Most improved FCS program over the last 10 years?

[FCS_pwns_FBS]

So just in recent years we've seen

...Towson make it to the national championship.
...Coastal Carolina get into the preseason top 5.
... Sam Houston State make it to more semi-finals in the last four seasons than I think they made in every year they've been in the FCS before that.
... ISUb field respectable playoff teams after a lot of years of futility.
...UTC field a very respectable playoff team last year.

Of course sometimes teams get turned around just because they have good coaches and not because of what is being done above the head coach.
Which team do you think has made the greatest strides as a program and isn't a coaching change away from a steep drop-off?

I would pick Coastal Carolina myself. They have a great administration that has had them going upward ever since they started in the FCS.

[DFW HOYA]

Going back a few more years than 2005, I'd say New Hampshire deserves some consideration. They've became what Delaware used to be in the CAA.

Another candidate: Sam Houston State.

If Old Dominion had stayed in I-AA, I think their trajectory would have been remarkable.

[BisonFan02]

Indiana State? Dumpster to slightly out of dumpster and in the post season.

[TheRevSFA]

I'd say Sam if keeler can maintain what fritz left him

[WTFCollegefootballfan]

NDSU. Went from D-2 to 4 time FCS champions.

[Terry2889]

Going back a few more years than 2005, I'd say New Hampshire deserves some consideration. They've became what Delaware used to be in the CAA.

Another candidate: Sam Houston State.

If Old Dominion had stayed in I-AA, I think their trajectory would have been remarkable.

UNH only had 5 losing seasons in 30 prior to this recent run. They were always very good (albeit not what they are now) and had a legendary coach in Bill Bowes. If anyone in the CAA qualifies I would say Richmond. They were pretty bad for a while after dropping down from D-1 and now they are a solid program. The inverse of this ranking however has to be Delaware...

[Go Lehigh TU Owl]

I'd say Coastal Carolina. The Chanticleers have gone from a pretty good start-up to one of the elite programs in FCS imo.

EWU was always pretty good but they've taken it to another level over the last 5-6 years.

[IBleedYellow]

NDSU. Went from D-2 to 4 time FCS champions.
But we were a good D2 team.

We don't have to be in every "best of" discussion.

I'd say that Coastal has much improved, and is a team that will be vying for a National Title for years to come.

[FormerPokeCenter]

Even though I hate to do it, SELA gets a nod, going from Start up in 2003 or so, to consecutive playoff appearances in 2013 and 2014

[Catsfan90]

Definitely Coastal Carolina. Giving NDSU a run for their money last year was pretty incredible. They definitely earned a lot of respect from me.

[bonarae]

I'd say Coastal Carolina too.

[RabidRabbit]

SDSU should be in that discussion. They've gone from D-II mediocre (one play-off in 1979), to being in the play-offs 5 of 7 possible years. Due to play-off regionalization, the Jacks keep getting sent to Fargo early in play-offs. Their first two years in FCS were pretty sad.

[NoDak 4 Ever]

NDSU. Went from D-2 to 4 time FCS champions.

/thread

[AmsterBison]

NDSU was the Georgia Southern of D2 so the program is just repeating its success in the FCS.
Coastal Carolina... heck, they've only had a program for, what, 12 seasons? They just hit the ground running.

Eastern Washington only had three playoff appearances in their first 20 seasons. They've had eight since.
Sam Houston State is very similar to EWU. It'd be hard to pick which program improved more.
South Dakota State only made the playoffs once in D2 and also seemed to be around .500. Now they're working on their fourth straight playoff berth.

That said, I'd have to go with New Hampshire.

[Bison Fan in NW MN]

Doesn't matter if NDSU was a good D2 program, from going to a transition team to one with 4 titles is definitely the most improved.

[NoDak 4 Ever]

Would anyone be surprised if NW Missouri State came up to FCS and won 4 straight national championships by 2025?

Let's have some perspective here people. We may have had the tools but that is a meteoric rise.

