Identifying the sneaky good non-conference college football games with upset potential, high entertainment value, or intriguing story lines.
Jacksonville State at LSU
This is the fourth post in this series and for the second time I’m profiling a FCS opponent taking on a Power 5 opponent.
There’s no denying that sentiment is growing for LSU as a national title contender. On Monday, I pulled back on those reigns a little bit because the Tigers don’t have a proven good quarterback. I’ll also throw it out there I don’t believe LSU has quite the team of horses to become a devastating type of defense like they were in the peak of the John Chavis era. Seriously, take a look at the defensive recruiting it’s not overwhelmingly strong or in the same zip code as Alabama, though no one else is anyway.
New defensive coordinator Dave Aranda was a great hire in his own right and has 9 starters to work with. Of course, LSU will have a very good defense unless there are some crazy growing pains during the transition to a 3-4. I’m kind of intrigued to watch the Tigers make that switch as they have been such a prototypical 4-3 program under Les Miles.
Aranda also gets the pleasure of facing his former employer, the Wisconsin Badgers, in the first game of this 2016 season. These teams met in Houston to kickoff the 2014 season with the Badgers jumping out to a 17-7 lead before LSU rallied in the 4th quarter for a 4-point victory. This year, they will meet up at historic Lambeau Field. The Tigers traveling this far north, even if it is September, is worthy of our attention.
LSU will have to come back from Green Bay and face a pesky Jacksonville State team that is among the best FCS teams in the nation. The Gamecocks made some waves last year out-gaining, out-playing, but ultimately losing to Auburn in overtime. From there, Jax State finished 13-1 overall as Ohio Valley Champions then fell in the FCS National Championship to North Dakota State.
Best news for the Gamecocks? Quarterback Eli Jenkins returns after throwing for 2,788 yards and rushing for 1,161 yards with 36 total touchdowns. The big blow offensively is the loss of running back Troymaine Pope who rushed for 1,788 yards and scored 20 touchdowns. He just recently signed with the Seahawks and participated in the Chiefs rookie mini-camp several weeks ago. They pick up Auburn transfer Roc Thomas (475 yards 2014-15), though.
Jenkins will have enough help in the passing game with the return of Josh Barge who totaled 92 receptions last year. We know their offense is going to be one of the best at the FCS level and they were rewarded with the No. 3 pre-season ranking by their league.
You’re probably thinking JSU won’t be able to stop Leonard Fournette and the LSU offense. Remember, the Tigers have a history of really slow starts and too close for comfort games early in the season. Last year, they only led Syracuse 7-3 at the half, and even worse, only led Eastern Michigan 20-14 at the half, too.
I mean, Les Miles was kind of sort of fired at one point last year before he wasn’t. These early-season groggy performances played a part in the narrative that nearly cost him his job.
Additionally, Jacksonville State played the run pretty well against Auburn last year. Obviously, Auburn was in the beginning of realizing how overrated quarterback Jeremy Johnson was as they let him throw 32 times! Still, Auburn was limited to just 165 yards on 38 carries right about the same production as against LSU the following week.
If Jacksonville State can get a decent defensive performance and Brandon Harris has a really bad day, look out for an upset alert into the second half.
I was really confused when the headline was “Gamecocks in Death Valley” and the picture wasn’t a South Carolina player, and thought to myself “Clemson is gonna kill South Carolina, how could that be a good game?”
I could definitely see Jacksonville being pesky – like ND State and 2007 Appy, they’re one of those FCS teams that are really mid-level FBS teams. Don’t sleep on the (other) Gamecocks…
Also, on this point:
I was looking at past schedules at some point last year and I had to give LSU credit where it was due. They still schedule some pathetic match-ups, but I believe they’re the only major SEC team that plays north of the Mason-Dixon line really at all, and they do it fairly regularly. It’s always early season but still, like you say E, it’s noteworthy. They’ve headed north to play these teams in the last several years:
That might not seem like much, but by SEC standards it’s outstanding. They’ve also schedule respectable September out-of-conference home games or Southern road games, including Oregon, Wisconsin, TCU, Virginia Tech, Arizona, Arizona State, and Oregon State. Obviously I’d still like to see them ditch the South Alabamas from their schedules, but they deserve credit for at least sticking a toe in the North’s waters every so often.
Compare that with Alabama, who has played just three non-Southern road games since 1989 – 2000 at UCLA, 2002 at Oklahoma, and 2011 at Penn State – or Auburn, who has played five such games since 1979 – 2014 at Kansas State, 2008 at West Virginia, 2002 at USC, 2001 at Syracuse, and vs Miami in New Jersey in 1988 – and it looks pretty impressive indeed.
Well, it counter-seceded from Virginia during the “War of Northern Aggression” (heh) so technically by some definitions is the “North.”
Also, the worst culprit in all of this is Florida. They haven’t played outside the STATE OF FLORIDA for a non-conference game since
Donovan McNabbMarvin Graves (!!!!) beat them at the Carrier Dome in 1991.http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1991-09-22/sports/9102060880_1_uf-offense-syracuse-possession-defense