16-6.
In the Big Ten, No. 2 Michigan plays unranked Purdue (8-4, 6-3) who we saw open the season versus Penn State in a 35-31 loss. The Boilermakers won the west among a bunch of teams who couldn’t figure out who could win. We think the Boilers will be coming in fired up for this one behind QB Aidan O’Connell. O’Connell will be returning from the funeral of his older brother this week. His teammates expect that he will play. The emotions could stir the Boilers for a while in this one. In the end, Michigan will wear Purdue down for the win to move on to the CFP. They have an axe to grind with Georgia based on last year’s CFP outcome.
ACC plays for Orange Bowl Bid
With losses to end their seasons, the game between No. 9 Clemson (10-2, 9-0) and No. 24 North Carolina (9-3, 7-2) lost a lot of luster. Before week Twelve, both lost only to Notre Dame. Clemson fell to a red-hot South Carolina offense last Saturday, 31-30. The Tar Heels lost to Georgia Tech (5-7, 4-4) and NC State (8-4, 4-4) to finish their season in two close losses. Clemson will be ready for a shoot-out with QB Drake May. This will be high-scoring and close with the Tigers’ pride taking over since not making the CFP this year.
UTSA and Troy featured in finales
UTSA (10-2, 8-0) faces North Texas (7-5, 6-2) for the Conference USA title as both bid farewell to this conference before moving on to the American Athletic next season. The Road Runners defeated the Mean Green at home earlier, 31-27. NTSU will have a revenge factor here playing at The Alamo Dome. A loss to UAB two weeks ago and a close win over Rice could indicate they were looking forward to this one.
Troy (10-2, 7-1) should apply the hammer to Coastal Carolina (9-2, 6-2) who lost star QB Grayson McCall a few weeks ago. Coastal got blasted without him by James Madison last week, 44-7. The shame of it is, however, is that JMU (8-3, 6-2) tied CCU for first in the Sun Belt East. For Week Fourteen, this matchup would draw much more interest to the improving Sun Belt.
Why is this a rule?
However, because of a “stupid” rule precluding JMU from competing for the conference title because this is their first year in the FBS Sun Belt, the Dukes can’t play in the championship game. Under the circumstances, JMU playing Troy would be a much better game now. Troy played well when we saw them defeat Western Kentucky in a comeback this year. We saw the Dukes fall to Louisville. This demonstrated that they need to build more depth to play more competitively at the Power Five level. We believe that they will get there.
A waiver? Why?
With all the bowl games now (41), the geniuses that run the NCAA have to figure how to fill all the bowl commitments because not enough teams became bowl eligible with six wins. Five must be against FBS opponents. Sorry Army, if you beat Navy, your sixth win is only your fourth FBS because you defeated Villanova and Bucknell. Like the Midshipman like to sing, “…we just play Holy Cross, ‘cause that’s the fearless Army way!”
In the meantime, 5-6 New Mexico State added FCS Valparaiso in Week Fourteen to replace a regretful cancellation of a previous game vs San Jose State due to the death of a player. NMSU already has a win against FCS Lamar. A win over Valpo would still only give them four FBS wins. But they can petition the NCAA for a waiver?
Waiver? Wait a minute
NMSU can apply for a waiver? How about someone taking a look at aforementioned 8-3 James Madison. This deserving team has to sit outside the bowl season looking in only because they exceeded everybody’s expectations in their first season. Others like Rice at 5-7 will be consider due to APR. That’s an honorable consideration, but why are teams with five or six wins being considered over a very viable eight-win JMU team with a good APR? Seems like an easy waiver decision here.
Let the best compete before making exceptions. 5-6 Rutgers replacing Texas A&M last year against 11-2 Wake Forest in the Gator Bowl was not only an embarrassment, but a slap in the face to a competitive team who deserved this bowl last season. Winning, fairly, should be every team’s goal to get into a bowl game. TV money should not be the priority for college athletics, but that seems to be what it’s only about now.
The waiting games
Aside from the championship games and Army-Navy the following weekend, no other games will be played that impact all the other bowls to be played. We await word to find out what teams will be fulfilling the bowl games we plan to see this year: The Ticket Smarter Birmingham Bowl, the Auto Zone Liberty Bowl, and the TransPerfect Music City Bowl (we’re begging that without much offense, that Iowa’s not in it). In the meantime, we list here all the bowl eligible teams we watched perform this season:
Georgia (12-0) , Ohio State (11-1), Alabama (10-2), Penn State (10-2), Clemson (10-2), UTSA (10-2), Troy (10-2), James Madison (8-3)*, Purdue (8-4), South Carolina (8-4), Texas (8-4), Western Kentucky (8-5), Houston (7-5), Kentucky (7-5), Louisville (7-5), Middle Tennessee (7-5)**, Wake Forest (7-5), Baylor (6-6), Louisiana (6-6), Utah State(6-6). *JMU (see “waiver” above); ** Middle Tennessee heads to EasyPost Hawai’i Bowl vs. San Diego State (7-5) on December 24. Aloha Blue Raiders!
