FB: USA South Athletic Conference

[Ralph Turner]

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.

Is there anything like the Sports Illustrated cover curse in the D3sports publishing platform?

[DGPugh]

Huntingdon will need to stay on top of their game for the duration, no et ups.
Go Hawks, yall all have a great week (and I look forward to Wild horse Rider's weekly analysis)
keep the faith

[Wild Horse Rider]

First week of conference play is in the books.  NCWC had the bye first.  Both Huntingdon and Belhaven did what they should do to the lower half teams in the conference.  I think the Hawks have bounced back to what we would normally expect after a head scratcher of a week one loss (this week Berry plays Trinity in a SAA matchup which may make that loss a "better one" if Berry can win).  Belhaven's top three running backs are averaging 10, 7, and 5.4 rushing yards per carry.  Combined they are averaging 210.3 yards per game on just over 27 carries per game between the three of them for an average of 7.7 yards per rush.  THAT IS NUTS!!  I don't expect either team to be challenged this coming week but Belhaven has to travel to Rocky Mount, NC 12+ hours. 

Methodist needed overtime to beat a SVU team at home in pretty steady rain.  The Monarchs allowed more points to SVU (21) than they scored in their first three games of the season (19).  I fear that much like I thought about Methodist's away game against W&L earlier in the season the Hawks may roll up over 400 yards on the ground in Alabama this weekend.  The only way for Methodist to keep it close is to keep running the football with Pete and keep the special teams a wash.

I was able to watch the 4th quarter and OT of the Brevard and Maryville game and all I can say is what a finish.  Went to triple OT with the Tornados getting the 2 point play after stopping the Scotts.  I know it was a loss but I came away from what I saw very impressed with the QB from Maryville.  There was a 3rd & 26 in the 4th quarter and he threw a ball 42 yards for a huge first down.  The biggest things I saw as an issue for Maryville going forward is their lack of balance on offense and they did not do a great job of stopping the run on defense.  This will likely hurt them against both Belhaven and Huntingdon.  I will never blame a college kid for playing a game but it did look like there were also some dropped balls by the Scotts receivers that may have altered the final here (I was watching it on my phone so I could 100% be wrong).  Maryville gets the bye to regroup and Brevard gets a winnable game against Greensboro.

The only competitive game on paper this weekend in the conference would be SVU against LaGrange.  I think SVU likely comes off of the close loss against Methodist with confidence and wins by 2 scores at home.

All this being said October 7th in Jackson, MS will essentially be the conference championship game between Huntingdon and Belhaven.  I know that both Brevard and Maryville will have something to say about that but through 4 games these appear to be the top two teams.  All I truly hope for is both teams to come out of this weekend healthy and ready to go.  With that being said I would not be mad if somehow Methodist upset the apple cart and beat the Hawks this weekend.

[DGPugh]

Well, as usual, WHR's analysis was relly interesting and pretty good.
thanks, keep the faith and
Go Hawks

[DGPugh]

Go Hawks, keep on keeping on
and keep the faith

[Wild Horse Rider]

Here we go!!!  I know there is a lot of games left in the season and Brevard has not suffered a loss in conference to date but I will put my money on the winner of the game in Mississippi being the conference champ and AQ in the playoffs.  I was very curious so I took a deep dive into these two teams.  I believe the overall stats are skewed in Belhaven's favor due to Huntingdon's first game against Berry.  Berry also proved to be a pretty good team based on last weeks game against Trinity.  Also this is Belhaven's first true test of the season but boy are they a old team.  Here is what I saw as the differences:

Belhaven has the advantage in rushing offense and defense
Huntingdon has the advantage when it comes to pass defense
Belhaven does not give up sacks and thus far in the season Huntingdon has
Both teams do not turn the ball over
Huntingdon has an advantage in the return game but I am unsure if all of the punt protections that hurt them against Berry have been solved.  Belhaven is returning an all-conference P and K.

So those are just stats for stat sake.  When you look into the rosters it is pretty clear as to why there are these differences above.  The offensive lines.  Here is what each team has:

Belhaven has 3 graduate/SRs and 2 JRs.  They average 6'1 3/4 and 306 LBS.  Three of the players are returning starters one of which was an all conference player last season and one was a pre-season All American this year.

Huntingdon has 2 JRs, 2 SOs, and 1 FR.  They average 6'1 1/2 and 288 LBS.  Only one player is a returning starter but he was an all conference player last season.

