SoCon Week 1 results

[youwouldno]

Here were my predictions and what I think about how the games went (but the thread is for general SoCon discussion).

Prediction: ASU 14 @ NC State 31
Actual: ASU 10 @ NC State 23

About what I expected. TOs are a big thing to watch with App St. What I've said all along is that, even though Elder is good, Williams just didn't give up the ball-- and that makes a big difference. App St's pass D was good but NC State's big back gave them trouble. That's to be expected... the Mountaineers prioritize speed over size.


Prediction: Western Carolina 37 vs Chowan 3
Actual: Western Carolina 42 vs Chowan 0

Next.

Prediction: Chattanooga 34 @ Tenn Tech 24
Actual: Cattanooga 31 @ Tenn Tech 7

Impressive defense by UTC... that's been a weakness in that program. Granted, TTU doesn't have a great offense, and Miller's passing ability remains questionable on the other side. But a good start.

Prediction: Wofford 21 vs SC State 20
Actual: Wofford 28 vs Sc State 21

I guess I'm not surprised, since the game turned out how I expected. Wofford is tough at home and the Terriers have much more experience against good competition. SC State is a good team but their conference puts them at a disadvantage.

Prediction: Citadel 3 @ Texas AM 45
Actual: Citadel 3 @ Texas A&M 35

...

Prediction: Elon 21 @ CCU 24
Actual: Elon 23 @ Coastal 20

I thought home field would be the difference for CCU, but Coastal just wasn't ready. This appears to be a major setback for CCU but it really tells people what they should have already known: a team with talent lacking in consistency and, at times, execution.

Prediction: Furman 28 Jacksonville State 14
Actual: Furman 17 vs Jacksonville State 13

I was impressed by JSU's defense. They're the real deal. The JSU offense is a different story-- JSU's TD was scored by their D. Green is good but football is a team sport... JSU has good receivers but can Hardin get them the ball consistently?

[appisgreatest]

ASU's qb will never be as good as Richie was for us last year. ASU had a few big passes for Elder but were only able to capitalize on itwhen they were in State's red zone one time with a touchdown. Hopefully Elder will take care of the ball better after a few games down the road.

[chattanoogamocs]

Getting no points when down to the 5 yard line (INT on the 2) in the 2nd quarter was a killer for ASU. Hindsight it easy after the fact...probably would have been better to hand it to Richardson one more time, then at worst have a short field goal attempt.

All in all...a nice weekend for the SoCon.

[catamount man]

Elon definitely gets MVP team of the week with the upset of Coastal. ASU-JMU next week. JMU only beat a D2 squad 14-3 tonight. ASU by 14 points in that one. We have an open date to get ready for EKU.

GO CATAMOUNTS!!!

[GaSouthern]

WAY TO GO SOCON!!!!! I am sorry GSU's second week could not be included in this but go ahead and mark it up as a win!
GSU 45
CCSU 10
(if they are lucky)

[GaSouthern]

ELON...Chattanooga, MADE US PROUD TONIGHT.

!

[AppGuy04]

We played horrible IMO. The Wolfpack turned the ball over 4 times, otherwise this game would have been alot worse. Elder and Richardson were both ineffective at best, and Andre Brown ran over everyone which sacres me b/c he is in the Felton type mold, bigger back, hard runner. The final score was nowhere near indicative of how badly we played. State gave us oodles of chances to stay in the game and even take the lead, but we squandered all of them. Next week will be a big test for this team to see if they are for real. Both teams will be coming off bad performances, with JMU needing 2 4th quarter TD's to beat DII Bloomsburg 14-3.

[GaSouthern]

I am not sure who will be at home for JMU vs. ASU so I will say, who ever is at home will win.

I want ASU to pull it off though and go undefeated into paulson!

[AppGuy04]

I am not sure who will be at home for JMU vs. ASU so I will say, who ever is at home will win.

I want ASU to pull it off though and go undefeated into paulson!

The game is in Boone

[GaSouthern]

well my plan is underway and well then! ;)

[ASU Kep]

We need to play better than we did last night, or we will not be undefeated in KBS for very long.

