FB: USA South Athletic Conference

[Scots13]

Several key games to watch tomorrow.

Berry @ Maryville-- JR Adam Diggs is expected to take the reigns this year under center. Won 3 state titles at Fulton (Knoxville) High School. If Maryville can limit mistakes on offense, the defense should be able to hold steady. Maryville by 9

Guilford @ Huntingdon-- How does Huntingdon do with a new QB and the loss of 30 seniors off of last year's team? Can Guilford rebound from last year? Huntingdon is Huntingdon until further notice. Hawks by at least 14

Ferrum @ E&H-- E&H has too much talent back on offense. Sorry, Ferrum. E&H by 20

Averett @ HSC-- toss up. Both teams need to win if they want to show they are in the hunt in November. I'm giving the edge to HSC. Tigers by 7

Other games:

NCWC @ Mount Union--duh
Greensboro @ Apprentice
Birmingham Southern @ LaGrange--Battle of First Year Coaches. Alabama Panthers win.
Brevard @ Davidson

[Scots13]

Our offense line is terrible and the defense couldn't get off the field. Special teams units played well. Need to strike down the field more.

Less than a minute to go and we fumble at the 2. 30-24 Berry.



Couple very good freshmen. Caine Adamson had good command of the offense when he was. Left game in the second half due to injury. Khashawn Decker (returner/RB) is some kind of quick.

[hasanova]

Guilford played well on the road.  Bent, but did not break.  No turnovers.  Close stats 561 yards GC, 548 HC.  97 yard TD pass and a goal line stand for the Quakers.  GC punter was better today. HC may be slightly overrated and GC slightly underrated.  At any rate, great time tailgating with jknezek and Hawks88.  Very hospitable Huntingdon fans.  Thank you.  Go Quakers!

[Hawks88]

Good to meet you today, Hasa. Just too many mistakes by our young team. There were enough good plays to give hope but our defense just couldn't string enough together to get off the field a lot of times. The key point of the game was HC having first and goal at the 2 late in the third and not scoring then turning around and giving up the 97 yd TD pass on 3rd and 8. The offense moved the ball well enough most of the game but left points out there with the goal line stand and a missed FG in the 1st. If the offense can finish drives and the D can cut down on big plays and get off the field then we can win some games. If not it could be a long year.
Not a good opening week for the USAC over all with Ferrum being the only one to get a win.
Trip to Birmingham for BSC next week for the Hawks.

Go Hawks!

[HSCTiger fan]

USAC took it on the chin this weekend.  Wow. 1-8. Scores of 70-0, 58-0, 30-7 and 39-7. The predicted conference champ losses by 14 at home to precticted 5th place ODAC team. Ferrum, USAC predicted 4th, holds EH ODAC predicted 1st to two FGs and a safety.  But overall a very ugly weekend. 

[Scots13]

USAC took it on the chin this weekend.  Wow. 1-8. Scores of 70-0, 58-0, 30-7 and 39-7. The predicted conference champ losses by 14 at home to precticted 5th place ODAC team. Ferrum, USAC predicted 4th, holds EH ODAC predicted 1st to two FGs and a safety.  But overall a very ugly weekend.

I agree. The USAC had an ugly weekend. Let's break it down a bit.

Methodist, a 3 game winner in 2016, lost to FCS Campbell 70-0. No surprise. Hell, a D3 school can beat another D3 school worse-look at Saint's John's 98-0 win yesterday.

NC Wesleyan, a middle of the pack USAC team for the last half decade or so, traveled to Alliance, Ohio and got beat 58-0 to a probable Stagg Bowl team.

Brevard, a new USAC team, lost to FCS Davidson 30-7. Brevard couldn't beat a D3 team when they were D2; is it a surprise they lost? Plus the fact they had 24 returning players on their roster from last year, not too bad.

Greensboro lost to Apprentice 39-7. Greensboro losses to everybody. Per your posts on the Rally in Richmond, this should have been expected.

