By THOMAS STOKES
SoCon Breakdown
Another week of college football has come and gone, let’s look at the SoCon teams and how they did this week.
THE CITADEL
The Bulldogs went into Charlotte, got a good paycheck and the 43-41 win, rebounding after a tough conference loss. The MVP for The Citadel is RB Gavin Garcia who had 137 yards on 30 carries and three touchdowns. Garcia had the key play with an amazing run in the first overtime, making multiple 49ers defense players miss on his way to a touchdown. The Citadel was one of the three FCS schools who beat an FBS team this past weekend. The other two teams beating an FBS school were Tarleton State (beat Bowling Green) and Idaho State (beat Utah State).
TENNESSEE TECH
Even though it was a non-conference game. Tennessee Tech went to Chattanooga and beat UTC 24-9. Jax Leatherwood had 160 yards and two touchdowns, his second one being the dagger in the Mocs heart late in the fourth quarter.
CHATTANOOGA
On the Chattanooga side I was not sold after the West Georgia game with their passing offense. That concern showed its head tenfold in this game. Battle Alberson ended the game with 37 (Yes, you are reading this right) yards of passing with two interceptions. Something will have to be done if the Mocs want to be a contender for the playoffs this year. That type of rushing offense and their defense will not win every game.
SAMFORD
Samford came close to upsetting Missouri Valley conference member Southern Illinois this past Thursday as the Salukis lacked their All-American caliber quarterback DJ Williams. Running the ball still looks like an issue for the Bulldogs but at least they got into positive yards this week. With the issues that have been present both weeks of the year it might be a long year for Samford. The Bulldogs might not be the favorite in another game until VMI and right now that could be their only win.
MERCER
Mercer got revenge against Presbyterian, and this is the type of game that Jaylen King needed to have. King had a day for himself going for 236 yards passing and four touchdowns, then tacking on 48 rushing touchdowns and two touchdown to lead the Bears to a 62-3 win against the Blue Hose. Mercer now begins its conference schedule against the Furman this coming Saturday to attempt to win the SoCon for the third time in a row.
ETSU
The Bucs hosted Billy Taylor and Division II Tusculum. The Buccaneers defense still came out early looking flat and so did the offense during most of the first half. Tusculum was in this game for longer than it really should have been. If ETSU wants to compete for the SoCon title this year the Bucs need to step it up. The Pioneers were only down 13-7 for most of the first half and it wasn’t until TJ Peyton scored late in the second quarter that ETSU started to pull away. ETSU ended up winning this game 48-14 but a lot of work is still needed, especially as this is not the last time ETSU will see an option offense, and the next time the opponent will have a lot better talent than Tusculum.
FURMAN
Furman went to Knoxville and took home $500,000 and a 56-9 loss. Eli Lipscomb must be a bright spot for the Paladins defense. Lipscomb got to the quarterback for the only sack adding in another tackle for loss as well. If he can produce against an SEC school, it will be exciting to see what Lipscomb will be able to do against SoCon offensive lines.
VMI
If you recall the picks I mentioned VMI would barely get 120 yards against Virginia Tech, but it looks like I overestimated that. VMI only produced 81 yards of total offense in a 73-3 loss. VMI is getting roughly close to $500,000 as well for this game that would be the only upside of the game for the Keydets. Local college athlete Ben Shrewsbury had an average of 43 yards punting with a long of 56 yards but had two kicks blocked, one for a touchdown. He put in a lot of work this game as the Keydets were 2 of 17 on third down.
WOFFORD
The Terriers hosted Gardner Webb in a game that was a lot closer than I thought it would be. I think the weather delay helped Gardner-Webb, as Wofford looked terrible all game but especially rough in the second half. J.T. Fayard is still having ball security issues with one fumble and one interception. The defense again showed up, forcing three turnovers on two fumbles and an interception. Wyatt Ward was a playmaker for Wofford’s defense, with six tackles and he nearly snared an interception twice. One of them would have probably changed this entire game as it would have easily been a pick six.
WESTERN CAROLINA
Western Carolina had to wait an extra day to start Week 1 as during a lightning delay one of the lights was damaged at Campbell, so the game could not be played on Saturday. Campbell continued its recent dominance against SoCon schools winning this game 28-19. Kamden Sixkiller did become human this week throwing his first three interceptions, two of which were fluky and I would not blame him fully on them. Western Carolina defense held the Campbell scoreless in the second half. Unlike ETSU last week WCU was able to get to Sixkiller for three sacks. Ken Moore Jr. had one of them; I already have him spotlighted as a player to watch and he’s showing us why with moves like that. Western now travels for their money game to Big-12 team Cincinnati and a $475,000 payday.
