As football fans, one of the worst things we can do is overreact to one week of results. One week doesn’t make or break the entire season, and the opening weekend is always full of new coaches, new players, new opponents, injuries, surprises, suspensions, etc. Lots of things can change from week to week. Many teams have recovered from week 1 disappointments to go on to have championship seasons. That said, this is a place to talk about football, and one week’s worth of games is all we have at this point. So let’s see what happened and what it means for the rest of the season. After all, it is a message board and without overreactions we wouldn't have much fun.

The PSAC East is a wide open mess.

Disaster. That’s about all there is to say about the opening weekend for the east division. All eight teams were in action and collectively, they brought home a record of 1-7. One. And. Seven. Total catastrophe. Shippensburg was the only team to win, and that was in-conference against Seton Hill. The division went 0-3 against the NE10, 0-1 against CIAA, 0-1 against SAC and 0-1 against Division III.
  • Shippensburg won in impressive fashion. The Raiders looked good on both sides of the ball and they had some new names step up and make big plays. Four different players ran for more than 50 yards and the Raiders totaled 536 yards of offense. The passing game wasn't quite as crisp as it has been, but Ryan Zapoticky did throw for 244 yards, 4TD and 0 INT. Not a bad start at all. The defense also had a nice afternoon, holding SHU's normally explosive passing attack in check and standing tall in the red zone. Overall, it was a good day for the Raiders and very solid performance to build on.

  • East Stroudsburg was expected to have some struggles on defense. The Warriors finished 16th in total D last year and lost a lot of the top talent from that unit. Those concerns were realized on Thursday evening. The Warriors had an 11 point lead in the fourth quarter but were unable to hold it. LIU Post put up 629 yards of total offense and scored three touchdowns in the fourth quarter to earn the one point victory. The Warriors' offense post 546 total yards and had zero turnovers, but unfortunately, it still wasn't enough.

  • West Chester and Lenoir-Rhyne endured a lengthy weather delay at halftime but all it turned out to be was a stay of execution for the Golden Rams. WCU put together a nice rally in the final period but the score doesn’t indicate how one-sided the game was. The Rams ran the ball well with Brandon Monk and Jarel Elder, but they were playing from behind the entire game and weren’t able to stick with the rushing attack. West Chester had to play mistake free to win this game but three turnovers in the first quarter doomed that effort. But it was good experience for Moriarty and for the defense. They won’t face another team like L-R so we’ll get a better read on WCU after next week.

  • Millersville’s defense came up with their best effort in years in holding Ursinus scoreless in regulation. Unfortunately, the Marauders’ own offense was a sad, pathetic mess. They mustered only five first downs in regulation, went 3 for 20 on third down and, like the Bears, were held scoreless. It’s unfortunate that the Ville couldn’t pull it off in overtime because it would have been a good experience for them to fight for 60 minutes and beyond, and come away victorious. Unfortunately, they still have to learn how to win. They did run the ball reasonably well, which is encouraging, but they're going to face a lot defenses with more muscle and more talent than Ursinus has. Hopefully the Marauders can build on the defensive performance as the year goes on.

  • Lock Haven posted 401 yards of total offense, which was a very commendable performance in the debut of new head coach David Taynor. Caleb Walton had a nice night throwing the ball, completing 20 or 207 for 206 yards and 2 TD and Malyk Harris ran for 91 yards on just 8 carries. The downside of the offensive performance was that they put the ball on ground five times. The defense, with many new faces, struggled for much of the night and allowed Clarion to hold the ball for 40 minutes.

  • Cheyney battled back from a 17-0 first half deficit and at one point closed the gap to 3 points. The defense made some big plays to help keep the Wolves in the game but the offense struggled for consistency and couldn’t get first downs when they needed to. Sophomore Brandon French had a solid day running the ball (84 yards on 13 carries).

  • Kutztown opened the 2015 season by playing more game from the 2014 schedule. The Golden Bears reverted to last year’s tendencies by building an early lead but failing to hold on for four quarters. The Bears led Assumption 23-7 at halftime but gave up touchdowns on five of Assumptions first six possessions in the second half. Assumption outscored the Bears 34-14 in the second half. Kutztown did regain the lead 37-34 with 5:31 remaining, but once again, couldn’t hold it. Chad Barton threw for a career high 367 yards and completed 12 passes to R-Fr. Craig Reynolds who was playing in his first college game. The Bears have to break this trend of failing to close, but when they do, they may be capable of winning a lot of games.

