FCS Weekly Thread

If the playoffs were to start this week, using no bids and just polls this would be the bracket. Teams with stars beside them are the automatic qualifiers, by winning conferences. I know there will be a huge complaints, see if the peanut gallery can find it and being so it makes it a true NCAA bracket.

Weber St @ Northern Arizona*, winner plays 1. James Madison*
San Diego* @ South Dakota St, winner plays 8. Wofford*
McNeese @ Western Illinois, winner plays 4. Central Arkansas*
Kennesaw St* @ Stony Brook, winner plays 5. Sam Houston St
Villanova @ Southern Utah, winner plays 2. North Dakota St*
Lehigh* @ Eastern Washington, winner plays 7. Elon
New Hampshire @ Samford, winner plays 3. Jacksonville St
Duquesne* @ Illinois St, winner plays 6. South Dakota

Video Highlights from McNeese at UCA

Individual leaders:


Rushing Yards Per Game
1 Josh Mack, Maine (Colonial) 139.9
2 Malcolm Summers, Elon (Colonial) 125.8
3 Daniel Smith, Campbell (Pioneer) 112.4
4 De'Lance Turner, Alcorn (Southwestern) 111.8
5 Dominick Bragalone, Lehigh (Patriot) 107.9

Rushing Yards
1 Josh Mack, Maine (Colonial) 979
2 Daniel Smith, Campbell (Pioneer) 899
3 De'Lance Turner, Alcorn (Southwestern) 894
4 Tucker Yinger, Dayton (Pioneer) 876
5 Dominick Bragalone, Lehigh (Patriot) 863

Passing Yards Per Game
1 Kyle Lauletta, Richmond (Colonial) 369.1
2 Brad Mayes, Lehigh (Patriot) 341.5
3 Jeremiah Briscoe, Sam Houston St. (Southland) 335.0
4 Jake Maier, UC Davis (Big Sky) 334.4
5 Gage Gubrud, Eastern Wash. (Big Sky) 332.3


Passing Yards
1 Kyle Lauletta, Richmond (Colonial) 2,953
2 Brad Mayes, Lehigh (Patriot) 2,732
3 Jeremiah Briscoe, Sam Houston St. (Southland) 2,680
4 Jake Maier, UC Davis (Big Sky) 2,675
5 Gage Gubrud, Eastern Wash. (Big Sky) 2,658

Passing Efficiency
1 Hayden Hildebrand, Central Ark. (Southland) 184.5
2 Lamar Raynard, N.C. A&T (Mid-Eastern) 180.4
3 P.J. Blazejowski, Furman (Southern) 179.7
4 Tommy Stuart, Duquesne (Northeast) 172.8
5 Chad Kanoff, Princeton (Ivy League) 168.0

Total Offense
1 Kyle Lauletta, Richmond (Colonial) 375.5
2 Gage Gubrud, Eastern Wash. (Big Sky) 353.1
3 Chris Streveler, South Dakota (MVFC) 349.4
4 Devlin Hodges, Samford (Southern) 342.5
5 Brad Mayes, Lehigh (Patriot) 341.6


Receiving Yards Per Game
1 Keelan Doss, UC Davis (Big Sky) 140.1
2 Elijah Marks, Northern Ariz. (Big Sky) 135.0
3 Jaelon Acklin, Western Ill. (MVFC) 125.3
4 Nathan Stewart, Sam Houston St. (Southland) 124.6
5 Jesper Horsted, Princeton (Ivy League) 120.7

Receptions Per Game
1 Keelan Doss, UC Davis (Big Sky) 10.0
2 Jesper Horsted, Princeton (Ivy League) 9.3
3 Kelvin McKnight, Samford (Southern) 8.4
4 Troy Pelletier, Lehigh (Patriot) 8.3
5 Neil O'Connor, New Hampshire (Colonial) 7.9

Receiving Yards
1 Keelan Doss, UC Davis (Big Sky) 1,121
2 Jaelon Acklin, Western Ill. (MVFC) 1,002
3 Nathan Stewart, Sam Houston St. (Southland) 997
4 Elijah Marks, Northern Ariz. (Big Sky) 945
5 Neil O'Connor, New Hampshire (Colonial) 936


Scoring
1 Lance Dunn, North Dakota St. (MVFC) 11.1
2 Trey Tuttle, Weber St. (Big Sky) 9.1
3 Dominick Bragalone, Lehigh (Patriot) 9.0
- Davion Davis, Sam Houston St. (Southland) 9.0
- Charles Volker, Princeton (Ivy League) 9.0

Points Responsible For
1 Kyle Lauletta, Richmond (Colonial) 168
2 Chris Streveler, South Dakota (MVFC) 162
3 Gage Gubrud, Eastern Wash. (Big Sky) 158
4 Taryn Christion, South Dakota St. (MVFC) 156
- Tommy Stuart, Duquesne (Northeast) 156

Interceptions Per Game
1 D'Montre Wade, Murray St. (OVC) 0.7
2 10 players tied 0.6


Passes Defended
1 Dylan Mabin, Fordham (Patriot) 2.0
2 Tremon Smith, Central Ark. (Southland) 1.9
3 Elijah Campbell, UNI (MVFC) 1.9
4 Phillip Parham, Lafayette (Patriot) 1.8
- Shufon Alcorn, Ark.-Pine Bluff (Southwestern) 1.8

Sacks
1 Matthew Oplinger, Yale (Ivy League) 1.36
2 Jonathan Petersen, San Diego (Pioneer) 1.13
3 La'Allan Clark, Grambling (Southwestern) 1.07
4 George Obinna, Sacramento St. (Big Sky) 1.06
5 3 players tied 1.00

