FB: USA South Athletic Conference

[Wild Horse Rider]

Mistakes cost the Monarchs in Winchester.  The RS-SR QB threw three INTs which is not who he typically is.  My guess is that he is searching for a reliable go to since the guy that caught over 100 balls graduated.  One of those INTs was returned for a score and another set the Hornets up with a short field and they capitalized.  Methodist did return the favor with three fumble recoveries but only one resulted in points.  The major areas of concern were the special teams and game management.  There was a blocked punt that Methodist jumped on which resulted in a safety and a 1 yard punt later in the game.  There was also a blocked FG and the Hornets returned a Kickoff for a TD.  That is a 12 point swing on three plays (the 1 yard punt fortunately didn't hurt on the scoreboard but did affect field position).  There was also the play right before halftime when the Monarchs had the ball on the 2 yard line with 17 seconds remaining and tried to run it in and did not have enough time to run another play.  I completely understood handing the ball to the best player in that situation but with no TOs left handing the ball up the middle with a packed in formation led to a scrum where it took time for the RB to go down and the officials to get the ball back to spot it.  Time ran out and the Monarchs could have gone into halftime just down 2 points instead of 9.  All that being said I don't think that the sky is falling in Fayetteville.  They will get a chance to right the ship under the lights this weekend against Guilford before returning to VA to play W&L.  I would expect a win this weekend and the tale of the tape in 2 weeks.

[Wild Horse Rider]

Hawks I was curious as to what happened in Georgia for Huntingdon.  You mentioned mistakes snowballing and by the box score you weren't kidding.  At the 9:01 mark in the second the Hawks were up 20-14.  The next 5 offensive possessions are so unlike what you normally expect a Huntingdon team to do:

1 play fumble and the ensuing drive led to a TD
Punt blocked for a safety
Punt blocked recovered by Berry at the 2 resulted in an easy TD
Punt blocked returned for a TD
Punt return for a TD

At this point there is 7:02 remaining in the third and the score is 50-20 in favor of the home team.  That is 17 minutes of game clock and a 36 point swing.  I know Berry played a hand in that but I can't help but assume that there were some self inflicted wounds by the Hawks.  If there is a coach in the USAC that will correct those mistakes it is 100% Coach  Turk.  BSU has to go to Montgomery and I know that they want revenge for last seasons game but I would not expect an easy victory if I was the visiting team.

[BSCpanthers]

2 years ago in Montgomery, Huntingdon had the same nightmare game against us.  Turnovers and easy TD's for the good guys lead to an easy win.  We did play again in the playoffs that season, much better game but BSC still came out in top.  Last year, Huntingdon came to The Hilltop and ran an offense our defense had not prepared for.  I'll be in Montgomery this weekend, should be another great atmosphere and hopefully another win for the Panthers. 

[Hawks88]

Hawks I was curious as to what happened in Georgia for Huntingdon.  You mentioned mistakes snowballing and by the box score you weren't kidding.  At the 9:01 mark in the second the Hawks were up 20-14.  The next 5 offensive possessions are so unlike what you normally expect a Huntingdon team to do:

1 play fumble and the ensuing drive led to a TD
Punt blocked for a safety
Punt blocked recovered by Berry at the 2 resulted in an easy TD
Punt blocked returned for a TD
Punt return for a TD

At this point there is 7:02 remaining in the third and the score is 50-20 in favor of the home team.  That is 17 minutes of game clock and a 36 point swing.  I know Berry played a hand in that but I can't help but assume that there were some self inflicted wounds by the Hawks.  If there is a coach in the USAC that will correct those mistakes it is 100% Coach  Turk.  BSU has to go to Montgomery and I know that they want revenge for last seasons game but I would not expect an easy victory if I was the visiting team.

Yes, I have no doubt that the punt protection and coverage issues will be addressed and taken care of whether it be by personnel changes, scheme, or both. That's the easy part. The bigger issues were with run defense and overall offensive production. 227 total yards with the two 4th quarter touchdown drives accounting for almost half of that.

