What We Learned – Week 4

The Missouri Valley Football Conference has received some tremendous attention over the past five seasons, largely due to North Dakota State. But the rest of the league has earned some rave reviews this season, thanks to a league record four FBS wins. That’s part of what went down in a fun weekend.

• Cal Poly is in the conversation of Big Sky contenders. That’s after the Mustangs beat Montana 42-41 in a thriller in San Luis Obispo. Brady Gustafson completed 47 passes, a Griz record, but Cal Poly used the pass instead of its vaunted triple option to beat Montana. Poly now has a road win over SDSU and a victory over the Griz, not to mention an overtime loss to Nevada. They’ll be moving up in the poll, huge game in Grand Forks on Saturday.
• Illinois State allowed 445 total yards to Indiana State as the Sycamores handed the Redbirds their second straight loss, 34-31. Isaac Harker out dueled Jake Kolbe to give the Sycamores their best win of the season and move them to 3-1. Really curious what kind of team NDSU will see on Saturday inside the Dome, the Redbirds are a hurting unit right now and have to play a second straight road game.
• Western Illinois nearly gave it away, but in the end, picked up a 28-23 win over Northern Illinois. It marked the fourth Valley team to register an FBS win this season and the Leathernecks are now squarely in the conversation of playoff teams. Sean Maguire threw for 315 yards in the win. WIU has a huge game this coming Saturday at SDSU, where the Jacks with two losses already don’t want to take a third this early in the year with trips to Fargo and Cedar Falls still to come.
• Two more big wins for Big Sky teams. Eastern Washington picked up a great road win at Northern Arizona, Gage Gubrud returned to the form we saw in Fargo, 35 of 56 for 392 yards and 2 TDs, Cooper Kupp was back as the Eagles won. Meanwhile, UND scored its first win in Bozeman in three decades, hanging on for a 17-15 victory. Bubba Schweigert’s team is now 2-2, and very easily could be 4-0. The Stony Brook defeat could bug them all season and lost on a two-point try at Bowling Green. We’ll see how they fare against a talented Poly team on Saturday.
• Central Arkansas may be a challenger to Sam Houston State in the Southland. The Bears won their first game against an FBS school Saturday night, beating Arkansas State. The best part about the schedule is that UCA plays Sam Houston in the final week of the season.

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
9. Western Illinois beat Northern Illinois
10. Central Arkansas beat Arkansas State