[Bisonator]

Gotta go with Coastal Carolina too. I mean they didn't even have a program before 2003. From start up to quarter finals in 10 years is pretty good.

[Go Green]

In the Ivy, it has to be Dartmouth. Really a bottom feeder for the 2000s, and now universally regarded as Harvard's best challenger for Ivy supremacy.

[Mocs123]

Nothing against Coastal Carolina or any of the other teams but 10 years ago Chattanooga was one of the worst FCS programs in the country. The year before Huesman came to Chattanooga, we were 1-11 with our only win against an NINA team.

[344Johnson]

Doesn't matter if NDSU was a good D2 program, from going to a transition team to one with 4 titles is definitely the most improved.

All I ever hear from half the NDSU people is a a bunch of "been successful at every level" and "historically good program" and "we expect nothing but championships".

So either NDSU wasn't this super amazing thing... Which you guys would hate to say after all this time...

Or........

You can admit that maybe. Just maybe... Another school/football team has grown more.

I'd go with SDSU for teams I'm remotely familiar with.

[Bison Fan in NW MN]

All I ever hear from half the NDSU people is a a bunch of "been successful at every level" and "historically good program" and "we expect nothing but championships".

So either NDSU wasn't this super amazing thing... Which you guys would hate to say after all this time...

Or........

You can admit that maybe. Just maybe... Another school/football team has grown more.

I'd go with SDSU for teams I'm remotely familiar with.


Good for you poindexter.

[FCS_pwns_FBS]

I think it was pretty obvious early in NDSU's transition that they would be good. With the exception of the 2013 team, I don't think I can really say any of NDSU's championship teams were much better than the 2006 and 2007 NDSU teams.

[Model Citizen]

University of San Diego Toreros.

1995-2004: 54-47 (.535) No league championships. Got a boost that last year with Harbaugh coming on board.

2005-2014: 83-30 (.735) All six (officially five) of their league championships.

[walliver]

I would go with Charleston Southern. People tend to forget how really bad this program was. It was awful. Half of their schedule was D2 games and they lost most of them. It is one thing to create a competitive program from scratch, but it is much much harder to create success out of a long-time failure.

CCU is getting a lot of love on this thread, but let's not forget that they were 10-1 in 2005 and 9-2 in 2005. Since this thread talks about a 10 year time frame, there really isn't a lot of room for improvement for CCU. I know their competition is much improved, but the CCU teams of 10 years ago were quite good.

Chatty and Western are both in the conversation. Both have had success in the distant past (WCU once made the NC game), but by 2004-2005 (10 years ago), both were quite horrible. Chatty has been very good lately, but I think Western still has a ways to go.

[NoDak 4 Ever]

I think it was pretty obvious early in NDSU's transition that they would be good. With the exception of the 2013 team, I don't think I can really say any of NDSU's championship teams were much better than the 2006 and 2007 NDSU teams.

For which Jerry Moore is eternally grateful. :D

[Professor Chaos]

SDSU should be in that discussion. They've gone from D-II mediocre (one play-off in 1979), to being in the play-offs 5 of 7 possible years. Due to play-off regionalization, the Jacks keep getting sent to Fargo early in play-offs. Their first two years in FCS were pretty sad.
Agreed, in the last 10 or so years SDSU has turned a middling D2 program into a perennial top 20 FCS program. They should definitely merit consideration.

[Sammy94]

2005 Todd Whitten 3-7 2-4 5th
2006 Todd Whitten 6-5 4-2 2nd
2007 Todd Whitten 7-4 5-2 2nd
2008 Todd Whitten 4-6 2-5 6th
2009 Todd Whitten 5-6 2-4 5th
2010 Willie Fritz 6-5 4-3 3rd
2011 Willie Fritz 14-1 7-0 1st NCAA Finalist
2012 Willie Fritz 11-4 6-1 1st NCAA Finalist
2013 Willie Fritz 9-5 4-3 3rd NCAA Second Round
2014 K. C. Keeler 11-5 7-1 1st NCAA Semifinal

My vote would be SHSU

[SleepySmurf]

I'd consider Stony Brook - they were an average Division III team through 1995, then an average Division II team for three years before moving to Division I for the first time in 1999. They didn't even have scholarships until '06 and probably didn't have the full allotment of 63 until '09 or so. Now the are a legit FCS team with playoff wins under their belt and never an easy out. I'd say that's a ton of improvement.