LaGrange lost to BSC in the battle of new coaches. LaGrange is usually on the lower end of the conference, so any OOC loss is no surprise. LC had 4 turnovers in a 29-25 game. That's a recipe for defeat.

Averett lost a close game to your Tigers. Thank God.

Huntingdon lost by 14 to Guilford, probably the biggest surprise of the day. I watched bits and pieces of the second half. Huntingdon is not the same Huntingdon as it stands now...just like Maryville the new guy under center needs some time. They'll be fine. Might be that Guilford surprises some people this year.

Maryville lost to Berry 30-24. Less than a minute to go in the game, complete a 25 yard pass to the 2 and fumble trying to stretch it in for the score. It was the last thing I thought about last night and the first thing I thought about this morning.

[HSCTiger fan]

USAC took it on the chin this weekend.  Wow. 1-8. Scores of 70-0, 58-0, 30-7 and 39-7. The predicted conference champ losses by 14 at home to precticted 5th place ODAC team. Ferrum, USAC predicted 4th, holds EH ODAC predicted 1st to two FGs and a safety.  But overall a very ugly weekend.

I agree. The USAC had an ugly weekend. Let's break it down a bit.

Methodist, a 3 game winner in 2016, lost to FCS Campbell 70-0. No surprise. Hell, a D3 school can beat another D3 school worse-look at Saint's John's 98-0 win yesterday.

NC Wesleyan, a middle of the pack USAC team for the last half decade or so, traveled to Alliance, Ohio and got beat 58-0 to a probable Stagg Bowl team.

Brevard, a new USAC team, lost to FCS Davidson 30-7. Brevard couldn't beat a D3 team when they were D2; is it a surprise they lost? Plus the fact they had 24 returning players on their roster from last year, not too bad.

Greensboro lost to Apprentice 39-7. Greensboro losses to everybody. Per your posts on the Rally in Richmond, this should have been expected.

LaGrange lost to BSC in the battle of new coaches. LaGrange is usually on the lower end of the conference, so any OOC loss is no surprise. LC had 4 turnovers in a 29-25 game. That's a recipe for defeat.

Averett lost a close game to your Tigers. Thank God.

Huntingdon lost by 14 to Guilford, probably the biggest surprise of the day. I watched bits and pieces of the second half. Huntingdon is not the same Huntingdon as it stands now...just like Maryville the new guy under center needs some time. They'll be fine. Might be that Guilford surprises some people this year.

Maryville lost to Berry 30-24. Less than a minute to go in the game, complete a 25 yard pass to the 2 and fumble trying to stretch it in for the score. It was the last thing I thought about last night and the first thing I thought about this morning.

Good break down. But I will point out that Davidson and Campbell may be FCS but neither offers scholarships. If either were D3 teams I doubt they would be considered top 25 teams.

[Scots13]

Granted they are non-scholarship programs, but they have many advantages over other non-scholarship programs. One being facilities, and another is being FCS--even if they don't offer scholarships. Recruits place value on division of play, even if you don't get money from the athletics budget. If you haven't seen the red zone hit Campbell had on an MU back, you might want to find that online. SportsCenter tweeted a short video. If I'm not mistaken and my ears aren't failing me, the defender that made the hit transferred in from South Carolina.

I don't know if they would be Top 25 or not, but I have a feeling they would be in the mix.

[HSCTiger fan]

Granted they are non-scholarship programs, but they have many advantages over other non-scholarship programs. One being facilities, and another is being FCS--even if they don't offer scholarships. Recruits place value on division of play, even if you don't get money from the athletics budget. If you haven't seen the red zone hit Campbell had on an MU back, you might want to find that online. SportsCenter tweeted a short video. If I'm not mistaken and my ears aren't failing me, the defender that made the hit transferred in from South Carolina.

I don't know if they would be Top 25 or not, but I have a feeling they would be in the mix.

My son was recruited by Campbell, Davidson and Morehead none offered facilities better than HSC. But I do agree recruits place a value on the D1 designation. The recruits at Davidson are not cut any slack academically. The average SAT score has to be close to 1350 and it costs about 60k to go there. They have to be very selective of their recruits.