Punting
1 Joe Zema, Incarnate Word (Southland) 46.6
2 Fidel Romo Martinez, Delaware St. (Mid-Eastern) 45.7
3 Keith Wrzuszczak, Eastern Ky. (OVC) 45.6
4 Austin Barnard, Samford (Southern) 45.5
5 Ian Berryman, Western Caro. (Southern) 44.7


Kickoff Returns
1 Juwan Petit-Frere, Southeastern La. (Southland) 36.3
2 Desmond Hite, Incarnate Word (Southland) 32.8
3 Peyton Logan, UT Martin (OVC) 30.4
4 Khris Gardin, N.C. A&T (Mid-Eastern) 29.9
5 L.J. Scott, Eastern Ky. (OVC) 29.5

Punt Returns
1 Justice Shelton-Mosley, Harvard (Ivy League) 23.1
2 Danny Johnson, Southern U. (Southwestern) 20.4
3 Xequille Harry, Weber St. (Big Sky) 18.8
4 Kamau Dumas, Monmouth (Big South) 16.4
5 Chandler Curtis, Mercer (Southern) 15.4

Field Goals Per Game
1 Trey Tuttle, Weber St. (Big Sky) 2.00
2 Reid Taubenheim, North Dakota (Big Sky) 1.67
3 Sean Slattery, Illinois St. (MVFC) 1.63
4 Matt Cummins, Central Ark. (Southland) 1.57
- Uriel Hernandez, Bethune-Cookman (Mid-Eastern) 1.57


All Purpose
1 Elijah Marks, Northern Ariz. (Big Sky) 184.29
2 John Santiago, North Dakota (Big Sky) 166.11
3 Jean Constant, Bryant (Northeast) 160.25
4 Josh Mack, Maine (Colonial) 160.14
5 Jaelon Acklin, Western Ill. (MVFC) 150.25

Total Tackles
1 Brett Taylor, Western Ill. (MVFC) 14.8
2 Brandon Bryant, Lafayette (Patriot) 13.6
3 Garrett Dolan, Houston Baptist (Southland) 12.4
4 Darius Leonard, South Carolina St. (Mid-Eastern) 11.9
5 Nate Hatalsky, Albany (NY) (Colonial) 11.1

Tackles For Loss
1 Malachi Washington, Morgan St. (Mid-Eastern) 1.9
- Darius Jackson, Jacksonville St. (OVC) 1.9
3 Jalyn Williams, Prairie View (Southwestern) 1.9
4 Darin Greenfield, South Dakota (MVFC) 1.9
5 P. J. Hall, Sam Houston St. (Southland) 1.8

McNeese sucks.

Thing is the SLC has 2 top 5 teams so it may happen but I do not think it McNeese based on the Head to Head, which is why I called my bracket stupid. Not as stupid as Nicholls being unranked though.

But McNeese is not the really stupid thing in my bracket, but it is part of it.


Remember, I just go off rankings no more no less and just use as of now.

I underestimated how good of a coach Matt Viator was.

I still have hope for Lance but he's on track to be 0 for 2 on playoff appearances. At the same time that's all I have to go on I don't keep up with recruiting or what shape Matt left the program in.

Bring back Tommy fricking Tate!

quote:

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I still have hope for Lance but he's on track to be 0 for 2 on playoff appearances.

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Just can't use this as a comparison between Lance and Matt. The Southland was a lot "softer" when Matt took over at McNeese. SELU was just joining the league and had only been playing football for a few years, UCA hadn't even joined the league in 2006, and Sam was not the perennial powerhouse that they are now. There was also ZERO competion for recruits in SETX, as Lamar was not playing football. It's hard to measure what effect that has had on McNeese, but it undoubtesly has. Before Lamar came back, McNeese was the "home team" for anyone that wasn't going to go play FBS football and wanted to stay close to home. McNeese was also "The Name" in the Southland.

Things have changed dramatically in the Southland since Matt took over in 2006. It's just not the same league, and to think anyone is going to go to playoffs consistently at McNeese is just too lofty an expectation right now. Hell, Viator wasn't even doing it consistently. He went 3 times in his first 4 years, then not again until his 8th year, and then in his last year.

As much as many McNeese fans want to believe it, McNeese isn't the standard bearer in the Southland anymore. There are some who think everyone else views us as their "Super Bowl". Don't see how we can be anyone's Super Bowl when we haven't been relevant on the FCS landscape in 15 years.

I want for Lance to be successful, win championships, and get to the playoffs. But if he can't do better than his predecessor in the playoffs, then it's no better than not winning the conference. Other SLC teams are having success in the playoffs. We can't keep going one and done when we get there. I'd almost rather go 9-2 and miss the playoffs than go 11-0 and get stomped in the 1st/2nd round.

2015 was like taking a knife to the gut when we lost to Sam in the playoffs after beating them 3 weeks earlier.

Players of the Week announcements:

NATIONAL OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Taryn Christion, South Dakota State, QB, Jr. 6-2, 220, Sioux Falls, South Dakota

NATIONAL DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Thomas Costigan, Bryant, LB, Jr., 6-3, 230, Stamford, Connecticut

NATIONAL SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Kyran Moore, Austin Peay, RS/WR, Sr., 5-10, 160, Bessemer, Alabama

NATIONAL FRESHMAN PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Zane Dudek, Yale, RB, Fr., 5-9, 190, Kittanning, Pennsylvania