[Wild Horse Rider]

On to week 2.  Not a great showing by the conference with only 2 wins last week and I don't expect a whole lot more this week:

Brevard goes to Hampden-Sydney and returns to the mountains with a loss
Bridgewater travels to SOVA and returns with a win
Maryville continues its winning ways and beats Centre improving to 2-0
Averett handles Greensboro convincingly
Belhaven manhandles a second year program in Lyon and also improves to 2-0
In a get right game for both teams between NCWC and Ferrum I'll take the Panthers to get the win at home
LaGrange starts the season with Berry coming to town and it will not be pretty for the home team
My game of the week is in Fayetteville where the Quakers come to play Methodist under the lights.  I'll take the home team to get in the win column after cleaning up special teams mistakes in week one.
In the real game of the week BSU is 1-0 going to Alabama to play Huntingdon.  I still think the Hawks are working their way into this season but it is a very close game the the visitors unfortunately win.

Last week 0-3 against the ODAC.  This week 1-4 if the Monarchs are victorious
Last week 2-1 against the SAA.  This 1-2 to even up the season matchups.

Overall 5 wins OOC in two weeks is not good but it is early. 

[DGPugh]

Go Hawks

[BSCpanthers]

Congrats to Huntingdon, they would not let us do anything offensively.  Our offense played 9 plays in the second half, all resulted from 3 and outs and put our defense right back in the field. 

[Hawks88]

Much better performance for Huntingdon with the first shoutout in the series with BSC. Our defense was outstanding keeping their offense in check all night. Improvements on the offensive side are encouraging especially with the way we able to control the ball in the second half. BSC ran 9 offensive plays in the second half; 3 possessions and all 3 were 3-and-outs. The time of possession in the box score doesn't add up to 60 minutes but 42:37 to 14:52 is incredible.

Time to get ready for a visit from Guilford next week. With a 2-0 start they've already matched last year's win total so we will have keep improving to make sure we take care of this one.

Go Hawks!

[Wild Horse Rider]

Congrats to the Hawks.  Huge turn around.  I didn't actually make my way to Fayetteville because I wasn't going to mess with the weather.  I did watch most of the first half and into the second half until I became frustrated and turned it off.  The kickoff was delayed due to lightning and the Monarchs looked like they were still in the locker room to start the game.  They were down 32-0 before really anything positive happened for the home team.  Methodist gave up 280 yards rushing, the were three picks (one of which was a pick 6), and lost 2 fumbles (one on a punt return).  I do not have high hopes for next week when they travel to a W&L team coming off of a bye.  Unless there are some changes made I would expect the Generals to rack up around 400 yards rushing.  If the turnovers (8 through the 2 games) and special team mistakes continue it could be a long season for the Monarchs.  As I do not want to dwell on the negative one very bright spot is the SR RB Pete.  He is averaging 100 yards rushing and 50 yards receiving with 4 total TDs on the season.

[scottiedoug]

It looks like the Maryville rebuild is coming along nicely.

[Wild Horse Rider]

Its the ODAC vs the USAC week.  Currently the USAC is winless against the ODAC.  I am hopeful that we can squeak a few wins out this week.  In order of confidence of USAC wins here is how I see it:

Huntingdon over Guilford.  I think Guilford is much improved but that is a long trip to Alabama and the Hawks showed up last week against BSU.
Maryville over Shenandoah.  I think Maryville's QB powers them to a win over the Hornets and the Scotts head into conference play 3-0
In a toss up I'll take Brevard over Averett at night in the mountains of NC.  This gives the Tornados their first win of the season.

This is when it gets ugly for the USAC and I give less than a punchers chance for the conference teams:

W&L over Methodist
Ferrum over LaGrange
Bridgewater over NCWC
Hampden Sydney over Greensboro
Randolph Macon over SOVA


Overall 8 OOC wins for the conference if I am correct with Belhaven (2-0), Marryville (3-0), and Huntingdon (2-1) as the only teams with winning records going into conference play.  Brevard would have the only other victory.  There have always been the haves and have nots in this conference but this season it feels like the gap has grown.  Through the first 17 games the average margin of defeat is 13 points and if you take out Maryville and Belhaven who each have a positive scoring differential you have an average of 25 points.  It used to be where the bottom of the USAC was competitive with the bottom of the ODAC and the middle vs the middle as well as top vs the top.  That is not the case this season for sure and it has been trending in that direction for some time.  With that being said the AQ will be decided in three games (unless the Hawks go 2-0 on 10/7 and 10/14 then they will have all but wrapped it up)


October 7th Huntingdon travels to Belhaven
October 14th Maryville is on the road against Huntingdon
October 28th Belhaven goes to Maryville

There is always a curious loss that one of the top teams suffers each season but this season that seems unlikely.  If it happens it would be a Brevard (coaching), a NCWC (athletes), or a Methodist (SR QB). 

