FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP SUBDIVISION

Around FCS: Taking care of business

By David Coulson, FCS Executive Director Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - You would have to think that this time of year in the Football Championship Subdivision that Bachman-Turner Overdrive's 1970s hit "Takin' Care Of Business" would be in high rotation on the iPods of teams near the top of the top-25.
Taking care of business is exact what a number of teams did over the weekend as the regular season inched a little closer to the finish line.
Four more teams joined Southern Illinois (Missouri Valley Football Conference( with automatic bids to the NCAA Division I football tournament, Appalachian State (Southern Conference), Holy Cross (Patriot League), Montana (Big Sky) and South Carolina State (Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference).
Southern Illinois, Montana and South Carolina State also clinched league championships outright. Liberty earned at least a share of a Big South title and can join teams like Villanova (Colonial Athletic Association), McNeese State, Stephen F. Austin (tied in the SOuthland) and Eastern Illinois (Ohio Valley Conference) with outright crowns this weekend.
Prairie View capped off a West divisional title to reach the SWAC championship game and will wait for its opponent to be decided from the East this week.
Other squads like Richmond, William & Mary, Northern Iowa, Eastern Washington and Colgate kept alive their various dreams of playoff berths.
And teams like Dayton, Butler and Drake of the Pioneer Football League and Central Connecticut, Wagner and Albany of the Northeast Conference continued to fight for league titles and berths in the Gridiron Classic.
CROWNING ACHIEVEMENT Defensive coordinators from around the Southern Conference will be glad to say goodbye to Appalachian State's Armanti Edwards after this season. Edwards became the first starting quarterback in SoCon history to lead his team to four consecutive league championships when he guided the No. 7 Mountaineers to a 27-10 victory over No. 6 Elon Saturday on the road in a win-take-all battle.
Edwards scored three first-half touchdowns to give ASU (8-2) a 21-0 lead and came back from a sprained knee in the second half to finish off a surprisingly easy 17-point win. Edwards rushed 10 times for 73 yards in the first half, but stuck to just passing after getting banged up.
That might have been any even worse poison for Elon, as Edwards finished the game by hitting 21-of-24 passes for 281 yards.
The victory was the eighth in a row for the Mountaineers and gave ASU 19 consecutive Southern Conference wins, good for the fourth longest streak in league history.
Terrell Hudgins grabbed 10 catches for 127 yards for Elon, but Phoenix quarterback Scott Riddle had three of his first six passes intercepted, two of them by Buchanan Award candidate Mark LeGree.
With an auto bid in hand, Appalachian State can make an argument for a top- four seed and can clinch the SoCon title outright by beating rival Western Carolina at home next Saturday in the battle of the Old Mountain Jug.
Elon (8-2) can pretty much seal its first-ever FCS playoff bid by beating Samford on the road.
ALIVE AND KICKING For the second year in a row, the difference between victory and defeat in the Holy Cross-Lafayette rivalry was the success and failure of each team's kickers.
Last year, Lafayette All-American Davis Rodriguez missed only one extra point all season, but it was the one that left the Leopards with a 27-26 loss that ended its hopes of a Patriot League championship.
This time, two high snaps led to a pair of Rodriguez misses as the No. 20- ranked Leopards took an early 12-0 lead on a rainy day at No. 13 Holy Cross. But those early miscues came back to haunt Lafayette when Dominic Randolph led the Crusaders back with three second-quarter scores.
Randolph pitched to Luke Chmielinski for a four-yard option TD and then threaded a 22-yard scoring pass to Chmielinski. Randolph's second effort on a quarterback sneak finally gave Holy Cross the lead, 21-19, with 11 seconds left in the first half.
Randolph (23-of-37 for 348 yards passing) hit Freddie Santana for a 40-yard touchdown aerial midway through the third period to extend the lead.
Lafayette's defense kept Randolph and company off the scoreboard the rest of the way and a 14-yard precision pass from Rob Curley (23-of-32, 312 yards and two TDs passing) to Mark Layton cut the lead to two points.
But Holy Cross held from there to win their first PL title since 1991 and qualify for the playoffs for the first time since 1983.
No. 24 Colgate (9-2) kept its slim hopes for a playoff slot by beating Bucknell 29-14 in its regular-season finale. Losing 14-10 in the third quarter, the Raiders rebounded behind two touchdown passes from Greg Sullivan to Pat Simonds and a 31-yard scoring run by Sullivan.
Sullivan was 12-of-20 for 212 yards passing and rushed 16 times for 102 yards. Simonds had nine catches for 167 yards in what might have been his final college game.
STAYING ALIVE IN THE CAA No. 8 New Hampshire had the ability to close out the CAA auto bid and at least a share of the league title with wins in its last two games. But William & Mary's defense kept the Wildcats' offense in check and came up with enough offense of its own for a 20-17 victory.