Bottom Ten
We are happy to report that Collegefootballfan.com did not see one of the bottom feeders listed play this season. There have been seasons that we had multiple teams in this category on our slate. No team we saw this year including two FCS schools had fewer than four wins. Austin Peay finished 7-4 and Eastern Kentucky went 7-5. Surely that is a record year for us.
Twelve in 2024
Seems like the CFP Committee leveraged its TV money position to get the Rose Bowl to rescind its demands to always have a Rose Bowl TV slot at 1 pm PST to show the “Grandaddy of them all”. We hate to see traditions die as they have been falling by the wayside these past five years or so. However, we like the CFP expansion and that it’s going to happen earlier. More teams the better! Hopefully recruits will consider opportunities beyond the traditional handful of participants to play for. Spread the wealth of talent from a fan’s perspective.
We hope to see some tightening up of conference schedules eliminating games against FCS schools, less use of transfer portals, and more equality in the NIL opportunities. Most likely this won’t happen, but hopefully there will be more “rich” teams in the future. When that happens, the FBS will finally separate into two official bowl subdivisions – one for the Power Five and one for the current Group of Five.
We foresee this as minimizing player opt-outs for bowl season by hopefully eliminating some excess non-value-added bowl games. Maybe, they’ll just let every team who wants an extra game play in a ”consolation” game. Finally, a step hopefully in the right direction regarding the CFP. Either way, more changes will be made. For the better? Not sure.
FCS: No. 1-8 seeds enter playoffs in Week Fourteen
Aside from No. 6 Samford vs SE Louisiana we will be attending, other key FCS games include No. 1 seed South Dakota State (10-1) hosting Delaware (8-4). Weber State (10-2) will visit No. 4 Montana State (10-1). Defending champ and No. 3 seed North Dakota State (9-2) hosts Montana (8-4). The winner of this game will play the winner of our game. Furman (10-2) travels to No. 7 Incarnate Word (10-1). No. 2 overall Sacramento State (11-0) hosts Richmond (9-3), a 41-0 winner over Pioneer champ Davidson.
D2: Week Fourteen could be “Big Revenge Week”
Three of this week’s four Super Region quarterfinal games make for a very exciting week. These matchups consist of teams that battled in very competitive regular season games. This week should be fun! No. 1 East seed Indiana U of Pennsylvania (9-1) hosts Shepherd (WV). In a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference game, the Crimson Hawks defeated the Rams (11-1), 24-21. Midwest Regional action sees No. 1 Grand Valley State (11-0) hosting Ferris State (10-1). In their Great Lakes Intercollegiate game, GVSU defeated Ferris for their only loss which was on the road , 22-21.
Out in the West, No. 1 Angelo State (11-0) hosts Colorado School of Mines (9-2). In previous, non-conference action, Angelo State hosts the Ore Diggers a second time after defeating them, 30-27. This is a great playoff weekend in D2. You have to love that CSM. They lost two tight, non-conference games to two teams also in the playoffs (GVSU the other). Then they beat all foes in their Rocky Mountain Conference to make the playoffs. In the Southern Super Region game, No. 1 seed Benedict (11-0) of the Southern Intercollegiate hosts Wingate (9-2) of the South Atlantic. For Benedict, they made the D2 playoffs for the first time ever.
Eight teams square off in D3 Quarter finals in Week Fourteen
Perennial champ Mount Union (12-0) hosts Delaware Valley, also 12-0. The Purple Raiders and the Aggies have not met in the playoffs over many years of success. Defense during the regular season marked the forte of both programs. Del Val allowed 6.5 ppg while MU opponents averaged 7.1 during all 12 games. Last week, Randolph-Macon scored much higher against DV in their loss, 35-32. North Central (Ill) and Ithaca also meet with unblemished 12-0 records.
Defending champ Mary Hardin-Baylor (11-1) should best 10-2 Bethel (MN). Undefeated Wartburg hosts surprising lower seed Aurora (11-1) after two road wins in their two playoff games. The semis will be played the following weekend and the championship Stagg Bowl will be held in Annapolis, Maryland the following Friday night. Hopefully, FBS playoffs starting in 2-24 will be as competitive as these lower-level, postseason tourney formats.
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Ed. by Steve Koreivo, Author of Tales from the Tailgate: From the Fan who’s seen ‘em all! If you like our stories, read all our tales when we saw all 120 FBS teams (at the time of publication) play for the first time. Or, start thinking Christmas gifts for your favorite college football fans! We also encourage you and whoever you buy for to submit a review for us. Please click on the title or copy of the cover on our right sidebar to go to our Amazon page to buy and review. Thanks!
