League leaders to meet
The Sun Belt Conference can boast something this weekend that no other FBS college football league has been able to claim this season … and almost definitely won’t be able to match the rest of the year.
The Sun Belt’s four divisional leaders – two teams tied in the East and two teams deadlocked in the West at the top of this week’s standings – will face each other in two “crossover” games. Any of the four could be in solo possession of first place by the time Saturday is done … or they could all remain tied within their respective divisions.
Georgia Southern (4-0) and Troy (4-0) lead the East and are the conference’s remaining unbeaten teams, and they will face the West leaders when Louisiana (2-2) travels to Troy and ULM (2-2) hosts the Eagles in two of this weekend’s five Sun Belt games – the first time this year that all 10 teams have played league games on one Saturday.
Tight and interesting races were part of the idea when the Sun Belt went to divisional football play this season, along with the matching of divisional winners in the inaugural championship game Dec. 1. But it’s likely nobody expected this kind of tight race.
“Now that we’ve gone into divisional play, it keeps everybody in the race until the season’s over,” said South Alabama coach Steve Campbell, whose team is 2-6 overall and 1-3 in league play yet stands only one game out of the West Division lead. “We’re still playing for the chance to play for a conference championship. If we can get back on track, we can jump right back in the race in our half.”
USA travels to meet Arkansas State (1-3), the preseason favorite to win the West and a team that is still very much a factor in the division despite its 47-43 loss at Louisiana on Saturday.
“Our guys are frustrated and disappointed, but they know they’re still close,” said A-State coach Blake Anderson. “That’s part of being in a good league and this league is playing well. You know there’s a chance … there’s games down the stretch, if we can win out and get a little help, there’s still a lot of positives and a lot of things that can happen.”
That’s especially true since most of the inter-division games still remain. Each of the league’s 10 teams has four games remaining over the next four weekends, all on Saturdays with the exception of a Friday after-Thanksgiving meeting between Coastal Carolina and host South Alabama. Of those four, most teams will be playing within their division three times in that span.
“I think this is great for our league,” said ULM coach Matt Viator, whose squad had a bye week last weekend to prepare for the November stretch. “Each and every week it’s so competitive. You always have a chance to win or lose in this league.”
Not looking ahead
Georgia Southern took a major step in the East and took its fifth straight win last week with an emphatic 34-14 victory over then-25th-ranked Appalachian State, one that sent the near-capacity crowd spilling onto the field afterward.
“That was a big win for us, we put ourselves in position for the last part of the season to accomplish some things that were not expected of us,” said Eagle coach Chad Lunsford.
The Eagles, 7-1 overall with their only loss coming to second-ranked Clemson in mid-September, are tied atop the East with Troy. Those two teams meet next weekend in Statesboro, but Lunsford said there’s little chance of his team looking ahead to that game considering this week’s opponent. Georgia Southern has to travel to meet West co-leader ULM, which has won two in a row.
“Our guys are on track and understand what they have to do,” Lunsford said. “We’re not preaching any other message that we haven’t preached all year. There’s obviously a lot of excitement and a lot being said in public, and we have to drain the noise out. We have to understand we’re still not good enough. One loss can throw you out of it, and they (ULM) want to make sure they stay on top on their side.”
Viator’s squad had the luxury of the conference’s latest open weekend, and he said his team needed the extra time to prepare for the Eagle offense – and an underrated defense.
“They’re impressive when you watch on TV and on tape,” Viator said. “They’re very efficient and they’re putting their guys in great positions to be successful. You hear a lot about their offense, but defensively they’re playing really good. They really run to the ball.”
Georgia Southern also leads the nation in turnover margin, with a plus-19 total that Viator said is a stunning figure.
“That’s unbelievable in eight games,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen that. They don’t turn it over and they take it away from you … and they’re the least penalized team in the league. But we’re at home and we’re excited about the opportunity.”
Lunsford said a daily practice period may contribute to that turnover success.
“We always start practice with a ball security drill,” Lunsford said of a period that he picked up from the New England Patriots. “We have our offensive players secure the ball and our defense players trying to take it away. It’s the Patriots’ model of the takeaway circuit. We do it because it’s a constant reminder to take care of the football, and we also talk constantly about population around the ball. If we do put it on the ground, we want a lot of guys around the football trying to get it back.”
Cajuns on the up
The conference’s other battle of first-place teams takes place in Troy, Ala., where the Trojans (4-0) host Louisiana’s surprising Ragin’ Cajuns (2-2). First-year coach Billy Napier’s Cajun squad won three of four in October, losing only a 27-17 decision on the road at Appalachian State, and has used an explosive offense to average nearly 550 offensive yards per game (260 rushing, 288 passing) and 43 points in their four October outings.