[Catsfan90]

I'd consider Stony Brook - they were an average Division III team through 1995, then an average Division II team for three years before moving to Division I for the first time in 1999. They didn't even have scholarships until '06 and probably didn't have the full allotment of 63 until '09 or so. Now the are a legit FCS team with playoff wins under their belt and never an easy out. I'd say that's a ton of improvement.
They gave UNH a run for their money at home last year. That was deffinately a trap game, I was thoroughly impressed by how improved they were.

[frozennorth]

Bunny state.

Went from being nobody to a perennial playoff team and owner of top 5 caliber facilities.

[McNeese72]

In the Southland Conference, the teams I would suggest would be Sam and SLU. Now, if this was a string about teams going the wrong way in the last 10 years, I know who I would nominate. ;)


Doc

[Bison56]

I am stuck between SHSU and Coastal.

[AshevilleApp2]

For which Jerry Moore is eternally grateful. :D

I only wish you had the opportunity to play those teams. Might have been fun. Smug smartass.

[MarkCCU]

Coastal has done well, but so has Charleston Southern. They suck significantly less than they did 10 yrs ago.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[NoDak 4 Ever]

I only wish you had the opportunity to play those teams. Might have been fun. Smug smartass.

I wish we had played them way more than you do.

[Daytripper]

1. Coastal Carolina
2. Sam Houston State


How about this: Which team has had the hardest fall in the last 10 years? Delaware?

[Catsfan90]

1. Coastal Carolina
2. Sam Houston State


How about this: Which team has had the hardest fall in the last 10 years? Delaware?

Definately cannot argue with Delaware. I remember how much I used to dread UNH playing them.

[bkrownd]

How about this: Which team has had the hardest fall in the last 10 years? Delaware?

Massachusetts xsmhx Yeah they left FCS, but still deserve to be shamed in this discussion. I guarantee UMass would have posted something like 3-8 records playing a CAA schedule under Charlie Molnar, with only 1 or 2 wins in conference play. From the 2006 title game to the joke of college football in 2012 & 2013. Last year's results under Whipple were SO MUCH BETTER I forgot they still only won 3 games!

[McNeese75]

How about this: Which team has had the hardest fall in the last 10 years? Delaware?

xeyebrowx I'm afraid to comment.

[superman7515]

How about this: Which team has had the hardest fall in the last 10 years? Delaware?

Delaware has been to two national championships in the last ten years. Now, if you said last five, I wouldn't argue that for a second. I think the team is definitely trending down, so in 2017 when you can say that they went from a title game in 2010 to no playoff appearances for eight straight seasons... A team that had never missed the playoffs four straight years will make it six straight this season... From one of the teams at the top of the mountain in attendance to having about 5000 show up for Delaware/Delaware State last year, and the Newark Post said that was generous... It's been a skydive to the bottom. I'd like to see them turn it around this year, but the coach already said before last season that he was hoping to turn it around sometime around 2016, so what does that tell ya... Here's hoping.

[dewey]

Reading through the thread it is tough to pick between Coastal Carolina, South Dakota State and Sam Houston State. The hard thing to me is how far would SDSU have made it in the playoffs had they not been sent to Fargo due to regionalization.

I would say Coastal Carolina due to the fact that they were a start up program.

Dewey

[Go Lehigh TU Owl]

I wouldn't say SDSU yet. I think they need a few more years. CCU had prior success in FCS before the last two years. The Chants have been on a steady decade climb....

For the biggest fall I'll go with Hampton. They were always pretty good, even ranked in the Top 10 quite a bit, then fell off the map. Furman and Western Illinois also come to mind.

