Opening Week GOTW

[Screamin_Eagle174]

Why Reno? They're almost as bad as a MAC team.

Yet they led the FBS last year in offense.

[mlbowl]

I call your and raise you

I'm all in

Got you on the river...

[tampajag]

William & Mary @ UMass
Albany @ Maine
CCSU @ UNH
Delaware State vs Southern
Eastern Kentucky @ Missouri State
App @ UTC
Alabama A&M @ Tennessee State

I'd substitute Southern/Delaware St or Prairie View/Texas Southern for AAMU/TSU. Southern/Del.St because it gives people an idea of what Stump Mitchell is made of or PVU/TxSU because PV will probably be the best SWAC team this year and this is a rivalry game.

[jstclmet]

How can it not be Nova vs Temple??? The game is on a Friday night (Hopefully Televised Nationally).

You have the Defending FCS Champions vs an FBS Bowl Participant. As close as you can get to a inner city rivalry.

All of FCS will be wanting to know and affirm the status of Sczcur. If he's playing, and how he does against Temple.

Should Nova pull off the upset for the second year in a row, that would put them in the driver's seat to be the #1 seed for the remaining 2010 season. Should they lose a close battle, they could still be considered #1 in FCS.

Temple has been waiting for an entire year to exact some revenge on the Wildcats, and will not want a close game. If at all possible, The Owls would like to beat the CATS by no less than 45 points.

This game will be filled with drama on every possession and every stopped drive.

The team celebrating in the end will be Kings of Philadelphia for a weekend.

This is your GAME OF THE WEEK in week #1.

[T-Dog]

I know what the 2012 Season Opener GOTW will be.

[AppStateAlumQC]

Tennessee-Martin @ Tennessee
E.Illinois @ Iowa
Texas State @ Houston
Richmond @ Virginia
Elon @ Duke
S.C. State @ Ga Tech
App State @ Chattanooga should be interesting

[MSUBear42]

EKU vs MO State should be a great game and a decent gauge on how MSU's season will go.

[NorthHen]

jst -

Agree with you on Temple-Villanova for all the reasons very well stated.
One correction to your thinking, however.
Should Villanova win the contest , the Wildcats cannot claim the Nutter Bowl, symbolic of Philadelphia football supremacy. The Penn Quakers still pose a challenge later in the season.
I'll be a Wildcat fan at Lincoln Financial Field...root for all FCS teams against FBS teams.
Villanova-Penn poses a problem for rooting interest... almost treason for a Blue Hen fan to root for Villanova...difficult, however, to become a boola boola Ivy League booster.

[SpeedkingATL]

As a homer I've got to go with the ASU vs. UTC game as it will set the tone for the rest of the season and at least help answers ASU's QB question and the question of how good is UTC going to be this year.

I also like the Elon vs. Duke game as I'll pull for any SoCon (or FCS for that matter) brother to knock off an ACC team.

W&M and UMass is a pretty important game for the CAA as well.

[89Hen]

Tennessee-Martin @ Tennessee
E.Illinois @ Iowa
Texas State @ Houston
S.C. State @ Ga Tech

Interested to hear what piques your interest in those games. If any of them are within 21 points I'd be surprised.

[andy7171]

I vote for Nova/Temple.

And I love AppStateAlumQC's signature gif! The brunette knows what she's doing!

NONE of my football alums are even somewhat excited about the Towson @ Indiana game.

[jstclmet]

jst -

Agree with you on Temple-Villanova for all the reasons very well stated.
One correction to your thinking, however.
Should Villanova win the contest , the Wildcats cannot claim the Nutter Bowl, symbolic of Philadelphia football supremacy. The Penn Quakers still pose a challenge later in the season.
I'll be a Wildcat fan at Lincoln Financial Field...root for all FCS teams against FBS teams.
Villanova-Penn poses a problem for rooting interest... almost treason for a Blue Hen fan to root for Villanova...difficult, however, to become a boola boola Ivy League booster.

North Hen,

The UPenn game might carry more significance than you could imagine. A Nova loss to Temple is expected by all in College Football outside of Nova. So whereever we may be ranked (presumeably 1 - 10), there would be little to no drop at all if this was the outcome. Perhaps a Temple blow out of Nova would cause us to drop a couple of spots. But a close loss wouldn't hurt much.

However, a loss to UPenn in week 4 could be severe. Especially if we win the Lehigh & Towson games, but those games stay within 10 pts each. Losing to UPenn could drop us out of the top 25. Everyone, I mean everyone (outside of Nova) would write us off. It doesn't matter that it's a rivalry game, and UPenn gets up for us every year. It doesn't matter that UPenn is a good team and could finish at .500 in the CAA (better than Montana would ). What everyone would see is Nova lost to an Ivy league school, end of story.