SoCon Games for Week 2
*-denotes Conference Game
ETSU at North Carolina (Noon, ACC Network)
Wofford at Kent State (Noon, ESPN+)
Bucknell at VMI (12:30, ESPN+)
Chattanooga at Eastern Kentucky (6, ESPN+)
Charleston Southern at The Citadel (6, ESPN+)
Furman at Mercer * (6, ESPN+)
Western Carolina at Cincinnati (7, ESPN+)
Samford at Tennessee Tech * (7, ESPN+) (Yes really it is a conference game this time)
Key Games for Week 2 (All games Eastern time)
Furman vs #18 Mercer (6 PM ESPN+)
This will be the first real litmus test for both teams as both teams have to this point either faced opponents they were expected to beat or in Furman’s case lose big to in a money game. Joel Taylor has Mercer 2-0 and will look to win his first conference game as a head coach in the SoCon. Furman still needs to find offensive production. The Paladins will jump in the conference champions conversation early if they are able to go to Macon and score the upset here.
Jake Garcia has not looked good yet in a complete game. He only has 183 yards combined in the two games and no passing touchdowns thrown yet. He’ll have to have a day if he wants to break a Mercer defense that currently sits at 9.0 points per game allowed. Meanwhile, outside of Tennessee Tech, Mercer has looked like the most complete team in SoCon. Justin Ferguson has had a big start to the season continuing the streak of getting a turnover for the Bears’ defense. Ferguson recovered a fumble Saturday after getting a interception against East Texas A&M in the Week 0 matchup. Ferguson will look to have a field day.
The War for the Wheel, Southeast Missouri vs Southern Illinois (7 PM ESPN+)
Highlighting games like this is my most favorite part of writing these briefings. The FCS has such great rivalries, some of which I dare say are better than anything the FBS can offer. This season will be the 94th meeting between two schools separated by a river and about 50 miles.
During the old days these two schools would have to travel by boat to play each other. An urban legend that comes from this is that during the travel to SEMO, the Southern Illinois boat sank and the team had to swim to shore. That game still kicked off on time. The trophy, which is shaped like a boat wheel, is a new one as it only has been up for grabs in four of the games in the history of this rivalry. SEMO leads the overall series (44-41-8) but with the trophy introduced the series is tied at two each with Southern Illinois winning this game last year 59-31.
DJ Williams might be back for the SIU and that will be a huge addition to the Saluki offense. SIU did not look good against Samford last Thursday night, barely squeaking by 22-18. For the other side SEMO has already a 1-0 record against Missouri Valley conference teams as it beat Indiana State 23-22 in Week 0. The Redhawks had their money game last week again Iowa State where they lost.
Budding SoCon Rivalry?
During both coaches press conferences this week, both Rusty Wright (Chattanooga) and Bobby Wilder (Tennessee Tech) did not mince words when talking about thelastSaturday’s game. Wright started the conversation by noting, regarding the special teams for the Golden Eagles, “schematically they’re wrong”. The response from the Tennessee Tech side started a tweet from special teams coach Frank Wilson Jr. saying, “got em”.
Wilder then chimed in saying “He’s (Wright) an under-the-bus guy. He’s looking to throw anybody he can under the bus to make himself look better.” Now this was an out of conference game. I can’t help but imagine how heated these coaches might get once they meet for a conference showdown.
Ivy League, we got to talk
In 2025 the Ivy League finally decided to join the other conferences and partake in the FCS playoffs. Yale and Harvard represented the league in the first year, but you may be wondering where they are. Well wonder no longer as the Ivy League schools will not suit up for the first time until next week, even though the rest of the FCS already has two games under their belt. The Ivies will be able to start playing one week earlier but they will still be capped at only 10 games. Some accounts in social media feel that 10 game schedules are fine because they do not play FBS schools usually or lower division schools. So, all 10 games are against FCS foes only. On the downside of this type of schedule the schools play 10 games in 10 weeks, so when Yale went to Bozeman last year to play Montana State in the second round that was the Bulldogs’ 12th game in a row. This will also be fixed as in 2027 the Ivies will have a week off in their schedule.
West Florida’s appeal
West Florida has left no doubt this is a legit Division I team, even this early into its first year moving up from Division II. West Florida beat its second straight Top 25 team (according to different polls) last Saturday, as Central Arkansas was ranked 24th in the AFCA Coaches poll. Unlike North Dakota State and Sacramento State, which are now in the FBS, the Argonauts cannot be playoff bound in their first year in the FCS. As of Tuesday, the United Athletic Conference and West Florida have appealed to the NCAA to make the Argonauts playoff eligible this year. If this request is denied West Florida would not be eligible for the FCS playoffs until 2029.
The player I want to highlight from West Florida who should be the national FCS player is Ty’Ray Davis. He was 14-for-17 for 227 yards and 3 passing touchdowns along with 75 yards rushing and another score.
Next week, against No. 20 Austin Peay, West Florida will look to do something that may have never been done before. If it has, I have not been able to find record of it. The Argonauts they will have the chance to beat three ranked teams in their first three Division I games.