Well here we are, heading into the third week of the FCS season (fourth week if you consider the four-game ‘Week Zero’ a week, but I don’t consider Coke Zero a Coke, so we’ll go ahead and call this weekend ‘Week Three).
Here’s a question: How many of the 11 FCS teams that are currently 2-0 be 3-0 by late Saturday night? The answer: Four definitely will, four more might be, and three definitely have the odds stacked against them.
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Here’s a look at the 11 FCS teams going for 3-0 this weekend:
NOTE: North Dakota State, Western Illinois, Sam Houston State and Wofford are 2-0 but are off this weekend.
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DEFINITELY GOING TO BE 3-0 SATURDAY NIGHT
JAMES MADISON (hosts Norfolk State) – Things are going about the way we expected for the Dukes, but conference action ramps up the next three weeks. Hey ESPN Gameday, you keeping an eye on this?
SOUTH DAKOTA STATE (hosts Drake) – Can I just copy what I typed above with JMU? Things are going as expected in Brookings, too. Another big non-conference win lies ahead this weekend before SDSU hits the treacherous Valley slate.
NEW HAMPSHIRE (at Holy Cross) – Fresh off its FBS win over Georgia Southern, the Wildcats are flying high and looking good as usual. Not only that, UNH should be 5-0 going into its mid-October road game against a good Stony Brook team.
THE CITADEL (at ETSU) – The Bulldogs are amongst the nation’s leaders in rushing, as usual. They’re tough to stop. ETSU continues to build its program back and won’t roll over, but The Citadel should handle its business in style this weekend.
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50/50 CHANCE TO BE 3-0 SATURDAY NIGHT
SOUTH DAKOTA (hosts North Dakota) – The Coyotes are one of the most intriguing FCS programs two weeks in. They’ve been impressive, and a win in this one makes them clearly a Top 10 team in the nation. But the Fighting Hawks are one of the Big Sky’s best.
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TENNESSEE STATE (at FAMU) – Had a tough time classifying this one, as TSU is on the edge of being a lock for 3-0, but FAMU appears to have a spark in the program and this one is in Florida.
ST. FRANCIS-PA (vs. Towson) – The Red Flashes have been impressive the past two seasons, but Towson is a candidate for one of the most improved teams in the FCS. The Tigers on paper look like too much for St. Francis, but who knows? Kamron Lewis and Malik Duncan at SFU certainly would disagree with this assessment.
MONMOUTH (at Albany) – Monmouth is certainly off to a nice start and all of a sudden looks like a legitimate threat in the Big South. But along with Towson mentioned above, Albany is a candidate for one of the biggest bounceback candidates in the FCS this year.
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NOT LOOKING GOOD FOR 3-0:
SAMFORD (at Georgia): Let’s face it, as good as Samford is this year, the Georgia Bulldogs are still the Georgia Bulldogs. One thing to keep an eye on? Samford QB Devlin Hodges getting to show what he can do on the SEC Network. He is one of the top QBs in the FCS and he’ll be fun to watch ‘Between the Hedges’, and he will surely give Kirby Smart headaches.
SACRED HEART (at Stony Brook): The problem here is not with Sacred Heart, which looks like a threat for the Northeast Conference title this year. The problem is that Stony Brook is still growling over last year’s head scratching blowout loss at Sacred Heart. Really can’t see that happening again.
NORTH CAROLINA A&T (at Charlotte): Had a tough time categorizing this one because the Aggies beat an FBS team last year (Kent State) and the 49ers haven’t exactly been one of the strongest FBS teams since moving up. The truth is though, Charlotte has dominated the lone FCS team on its schedule each of the past two seasons.
