Results
Top team
Worst team
Notes
Commentary
Podcast
Results
Thursday
Louisiana 49
Ohio 14
Montrell Johnson 13 att 84 yards 4 TD
Emoni Bailey 11 att 89 yards
Saturday
No. 16 Coastal Carolina 28
Buffalo 25
Grayson McCall 13/19 232 yards 3 TD 1 INT
Shermari Jones 16 att 149 yards 1 TD
Appalachian State 44
Elon 10
Chase Brice 19/25 293 yards 1 TD
Corey Sutton 7 rec 128 yards
No. 20 Arkansas 45
Georgia Southern 10
Justin Tomlin 11/23 65 yards, 10 att 67 yards 1 TD
Anthony Beck 10 punts 480 yards (48 AVG) 59 long
Washington 52
Arkansas State 3
James Blackman 16/38 176 yards, 5 att 17 yards
Lincoln Pare 3 att 7 yards, 7 rec 69 yards
Georgia State 20
Charlotte 9
Darren Grainger 6/12 139 yards 2 TD 1 INT
Jamyest Williams 7 att 73 yards 1 TD
Troy 21
Southern Miss 9
Tez Johnson 10 rec 106 yards
Javon Solomon 9 tackles, 5 TFL, 3.5 sacks
Incarnate Word 42
Texas State 34
Brady McBride 25/41 278 yards 2 TD
Jahmyl Jeter 6 att 46 yards 2 TD
Louisiana-Monroe 12
Jackson State 7
Boogie Knight 6 rec 78 yards
Calum Sutherland 4/6 FGs
South Alabama 28
Alcorn State 21
Kareem Walker 23 att 150 yards 3 TD
Wy’Kevious Thomas 4 tackles, 2 TFL, 0.5 sacks, 1 QBH
Top team performance
Louisiana
For the second straight week we’re going a different direction than our twitter poll Team of the Week, in which Troy pulled off a close win over the Cajuns. On the field, Louisiana’s beatdown of Ohio at home is my top performance of the week.
The Cajuns played a complete game on both sides of the ball against a trending-down Group of Five team. It was a game Louisiana badly needed. A ground-focused Cajuns squad came in averaging an abysmal 2.8 yards per carry and pounded the Bobcats for over 300 rushing yards on 6.3 yards per carry. The offensive line looked like its former self and that’s a bad sign for everybody else in the league.
Worst team performance
Texas State
Three of the four teams who played FCS schools this week could’ve been in this spot. Only of those three teams actually lost, though. In what has proclaimed across social media this weekend as the worst/most embarrassing loss in school history, TXST managed to give up over 40 points to an FCS school.
So last week the Bobcats were my best performer for topping a hill and beating a G5 in overtime. It seemed at the time Jake Spavital finally had the ship heading in the right direction. My how things are different now. There is still plenty of season left to play but the Bobcats need to take a good long look in the mirror and figure out who they are.
Notes
Louisiana RB Montrell Johnson is the third freshman in Sun Belt history to have four rushing touchdowns in a game and the first Cajun frosh to do so.
Saturday was the fourth time Coastal LB Silas Kelly shared a 10-tackle game with another player and it has been a different player all four times.
Before Saturday, the last 10 instances of a SBC team completing six or fewer passes and winning all came from Georgia Southern. Georgia State did just that against Charlotte.
Troy’s Javon Solomon had a school record 5 TFLs and is the first player in SBC history to have at least 9 tackles, 5 TFL and 3.5 sacks.
ULM is the sixth team in SBC history to win a game without scoring a touchdown. First since Troy beat Texas State, 12-7, in 2018.
Dead body of the week
Here’s Shermari Jones sending someone to a better place.
Commentary
The two quarterback system has official died for Arkansas State. It may not have been the actual game plan to use it at Washington and rather it may have been necessary to try a different hand in the midst of being routed, but it sure won’t be the game plan in Tulsa this week.
As I talked about in the podcast, I’m not looking too hard into Coastal’s escape in Buffalo. The Chants are clearly a superior team, but sometimes it just takes a couple bad drives on either side of the ball for a game to take a wrong turn.
Georgia State made a significant change ahead of its win against Charlotte. Actually, it made two. The Panthers started Furman transfer Darren Grainger at quarterback in place of Quad Brown. It also benched Destin Coates, the second best running back in GSU history. Bold moves, but they appear to have paid off in the short term coming off back-to-back beatings against Army and North Carolina.
South Alabama is 3-0 for the first time in school history. It is guaranteed to go into October undefeated. Spooky season will not be kind to the Jaguars, though. Extremely shaky showings against Bowling Green and Alcorn State do not inspire a lot of confidence. Jalen Tolbert, our preseason No. 1 wide receiver, is still without a touchdown.
Podcast
This is the best podcast we’ve ever done. Andrew may disagree due to unforeseen circumstances relating to the Texas State Bobcats, but I still think so. We have our first ever guest on and I highly recommend tuning in to get his unique perspective.