FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP SUBDIVISION

Around FCS: Montana closing in on playoffs again

By David Coulson, FCS Executive Director Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - The only thing standing between Montana and another Big Sky Conference championship is a victory over the team with the longest losing streak in the Football Championship Subdivision, Idaho State.
After Saturday's convincing 31-10 thrashing of No. 14 Weber State, Montana is on the verge of earning a share of its 12th consecutive Big Sky Conference championship and its 17th straight playoff berth.
It's not surprising after this weekend that the No. 2-ranked Grizzlies are in such a position, it's more about how Montana has gotten itself to this place.
The Grizzlies, much like the past couple of seasons, have had their share of ugly victories during an 8-0 start. There were close calls at UC Davis (17-10) and Northern Arizona (41-34 in overtime) and a 41-34 nail-bitter at home against Eastern Washington.
There was even an un-customarily close 45-30 decision against a team that Montana always seems to dominate, Sacramento State, in the tune-up for Weber State.
But when the Grizzlies needed to ramp up some emotion, they delivered on Saturday. Fresh in Montana's memory was the 45-28 thumping at Weber State during the 2008 regular season that cost the Grizzlies the BSC auto bid.
The latest installment of this intensifying rivalry was more like Montana's 24-13 playoff victory over the Wildcats in last year's quarterfinals than that regular season loss.
Montana, which had been a notorious slow starter on offense this season, scored on its first drive when Andrew Selle (13-of-26, 214 yards, two TDs passing) found tight end Dan Beaudin free for a three-yard touchdown pass.
If there was a play that set the tone for this contest, however, it came later in the first quarter when Weber State quarterback Cameron Higgins (16-of-34, 243 yards, three TDs passing) fired a pass right into the arms of Montana defensive end Jace Palmer.
Palmer raced 57 yards for a touchdown and the Grizzlies were left with a 13-0 lead when a bad snap wrecked the conversion try. Palmer's play was the first of four interceptions for Higgins.
Weber State showed a pulse on its next drive, but Montana held the Wildcats in the red zone to force a 36-yard Mike Snoy field goal with 11 minutes left in the second quarter. The Wildcats had another opportunity to draw closer before the half ended, but failed to score.
With a 10-point lead, the Grizzlies turned to Chase Reynolds to protect it in the second half. Reynolds responded with the best performance of his career, rushing 33 times for a career-high 241 yards.
Reynolds capped off a nice drive to open the third period with a two-yard scoring burst and Brody McKnight added a 42-yard field goal in the first minute of the fourth quarter to extend the lead to 23-3.
WSU tantalized its fans again when Cameron Higgins fired a 59-yard scoring strike to Mike Phillips with 11:16 left. But needing to get defensive stops to have a shot, the Wildcats couldn't contain Reynolds.
A 14-yard scoring connection between Selle and Thomas Brooks-Fletcher with less than five minutes left sealed Weber State's fate and extended the Wildcats' winless streak at Washington-Grizzly Stadium to 12 consecutive games.
Now the goal for the Grizzlies - barring one of the greatest upset in FCS history by an Idaho State team that has dropped nine consecutive games - is to position itself for the top-two seed that could allow Montana to stay home through the semifinals.
And Grizzly coach Bobby Hauck can get his squad rested and healthy before its closes out the season at Montana State in the Brawl of the Wild.
The loss to Montana pretty much kills any chances that Weber State has of returning to the playoffs after advancing to the quarterfinals last season. The Wildcats can only lament now with a 5-4 record the missed chances they had in last-minute losses to Colorado State and Montana State.
WE'RE NO. 37 Richmond has been ranked No. 1 in The Sports Network's FCS Top-25 poll since the second week of the regular season, but Saturday's 42-14 victory at Towson's Johnny Unitas Stadium earned the Spiders some attention from another poll - the Associated Press Top-25.
Richmond became just the third FCS team to receive a vote in the AP Top-25 when Ray Ratto from the San Francisco Chronicle marked the Spiders at No. 25 on his ballot.
The Spiders had been ranked just once, at No. 20, in the AP poll before moving to FCS in 1981. A 38-17 victory over West Virginia gave Richmond a 6-0 record during the 1973 season, but a 14-8 loss to Northeast Louisiana the next week dropped the Spiders out of the poll.
Richmond finished 8-2 overall and in second place behind East Carolina in the Southern Conference.
Appalachian State forced a change in AP voting policies following its 34-32 victory over Michigan to open the 2007 season and received votes during the 2007 campaign.
The Mountaineers received votes in the Sept. 9 and 18 polls before losing to Wofford and picked up votes again in the final AP poll after winning their third consecutive national championship later that year against Delaware.
Northern Iowa, which was ranked No. 1 in the TSN Top-25 at the end of the 2007 regular season, also received AP votes that year on Nov. 18.