[DGPugh]

Go Hawks, stay on course
All have a blessed week, keep the faith

[Wild Horse Rider]

OOC play is over (thank goodness for most of the USAC teams) and the conference slate gets started up this coming weekend.  I typically don't like to try and rank teams in a particular order I believe more in the "bucket" method.  With this being the case I see 3.5 buckets of teams in the USAC this year.

Bucket 1 conference contenders- Belhaven, Huntingdon, and Maryville (alphabetical order)

Belhaven- This was a strong returning roster and it makes sense that they are in this spot.  The only question I think that remains is what happens when they get tested.  We won't know that until October 7th against Huntingdon.

Huntingdon- This is a battle tested bunch with a bad loss on the resume but they rebounded nicely.  The QB seems to be making steady progress and the defense has returned to form since the Berry game.

Maryville- Solid OOC slate of games and they also have the best QB in the league I think.  There is not a ton of questions about this team at this point but they go to Brevard which could be seen as a trap game this weekend.

Bucket 2a and 2b middle of the pack could surprise a contender- Brevard 2a, Greensboro 2b, and Methodist 2b

Brevard- They at least play some defense.  They had 2 close losses and even though the Hampden-Sydney game score is much larger spread it was a tie game through almost 3 quarters of play.  They are better than Methodist and Greensboro I think but not by so much to make another bucket

Greensboro- This is the biggest surprise in the conference.  I say that due to the fact that the Pride have won a total of 6 games since the 2016 season (no more than one win in any given season) and between the NCWC, SOVA, Methodist, and Brevard games I can see 2-3 wins.  It is a shame that they do not play LaGrange this season I think that would be a win also.

Methodist- This is a mild disappointment since I don't think they would have been in the top bucket but should be more on par with Brevard and I think they are a step below them.  I still give the SR QB and RB a chance to score points and if the defense can find a way to stop the run and mistakes overall can be minimized. 

Bucket 3 the rest LaGrange, NCWC, SOVA

This group was outscored by an average of at least 35 points per game in OOC play.  These teams can likely beat either Greensboro or Methodist in the bucket above them but not likely any of the others.

With all this being said I will take Belhaven as the conference champ.  They get 2 relatively easy conference games to start and will be 4-0 when Huntingdon comes to town 10/7.  Then there are 2 more winnable games before traveling to Maryville 10/28.  They will have to get through Brevard the last game of the year but it is in Mississippi.  I say this knowing that Huntingdon can easily be the champ also but their schedule does not set up as nicely as they go to Belhaven and have Maryville come to town in back to back weeks and then travel to Brevard in November which could be a cold game for the Alabama boys.  I also wonder if they ever amended the conference rule book as to the picking of a conference champion.  When they played the shortened spring season in the spring of 2021 the division champs met in the title game.  Both Huntingdon and Brevard in the west had 2-1 records in conference play and Brevard's "OOC" game was against Averett who was in the conference at the time but the game was designated that prior to the season starting.  It doesn't look like any of Belhaven's games are considered OOC at least per the USAC and Belhaven's websites.  If memory serves me the first tie breaker was win percentage and since Belhaven has one more game in conference they can have a better percentage even with one loss.  The next tie breaker is head to head and where the Hawks went to the title game was the scoring margin which was the third tie breaker.

In either case the slate is wiped clean and conference play gives all the teams a fresh start.  Win and get in!

[Hawks88]

That third tie-breaker was(and still is as far as I know) a coin toss, not scoring margin.

[Hawks88]

Solid performance for the offense and outstanding job by the defense by the Hawks in Lagrange today. Very large disparity in time of possession like in all our wins so far. We were able to cut out the large number of penalties from last week. LC's only score was 50 yd drive after a turnover and their only real drive of the day.
Back home against Methodist next week. Keep building and improving.

Go Hawks!

Surprised to see Brevard take down Maryville today.