[I-AA Fan]

NDSU is not even a consideration, just about any team that moves up into an upper division, or upper-division conference does well. They were dominant in D-II. Similar teams moving up were:

EKU
YSU
WKU
Boise State
Central Florida
South Florida
Liberty


That is because they have an established base of talent and fans. A dominance of their local markets, which is the same for I-AA/FCS. They all settle down and the talent levels equalize at some point. The advantage that NDSU has is that no one recruits up there, so as long as that stays in place, they could stay relevant.

Another reason these teams fall off is the when coaching staffs change out ...look at GA Southern, Marshall or YSU. Now in the case of NDSU, the new coach changed nothing ...not really even his own staff. On the other hand Jim Tressel took all but 1 of his YSU staff to Ohio State.

Look at Marshall, when they moved up to the MAC ...they simply dominated. Then when they moved out of the MAC to C-USA it took what about 3-years to win more than 2 games?


I like Indy State as a choice ...I would not rule out Southern Illinois. This team went down to I-AA and won a national championship. Then they went decades without anything as good as a .500 record. Then under Jerry Kill they were outstanding.

ISU (blue)
SIU
Central Arkansas
Duquesne
Eastern Washington (started about 10-years ago.)
Fordham (very recently has been exceptional).
Montana State
Bethune-Cookman (last 5-years or so).
Holy Cross

[clenz]

NDSU is not even a consideration, just about any team that moves up into an upper division, or upper-division conference does well. They were dominant in D-II. Similar teams moving up were:

EKU
YSU
WKU
Boise State
Central Florida
South Florida
Liberty


That is because they have an established base of talent and fans. A dominance of their local markets, which is the same for I-AA/FCS. They all settle down and the talent levels equalize at some point. The advantage that NDSU has is that no one recruits up there, so as long as that stays in place, they could stay relevant.

Another reason these teams fall off is the when coaching staffs change out ...look at GA Southern, Marshall or YSU. Now in the case of NDSU, the new coach changed nothing ...not really even his own staff. On the other hand Jim Tressel took all but 1 of his YSU staff to Ohio State.

Look at Marshall, when they moved up to the MAC ...they simply dominated. Then when they moved out of the MAC to C-USA it took what about 3-years to win more than 2 games?


I like Indy State as a choice ...I would not rule out Southern Illinois. This team went down to I-AA and won a national championship. Then they went decades without anything as good as a .500 record. Then under Jerry Kill they were outstanding.

ISU (blue)
SIU
Central Arkansas
Duquesne
Eastern Washington (started about 10-years ago.)
Fordham (very recently has been exceptional).
Montana State
Bethune-Cookman (last 5-years or so).
Holy Cross
SIU is 19-21 in D1 games under Lennon since Kills players got out of the system


ISUb is in the mix, but remember they were 1-11 in 2013...

[Bison Fan in NW MN]

NDSU is not even a consideration, just about any team that moves up into an upper division, or upper-division conference does well. They were dominant in D-II. Similar teams moving up were:

EKU
YSU
WKU
Boise State
Central Florida
South Florida
Liberty


That is because they have an established base of talent and fans. A dominance of their local markets, which is the same for I-AA/FCS. They all settle down and the talent levels equalize at some point. The advantage that NDSU has is that no one recruits up there, so as long as that stays in place, they could stay relevant.

Another reason these teams fall off is the when coaching staffs change out ...look at GA Southern, Marshall or YSU. Now in the case of NDSU, the new coach changed nothing ...not really even his own staff. On the other hand Jim Tressel took all but 1 of his YSU staff to Ohio State.

Look at Marshall, when they moved up to the MAC ...they simply dominated. Then when they moved out of the MAC to C-USA it took what about 3-years to win more than 2 games?


I like Indy State as a choice ...I would not rule out Southern Illinois. This team went down to I-AA and won a national championship. Then they went decades without anything as good as a .500 record. Then under Jerry Kill they were outstanding.

