FB: Southern Athletic Association

[albatross]

Funny game.  UMHB was only up 10-7 on Austin after the first quarter (now 17-7 early Q2).

Austin switching to the triple seems like it will keep them around in some of these games.

[BSCpanthers]

Shame the conference doesn't require conference games to be offered for free.  Wonder how much money they are actually making by charging.

[tigerguy]

Hendrix had the ball for a whopping 37:03 minutes compared to Trinity's 22:47. Large part of that was the fact that they ran the ball an incredible 38 times for only 20 yards. Despite that, Hendrix kept their drives alive with many long third down passes - they outgained Trinity in the air 227 to 177, and had more first downs (17) than Trinity (15). Trinity only had four incompletions in the air (18-22) which shows that they were just dinking and dunking. The Tigers had 88 rush yards on 22 attempts.

Trinity had seven sacks in the game and 13 tackles for loss. 8 penalties for 75 yards. Trinity was 168th in the nation coming into this week at 7.33 penalties per game, so that number will go up. Plenty to work on - but the passing offense disappearing after how good it was last year is very puzzling.

[Ron Boerger]

Rhodes was within a TD until a late pick six, Centre wins 21-7.
Barnburner on the Mountain as Sewanee just scored to close to within 30-27 of Millsaps, four minutes and change to play.

EDIT:  Sewanee defense held but offense couldn't move the ball and turned it over on downs.  Millsaps wins.

[awadelewis]

Sewanee made  it respectable..  Way too many special team mistakes today. Ended up 2-2 on this 4 game home stand.  Now the hard part of the schedule begins. Both of these teams are going to struggle against the top tier teams in conference.

[Ron Boerger]

BSC 10-3 after Berry hits a FG on the first play of the second quarter.
6:02 Q2:  10-10 after Gavin Gray takes it in from nine yards out on a fourth and one.

Berry misses a 44-yard FGA with about 40 seconds left in the half so that's how they go to the locker room.

Gawd these teams both sub in at the last second a lot.

[Ron Boerger]

Panthers dominate the second half and pick off Berry's last gasp in the end zone with a minute left to win 24-10.  Looking forward to a good game in San Antonio next week!

[BSCpanthers]

BSC's offense has shown great signs of growing up fast.  This 24-10 win over a very good Berry team is showing that.  I'm expecting another great game against Trinity next weekend, we owe you guys a home loss, and we are bringing it with us. 

[Ron Boerger]

Congratulations to Sewanee's Michael McGhee, named to the D3football.com Team of the Week:

RB Michael McGhee, Sr., Sewanee

McGhee ran for a career-best 241 yards, including two rushes of over 70 yards or more. Both his those carries led to Sewanee touchdowns in a game which Millsaps won 30-27. The 241 yards is the eighth-best effort in the history of the SAA. McGhee carried the ball 21 times, with one being a 47-yard score that made it a 10-point game with 7:14 to go.

[Ron Boerger]

News and notes from the conference office: (this is from the SAA, posting here for increased visibility as they do a nice job)

POTW

Offense:  Michael McGhee / Sewanee / Sr. / Chattanooga, Tenn. McGhee was nearly unstoppable on the ground for Sewanee as the Tigers narrowly dropped their SAA opener to Millsaps. The senior ran for a career-best 241 yards and a touchdown, ripping off two runs over 70 yards. His 75-yard run on the Tigers second play from scrimmage led to a touchdown and 70-yard burst in the third led to another Sewanee score. His touchdown run was a 47-yard scamper in the fourth that made it a 10-point game.

Defense: Armon Wells / Centre / Sr. / Louisville, Ky. A pick-six to seal a victory over Rhodes capped Wells big game for Centre. The senior totaled seven tackles, to go along with two sacks and two forced fumbles. His strip sack in the first led to a scoop and score that put the Colonels ahead 14-0. With Centre holding onto a 14-7 advantage and Rhodes driving late in the fourth, he picked off a Lynx pass and raced 20-yards for the Colonel's second defensive TD of the game. 

Special Teams: Wiley Henshaw / Rhodes / Sr. / Gurley, Ala. Henshaw was perfect in PATs and stellar in the punting game in Rhodes close loss to Centre. The senior averaged 45.3 yards over his six punts, including a 59-yard boomer that pinned the Colonels back deep in their own end early in the crucial fourth quarter. For the game, he put Centre inside their own 20 five times.

