Saturday and Sunday
106. East Carolina Pirates |
#12 in American |
It might be now or never for Scottie Montgomery at East Carolina. Back to back 3-9 seasons is not going to fly at one of the better mid-major programs over the past 30 years. So he better not make it three. Only two coaches in East Carolina football history have opened their careers with three straight losing seasons. Kenneth Beatty, who was the school’s first ever coach, from 1932-34, and then Art Baker from 1985-87. Both got a 4th year and then were fired, but it’s a little more cutthroat now. They always say when you have two quarterbacks, you have none. Well, when you have no quarterbacks, you also have none. Last year East Carolina split reps between junior Gardner Minshew, and grad transfer Thomas Sirk, who came from Duke, where Montgomery was his offensive coordinator. Minshew played in 10 games, attempting 304 passes; while Sirk played in 11, and attempted 238. Sirk graduated, and then Minshew left the team in the offseason, opting to take a grad transfer of his own to Alabama. So from two to zero. Not an ideal situation for a coach who is probably one more bad season away from getting fired. The Pirates knew they were going to have to outscore teams in 2017, and the defense was as bad as feared, easily the worst in the American, surrendering 45 points and nearly 550 yards of offense per game. The problem was the offense was nowhere near capable of getting into those type of shootouts, mainly because of an inept running game, that put up conference worst numbers in yardage (107.7 ypg on 3.3 ypc). Even the passing game, which finished 3rd in the conference at 317.9 ypg, needed a league high 45 attempts per game to do that. Maybe that’s why they used two quarterbacks, their arms needed the rest. On a per attempt basis, that drops to 7.0 ypa, 2nd worst in the conference. Scottie Montgomery is still only 39. He has a long career ahead of him. I just doubt it’s as head coach at East Carolina.
Key PlayersRB | | Hussein Howe, Junior |
WR | | Trevon Brown, Senior |
G | | Garrett McGhin, Senior |
| - | |
LB | | Aaron Ramseur, Junior |
LB | | Cannon Gibbs, Senior |
S | | Devon Sutton, Junior |
105. South Alabama Jaguars |
#4 in Sun Belt |
South Alabama has been a surprisingly consistent middle-of-the-pack Sun Belt team since making the jump to FBS in 2012, winning 5 or 6 games every year from 2013-2016. After a drop to 4-8 last year Joey Jones, the only coach the program has ever known, resigned, and was replaced by Steve Campbell. Campbell won a Division II National Championship as head coach of Delta State in 2000, and spent the last four years as head coach of FCS Central Arkansas, going 20-5 over the last two years with a pair of Sweet 16 appearances, and reaching #4 in the FCS last season after the regular season. So can he get the program over the hump? Catch the threesome of Troy, Arkansas State and Appalachian State who seem to clearly be the class of the Sun Belt right now? He inherits probably the most talented team the school has ever fielded in its short history, in spite of their 4-8 record last year. The result of a lot of youth taking lumps last year is a very experienced bunch returning, led by 9 starters on offense, including every starting skill position player, and both the 2017 1st team All-Sun Belt kicker and punter. As a guy who has spent his career on the offensive side of the ball, primarily coaching offensive line, the first order of business is jump starting a run game that was the worst in the Sun Belt a year ago. The saying is, if you want to beat the best, you have to poach from the best. Or something like that. To help fix the offense, Campbell made a great hire, by bringing in his former teammate at Troy, Kenny Edenfield, who had been the offensive coordinator at Troy for the past eight seasons. I think South Alabama has a good shot to break their own school FBS record of 6 wins, but the gap between the top 3 and the rest of the Sun Belt seems too wide to close in a year. I do really like the hire and the trajectory of this program now though.
Key PlayersWR | | Jamarius Way, Senior |
T | | Noah Fisher, Senior |
K | | Gavin Patterson, Senior |
| - | |
LB | | Bull Barge, Senior |
S | | Nigel Lawrence, Senior |
P | | Corliss Waitman, Senior |
104. Cincinnati Bearcats |
#11 in American |
After spending every year but two since 1993 at Ohio State, Luke Fickell isn’t used to losing. So you know 4-8 is not sitting well with him. Problem is that he may want to get used to it, because the Riverboat Gambler left the cupboard totally bare. He returns Hayden Moore for his fourth season as the Bearcats quarterback, but he’s trending in the wrong direction. He has certainly worked on taking care of the ball, which was his early issue, but his yards per attempt has dropped every year, as has his completion percentage and QBR. He went from 59% completion, 8.38 ypa and a 53.6 QBR as a freshman, to 56%, 6.04 ypa and 393. QBR as a senior. And he has far less of a supporting cast this year, from an offense that ranked dead last in the American a year ago in scoring offense and total offense. The defense was a little better, but not much. Having spent his whole career on that side of the ball, Fickell went to work fixing that, making a great, under the radar hire in Steve Stripling, who has been a defensive line coach all over the midwest, including Michigan, Michigan State, Tennessee, Indiana, Minnesota, and a prior stop at Cincinnati. The anchor of the defense is Marquise Copeland in the middle. He is not just a space eater, recording a very impressive 63 tackles from an interior line spot. Fickell has always been known as a better recruiter than an Xs and Os guy, so walking into this situation was always going to be a struggle. He’s not going to be a guy to do more with less. He’s a guy who is expected to be able to upgrade the roster. That will take a little bit of time, but the early returns are as expected. He signed the #1 recruiting class in the conference, #47 overall, swiping 4* TE Leonard Taylor from Oklahoma, 3* DE Malik Vann from Notre Dame, and 3* RB Tavion Thomas from Ohio State. 2018 is going to be a struggle, but the future looks substantially better.
Key PlayersQB | | Hayden Moore, Senior |
RB | | Gerrid Doaks, Sophomore |
WR | | Khalil Lewis, Senior |
| - | |
DT | | Marquise Cooper, Senior |
LB | | Perry Young, Junior |
P | | James Smith, Sophomore |