Welcome to the HERO Sports FCS Mailbag. In partnership with FCS Football Fans Nation, we'll ask for questions with a post on their Facebook page and our senior staff members Brian McLaughlin and Sam Herder will provide answers. You can also tweet them some questions.
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Adam Willey – What’s some big games to be looking at this week?
Brian: I have a couple of big ones, but I'll admit this weekend's slate isn't as deep with "big games" as last week or next week. The Citadel at Elon, if it isn't directly affected by the Hurricane, is a big one for both these teams. They both played good FCS teams last week and lost by a few, and neither team wants to be handed another FCS non-conference loss because it could have playoff implications. SEMO and Montana State has that feel too, and I think Central Arkansas-Austin Peay and North Alabama-Montana are also fascinating FCS matchups. As for FBS games, don't count out Maine at Ga. Southern (even with the injury news with Maine's stud Deshawn Stevens). Also, Furman may give Georgia State fits, even with Ga. State coming off the win at Rocky Top. Lastly, could Eastern Kentucky give Louisville fits like it did to Kentucky in the past two seasons and like it did the two MAC schools last year?
Sam: The biggest one for me is SEMO at Montana State. Two playoff teams from last year and two ranked teams. I think this is a great chance for SEMO to have an eye-opening win on its playoff resume. Meanwhile, MSU does not want to start 0-2. And this game nationally might not catch a lot of people's attention, but regionally, the UND at NDSU game is interesting to me. I want to see what Trey Lance does against a solid defense. And I want to see if UND has closed the talent gap on NDSU since the 2015 game that really wasn't competitive at all.
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Lawrence Smith – Is SELA’s upset of JSU amplified or diminished by the nature of it being Week One? In other words, does the timing of the game let JSU off the hook, or make SELA’s performance that much more impressive?
Brian: Jacksonville State could rebound, yes. That's always possible. That's often a topic of discussion in the FBS realm too … the team that comes into the postseason hottest has the potential to erase the memory of something bad that happened in August. I think it does also make SE Louisiana's win more impressive and it works the same way … only if the Lions fall apart down the stretch does it erase the memory? Clear as mud?
Sam: Week 1 upsets are always tough. It's easy to point to the No. 6 team losing rather than giving SE Louisiana the credit it deserves. We saw early last year that a lot of people had NC A&T as a Top 10 FCS team. But then the Aggies went on to lose to Morgan State in late September. JSU was in people's doghouse after that loss to NC A&T. The Gamecocks still rebounded and won the OVC's auto-bid and got a playoff win. I think what this Week 1 win does is put SE Louisiana on our radar as a potential playoff team and it puts JSU back in the discussion as a playoff team, but not yet a national title contender. I do think if this loss happened later in the year and JSU was ranked No. 6, people would be giving SE Louisiana more credit.
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Greg Gardner – Which team surprised you the most this past week?
Brian: I was impressed with North Alabama. UNA is very new to the FCS ranks and gave Western Illinois, a recently strong MVFC team, all it could handle. That was a big one. Also, how about last year's 1-10 team Tennessee Tech knocking off Samford in overtime? If that's not a step forward for the Golden Eagles, I don't know what is. And in a negative sense, I was blown away by the Jacksonville State and Wofford losses. Those two programs look so much better than they performed over the weekend, but hey … there's a lot of season back.
Sam: I have to go with South Carolina State. I did not see a win against Wofford coming at all. It was one of those games you glance at in the slate of games and not think much of. That was the most surprising result.
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Jamie Williams – Which almost upset surprised you most: Norfolk State, Houston Baptist or Alabama State?
Brian: I'll go with Houston Baptist. The program has been pushing hard to get the ball rolling under Vic Shealy and the near win over UTEP was a shining example of where this program can go. I spent 20 minutes in Houston getting to talk to Shealy and two of his stud players and came away thinking this program isn't going to be stuck at 1-10 forever.
Sam: I'll say Norfolk State. The reason is that I remember tuning into the JMU-Norfolk State game last year and thinking just how far away and non-competitive the Spartans were. It was 17-0 in the first quarter before getting canceled due to weather. For them to compete against an FBS team, even if Old Dominion went 4-8 last year, was impressive.
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Ben Schleiger – If you were to pick three dark horse teams to surprise us this year, based off Week 1, who would be in your trio? Dark horse as in not slated to make playoffs, but now has the hope to do so.
Brian: At this point, I'll go with Mercer, Southeastern Louisiana and Northern Iowa. I'll admit we weren't talking about these three all that much in the preseason, but they all had impressive showings in Week 1 and we'll continue to keep an eye on them moving forward.
Sam: I'll say SE Louisiana for obvious reasons. Indiana State — although it was 50/50 that some people thought could make the playoffs — after the Sycamores almost knocked off Kansas. And it's hard for me to find a third one that Brian didn't already use, so I'll go with Mercer here too. That's a program to keep an eye on in a competitive SoCon race.
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Jacob Martinez – It seems to me that a lot of FCS fans view FCS schools scheduling D2 opponents the same way that FBS fans view teams scheduling FCS opponents. Do you think there is any significant difference, and do FCS schools gain as much of a benefit (relative to payout) from those lower tier games as the FBS does?
Brian: I think in order to not be a hypocrite, you can't blast an FCS team for scheduling a lower division team after saying FBS teams should "give an FCS team a chance". I do think there should be consequences … like a win over a lower level team not counting toward playoff consideration. But telling a team who to schedule? That's un-American man! If the program understands the consequences, let them schedule who they want to.
Sam: The main difference for me is an FCS beating a non-D1 team hurts their playoff resume. So if you're routinely in the playoff hunt, you should not schedule non-D1 opponents. Meanwhile, an FBS team beating an FCS program counts toward their record when it comes to being considered for a bowl game. So it's not a huge deal when FBS teams look to FCS opponents when trying to fill out their schedules. Should the Alabamas and Clemsons of the world be scheduling FCS teams? Probably not. But lower-tier P5 teams and all of the G5 teams should still look to the FCS for games, in my opinion.
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