[Mr. C]

We played horrible IMO. The Wolfpack turned the ball over 4 times, otherwise this game would have been alot worse. Elder and Richardson were both ineffective at best, and Andre Brown ran over everyone which sacres me b/c he is in the Felton type mold, bigger back, hard runner. The final score was nowhere near indicative of how badly we played. State gave us oodles of chances to stay in the game and even take the lead, but we squandered all of them. Next week will be a big test for this team to see if they are for real. Both teams will be coming off bad performances, with JMU needing 2 4th quarter TD's to beat DII Bloomsburg 14-3.
Did you ever think that the turnovers were caused by very good defense? Andrae Brown wasn't like Felton at all. Felton is a smash-mouth inside runner. Most of Brown's effectiveness came from his speedy bursts around the corner and his ability to juke and make defenders miss when they were lining him up for tackles. Brown could turn pro early a scout told me on Saturday night in the press box and he WILL be a high pick (so will Felton as a fullback, I've heard. Possibly third round). You don't see many backs in I-AA with Brown's speed and elusiveness. As good as I thought Arkee Whitlock was, he doesn't hold a candle speed-wise to Brown.

ASU's loss to NC State is in no way, shape, or form, comparable to JMU's terrible performance and near loss to Bloomsburg.

[AppGuy04]

Did you ever think that the turnovers were caused by very good defense? Andrae Brown wasn't like Felton at all. Felton is a smash-mouth inside runner. Most of Brown's effectiveness came from his speedy bursts around the corner and his ability to juke and make defenders miss when they were lining him up for tackles. Brown could turn pro early a scout told me on Saturday night in the press box and he WILL be a high pick (so will Felton as a fullback, I've heard. Possibly third round). You don't see many backs in I-AA with Brown's speed and elusiveness. As good as I thought Arkee Whitlock was, he doesn't hold a candle speed-wise to Brown.

ASU's loss to NC State is in no way, shape, or form, comparable to JMU's terrible performance and near loss to Bloomsburg.

I realize Brown is one of the better backs in the ACC. I expected NC State to score the number of points they did, but what worries me is that it could have been much worse. State turned the ball over 4 times, and it seems we failed to capitalize in any way. This game could and would have been much closer if we would have. JMU's performance was much worse than ours, I will agree, but I think we could have played much better, especially on the offensive side.

[Mr. C]

ASU's qb will never be as good as Richie was for us last year. ASU had a few big passes for Elder but were only able to capitalize on itwhen they were in State's red zone one time with a touchdown. Hopefully Elder will take care of the ball better after a few games down the road.
In the entire history of the Southern Conference, no quarterback has ever put up the statistical numbers that Richie Williams did, so yes, Trey Elder probably will never be as good as Williams. Williams was the best QB in school history. But also remember that Williams made more than his share of mistakes and turnovers as a freshman, sophomore and junior before blossoming into the great player he became. Give Elder the time to grow as well.

[FUwolfpacker]

It's kind of unfair to compare Elder to Williams right now. When Elder goes 40-44 (completing 28 passes in a row at one point:doh:), breaks SoCon passing records, and wins a National Championship (after being the starter for the whole year), then maybe you can compare the two.

Elder will never be Richie (at least I don't think so), but I think Elder will eventually settle in and be a good QB for App. It would be unwise to give up on this kid after one start against a team that has been a very good defensive team for the last few years. ASU fans are probably going to have to be patient and supportive of him for at least a few starts.

[youwouldno]

Elder will be fine. But whether App St is a possible repeat champion, too early to say. The NC State game isn't too informative-- App St didn't do well against Kansas last year and were a little too braggy about being shut out by LSU. But against I-AA foes, we all know where things wound up.

[ASU Kep]

I was at the game, and although highly inebriated, here's what I thought:

1) As I expected, our secondary shut State's passing game down, lights out. Stone probably threw for more yards to our guys then he did his. I know NC State is a very run-oriented team, but our guys were absolutely all over the place making plays and hitting people. It will be very, very hard for any I-AA team to pass on us this year.

2) Our D-Line did about as well as you could expect. We gave up a lot of yards up the middle, but thats to be expected. FSU/VT/Miami will give up quite a few yards up the middle to those boys. I think Murrell got in on one sack. Not too shabby. Our LBs played awesome, too.

