Thoughts, musings and observations as we work through a wild week two of the college football season in the Old North State — and its implications for the next Fabulous 15:
Afternoon Delight For Camels
Campbell pulled the first big upset of the season, taking down 17th ranked Western Carolina 24-16 on a Whiteout Whitmire afternoon game in Cullowhee.
WCU quarterback Cole Gonzales came into the contest as the preseason All-American. But Campbell signal caller Chad Mascoe Jr. stole the show, throwing for more than 300 yards and a pair of touchdowns to VJ Wilkins.
Campbell’s defense picked off Gonzales four times in giving its new coach, Braxton Harris, his first win as the head man. The Camels earned their first-ever victory over a ranked opponent.
CAA coaches picked Campbell 11th in the league’s preseason poll. It’s still early but it could be time to reevaluate that prediction.
Phoenix Rising Over Durham As Stadium Lights Go Out
Elon scored just three points last week in a trip to Durham to face Duke. This week, the Phoenix returned to the Bull City and exploded for 41.
Coach Tony Trisciani’s team jumped to a 24-0 lead and rolled to a 41-19 triumph at North Carolina Central on Saturday evening in a game delayed by a power outage.
TJ Thomas Jr. helped break the game open with a 74-yard touchdown to give Elon a 21-0 lead in the second quarter. Thomas finished with 152 yards on the day.
Elon’s defense mustered three interceptions on the night, including a 40-yard pick-six by Jesse Powell. Phoenix quarterback Matthew Downing threw a 19-yard touchdown pass to Jamarien Dalton and rushed for a 1-yard score.
North Carolina Central scored all of its points in the second half. Chris Mosley found the end zone on an 80-yard run. Joaquin Davis caught a 30-yard TD pass from Walker Harris. But it was too little too late.
Central, the only FCS team to win in week one, had been first in our FCS power rankings and our Fabulous 15 statewide poll heading into the weekend. There will be a new pecking order this week, with Elon and Campbell moving to the top of the ladder for now.
Interstate 40 Classic Enjoys Classic Finish
The North Carolina A&T vs. Winston-Salem State football rivalry roared back to life after a 14-year absence with one of the most memorable games in the series.
A&T’s Andrew Brown booted a field goal with one second left in the fourth quarter to force overtime. Wesley Graves then scored the only points in extra time with a 16-yard TD run to lift the Aggies to a 27-20 victory.
Winston-Salem State (1-1) seemed primed for the victory when quarterback Daylin Lee rushed a short-yardage score with under four minutes left. But A&T bulled its way down the field in its final possession converting twice on fourth down and twice on third down to keep the series alive.
Brown also had a 52-yard field goal on the day.
This was a big step for an Aggies program trying to reestablish itself after falling off a cliff a year ago (1-10). To be able to mount a solid rushing attack and find a way to rally to victory amid adversity should reap fruit down the line.
WSSU had held bragging rights for 14 years after beating the Aggies in 2010. But then the series went dormant. It’s good to see it resume, and let’s not wait another decade and a half for the next meeting, OK?
CIAA’s North Carolina Teams Making Waves
Virginia State and Virginia Union were picked to finish 1-2 in the CIAA this season. But North Carolina’s CIAA contingent has been impressive thus far and may make it difficult to keep an Old North State team (or two) out of the league championship game in Salem, Va. in November.
Johnson C. Smith improved to 2-0 with a 37-13 trouncing of Morehouse. Defensive-minded Fayetteville State unleashed a potent offensive attack in beating UNC Pembroke for the second time in three years, 35-31 (FSU only averaged 17.8 points per game a year ago).
Livingstone rolled past Virginia University of Lynchburg 37-9. Elizabeth City State edged Chowan 12-9. As mentioned above, Winston-Salem State nearly bagged an FCS victory and shouldn’t hang its head over the narrow loss at A&T.
And then there are the Shaw Bears. The same Shaw Bears who haven’t won a season opener in more than a decade improved to 2-0 with a 43-40 triumph at Albany State, which had been picked to win the SIAC.