  • Bloomsburg was alarmingly uncompetitive in their season opening loss to Stonehill. The defensive rotation looks a lot different than it did a year ago the unit had trouble getting off the field and allowed Stonehill to hold the ball for 36:22. Despite that, the defense didn’t give up a lot of yards or points until the offense put them bad situations. The Huskies’ offense, with a veteran line, four year starting QB and experienced receivers was a disappointment. Penalties put them behind the sticks far too often and each time, they were unable to recover. It was just a tough day overall and the coaches called upon many young players to fill gaps, including a handful of true freshmen. Bloom has a lot of work to do and the next two games will put them against teams that are likely to be stronger than Stonehill.


It was a horrendous week for the East and the discouraging thing is that this coming Saturday could be just as bad. Looking at the schedule, it is entirely possible that the division will go 1-7 again.

Better Results on the Western Front

Results on the Western side of the conference were much better. The West teams finished the weekend with a 5-2 record, and IUP was idle. The losses were Seton Hill falling to Shippensburg and Edinboro losing at home to GLVC contender St. Joseph’s. The top four teams in the coaches’ poll all earned victories, unlike the calamity in the East.
  • Edinboro was the first team to take the field for the PSAC this year but the results were much the same as the past couple of years. The defense did an admirable job of keeping the Scots in the game until the fourth quarter, but the offense couldn’t find the red zone or convert on third down. Turnovers were critical – and deadly – as young starter Jake Sisson through four interceptions.

  • Clarion may have been the team of the week in the PSAC. The Golden Eagles put in their most impressive performance in quite a while with a flashy 41-13 win at Lock Haven. QB Connor Simmons was superb, throwing for 407 yards on 29 completions, and had four TD passes. Four different Golden Eagles had more than 50 yards receiving, led by Matt Lehman (8-115) and Kevin Genevro (6-112). The Eagles defense did allow 400 yards to LHU, but forced five turnovers. It couldn’t have been a better night for the Golden Eagles and new head coach Chris Weibel. I picked this team to finish 8th in the West and so did the coaches. They certainly didn’t play like a last place team on Thursday, and with Millersville and Cheyney up next on the schedule, the Eagles should be 3-0 when the division schedule begins.

  • Gannon didn’t win as comfortably as I expected, but they went on the road and earned a week 1 victory, which is all that really mattered. There definitely are concerns on both sides of the ball though. The defense let SCSU hold onto the ball for almost 37 minutes and struggled on third down. The Owls out gained Gannon in total offense 430-257 and pounded the Knights for 224 rushing yards (although sacks brought the net down 176). The win is all that matters, but Gannon was underwhelming, to say the least. The have Cheyney at home next week which offers an opportunity to work out some kinks.

  • Mercyhurst’s motto for the entire off season has been start fast, finish strong. The emphasis was on avoiding the slow starts that have plagued them for the last several years. The Lakers backed it up with a nice 35-20 win over Bentley at home. Mercyhurst jumped out to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter and never trailed. Bentley got within four points late in the third and threatened to potentially tie the game later in the fourth but a 90 yard pick six by Tevin Stewart sealed the deal for the Lakers. Hurst’s Brendan Boylan was a very tidy 20-25 for 305 yards, 3 TD and 0INT. Seton Hill transfer FJ Williams had 93 receiving yards on just 3 catches.

  • Seton Hill was not as competitive as I thought they could be. Maybe Shippensburg is just further along than I anticipated but I really thought the Griffins could hang with them for at least a half. The defense allowed too many conversions on third and fourth down and had a hard time slowing down the running game. The Griffins are still having a hard time running ball, and unless some more playmakers emerge in the passing game, they offense may take some backward steps from last season.

  • California made the long trek to Virginia State and put in an impressive performance in a fairly dominant win. Four of six first half drives were converted into touchdowns and the 28-9 halftime lead is all they would need. VSU stepped it up on defense in the second half by Cal managed the game appropriately and protected the lead with solid defense. The Vulcans really worked on establishing a running game but found the going a little tough. Despite that, QB James Harris needed only 14 attempts and 12 completions to amass 387 yards and four TDs. That’s an average of 32 yards per completion.

  • Slippery Rock had possibly the toughest assignment to start the year. New Haven was just 6-5 last year, but it’s a new season and the blue turf at UNH is a tough place to play. The Rock took a little time to get going but they owned the second half in all three phases of the game. New QB Danta Nania was put to work with a 54 pass attempts. He ended the day with 269 yards, 3 TD and 2 INT. Fellow Youngstown State transfer Teven Williams led the defense with 12 total tackles. The Rock was the only ranked SR1 team to win this weekend.


Later this week, we’ll breakdown the first round of crossover games. It might be ugly, and probably very one-sided.

As always, you can send your comments, complaints, questions or suggestions to [email protected] and you can follow me on Twitter @D2Chuck