3) Our running game really didn't get off to such a great start. Thats somewhat to be expected against a D-Line as tough as State's, but I was pretty surprised at how well they shut down Kevin and our O-Line. The verdict is somewhat still out on how good their D-Line is (I'm with a lot of the State fans who think it's almost as good as it was last year), but I'm not too worried about our run game for the rest of the year. We're getting Knox back for either the JMU game or the week after, so that'll help, too.

4) Trey Elder is still a big question mark. I think ASU fans need to calm down a bit and let him grow into the roll. Theres no doubt that right now he's not as good as Richie was. Theres also no doubt that it'd be pretty unreasonable to expect Trey to be as good as Richie was, right now. This was his first game as the true ASU starter, and he was basically thrown to the wolves. If my memory's right, Richie's first game his sophomore year was against Hawaii, and we got beat somewhere along the lines of 56-7. ASU fans had no reason to suspect after that game that Richie would become the greatest QB our school has ever seen, but he did anyway. Trey no doubt didn't have a fantastic game, but he also didn't make too many mistakes. I didn't see it at the time, but apparently he was throwing up right before he threw the INT in the State red zone. He's no Richie, but if he can continue to not make costly mistake while he grows into the roll, I'm not too worried about our passing game, although as of right now it probably is our weakness.

I was pretty dissappointed leaving the stadium, and I'm sure the team was too. I truly don't think NC State got our best shot last night, but thats OK. The score didn't turn out like I had hoped, but ASU fought hard and will definitely be hungry going into this week's game against JMU. All things considered, we performed all right, played with a lot of tenacity, and showed a few areas where we'll have to improve in order to punch our ticket back to Chatty here in a few months.

One thing is for sure: JMU better bring their A-game next weekend. :)

[SoCon48]

In the entire history of the Southern Conference, no quarterback has ever put up the statistical numbers that Richie Williams did, so yes, Trey Elder probably will never be as good as Williams. Williams was the best QB in school history. But also remember that Williams made more than his share of mistakes and turnovers as a freshman, sophomore and junior before blossoming into the great player he became. Give Elder the time to grow as well.

I wish you'd post that over on the MMB, DC. Some of the guys need to hear that from one with your expertise.

[hapapp]

I don't disagree that Trey will be/is a fine quarterback. I think he is more than capable to leading this ASU team. But, he isn't Richie Williams and I think, as I have all along, that his performance is the key to the success of this year's team. The one major difference from this year's team to last year's is the QB position. I don't think you can lose a player like #7 and expect the team to perform as well as it did last year. Our season last year turned on a couple of close wins, there is little margin for error. For me, the jury is still out on Trey.

I don't mean this as an anti-Trey statement, he is a great kid and has been a winner throughout his playing career. I think he will continue to be a winner, but I think the expectations of repeating last year's title run are too optimistic given his relative inexperience.

[appisgreatest]

When i said Elder will never be Richie Williams, I mean't that we all know that in one season it would be very difficult to do what Richie did for ASU last season. He's a great qb and I have faith in him. I think with Elder at that position we should be able to capture the conference title but winning the national championship will be a bit harder to capture. Obviously aside from last year's team, this year's team has a good shot at winning the national championship when compared to previous ASU teams. Don't get me wrong, I would love Elder to prove my doubts wrong about another national championship. I certainly would want another NCAA Championship for my school. I guess we'll just have to see what unfolds in the season.

[SoCon48]

I don't disagree that Trey will be/is a fine quarterback. I think he is more than capable to leading this ASU team. But, he isn't Richie Williams and I think, as I have all along, that his performance is the key to the success of this year's team. The one major difference from this year's team to last year's is the QB position. I don't think you can lose a player like #7 and expect the team to perform as well as it did last year. Our season last year turned on a couple of close wins, there is little margin for error. For me, the jury is still out on Trey.

I don't mean this as an anti-Trey statement, he is a great kid and has been a winner throughout his playing career. I think he will continue to be a winner, but I think the expectations of repeating last year's title run are too optimistic given his relative inexperience.

I agree 100%. I wish our easier games were first instead of a good I-A (NC State) and a great I-AA (JMU) right off the bat.