There’s a lot to talk about after Week 4.
Idaho and Abilene Christian battled down in Texas, and it lived up to its billing as two of the better FCS teams matched wits. The Vandals – truly one of the top teams at this level this year, were challenged by the Wildcats. Not too many years ago, ACU didn’t challenge top-half teams in the Southland Conference. Things have changed. It was a three-point win for Idaho. Keep in mind, this is an Abilene Christian team that took P4 Texas Tech to overtime earlier this season. Don’t be deceived by the 2-2 record – it easily could be 4-0.
This game was just one big example of what happened in the FCS universe during Week 4.
Here are some of the FCS highlights of the weekend.
THE HEADLINE:
The elite FCS teams are still pretty well intact. The Montana powers are still doing their thing, though the Griz up in Missoula seem to have a few more problems than the ‘Cats down in Bozeman. But still? Montana would beat more than 95 percent of the FCS. MSU? It might be good enough this year with that QB, that O-line, and many, many other aspects of this team … well, it might be good enough to win it all. Does anyone doubt that?
The Dakota 4? Let’s just label it that way from here on. We’ve had a ton of movement in the FCS over the past several years. Previous FCS powers like James Madison (sorry, Tar Heels), Jacksonville State, Sam Houston, Kennesaw, Liberty, Coastal Carolina, Appalachian State, Georgia Southern, you name it – they’ve all had their moments at the FBS level. Located primarily in the south? They’re gone.
That has left the FCS for schools that reside in the Dakotas and Montana to dominate, and they have. Right now, you can make an argument that all six schools in Montana and the Dakotas are clearly Top 10 programs. So far the results seem to support that. What an interesting dynamic, eh?
BIGGEST SURPRISES
Who are we kidding? This is easy. Monmouth nabbed the FCS’ fifth FBS win of 2024.
Monmouth (2-2) rallied in the second half to pick up a 45-42 FBS win down in Miami on Saturday. The victim? Florida International. Down 14-0 early, then 28-21 at the half, Gavin Nelson caught a 4-yard touchdown pass from Derek Robertson early in the third quarter and then Rodney Nelson’s 59-yard scoring run with about 4 minutes remaining in the third knotted things up.
The game was tied going into the fourth quarter and a 43-yard field goal by Michael Calton with under two minutes remaining broke the tie. It was the school’s first FBS win. The Hawks have been close before, but never pulled it off.
“Just an awesome, awesome win. First and foremost, I am so happy for the players on our team; they really believed and knew we were going to have to play a full 60 minutes, and it went right down to the last 30 seconds before we pulled it out,” Monmouth coach Kevin Callahan said after the game.
“There were some times where maybe it didn’t look like we were going to come away with the win as they were driving at the end of the game and we were able to strip the ball at the one-yard line and get it back. It just shows there’s no quit in this team, they are going to play the entire game until there are zeros on the clock and we got a great result tonight.”
POLL EFFECT?
Once again, there won’t be a ton of movement within the top 10. But there will be movement in the No. 11 through No. 25 realm.
SEMO’s win over Southern Illinois will be a mover, but we’ll talk more about that in the Top 25 piece in about a day. Mercer, Illinois State, and William & Mary had quality wins – to name a few.
Now that the Ivy League teams have entered the fray, it’s hard not to be impressed with Columbia’s win over Patriot League power Lafayette. Yale’s win over Holy Cross is another impressive result, while Harvard and Brown also posted wins in their first games. Lehigh’s win over Princeton and Penn’s loss to Delaware were rather profound.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
We are heading into the conference play realm here soon. The warmup games and pay games will be over and the ones that count most will be on. The weather is changing, and so is the FCS schedule.