The one vote the Spiders received allowed Richmond to tie South Carolina and Temple for 37th place in the AP poll. Ironically, one of Temple's two losses was to Richmond's next opponent, Villanova.
Richmond meets Villanova (7-1 overall, 4-1 in the CAA) Saturday in the second to last regular-season game at UR Stadium in what should be a memorable homecoming game.
The Spiders set up that first-place showdown with the No. 4-ranked Wildcats for the Colonial Athletic Association's South Division with a big second half against lowly Towson.
After falling behind 14-13 early in the third period, the Richmond defense started applying the pressure, limiting the Tigers to just 10 first downs and 164 yards for the game.
Justin Forte (22 carries, 121 yards) scored on a 10-yard run and Eric Ward hit Jordan Mitchell for a two-point pass to make it 21-14 with eight minutes left in the third quarter and the Spiders never looked back.
Kendall Gaskins plowed in for his second of three touchdowns and cornerback Tremayne Graham returned an interception 32 yards for another score as the Spiders erupted for 22 points in a two-and-a-half-minute span.
Ward rebounded from the worst game of his career to hit 11-of-14 passes for 177 yards and two TDs as the Spiders rolled to an 8-0 start for the first time in school history and extended their winning streak 17 games, second in Division I to Florida's 18-game skein.
REWRITING THE RECORD BOOKS While Montana and Weber State have already had their showcase and the game between Richmond and Villanova will be one of the highlights of this weekend's schedule, two other teams are closing in on another epic FCS contest in the Southern Conference.
No. 7 Appalachian State and No. 6 Elon are both undefeated in SoCon play and are relying on some historic performances from their senior leaders, quarterback Armanti Edwards and wide receiver Terrell Hudgins two weeks before facing each other in person.
THE INCOMPRABLE EDWARDS Edwards continued to add to his impressive passing and rushing exploits as the Mountaineers ripped rival Furman 52-27 Saturday on the road.
Edwards piled up the fourth-highest, single-game total offense performance in Appalachian State history, but that was just the start for the senior quarterback.
It was the third best performance of Edwards' career, surpassed only by his 481 yards last year in the first round of the playoffs against South Carolina State (a 37-21 win) and his 495-yard effort in the 2007 semifinals against Richmond (a 55-35 victory).
Two-time Payton Award nominee Richie Williams set the school record with 517 yards of total offense in a wild, 59-56 loss to Chattanooga in 2004.
Playing just three quarters on Saturday, Edwards completed 25-of-36 passes for 355 yards and two touchdowns and rushed 10 times for 106 yards and four more scores.
Edwards hit Ben Jorden for a 16-yard scoring strike in the first quarter and CoCo Hillary for a 21-yard TD aerial in the third period. On the ground, Edwards had scoring runs of three yards in first period, four yards and one yard in the second quarter and five yards in the third stanza.
The 2008 Payton Award winner also became the first player in NCAA Division I history to exceed the 9,000-yard barrier in passing and the 4,000-mark in rushing for a career.
Edwards now has 9,184 yards passing and 4,132 yards rushing for a career total offense figure of 13,316 yards. His total offense mark ranks him fourth in FCS history, with only Steve McNair (16,823, 1991-94) of Alcorn State, Bruce Eugene (14,720, 2001-05) and Ricky Santos (14,615, 2004-07) of New Hampshire left ahead of him.
Edwards passed Marcus Brady of Cal State Northridge (13,095, 1998-01) and Willie Totten of Mississippi Valley State (13,007, 1982-85) on Saturday.
The Mountaineers rank first nationally in total offense with an average of 513 yards per game and are second to Stephen F. Austin (39.8) with an average of 39 points per game.
In the past four games, ASU has piled up 2,521 yards and 203 points in wins over North Carolina Central, Wofford, Georgia Southern and Furman.
Appalachian State will try to keep their offense rolling behind Edwards and company when they meet Chattanooga at Kidd Brewer Stadium next Saturday before going on the road to face Elon.
THE HISTORICAL HUDGINS Hudgins set another receiving record on Saturday in Elon's 34-6 road victory over Wofford, cracking the 100-yard receiving mark for the 24th time in his 41-game Phoenix career to pass the mark of Mississippi Valley State's legendary Jerry Rice (1981-84).
Hudgins broke Jacquay Nunnally of Florida A&M's standard of 317 career receptions earlier in the year and could jet by Rice's record of 4,693 reception yards this week at Western Carolina. Hudgins now has 4,659 career receiving yards.
After a slow start led to just a 3-0 lead for Elon after one period, Hudgins hauled in the first of three touchdown receptions from quarterback Scott Riddle with a 10-yard pass on the first play of the second quarter.
Hudgins added a 32-yard touchdown catch with 1:22 left in the first half as the Phoenix went to the locker room with a 17-6 advantage. He was on the receiving end of a 16-yard scoring strike from Riddle in the third quarter as Elon pulled ahead 27-6 on the way to a 34-6 victory.
