What We Learned – Week 3

First and foremost I learned that there’s never enough sunblock to be used at Kinnick Stadium. Not a pretty picture today. Anyway, onto the thoughts of the weekend:

• North Dakota State was the darling of the college football media today. That’s the impact of Saturday’s win at Iowa. It’s very similar to the NDSU basketball win over Oklahoma at the NCAA Tournament, where the entire country was talking about the Bison. That was the case today, from the LA Times to what I expect is a big love-fest on Monday Night Football tomorrow night. That’s why I called the Bison win over Iowa the biggest in school history. For that simple fact, that everyone is talking about the Bison. That doesn’t happen regrettably so after any of the FCS Championship Games. Last year was a slight exception and that was because of Carson Wentz’s return.
• Another feather in the cap for NDSU happened Sunday as the Bison appeared in the AP Top 25 poll, receiving 74 votes (points), the most ever for a FCS school. A closer look at some of the votes had NDSU well into the 20’s and late teens. Lot of respect nationally for what NDSU accomplished yesterday.
• Huge weekend for the Big Sky. After going 1-3 against the Missouri Valley last week, they post a 3-0 record this week. North Dakota’s huge rally to beat USD, Cal Poly’s triple option going for over 400 yards against SDSU (on the road to boot) and then Eastern Washington’s fake field goal to beat Northern Iowa. Those wins will be all huge come playoff time. UNI has some work to do now at 1-2, granted the win is an FBS win, but with road trips still coming to Vermillion and Youngstown and home games with NDSU and SDSU, it’s not going to be easy for the Panthers.
• Eastern Illinois and Stony Brook share my biggest FCS wins of the weekend. The Panthers, coming off an FBS win, forced three Illinois State turnovers and win in Normal, 24-21. Let’s keep an eye on EIU, maybe a real challenger to Jacksonville State in the Ohio Valley. Stony Brook destroyed Richmond, 42-14, a stunner of a performance by the Seawolves, considering how tough its been for them to score points. They improve to 2-1 and perhaps also a contender in the CAA.
• After touting Gage Gubrud as the next big thing, Gubrud was benched in the 2nd half of Eastern’s win over Northern Iowa. Curious to see what Beau Baldwin does next week as the Eagles open Big Sky play with preseason favorite Northern Arizona.

FBS wins to date:

1. Eastern Washington beat Washington State
2. Richmond beat Virginia
3. Albany beat Buffalo
4. Northern Iowa beat Iowa State
5. Illinois State beat Northwestern
6. Eastern Illinois beat Miami (OH)
7. North Carolina A&T beat Kent State
8. North Dakota State beat (11) Iowa