The Bears scored 27 points in the fourth quarter after not scoring 27 in a GAME all of last season. Shaw notched the winning points with eight seconds left on a Christian Peters touchdown throw — his SIXTH TD toss of the day.
We had pegged Fayetteville State, Johnson C. Smith and Winston-Salem State as standard-bearers for our state in the CIAA. Shaw served notice it would like to be in that conversation as well. We hear you, Bears!
New Coach, Same Results In Hickory
Last week we wrote about Wingate’s successful opening night with a new head coach, Rashaan Jordan. This week, Lenoir-Rhyne wrote a similar script.
The Bears began the Doug Socha coaching era with a 32-18 triumph over visiting Bowie State.
Zayvion Turner-Knox became the first back in our state to hit 200 yards rushing, finishing with 204 and three touchdowns in the victory. Jalen Ferguson threw a 51-yard TD to Zion Agnew.
Socha, who won a national championship last season at NAIA Keiser, has big shoes to fill. There was concern in the off-season about the amount of turnover on the roster with Mike Jacobs leaving to coach at Mercer and the large number of players appearing ready to hit the portal after that announcement.
But, as the saying goes, rumors of LR’s demise may have been greatly exaggerated.
Wolfpack, Mountaineers Lay An Egg
Ugg. NC State and Appalachian State both had chances to make giant statements in front of Saturday night prime-time television audiences. But both fell flat on their faces and were embarrassed instead. We couldn’t even watch the endings.
The Wolfpack was overrun by Tennessee 51-10. App State fell behind 35-0 in the opening quarter and lost at Clemson 66-20.
The reality is Tennessee and Clemson are two elite teams (and Georgia, which dominated Clemson last weekend, might be the best team in the nation by far). But it is frustrating to see that NC State once again isn’t ready to compete at the highest level. We didn’t foresee the Mountaineers beating the Tigers in Death Valley but we didn’t imagine that kind of beatdown either.
Now if recent Dave Doeren scripts hold, the Pack will get better and win a game or two that it shouldn’t later this season (and probably will beat UNC again). But one day — just one day! — we would love to see a Triangle team like State or Carolina break through the ceiling that seems to keep our schools from being upper crust in football.
This was a chance, and like so many times before, it was a chance squandered.
Triangle Football Teams 2, Big Ten 0
While the Wolfpack took a licking from an SEC opponent, at least we have this: Duke pushed the Triangle to 2-0 against the Big Ten with its late win at Northwestern on Friday night. UNC edged Minnesota in week one when the Gophers shanked a field goal on the last play.
OK, so it’s not Michigan and Ohio State. But it’s not a pair of L’s either against the B1G.
Guilford Retains Soup Bowl Trophy
D3 football is back, and we love opening weekend. It means crosstown rivals Guilford College and Greensboro College tangling in the annual Soup Bowl. The schools play hard on the field and compete in a fundraising drive to help local charities.
Guilford won both competitions. The football game proved fierce and physical — helmets literally flying off on multiple plays. The Quakers earned the shutout — the first of the season by a college team from North Carolina — and escaped Pride Field with a 14-0 triumph.
Guilford picked off four passes and got touchdown runs from Jaelan Brown and Josh Campbell. Jaylan Richardson had two of Guilford’s interceptions.
Guilford has now won the last eight Soup Bowl match-ups and improved to 16-8 all-time against the Pride.
The D3 season is just getting rolling. North Carolina Wesleyan put up a solid effort at Averett before falling 41-29. Methodist lost to Shenandoah 33-14. Brevard will start its season next week.
Looking Ahead
Intriguing match-ups on tap for next weekend include:
* Appalachian State at ECU (two passionate fan bases; two teams in totally different moods right now)
* Gardner-Webb (which nearly beat James Madison on Saturday) at Charlotte (which lost big to JMU in week one)
* Western Carolina at Elon (though this match-up has lost a little luster after the Catamounts’ defeat)
* Campbell at Rhode Island (can the Camels keep it going against first CAA opponent?)
* Ole Miss at Wake Forest (oh boy, another top-level SEC opponent).
* Catawba at Shaw (can the Bears go 3-0?)