Brian Pate's 37-yard field goal with 2:54 remaining gave the No. 5 Tribe a three-point lead and the William & Mary defense made it stand up, holding UNH without a first down. It was Pate's second field goal of the game, bookending a 32-yarder in the first period.
William & Mary (9-1, 6-1) limited UNH (8-2, 5-2) to just 226 yards, 147 yards below the Wildcats' season average, but R.J. Toman (18-of-37, 199 yards, two TDs) completed a fourth-and-seven pass to Joey Orlando for a 35-yard scoring play that tied the game at 17 with 8:17 remaining.
Jonathan Grimes rushed 23 times for 136 yards and Courtland Mariner smashed into the end zone from the five to tie the game at 10 in the first half. R.J. Archer (19-of-32, 122 yards) found Chase Hill for a 10-yard scoring strike midway through the third period after a Sean Lissemore interception.
Adrian Tracy led the Tribe's defensive effort and boosted his Buchanan Award status with seven tackles, two sacks and three tackles for loss.
William & Mary can now win the CAA auto bid if the Tribe beats Richmond Saturday on the road in the oldest rivalry of the south, combined with a Delaware victory over Villanova in the battle of the blue.
No. 4 Richmond (9-1, 6-1), which cruised to a 49-10 non-conference victory over winless Georgetown, would take the auto bid with a victory over William & Mary and a loss by Villanova.
Villanova (9-1, 6-1) already has wins over William & Mary and Richmond to hold the CAA tiebreaker over both and the No. 3-ranked team kept pace with a 49-7 victory over Towson Saturday on the road. The Wildcats roared to a 35-0 halftime lead.
Delaware (6-4) held its own at Navy, taking a 9-7 halftime advantage on three Jon Striefsky field goals. A fourth Striefsky kick pulled the Blue Hens within 14-12 after three period.
But Navy's triple option piled up three touchdowns from Ricky Dobbs (26 carries, 100 yards) in the fourth quarter as the Midshipmen pulled away. Pat Devlin was 17-of-26 for 194 yards for the Blue Hens.
The loss all but ended Delaware's hopes of returning to the NCAA playoffs.
BACK ON TRACK Montana's 12-10 victory over Idaho State, secured when Brody McKnight drilled a 33-yard field goal on the game's final play, was almost as bad as a loss in many people's eyes. That's what happens when you nearly lose to a team with the longest losing streak in FCS.
But the No. 2-ranked Grizzlies got back on track at home against Northern Colorado by breaking loose in the second half for a 38-10 victory.
Leading just 14-7 at halftime, Montana was sparked by a pair of long Chase Reynolds touchdown jaunts. Reynolds (23 carries, 151 yards, three TDs) had scoring scampers of 54 and 37 yards in the first three minutes of the third period.
Bryan Waggener hit 26-of-44 passes for 200 yards and a touchdown for Northern Colorado, but the Bears were unable to run the ball effectively and the UNC defense allowed 438 yards of total offense.
The victory clinched the auto bid in the Big Sky for Montana and also gave the Grizzlies an outright championship.
And to brighten Montana's day all the more, Idaho State snapped its 10-game losing skein with a 41-34 victory over Portland State at home.
The Bengals, who hadn't won since the last game of the 2008 season with a 36-33 overtime victory against Sacramento State, got a one-yard scoring blast from Clint Knickrehm with 32 seconds remaining to knock off the Vikings.
Russel Hill hit 17-of-38 passes for 307 yards and three TDs for Idaho State.
It turned out to be the final game for Portland State coach Jerry Glanville, who resigned under pressure on Tuesday with a 9-24 record in three years.
OTHER BIG SKY RESULTS No. 18 Eastern Washington (7-3) stayed alive for a possible at-large berth by ripping Southern Utah 41-28 on the road behind the passing of Matt Nichols. Nichols hit on 28-of-38 passes for 380 yards and four touchdowns and Tony Davis grabbed eight receptions for 106 yards.
Cade Cooper completed 35-of-47 passing attempts for 345 yards and three TDs and rushed for two more touchdowns for the Thunderbirds. Tysson Poots snagged 15 of the passes for 147 yards and all three scores, but it wasn't enough to keep up with Nichols.
EWU finished with 608 yards and SUU added 416 yards.
Montana State struggled to topple Sacramento State 27-17 at home. The Bobcats (7-3) took a 21-17 lead in the third quarter on a 46-yard pass from Cody Kempt (20-of-29, 222 yards passing, two TDs) to Everette Gilbert and finished things off with a pair of fourth-quarter field goals by Jason Cunningham.
The Bobcats must beat Montana Saturday at home in the Brawl of the Wild to have any shot at the playoffs, while Eastern Washington needs a victory at Northern Arizona, tough assignments for both teams.
No. 19 Weber State (6-4) still thinks it has a shot at the playoffs with a 6-2 record against FCS opponents (losses to Montana and Montana State) and the Wildcats defeated Northern Arizona on a snowy day at home, 27-9.