They are not the only players to keep an eye on.  Both teams have a returning all conference RBs and Belhaven's Blount was all region.  Huntingdon returns England at WR and RET who was all conference at both positions last year.  Belhaven has a DL Brown who will be more than a handful for the OL.  The pair of LBers for Huntingdon Peppers and Spence will make running the ball tough all day.  Ultimately I think someone is going to have to make plays in the passing game.  Though Huntingdon's defense has held up well against the pass all season I think the big commitment has to be stopping the run game first.  I will give the slight advantage to the Blazers here and their returning signal caller Johnson.  He has multiple options with two good receivers, a solid TE, and all of the RBs can catch the ball out of the backfield.

[DGPugh]

Oh well.....  The Hawks need to win the rest of the way.
Congratulations to Belhaven
Yall have a good week
keep the faith

[Hawks88]

Oh well.....  The Hawks need to win the rest of the way.
Congratulations to Belhaven
Yall have a good week
keep the faith

Need to win out and hope that somehow Belhaven loses two.
Very disappointing outcome today. Just way too many mistakes and our offense was never able to put anything together. Belhaven pretty much dominating the line on both sides had a lot to do with that along with Blunt having a day.

Gotta flush it and get ready for another bug one with Maryville up next.

Go Hawks!

[Wild Horse Rider]

Color me surprised.  I did think that the Blazers would come away with a win but I didn't expect the scoring margin to look like that or the difference in the rushing totals be as great as it was.  They should be able to sleep walk through their next two opponents who have already played the Hawks this season (and lost a combined 93-13) before a matchup against Maryville on October 28th.  Huntingdon has to lick their wounds quickly since the Scotts come to town this weekend.  I'm sure I could be missing someone but if Belhaven represents the conference as the AQ the only teams with the possibility of making it that are within 500 miles of the school would be Trinity, Berry, and UMHB (which is right at the 500 mile mark).  We would see very quickly how they stack up nationally after the first round.

[Ralph Turner]

Respectfully, Jackson MS to San Antonio TX is more than 600 miles.

[Ron Boerger]

Respectfully, Jackson MS to San Antonio TX is more than 600 miles.

Pat and Greg said Belhaven and UMHB were under 500 on this morning's podcast, but on the ASC board it was pointed out that according to the NCAA's official distance site it's only true in one direction.  Pretty big discrepancy (487 Belhaven > UMHB, 535 UMHB > Belhaven).  Google finds the 487 route, and a couple of sub-500s the other way. 

[Blazers1]

Color me surprised.  I did think that the Blazers would come away with a win but I didn't expect the scoring margin to look like that or the difference in the rushing totals be as great as it was.  They should be able to sleep walk through their next two opponents who have already played the Hawks this season (and lost a combined 93-13) before a matchup against Maryville on October 28th.  Huntingdon has to lick their wounds quickly since the Scotts come to town this weekend.  I'm sure I could be missing someone but if Belhaven represents the conference as the AQ the only teams with the possibility of making it that are within 500 miles of the school would be Trinity, Berry, and UMHB (which is right at the 500 mile mark).  We would see very quickly how they stack up nationally after the first round.

I think a lot of people thought this would be a close game, but Belhaven dominated start to finish. Great win for the program and for Coach McCorkle. This team can be a lot more dangerous the rest of the way than people think

[Wild Horse Rider]

Ralph that would be my ignorance of Texas and its geography/where the teams are located.  I was aware from previous posts where UMHB and HSU are.  I made the assumption that Trinity is in Trinity, TX when in fact it is clearly in San Antonio.  So unless UMHB wins the AQ and/or if Berry gets a Pool C bid there will be no one for the Blazers to play without the NCAA shelling out for a plane ride in round one.

[DGPugh]

Really good game. Maryville has got a tough team.
Huntingdon escaped. Go Hawks, got to get better each week, regardless on how everyone else does
stay safe, keep the faith

[Hawks88]

Very exciting game in Montgomery. It wasn't pretty for the most part but our defense got the stops in the 4th quarter when needed to help pull out the win.
Maryville QB Rollins is a special player and I don't look forward to two more years of playing him.
Shout out to Casey Peppers who became the career tackles leader for Huntingdon.

Trip to Greensboro up next.

Go Hawks!