Nicholls State headlines four FCS victories over FBS teams to begin the 2018 college football season by beating Power Five Kansas 26-23 in overtime.
Nicholls State 26 at Kansas 23 OT
After some comments by new Kansas Athletic Director, Jeff Long, the talk of the media and fans midsummer was who the new football coach at Kansas would be. This ignored the fact that they already had a coach in their employ, David Beaty, who most likely found this midsummer night’s dream to be a nightmare. As Beaty was swinging in an already bad wind, the very predictable, perfect storm, came to town. Nicholls State, a FCS playoff team last year, from the tough Southland, descended on Kansas, struggling, pitiful and, yet, Big 12 and Power Five. It was overtime close, and the Colonels of Nicholls State headed back to Louisiana a winner. In the deep south, some football coaches have been run out of town on a rail for this sort of thing. But, Kansas is not the deep south and, perhaps, cooler heads will prevail. Keep checking the newswires.
Villanova 19 at Temple 17
This city battle was tight throughout. Villanova is usually a FCS playoff contender from the tough Colonial. However, Temple has been good lately and in the best of the Group of Five, the AAC, so this one is a bit anomalous. After ‘Nova took the lead near the end of the game, Temple squandered their last two possessions with bad interceptions. Is there such a thing as a good interception? Usually not, but these two seemed especially egregious. Now, Temple has to live in the same Philly as the Wildcats and it is not even basketball season yet. But Philadelphia fans are notoriously kind-hearted so there will be no trash talking (until Tuesday, over the water-cooler.) And you thought things were tough in the Big Five roundball games at the Palestra? Beware of flying cheesesteaks.
Northern Arizona 30 at UTEP 10
The tough Big Sky notches one here against the Group of Five laggard, C-USA. Another perfect storm, as a FCS playoff team from last year, Northern Arizona, visited the Miners who are starting over with new head coach, Dana Dimel. There has been mucho starting over on the banks of the Rio Grande. Mexico is so close you can see dogs running around on the streets of Juarez (true fact verified in person by this august publication: use binoculars from the top of the grandstand in the Sun Bowl). From forty-thousand feet above the great southwestern city you can see the answer to the Miners’ woes written in the dusty, high-desert. El Paso, El Paso. Bob Stull made it work for the Miners. However, it did not work last night for Dimel and crew. UTEP had 127 yards passing with two interceptions. Muy mal.
UC Davis 44 at San Jose State 38
Dan Hawkins’ Aggies were in control of this Thursday night, regional battle, virtually the whole way, but San Jose State mounted a furious comeback attempt which fell just short. UC Davis was pretty good last year, too, as Hawkins took over. The former Boise State and Colorado head man is looking to make UC Davis a player in the tough Big Sky. San Jose State was in the basement of the Mountain West last year and is still looking for the stairs. TRUE FACT ALERT. As an interesting sidenote, the crowd of 12,675 was comprised mainly of Silicon Valley bigwigs. They argued incessantly about the ball and finally concluded, through a proprietary algorithm, that it was, indeed, stuffed. This publication has it on good authority that Z was there and was mad for the nacho cheese chili dogs.
It is notable that each of these FCS victories over FBS teams featured FCS teams that are from really tough FCS conferences year-in and year-out as shown by the FCS playoffs. The Big Sky got two of these victories and the other two were from the Colonial and the Southland. The other ingredient is a struggling FBS team and Kansas, UTEP and San Jose State certainly fit the bill. Temple is the anomaly here, as they have been good lately, making Villanova’s win all the more impressive.
As a footnote, this august publication has endeavored to cast illumination on the FBS scheduling scofflaws who abuse FCS games. Heretofore known as the evil eye of the weak sister bogus non-conference college football schedule witch hunt patrol, the evil eye has been a bit of a lazy eye this preseason. However, not so lazy as to let slide the Power Five and SEC Florida Gators who have chomped down on two FCS opponents for this season. Florida just edged Charleston Southern last night and hosts Idaho late in the season. The only reason the evil eye is not going full hissy-fit, is because, giving Florida the full benefit of the doubt as viewed through the most rose-colored glasses ever donned, the Gators got caught-up in Idaho’s disappointing drop from FBS to FCS (after the game was scheduled, as the evil eye remembers it). Also, there were weather conditions, little things like hurricanes and monsoon rains that flooded the field, and game suspensions never to be resumed, or game cancellations, and a new money guarantee game, and this and that, and my dog ate the homework, that revolved around the Idaho scheduling. This is how the evil eye remembers it, peering back through the hazy gauze of history, imprecise as it may be. This august and historic publication will not check it further. The evil eye has been a bit of a lazy eye this year. Fear not, America, we will survive.