Notes:

• Road teams won three of the four SAA games last week; BSC over Berry was the only team to successfully defend home turf. Trinity (3-0) and Centre (1-0) are the only two schools unbeaten at home; Trinity (1-0) and Millsaps (2-0) are perfect on the road.
• Trinity is one of 29 teams undefeated on the season. The Tigers are 28th nationally in scoring offense (39.0 ppg) and 15th in scoring defense, allowing just 11 points a game. Trinity has the nation's third best rushing defense, surrendering 30 yards on the ground per game.
• Sewanee is third in the nation in passing defense, allowing 85.8 yards a game through the air; Rhodes is fifth at 90.8 yards a game. 
• Millsaps is one of 20 teams in the nation yet to lose a fumble.
• Tucker Horn (Trinity) is seventh in the nation in completion percentage, hitting 73 percent of his passes.
• Michael McGhee (Sewanee) is seventh in the nation with eight yards per carry, 13th in total rushing hards (525) and sixth in yards per game (131.2).
• Zach Ford (BSC) and Cam Tegge (Centre) are both perfect on the year in field goals.
• BJ Stewart (Trinity) ranks seventh in the nation in punt returns, averaging 19.3 yards per return. 
• In the polls: Trinity remained No. 5 in the D3football.com poll; BSC received one vote...Trinity is No. 6 in the AFCA Coaches Poll; BSC has three votes

[Ron Boerger]

This week's games (sorry it's late, this was already a week on Monday and didn't get any better):

Sewanee (2-2, 0-1 SAA) at Centre (3-1, 1-0), noon CDT:  After a valiant effort against Millsaps last week, the road (literally) gets tougher as the Tigers head to Danville against an up-and-down Colonel team that still has hopes of getting into the thick of the conference championship battle.  Centre's offensive production is actually the worst in the conference (237.3 yards/game) while Sewanee is in the middle of the pack (367.5, only 40 yards behind conference leaders B-SC).  Sewanee is slightly better defensively, allowing 261.3 ypg to Centre's 282.8.  Sounds like a recipe for an entertaining game and another chance for the visitors to get off their years-long SAA schneid. 

[RV] Birmingham-Southern (3-1, 1-0 SAA) at #5/#6 Trinity (4-0, 1-0), 1pm CDT:  Well, here we go again.  The Panthers have never beaten Trinity dating back to the SCAC era (0-11) but plan on the 12th time being the charm in a series that has become increasingly close and heated.  Last year's game wasn't decided until B-SC's two point conversion fell incomplete with 23 seconds left in the game and failure of the necessary onside kick, and it's entirely possible it could come down to something similar this season.  The visitors lead the conference with a balanced offensive attack (204 ypg passing, 202 ypg rushing) with Jon Lewis' 126.5 ypg rushing good for second in the SAA.  Despite recent challenges, the Tigers counter with Tucker Horn's conference-leading 236 passing yards and a run by committee approach to total within one yard per game of B-SC.  Defensively, Trinity once again has one of the country's best rushing defenses - holding opponents to 1 yard per carry and 31.3 ypg - while giving up 214 ypg through the air; B-SC's pass defense is similar (205) but the Panthers are mid-SAA against the run, allowing just over 150 yards per contest.  The key for the Panthers will be to have an effective enough running game to keep the home side from going nuts rushing the QB as they did last week (7 sacks; 13 TFL).  Birmingham was able to do that last year against a similarly stout Tiger run defense, but time will tell if Lewis and his backfield mates can be as effective as were the departed Robert Shufford and Trey Patterson (146 yards cumulatively).

Hendrix (1-3, 0-1 SAA) at Millsaps (2-2, 1-0), 1pm CDT:  The question to be answered is which Warrior team shows up on Saturday; the one that gave Trinity fits in a closer-than-it-sounds 28-7 loss, or the one that gave up nearly 60 ppg in road games the previous two times out?  Hendrix looked surprisingly good on both sides of the ball last week, offensively controlling play and driving up and down the field - until reaching the red zone.  Statistically the two teams are nearly identical, ranking 7/6th offensively and 8/7th defensively, but Hendrix has played much superior competition and that could give them the edge on Saturday, road or not.

Rhodes (2-2, 0-1 SAA) at Berry (2-2, 0-1), 5pm CDT:  The Vikings find themselves in a must-win situation in Week 2 after being dominated in the second half last week.  Rhodes is, well, Rhodes, a team lacking consistency from week to week that seems to play around .500 each season without threatening the conference leaders.  That said, the Lynx surprisingly lead the conference defensively, holding opponents well under 200 yards per game (177.5).  Gavin Gray will have his work cut out for him against a defense yielding less than 100 yards in the air per game.

[Ron Boerger]

This week's In the (D3FB) Huddle Picks & Previews includes interviews with Garrett Smith (BSC DE) and Tucker Horn (Trinity QB).  Horn also gives a shout out to Centre QB Trentin Dupper and Dupper's battle with cancer. 

Edit:  Smith is around the 14 minute mark, Tucker around the 38:00 mark.

[Pat Coleman]

That's cool for Tucker to do that.

Full disclosure -- we have twice reached out to Centre to try to write a story on Trentin and have not gotten a real response. The second time that we asked, they said they would get back to us, but we did not hear back.

[tigerguy]

@Ron - any word on if Bertness will finally make his return?

[albatross]

This week's games

Excited for BSC-Trinity this week. Aside from the ODAC battle of unbeatens, it seems to be the only blockbuster in the region.

Very interested to see if Hendrix can dispatch Millsaps and if Rhodes can hang with Berry.