Welcome to the HERO Sports FCS Mailbag. In partnership with FCS Football Fans Nation, we will ask for questions with a post on their Facebook page every Sunday and our FCS crew of Brian McLaughlin and Sam Herder will give in-depth answers with these Thursday articles.
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Adam Willey – Who do you think will be the next leader of the Bison?
Sam: My potential candidates can be found here. And I have reason to believe NDSU DC Matt Entz and Wyoming OC Brent Vigen are the Top 2 candidates with Tim Polasek's name also in the mix.
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Matt Styles – With the early signing period coming up in a week, who are the teams which have benefited and will continue to benefit the most from recent recruiting classes going into the future?
Brian: Honestly, if I'm reading the question right Matt, I think FCS schools in general benefit greatly from the early signing period because it protects their recruits from the 11th hour P5 vultures. Every program has its pecking order "board", and many times a recruit that a strong FCS program covets is buried at No. 3 or No. 4 on a P5's board. But if the P5 doesn't get that No. 1 or No. 2 and it's a week away from the February signing period opening up, that's when the P5 vultures begin circling. The early signing period helps all the FCS programs, I think. Not sure if that completely answers your question, but I hope it does.
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Alexander Peterson – Who is your underdog team that could win Friday or Saturday? (SDSU or Maine) and the likely outcomes of the games?
Brian: You'll see in our predictions column that I went with both SDSU and Maine. Why? Because I don't really think we're dealing with massive "underdogs" at all this weekend. That may contradict what the betting lines say, but that's just my take. I think with the possible distractions of a coaching change in Fargo and the fact Maine's defense is so strong — I think these factors make these two games tossups.
Sam: It honestly wouldn't surprise me if both Maine and SDSU won. But I do think Maine has a better chance to win on the road than SDSU, but not by much. The Jacks match up so well with NDSU and Maine matches up well with EWU. As far as the outcomes, Brian and I made our predictions here.
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Matt Petznick – So far this NDSU team has been pretty comparable to the 2013 team.. Will see similar SemiFinal (52-14) & Championship (35-7) scores?
Brian: I'm going to say no. I truly don't know exactly how NDSU handles the coaching change situation. It just happened this week, and it can have an emotional (and distracting) effect. On the flip side, this program is senior-laden and more mature than most, so maybe it doesn't mess up the Bison momentum. Those are questions I'm really curious about. Distraction can lead to mistakes, and this is not a round nor an opponent where you're going to want to have a lot of mistakes. If NDSU plays crisp? There's no way South Dakota State wins this game Friday, and yeah, it could even get ugly. But my take? The coaching change will be at least somewhat distracting, and we get a toss-up nailbiter that can go either way.
Sam: Would it shock me if a motivated NDSU team defeated SDSU by a couple scores? No, although I think it will be a game that resembles the September matchup. I don't see NDSU throttling the Jacks by five scores. If the Bison do make Frisco, I do think they'd be big favorites against EWU and Maine, but it'd be a closer game than the 2013 Towson game.
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Scott Moody – There has been quite a bit of discussion regarding attendance the last couple of weeks. Some programs are having great success on the field, yet fan attendance is lacking compared to other programs with similar or even less success. Are there any common denominators that separate the successful programs with strong fan attendance from those who do not?
Brian: Scott, I think we're seeing this all over college football in general. There are lots of questions about why it's happening. I know at my alma mater, the University of Florida, it just stuns me to see empty seats in the student section when we routinely crammed 25 people into our 20-seat student block 20+ years ago. I think it may be a cultural thing. The elements can be so brutal at some of these FCS playoff games, could it be that they're just tuning in at home? Not coming home from the Thanksgiving holiday? Maybe? A good question for sure.
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Paul Alexander Dobson – Does Maine have enough on the offensive side to beat EWU without the Eagles giving them an easy score or two via turnovers?
Brian: I think so. Freshman RB Ramon Jefferson has stepped right up after Josh Mack head-scratchingly transferred out after his Freshman All-American season last year. WR Earnest Edwards is a clutch receiver and QB Chris Ferguson makes big plays. We do talk a bunch about the defens, but think about what this offense did in one half two weeks ago against Jacksonville State (42 points in one half). I still think defense is what makes this team 'go', but the offense can certainly put some points up. It should be a good one.
Sam: Give credit to Weber State's unbelievable defensive performance last week. But I do think it was also an off week for the Maine offense. We saw just how explosive it can be the week before against Jacksonville State. I expect the offense to play somewhere between the JSU performance and the Weber performance. The Eagles do have a pretty solid defense, but I think the Black Bears will have opportunities to get some points. And they'll need to get points because you know EWU's offense can get rolling.
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