[jknezek]

I don't think there were too many surprises in the USASAC slate. Going 1-8 is not good, but Scots13 has a good point that they probably were expected to do no better than 3-6, maybe 4-5 if everything broke their way. 2 or 3 extra losses is significant, and it's a bad look, but it's not like  they were favored in 6 games and lost all but one.

Huntingdon did not look right. I was there, and that was not the Huntingdon team I'm used to seeing. That being said, Guilford looked a lot better than I expected. Guilford's QB is big and strong and has an arm. With a little more touch on his throws, especially in the pocket, he will be hard to handle for anyone in the ODAC. Combine that with having to worry about their two good running backs and Guilford is going to be much better than last year.

I'm surprised M'Ville lost at home. Yes it was last second to a good team, but it was a toss up last year when Berry was a year 4 program and M'Ville travelled. To lose to a Year 5 at home means Berry didn't have much drop off, somewhat rare for a Year 5 team, or M'Ville took a step back.

Averett just about took out HSC. While I think Averett is better than they've been, that's not a good look for HSC. Especially in Farmville. Well done for the Tigers for gutting it out, but I'm not holding my breath HSC is back to where they have consistently lived the last 15 years or so. The top of the ODAC still seems out of reach based on what I saw and read of this one.

Ferrum is going to have a chip on their shoulder with their ODAC OOC games. E&H seems to be living up to my prediction of being head cases. A bad loss for a team expected to compete and possible win the ODAC, a good look for Ferrum. Congratulations to them.

As for the others, who cares? Greensboro is expected to be the worst team in the South Region, they look willing to live down to it unfortunately. Guilford has to play Davidson in a few weeks, we'll see how that goes. LaGrange and BSC are both mired in mediocrity at best and who knows what Brevard has, but probably not so much from a few different reports I got about the W&L scrimmage.

NC Wesleyan was going to get pasted. Just don't talk about it. If you want to schedule a game like that, do it against Davidson and get paid for it. "I want to show my kids the best so they can grow" only works if you can actually see the level the other team is bludgeoning you from. NC Wes couldn't and neither can anyone else in the ODAC or USASAC right now. It was a waste of two games for where NC Wes is as a program in my opinion. And, as I indicated above, NC Wes would be far from the only school around that I would say that about.

Methodist? Again, if you aren't a Methodist fan who cares? Take the money and invest it in your program. Stop bringing 200 kids to camp and having just a few seniors. It's ridiculous. Do better recruiting and stop seeing easy tuition checks from gullible h.s. seniors. It's beneath a school that is trying to do what is right for their students.

[hasanova]

Good to meet you today, Hasa. Just too many mistakes by our young team. There were enough good plays to give hope but our defense just couldn't string enough together to get off the field a lot of times. The key point of the game was HC having first and goal at the 2 late in the third and not scoring then turning around and giving up the 97 yd TD pass on 3rd and 8. The offense moved the ball well enough most of the game but left points out there with the goal line stand and a missed FG in the 1st. If the offense can finish drives and the D can cut down on big plays and get off the field then we can win some games. If not it could be a long year.
Not a good opening week for the USAC over all with Ferrum being the only one to get a win.
Trip to Birmingham for BSC next week for the Hawks.

Go Hawks!

Thanks, Hawks88.  Thanks again for the hospitality at your tailgate.  It was a beautiful day for football.  I agree, a couple of key plays were the goal line stand and the ensuing 97 yard TD pass.  I think it is also significant that GC had no turnovers.  I was worried when HC took their one lead at 17-14 with the opening drive in the 3rd quarter ... appeared too easy, but the Quakers finished strong.  If this is a 4-year deal, I hope you will make the trip to Greensboro in 2018 ... Guilford has a beautiful campus.  Good luck to the Hawks the rest of the season.