We need to beat Temple to establish (or project) an appearance of dominance giving all we play doubt upon entering the game. If we beat Temple, some coaching staffs will prepare to hopefully keep the game close, and perhaps steal a "W" late, while others will just want to try and compete and keep the game respectable.

If you look on VUSPORTS.COM, you can see the research done by others on whether or not Sczur will return. Some say possibly a 6th round selection.

If Sczur does not return, Babbaro will run the Wildcat.

[AppStateAlumQC]

Tennessee-Martin @ Tennessee
E.Illinois @ Iowa
Texas State @ Houston
S.C. State @ Ga Tech

Interested to hear what piques your interest in those games. If any of them are within 21 points I'd be surprised.

I always like to follow FCS/FBS games. Tennessee should have no problems with UTM, but it will be interesting to see how the Vols come out in Dooley's first game. Houston and Keenum are supposed to have a big season and he's a darkhorse Heisman candidate. I'll follow TSU-Houston to how how Keenum plays, he had something like 8-9 INTs in his last two games but it's doubtful Texas State is in this one after halftime. SCSU is one of those FCS teams that is riding a big wave of success the last few seasons and could be a player come playoff time as long as they don't draw App again. They played South Carolina tough for a good portion of the game this past season and without Dwyer it should be interesting to see how GT comes out of the gate. Iowa should beat EIU, but did you see how close UNI played them opening week last season? Iowa is my darkhorse pick to play for the BCS title but this one could be fun to watch. For the FCS to really gain the respect and attention against the FBS, they really have to start winning games like these.

And I love AppStateAlumQC's signature gif! The brunette knows what she's doing!

Preciate it. And yes, she does.

[GannonFan]

I go with nova vs Temple, followed by Richmond vs. UVA. W&M vs. UMass is up there as well, and certainly the best FCS vs. FCS game. Actually, the Appy St vs. Chatty game might be an interesting bellweather game.

But nova and Richmond both have games against lower level FBS teams that are beatable. I like nova's chances against a very overrated Temple team and I don't really like Richmond's chances - considering they lost 15 some starters from last year, that could be a very tough opener for them.

[bluehenbillk]

How can it not be Nova vs Temple??? As close as you can get to a inner city rivalry.

You do realize 99% of 'Nova fans just spilled their afternoon tea over themselves when you referred to that game as an "inner city rivalry"...

[Willie]

And I love AppStateAlumQC's signature gif! The brunette knows what she's doing!

Preciate it. And yes, she does.

Sorry for the interruption...but I would do terrible and disgusting things to that brunette.

[chris]

Preciate it. And yes, she does.

Sorry for the interruption...but I would do terrible and disgusting things to that brunette.

and then your alarm would go off

[NorthHen]

jstclmet-

Agree with your "Temple-Penn" analysis. At least the Wildcats out-of-conference schedule creates some real interest with its local, competitive flavor....Temple, Penn, Lehigh...three opponents with decent fan bases close to home.

Could have gone the much easier Bloomsburg, Robert Morris, Directional Illinois model to assure two or possibly three "W's" at HOME.... hats off to the national champs for their competitive philosophy.

[McNeese75]

William & Mary @ UMass
Albany @ Maine
CCSU @ UNH
Delaware State vs Southern
Eastern Kentucky @ Missouri State
App @ UTC
Alabama A&M @ Tennessee State

What about McNeese vs Lamar?????

[McNeese72]

William & Mary @ UMass
Albany @ Maine
CCSU @ UNH
Delaware State vs Southern
Eastern Kentucky @ Missouri State
App @ UTC
Alabama A&M @ Tennessee State

What about McNeese vs Lamar?????

I could see it being an interesting game. First game in a long time with probably our second best rivals. But I don't see it being a good close game, UNLESS we do a "Henderson St" the first game like in 2007.

Edit: I should have copyrighted that avatar of yours when I made it for an April Fools Day joke many years ago.

[g-webb1994]

App/Chatty. How good will Chatty be and how does Appy adjust to life post-Armanti. UTC pulls the upset in that one, then the SOCON turns into a crapshoot after week one.

In the Big South, I'll be interested in seeing how CCU and SBU fare against competition from the Big Least. G-W breaking in a new QB, even though against D-2 Brevard, will peak my interest as well.

[McNeese75]

What about McNeese vs Lamar?????

I could see it being an interesting game. First game in a long time with probably our second best rivals. But I don't see it being a good close game, UNLESS we do a "Henderson St" the first game like in 2007.

Edit: I should have copyrighted that avatar of yours when I made it for an April Fools Day joke many years ago.

I know Doc, I did it again always stealing your stuff. I will be glad to relinquish it for your use or pay the appropriate "Monkey Shine" royalty at your request

[elcid83]

What are your thoughts for the opening week of FCS football? What is the Game of the Week in your opinion and why?

Wee, it ceraintly won't be Brevard at Gardner-Webb. I, for one, will be glad when we don't play these stupid games anymore.

Go Runnin' Bulldogs!