“We feel like we’re kind of getting in prime form for the stretch,” Napier said of his team’s win over A-State. “Offensively we did a good job of neutralizing their aggressive style on defense, and defensively we created just enough stops. We’re growing up a little relative to how we compete on game day.”
Troy’s offense has been equally impressive. The Trojans bounced back from a surprising loss at Liberty in beating state rival South Alabama 38-17 in last Tuesday’s nationally-televised contest. Troy has won six of its last seven and is averaging 39.7 points in those six wins.
“I don’t really look at the standings, but one of our goals is to win our division and have an opportunity to play in the championship game,” said coach Neal Brown. “This one’s not a division game but it’s really important. We have to maintain pace with the other teams in the East. The divisions definitely add some intrigue with that.”
Troy will be playing at home for the first time in almost a month – since Oct. 4 – and Brown said Trojan fans may get the chance to see an offensive shootout since both teams have been effective with the football.
“They (Louisiana) are doing a great job offensively,” he said. “They’re extremely balanced. They’ve established the run since they started playing well. They ran for 200 yards on Alabama and that’s saying something. They’re playing as well as anybody in the league.”
Napier, though, said it’s the other side of the line that has most impressed him when he looks at the Trojans.
“They’re playing really good football,” he said. “They have a great tradition and history, on defense in particular. If you dig into the history of the last two or three seasons, this is a defensive team that rarely gives up over 25, 30 points. They do a good job of creating negative plays, tackling for losses, sacks. They really do a good job of defending the run.”
Bowl eligible
Two Sun Belt teams are already bowl eligible, with Georgia Southern at 7-1 and Troy at 6-2 and leading the way in filling the conference’s five bowl tie-ins. Appalachian State (5-2), which is one game short of the eight played by the rest of the league due to cancellation of a home game against Southern Miss in the wake of Hurricane Florence, can become bowl eligible with one more win.
The other team that’s one short of bowl eligibility? Coastal Carolina (5-3) has won two in a row after a thrilling 37-34 win at Georgia State last weekend.
“We got off to a good start,” Chanticleer coach Joe Moglia said of that win. “They (Georgia State) hung in and it could have gone either way. But I was pleased with our offensive execution and we were disciplined. We’re happy with that win but we certainly have a chance to clean things up a lot.”
Coastal’s path to six wins and the possibility of the program’s first-ever bowl appearance will be a rugged one. Although the Chanticleers play three straight home games beginning Saturday, they come against three of the league’s top teams in Appalachian State, Arkansas State and Georgia Southern. App State begins that stretch Saturday in what will be only Coastal Carolina’s second home game since the opening week of September.
The rough stretch pales in comparison with what Coastal had to go through after Hurricane Florence ravaged the Carolinas, and Moglia says his group is better for that harrowing experience.
“Whenever any organization goes through significant adversity, it brings you together or it separates you,” he said. “We went through three weeks of evacuation mode and that was tough to go through, we lived in hotels and practiced on seven different fields, but our guys did a good job of handling that. There’s no question we’re closer together from what we’ve gone through.”
Appalachian State, which had its break into the AP top-25 cut short in the Thursday loss at Georgia Southern, has experienced adversity of a different type. Standout running back Jalin More was lost to a career-ending knee injury three weeks ago against Arkansas State, and starting quarterback Zac Thomas left Thursday’s game during the first series with a concussion and did not return. Not long after, linebacker Jordan Fehr was ejected for targeting.
Mountaineer coach Scott Satterfield said Thomas has a chance to return for Saturday’s game.
“He’s still day-to-day, but he’s doing a lot better,” Satterfield said. “He’s doing better every day. One of the positive of playing the Thursday game is guys have a few extra days. We’ll know more later in the week and we’ll see where we’re at tomorrow (Tuesday).”
Confidence builder
Texas State snapped its losing streak Saturday and celebrated Homecoming at the same time with a 27-20 win over former Sun Belt member New Mexico State. The Bobcats honored several successful teams from past years including the former Division II national champion team from then-Southwest Texas State.
“We want our players to understand the history of Southwest Texas and Texas State,” said coach Everett Withers, “and we had a great crowd to honor those guys. We played extremely hard, not too well at times, but our effort made up for that.”
Quarterback Willie Jones III had over 100 yards both rushing and passing and running back Robert Brown, Jr., had 79 of his 95 rushing yards in what Withers called “YAC” yards (yards after contact).
“Willie did a nice job on the run reads,” he said. “Those reads have been there for us all year long and Saturday we were able to capitalize on those. We’ve missed them some. Robert Brown did a great job of being physical in the run game, and we were physical up front. We weren’t particularly consistent but we were physical and made a step forward.”