[Scots13]

I was surprised that Berry is as good as they are for a Year 5 team, but I think they are on par with last year's team. Plenty of size, speed, and skill. Maryville did a fine job of shooting themselves in the foot, but that's football. Diggs will get better under center, and I'm glad to see a freshman QB step up. I hope his ankle (?) injury isn't too bad. Bright future.

We'll be ok, but I think our offense has taken a step back in the early going. Most improvement is between Week 1 and Week 2, or so I've been told.

Most of us thought the ODAC would be log jammed this year, but the USAC might be too.

[HSCTiger fan]

I don't think there were too many surprises in the USASAC slate. Going 1-8 is not good, but Scots13 has a good point that they probably were expected to do no better than 3-6, maybe 4-5 if everything broke their way. 2 or 3 extra losses is significant, and it's a bad look, but it's not like  they were favored in 6 games and lost all but one.

Huntingdon did not look right. I was there, and that was not the Huntingdon team I'm used to seeing. That being said, Guilford looked a lot better than I expected. Guilford's QB is big and strong and has an arm. With a little more touch on his throws, especially in the pocket, he will be hard to handle for anyone in the ODAC. Combine that with having to worry about their two good running backs and Guilford is going to be much better than last year.

I'm surprised M'Ville lost at home. Yes it was last second to a good team, but it was a toss up last year when Berry was a year 4 program and M'Ville travelled. To lose to a Year 5 at home means Berry didn't have much drop off, somewhat rare for a Year 5 team, or M'Ville took a step back.

Averett just about took out HSC. While I think Averett is better than they've been, that's not a good look for HSC. Especially in Farmville. Well done for the Tigers for gutting it out, but I'm not holding my breath HSC is back to where they have consistently lived the last 15 years or so. The top of the ODAC still seems out of reach based on what I saw and read of this one.

Ferrum is going to have a chip on their shoulder with their ODAC OOC games. E&H seems to be living up to my prediction of being head cases. A bad loss for a team expected to compete and possible win the ODAC, a good look for Ferrum. Congratulations to them.

As for the others, who cares? Greensboro is expected to be the worst team in the South Region, they look willing to live down to it unfortunately. Guilford has to play Davidson in a few weeks, we'll see how that goes. LaGrange and BSC are both mired in mediocrity at best and who knows what Brevard has, but probably not so much from a few different reports I got about the W&L scrimmage.

NC Wesleyan was going to get pasted. Just don't talk about it. If you want to schedule a game like that, do it against Davidson and get paid for it. "I want to show my kids the best so they can grow" only works if you can actually see the level the other team is bludgeoning you from. NC Wes couldn't and neither can anyone else in the ODAC or USASAC right now. It was a waste of two games for where NC Wes is as a program in my opinion. And, as I indicated above, NC Wes would be far from the only school around that I would say that about.

Methodist? Again, if you aren't a Methodist fan who cares? Take the money and invest it in your program. Stop bringing 200 kids to camp and having just a few seniors. It's ridiculous. Do better recruiting and stop seeing easy tuition checks from gullible h.s. seniors. It's beneath a school that is trying to do what is right for their students.

I met a Methodist head coach for a sport other than football. He told me they were required to bring in X number of freshmen. He hated the mandate.

Averette returned most of their D from last year. They aren't as bad as you may think. A very positive note for HSC they only allowed 228 yards. Offensively they tried to be a little cute. A reverse pass, a hook and lateral, which together netted -5 yards. Cobb was very good. And DeMasi ran for 88 yards. Don't sell these Tigers yet JK.

[Scots13]

That sounds like the HSC offense I used to see when I was in high school. Marty getting back to his roots 

No doubt Coach Adams is taking Averett in the right direction. Administration is helping too with the new stadium. Heard some rumbling that's on the agenda down here since Ferrum and Averett have upgraded. I think I heard NCWC is planning an on-campus facility.

Many places have mandates on number of incoming freshmen. Terrible situation to be in as a coach.

[scottiedoug]

It is a terrible situation to be in as a school...to have to have 200 incoming athletes to stay viable. Exploitation takes many forms....