EWU 35 UNLV 33 in 2/OT (Barriere was 29-39 for 374 yards and 3 TD's and 2 Int's)
Sam Houston State 42 Northern Arizona 16
Arizona State 42 Southern Utah 14

EWU seems to always find a way to win. Sounds like Barriere is right back on track.

I will appreciate him so much more when he is a professional in the NFL or CFL.

Is he one of the guys who broke our backs, at home, when they went like 95 yards in 4 or 5 plays? Nightmare.

EWU game was very entertaining. A good win for EWU, but it was UNLV who went winless last year. EWU let UNLV back into the game after leading by 14 at end of third quarter. Also could have iced game with a short field goal at end of regulation but kicker missed it (along with 2 other attempts). Goes to show you how important special teams are vis. Gomez 4 field goals and good punting yesterday.

Northern Arizona couldn’t run the ball at all. First string QB went down early but don’t think it would have made much difference.

I swear, it seems like Barriere has been around for 8 years! I think he's still playing at EWU just so he can terrorize us!

KEY GAME Saturday

Sac State Hornets at ... Dixie State! 7PM, ESPN.

I just learned Dixie State is in a transition from DII to DI. Only part way through.

Don't let that fool you, they will be competitive this season. Lost by 7 to New Mexico State and by 10 to Kennesaw State last season.

Kansas 17 South Dakota 14 The Jayhawks scored a TD with 1:10 to go to escape the upset.

UNC down 21-7 in 3 to Colorado. Better than o expect. Coach’s kid is a good QB

South Dakota State beating up on Colorado State 28-10 early in 3rd. SDSU is really good. MWC is not

SDSU 35-16 in the 4th. Big opening week for FCS.

Colorado beat UNC 35-7, but was close through the half. Buffs wore them down with the run

The top teams in the FCS seem to be getting better and better. I think some of the best athletes on these top FCS teams like the idea of actually getting to play rather than be a reserve on an FBS team and that they also like having a decent chance to play in the FCS playoffs and possibly play for a national championship. All of that with less pressure than there is in FBS and more time to be a student. Compelling reasons to play on a good FCS team...

I think the additional year of eligibility has increased the experienced depth. That was one of the FBS advantages over FCS teams. The FBS teams are deeper too but there is a limit to how much additional depth helps them, once you have enough more doesn’t help as much. We saw in the Tulsa game that we played almost as many players as a deep FBS team. We had 70 players and only one was a 2021 grad.

Their post-game was pretty gloomy, lots of personal fouls and penalties for a veteran team.

South Dakota State 42 Colorado State 23. Chalk up another FCS win over an FBS team.

Turnover and penalties near our end zone cost them three touchdowns and they set us up for the winning field goal with an interception. Their offense made plays but couldn’t convert third downs. Their defense gave up too many third down plays. We got four first downs on the final possession to end the game, even though starting out first and 15. If you're them it has to be frustrating. So many if only moments.

I only watched half of the highlights so far. Great catch by young WR Chaz Davis, GREAT catch by Harrell on a long, excellent throw by HR.

Did we improve on QB pressure?

When Tulsa broke out the "juju hat" on the sideline during the game for RB Prince, I felt it was a bad move by them.

https://twitter.com/TulsaFootball/status/1433607673048616962?s=20

Tulsa beat several ranked teams last year!, and competed in others.

Beat UCF (#11)
Beat SMU (#19)
Lost to #11 Oklahoma State (16-7)
Lost to #6 Cincinnati (27-24)

They beat Navy and Tulane, easily could have been 8-1.

SDSU clearly the better coached and dominant team against CSU. Controlled line of scrimmage. CSU was not good last year and looked dazed much of the time. I believe SDSU is the odds on favorite for the FCS crown this year. They look to be complete - well coached - dominant LOS, and a good running and passing game. Obviously early and others will have their say.

Weber State completely shut down in running game. Davis a complete non-factor. Shaheed a real weapon. Had a kickoff return for TD - pretty much the only real highlight for Weber. Of course Weber usually comes up with good defense so they probably be a factor again in big sky too. EWU looked good on offense - but as usual their D will need to improve for them to go farther this season.

UNC (or should I say the University of Macaffrey -or maybe U of Nepotism?). Head coach Macaffrey sends play to OC Macaffrey who relays play to QB Macaffrey. UNC has a bunch of transfers and they weren’t embarrassed vs Colorado. I wasn’t very impressed by QB Macaffrey who missed a couple of TD passes and was very inconsistent with his accuracy. He also is not very mobile. I also will say that Ed should lose that awful hair dye job. Overall I suspect UNC will be better than the last couple of years which isn’t a real high bar to clear.

Normally I like to see Big Sky do well OOC but I can’t say that about Montana mostly due to their coach. Kind of hope Washington tap dances on him tonight.

it probably doesn't hurt that an FCS QB was #3 pick either

True! We played pretty well against Trey Lance when we nearly beat the Bison a couple of years ago.

His QB / son is understandable, Michigan backup and 4 star HS recruit. OC / son not so. No resume as a coach, HS coach, or even graduate assistant. Max had 1 NFL reception for 4 yards, and was suspended twice. "While there has been no reporting on the specific cause of the suspension, both suspension lengths are common for positive performance-enhancing drug tests." Nepotism is right.

Huge recruiting class, 36 true freshmen. 6-7 large O linemen, two large RB (215 / 235), 6'5" WR.

Looks like Coach M went the Sac State way, bringing over several HS coaches.

If you go to gopoly.com you can get a video link to the USD - Poly game

Montana State game has a video link via Wyoming football website.

SLO looks better this year. Toreros offense looks similar to what I’ve seen in the past. Their QB looks to be shaking off some ring rust.

Montana State up early on Wyoming, 7-3
UNI is down 10-13 with #7 Iowa State, late 2nd Qtr.

UNI score probably the biggest surprise. Could it be that ND State is only the third best Valley team this year? Watched a bit of the ND State game and they don’t look to be the same team as in their championship years.

Montana State has an NC State transfer QB. He got displaced here as a starter. I had to chuckle when I saw his Twitter post showing him in his new MSU uniform with the word “committed”. Tag line should be “as long as I start”

Poly just went up 21-10, beginning of the 4th. SLO has already thrown 36 times. 22 of 36. Only 63 yards rushing.

Montana State just scored to go up by 5 with a couple minutes to go in game against Wyoming.

pick 6 for Poly. USD is a team that cannot make turnovers against a faster team (any big sky team). 28-10 in 4th.

FWIW:

USC 13, SJSU 7 - Q3