ISU (blue)
SIU
Central Arkansas
Duquesne
Eastern Washington (started about 10-years ago.)
Fordham (very recently has been exceptional).
Montana State
Bethune-Cookman (last 5-years or so).
Holy Cross




Totally disagree on your NDSU analysis but everyone has an opinion.

[catbob]

Montana State has improved in the last decade, but not markedly like some of the other teams.

2005 - 7-4
2006 - 8-5, win over Furman in playoffs, lost to App 2nd round, Kramer fired after the season
2007 - 6-5
2008 - 7-5
2009 - 7-4
2010 - 9-3, 1st round loss to NDSU
2011 - 10-3 1st round W over UNH, 2nd round loss to SHSU
2012 - 11-2 1st round W Stony, 2nd round loss to SHSU
2013 - 7-5
2014 - 8-5 1st round loss to SDSU

It would have been interesting to see what Kramer could have done, coming off the first playoff victory in 22 years in 2006, but getting fired after the season.

Since Ash has been here we've gone from barely getting winning seasons to achieving the #1 ranking a few different times in the last few years, but haven't had much success in the playoffs yet so I can't say we've been super successful.

[Bisonator]

NDSU is not even a consideration, just about any team that moves up into an upper division, or upper-division conference does well. They were dominant in D-II. Similar teams moving up were:

EKU
YSU
WKU
Boise State
Central Florida
South Florida
Liberty


That is because they have an established base of talent and fans. A dominance of their local markets, which is the same for I-AA/FCS. They all settle down and the talent levels equalize at some point. The advantage that NDSU has is that no one recruits up there, so as long as that stays in place, they could stay relevant.

Another reason these teams fall off is the when coaching staffs change out ...look at GA Southern, Marshall or YSU. Now in the case of NDSU, the new coach changed nothing ...not really even his own staff. On the other hand Jim Tressel took all but 1 of his YSU staff to Ohio State.

Look at Marshall, when they moved up to the MAC ...they simply dominated. Then when they moved out of the MAC to C-USA it took what about 3-years to win more than 2 games?


I like Indy State as a choice ...I would not rule out Southern Illinois. This team went down to I-AA and won a national championship. Then they went decades without anything as good as a .500 record. Then under Jerry Kill they were outstanding.

ISU (blue)
SIU
Central Arkansas
Duquesne
Eastern Washington (started about 10-years ago.)
Fordham (very recently has been exceptional).
Montana State
Bethune-Cookman (last 5-years or so).
Holy Cross

Not exactly sure what you meant here but only 2 other position coaches stayed at NDSU. Kliemen hired 9 new coaches.

[carney2]

NDSU is not even a consideration, just about any team that moves up into an upper division, or upper-division conference does well. They were dominant in D-II. Similar teams moving up were:

EKU
YSU
WKU
Boise State
Central Florida
South Florida
Liberty


That is because they have an established base of talent and fans. A dominance of their local markets, which is the same for I-AA/FCS. They all settle down and the talent levels equalize at some point. The advantage that NDSU has is that no one recruits up there, so as long as that stays in place, they could stay relevant.

Another reason these teams fall off is the when coaching staffs change out ...look at GA Southern, Marshall or YSU. Now in the case of NDSU, the new coach changed nothing ...not really even his own staff. On the other hand Jim Tressel took all but 1 of his YSU staff to Ohio State.

Look at Marshall, when they moved up to the MAC ...they simply dominated. Then when they moved out of the MAC to C-USA it took what about 3-years to win more than 2 games?


I like Indy State as a choice ...I would not rule out Southern Illinois. This team went down to I-AA and won a national championship. Then they went decades without anything as good as a .500 record. Then under Jerry Kill they were outstanding.

ISU (blue)
SIU
Central Arkansas
Duquesne
Eastern Washington (started about 10-years ago.)
Fordham (very recently has been exceptional).
Montana State
Bethune-Cookman (last 5-years or so).
Holy Cross

Holy Cross? What are you smoking?! Here's the record since 2009, Dominic Randolph's last season:

2010: 6-6
2011: 6-5
2012: 2-9
2013: 3-9
2014: 4-8