Riddle ended up completing 31-of-44 passes for 323 yards and three TDs, with one interception.
Hudgins finished with 11 catches for 153 yards for his fifth double-figure receiving game of the season. He now has 82 receptions for 1,042 yards (12.7 average) and 13 touchdowns.
Hudgins is 38 catches away from Stephen Campbell of Brown's 120-reception season of 2000 and is 35 grabs from his own 2007 mark of 117. Hudgins is within nine TDs of New Hampshire great David Ball's career mark of 58 TD receptions (2003-06).
HISTORY IN THE MVFC Through 25 years of great competition, the Missouri Valley Football Conference has never had two teams get off to 6-0 starts in league play, but both No. 3- ranked Southern Illinois and No. 9-ranked South Dakota State will bring those records to Brookings, SD on Saturday to decide the MVFC title in a winner- take-all contest.
It is the first time since 2005 that teams have met in a winner-take-all game, with a share of the league title and the conference's automatic bid to the playoffs going to the victor.
SALUKI STATEMENT Southern Illinois got off to a slow start at Indiana State, which had just broken its 33-game losing streak, but the Salukis used a 21-0 outburst in the second quarter to finally get rolling.
Bryce Morris helped Southern Illinois by blocking a punt and returned it for a touchdown to spark that second-quarter run.
With the Salukis leading just 14-0 late in the second quarter after rushing touchdowns by running back Deji Karim and quarterback Paul McIntosh, Morris broke through the line and blocked a punt and returned it four yards for a touchdown to make it 21-0 with 2:22 remaining in the first half.
Morris was also a major cog in the SIU offense during the day, hauling in a game-high four passes for 80 yards, including one 37 yarder.
McIntosh, the redshirt freshman transfer from Army, had eight carries for 57 yards and two TDs on the ground and was 15-of-22 for 159 yards through the air. Most important was the fact that McIntosh didn't commit a turnover.
Karim, the nation's second-leading rusher with 1,112 yards and 11 TDs, added 87 yards rushing on 15 attempts.
ROAD WARRIORS South Dakota State has made a reputation for its play at home, but the Jackrabbits won a key road game on Saturday at Youngstown State, outlasting the Penguins 17-3.
Youngstown State took an early 3-0 lead on Stephen Blose's 48-yard field goal late in the first quarter, but the Penguins were unable to find the scoreboard again against the tough SDSU defense, which limited them to 254 yards of total offense.
South Dakota State finally tied it with 4:33 left in the first half on a 25- yard field goal from Peter Reifenrath and took control behind the running of Kyle Minett in the second half.
Minett had a five-yard scoring burst on SDSU's first possession of the second half and added a one-yard touchdown with 4:51 left to finally put the game out of reach. He finished with 22 carries for 87 yards.
Ryan Crawford returned at quarterback for the Jackrabbits after suffering a knee injury in SDSU's only loss at Cal Poly. Crawford was 19-of-28 for 178 yards and played turnover-free ball.
Brandon Summers hit 19-of-29 passes for YSU, good for 181 yards, but he was intercepted twice.
REACHING A MILESTONE Penn became the first school in NCAA history to play its 1,300th football game and the Quakers celebrated by ordering up some overtime fireworks for the fans at Brown in a key Ivy League game.
After six consecutive overtime losses, the Quakers finally won one in extra time, beating Brown 14-7 when Kyle Olson tossed a six-yard touchdown pass to Kyle Derham, who broke several tackles to dodge his way into the end zone in the first overtime.
Brown gained just one yard on three plays and a fourth-down pass fell incomplete to give Penn a win that kept the Quakers tied for first place with Harvard in the Ivy League.
It was the first offensive score of the game. Penn's Luke DeLuca recovered a fumble in the end zone for a first-quarter TD for the Quakers and A.J. Cruz returned an interception 42 yards for the tying score for the Bears early in the second half.
Penn's defense has now gone 10 quarters without allowing a point and forced a pair of fumbles against Brown. Brown missed three field goals and Penn misfired on one in regulation.
Kyle Newhall completed 24-of-42 passes for 241 yards to lead the Brown offense, but Penn sacked the strong-armed passer three times. Olson was 27- of-47 for 313 yards for Penn, but was intercepted four times.
Harvard, meanwhile, kept pace with Penn by beating Dartmouth 42-21. Treavor Scales rushed 20 times for 120 yards and two TDs and Gino Gordon ran it only eight times for 119 yards and three more scores.
Connor Winters was 12-of-15 for 204 yards and a touchdown for the Crimson, who meet Penn in two weeks. Harvard must beat Columbia and Penn has to beat Princeton this week to set up the first-place showdown.
QWEST FOR VICTORY It was an interesting week for Eastern Washingt