FB: USA South Athletic Conference

[Hawks88]

With the FG right before halftime and starting the third with the TD drive to go up 18 I thought we were ready to pull away and cruise to an easy win but we followed that by throwing an interception that NCW was able to turn into 7 points followed by a three and out that NCW turned into 7 points and it ended up being a dogfight the rest of the way. A terrific int by Jake Green with less than 3 minutes to play pretty much iced it and we were able to run out the clock. The big minus today was too many big plays given up by our defense. We got lucky several times where NCW had receivers open deep and either the ball was overthrown or just dropped. It is good to get a win but we have to better as we get deeper into conference play.
Hawks travel to Ferrum next week. Take care of business and bring home the win.

Go Hawks!

[Scots13]

another classic mu vs. mvc game...i was watching on live stats all afternoon, and i kept saying "just hold on boys"...i knew there would be a crazy finish...there almost always is with mu and mvc - when i saw that mu gave the ball back to mvc with a couple minutes left (in really good field position, too), i had a pit in my stomach

senior leadership at the qb position is big in close games, and pittenger is as good as it gets in this conference...kid went 5-5 for 48 yards on the game-winning drive...that's what senior qb's do

The headline in the paper in Maryville for one of the articles on the game reads "Just A Typical Methodist vs Maryville Game".

[allsky7]

IMHO......ETSU at this point is more in line with a mid level ish D3 team. They would wax the bottom of the USA South and ODAC. The top tier D3 teams would wax ETSU.

After observing the first 4 weeks of the season played against non-conference opponents, the reality is that the USA-South is not a good conference this season.  Our conference was 8-16 during against non-conference teams with Ferrum, LaGrange, Averett and N.C. Wesleyan compiling 0-3 records.  That's 50% of our conference teams. 

With the exception of Maryville's win against Emory & Henry, most of the conference wins were against low-end teams.  (I know much was made against MC's win against East Tennessee, but Emory & Henry beat ETSU 2 weeks later.  In reality ETSU is a JV team with playing with just freshmen and is not better than a low end D-3 team).

Methodist got crushed by Guilford.  Huntingdon lost to Birmingham-Southern for the first time and their 2 wins are against teams who have not won a game this season.  Greensboro's only win was against Gallaudet.

I was expecting good things this season from LaGrange, but we are 0-3 and were favored in all 3 of their losses.   BTW, Air-Mumme's dad at Belhaven, Hal Mumme is 0-4 which makes the Mumme family 0-7 this season.

Why has this been a continued problem for our conference year after year???

So you're saying Greensboro, Averett, Ferrum, NCWC, and LaGrange can beat ETSU as well? ETSU's team of freshmen would wax the rest of the conference. Huntingdon could scored some points on them, but make no mistake- they are not a "low end D3 team". No matter the situation, anytime a non-scholarship program beats a scholarship program it's a good win. Plain and simple.

MC beat E&H 30-13 without Trenton Shuler in the line up. That's by 17 without the offensive stud making the trip. Pretty impressive, I'd say.

You can clump the USAC teams into the "terrible" category if you want, but MC is not one of them.

Maryville 43, Berry 17 (Berry is now 3-1)
Maryville 28, ETSU 21
Maryville 30, E&H 13 (E&H is now 2-1, playing RMC today, and was picked second in the ODAC)


And the problems for the USAC are recruiting and facilities..

[allsky7]

Q3 was ugly ugly ugly. The Fighting Scot O owes the D dinner.....big time!!! 

another classic mu vs. mvc game...i was watching on live stats all afternoon, and i kept saying "just hold on boys"...i knew there would be a crazy finish...there almost always is with mu and mvc - when i saw that mu gave the ball back to mvc with a couple minutes left (in really good field position, too), i had a pit in my stomach

senior leadership at the qb position is big in close games, and pittenger is as good as it gets in this conference...kid went 5-5 for 48 yards on the game-winning drive...that's what senior qb's do

The headline in the paper in Maryville for one of the articles on the game reads "Just A Typical Methodist vs Maryville Game".

[Scots13]

I agree with both posts.

[Scots Dad 92]

I was at the Game Saturday and there is a definite difference of the O when #25 is not part of the O. No excuses, but the biggest difference between the first half and the second half was the rain. The punt and punt return team for MC could not handle the ball at all in the weather conditions and MU could. The MC D came up big after our special teams gave up the ball three times deep in our own territory holding MU to three field goals. The MC offence seemed to go into safe mode in the third and finally coming back to life after losing the lead.

[Hawks88]

Good luck and safe travels to the Hawks at Ferrum this weekend. According to the Montgomery Advertiser gameday preview(http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/sports/college/football/game-day/2015/10/09/gameday-preview-huntingdon-ferrum-virginia/73638658/) this will be our longest trip of the season at 536 miles. I'm pretty sure that's our shortest longest trip of the season ever.

Go Hawks!

[jknezek]

Can someone explain how NC Wesleyan can bury M'ville like that? I get that NC Wes has been in all their games, but M'Ville was looking very solid until last week. Now they seem to have lost the plot completely.

[Bishop64]

Maryville made too many mistakes and Wesleyan played a complete game for once

[Scots Dad 92]

Maryville made too many mistakes and Wesleyan played a complete game for once

It's like MC just melts down in the rain!!! That way last week as well. Need to turn on the sprinklers in practice!!

[DGPugh]

Go Hawks

[Hawks88]

Didn't watch today but it looks like Huntingdon pretty much took care of business except for struggling through the second quarter. Anthony White with 3 interceptions is nice. 5 guys with at least 69 rush yards so it looks like we were able to do whatever we wanted on the ground but the passing numbers aren't too good. I guess it may have been raining and may have affected the passing game some.
Time to do some work this week and get that LaGrange monkey off our backs.

Go Hawks!

[narch]

the freshman qb for the monarchs had a coming out party, but wasn't able to bring mu all the way back...by far his best game, but the au offense overwhelmed the mu defense today, and the au defense made a couple of big plays late - mu had two td's called back - one on a holding call and the other a few plays later on a chop block - entertaining game to watch

[Ben Stein Fan]

I was expecting good things this season from LaGrange, but we are 0-3 and were favored in all 3 of their losses.   BTW, Air-Mumme's dad at Belhaven, Hal Mumme is 0-4 which makes the Mumme family 0-7 this season.

LaGrange was favored in all 3 games?  Where did you get those betting lines?  Ava Maria is a scholarship program and barely lost away to the #4 NAIA school in the nation.  LaGrange was honestly robbed at Berry.  We crossed the goal line not once but twice. 

Look, I know you dislike Coach Mumme for some perceived slight, but you need to grow up and be honest.  If you can't tell an improvement in the overall program at LaGrange since Coach Mumme took over then you are not paying attention.

[Adam Turer]

Hey All,

I don't get much time to check the boards, but enjoyed reading through the recent conversations. I was surprised by a couple of results on Saturday, but I'm excited that the conference now appears to be wide open. Huntingdon is in prime position, but faces its perennial bugaboo Saturday night. I thought Maryville had a chance to run the table, but now we have a few weeks to see what happens before the Hawks and Scots square off. Hope y'all are reading Around the Mid-Atlantic each week. Feel free to reach out to me with any story ideas.