NAU (6-4) led 9-6 in the third quarter until a 90-yard punt return by Tim Toone sparked the Wildcats. Two fourth-quarter TD passes from Cameron Higgins and Mike Hoke to Tyrell Francisco put the game away for WSU.
The Wildcats host Cal Poly (4-6), like Weber State, one of the most disappointing teams in FCS this season. Even with a win, the Wildcats would need a bunch of losses by playoff contenders to have a shot at the playoffs.
THE LONG ROAD HOME There had been little doubt that South Carolina State was the class of the MEAC all season, as the No. 9 Bulldogs bore down on their second straight league title.
But SCSU (9-1) finally closed out another championship and clinched the MEAC auto bid with a 37-13 trouncing of Morgan State. Like the Bulldogs have done all year, they jumped on the Bears early, outscoring them 27-7 in the first half.
Malcolm Long (21-of-32, 319 yards passing) fired three first-half touchdown passes and added a fourth in the third period. Two of the scoring plays went to Tre Young, who caught six passes for 166 yards.
Will Ford, who has struggled with injuries for much of the year, fueled the rushing game with 20 carries for 107 yards.
The Bulldogs now have won 20 consecutive MEAC games.
Things were not so smooth for another MEAC team with playoff aspirations. No. 22 Florida A&M (7-3) saw its hopes come crashing down with a shocking 25-0 loss at Hampton.
FAMU's trouble went from bad to worse when both Curtis Pulley and Eddie Battle, the Rattlers' top two quarterback, suffered injuries to knock them out of the game.
Steve Robinson ran wild over the FAMU defense, running for 150 yards and two TDs on just 17 carries for Hampton.
STILL NO. 1 Southern Illinois (9-1) consolidated its No. 1 ranking in The Sports Network's FCS top-25 poll with a quick 44-24 victory over Missouri State to finish off an outright championship in the MVFC.
The Salukis showed just how balanced they are again with Deji Karim scoring twice in the first quarter on runs of seven and three yards and another TD on Brandon Williams' 34-yard interception return.
SIU added two more touchdowns in the second quarter, including a 73-yard scoring scamper from Karim, who ended his day early with 14 carries for 117 yards.
Mike McElroy gave the Salukis another defensive touchdown when he intercepted the pass and returned it 80 yards for a score.
Missouri State fought back in the second half and piled up 464 yards against one of the top defenses in FCS, but it wasn't enough. All-American tight end Clay Harbor caught 11 passes for 111 yards and an eight-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter.
The Salukis can polish off a top-four seed by beating Southeast Missouri State in a non-conference game to close out the regular season.
No. 11 Northern Iowa (7-3) still has a strong heartbeat for an at-large playoff bid after its 34-0 crushing of Western Illinois.
Pat Grace completed only nine passes, but three of them were for touchdowns as the Panthers built on a 17-0 halftime lead. Grace threw for 213 yards, hitting 9-of-17 attempts and rushed 15 times for 63 yards.
A 45-yard interception return by Quentin Scott for a touchdown completed the workmanlike victory for the Panthers, who will likely wrap up a playoff bid with a win at Illinois State.
ANOTHER NEAR MISS No. 12 South Dakota State (7-3) could have wrapped up an at-large playoff berth by beating Minnesota on Saturday and the Jackrabbits had every opportunity to complete the FBS upset.
The Jackrabbits played a brilliant defensive game, limiting the Gophers to 231 yards and holding them without an offensive touchdown.
Linebacker Derek Domino had a 22-yard interception return for a touchdown and Buchanan Award candidate Danny Batten had a career-high 12 tackles and one sack.
But SDSU killed itself with four turnovers. Freshman quarterback Thomas O'Brien (15-of-39, 183 yards) threw two costly interceptions, one following Tyrel Kool's 84-yard kickoff return that gave SDSU the ball at the Golden Gopher four.
The other interception set up a Minnesota field goal in the first half.
O'Brien was also sacked and stripped of the ball by Minnesota's Michael Carter to set up a three-yard touchdown return by D.L. Wilhite late in the first half to turn a 10-6 lead into a 13-10 deficit.
The Jackrabbits also missed a pair of field goals, but Peter Reifenrath's second successful boot from 34 yards tied the game at 13 with 8:27 remaining.
Then disaster struck again as O'Brien couldn't control a low snap and Minnesota's Cedric McKinley recovered the ball at the SDSU 11. That set up Eric Ellestad's third field goal of the game from 25 yards with 2:22 remaining.
South Dakota State had two more possessions, getting into Gopher territory once, but the Jackrabbits managed only one first down in the final minutes.
Now SDSU, the loser of two straight games, needs to beat Western Illinois on the road to have a shot at its first FCS playoff berth in its second year of eligibility.
CLEARING THINGS UP With four teams tied for first place entering last week's games in the Southland Conference, everyone knew that it would be a weekend of reckoning in the league.
One of these two championship-elimination games was everything that fans could have expected, while the other quickly turned into a blowout.
No. 10 McNeese Stat