The Thursday night MEC Game of the Week will be broadcast live to a national audience by ESPN3.com. Be sure to tune it at 7:00 for what should be one of the top games in the conference this season.

Before we look into this week's action, there was some good news announced this week that should be mentioned. MEC Commissioner Reid Amos has been named to the NCAA Division II Football Championship Committee. This is good for the MEC and for SR1 to have the commissioner involved in the committee's administration of the sport, as well as it's oversight championship tournament selection process.

I've also posted my week 5 blog for the PSAC. You can read that column Here.

Thursday

Concord (3-1, 3-1) at Charleston (3-1, 3-1) 7:00

Last week:Fairmont State (1-2, 1-2) at Urbana (1-3, 1-3) 12:00

Last week: Fairmont State was idle last week. The Falcons have had a long layoff with their last game being played on Thursday, Sept. 17. The result of that game was a victory over West Liberty...Urbana lost at West Liberty in a Thursday night prime time contest. The Blue Knights moved the ball well with 487 total yards, but were shutout until the fourth quarter.

This is a very important game for both teams. It's going to be a challenge to get to .500 or above but this is a winnable game for both sides. A win on Saturday could dramatically impact the way the rest of the season plays out. The two teams are fairly even across the board but I think Urbana is a little better on defense and they have some outstanding individual players in D'Gary Wallace (MEC leading 51 total tackles) and Kevin Chapple (31 total tackles, 2.5 sacks).

This one is a toss-up but I think Urbana gets win #2

Glenville State (3-1, 3-1) at Notre Dame (1-3, 1-2) 12:00

Last week: Glenville State jumped out to an early lead and then kept Uva-Wise at arm's length the rest of the way. Sean Steele threw for three touchdowns in the game...NDC traveled to Shepherd looking for two in a row over the Rams. The Falcons put up respectable numbers against Shepherd's defense but were not able to finish drives.

Notre Dame is 1-3 overall, but all three losses were on the road and all three were very competitive outings for the Falcons. The final score in the loss at Shepherd last week was somewhat lopsided but NDC put up a very respectable 386 total yards against Shepherd's D. Unfortunately they could not keep drives alive and converted just 6 of 20 third down attempts. Glenville has been solid on defense but I can see this game becoming a shootout - similar to the Glenville v. Wesleyan game.

It could be a wild one, but I think Glenville has more weapons to win a high scoring game.

Glenville State 45 NDC 35

West Liberty (2-2, 2-1) at West Virginia Wesleyan (0-4, 0-4) 1:00

Last week: West Liberty held the ball for only 22 minutes against visiting Urbana, but the defense stepped up in critical situations, Urbana was held to 4 for 17 on third down...West Virginia Wesleyan was totally uncompetitive until Concord started clearing the bench.

West Liberty has to be more consistent if they want to be a factor in the race for the MEC championship over the second half of the season. The offense has moved the ball well at times, but turnovers have been costly and they seem to move away from the running game as soon as it gets going. But this should be a good week to work on all aspects of the offensive system because they will be playing the worst defense in the country. Wesleyan's defense is last in the entire country in total defense (619 yards per game) and scoring defense (55.4 points per game). The numbers would be even worse if Concord hadn't sent most of the first team to showers at halftime last week. Just within the MEC, Wesleyan's 619 yards allowed per game is 170 yards worse than 10th place, and that is very nearly the same gap from 1-10. They really are that much worse than the rest.

It's pretty obvious that for Wesleyan to beat anybody, they have to score a lot of points. They may have some success on Saturday since West Lib does give up a lot of yards. However, the Hilltoppers' D has gotten out of some tough spots this year and I think they would need to have a really bad day for Wesleyan to outscore them.

West Liberty 49 West Virginia Wesleyan 32

West Virginia State (2-2, 2-2) at Uva-Wise (0-4, 0-3) 3:00

Last week: State scored just a few minutes into their home game against Charleston, but lost the lead on the next possession and never got it back....Uva-Wise fell behind 23-0 before halftime but rallied for 21 points in the second half in their 37-21 loss

UVa-Wise is the only team in the MEC averaging less than 300 yards of total offense per game. State, on the other hand, is putting up about 440 and they have one of the better passing games in the league. The Highland Cavs will struggle to stop Matt Kinnick, who is one of four MEC QBs that has yet to throw an interception this year.

State has won both road games this season while losing both at home. The trend continues as The Yellow Jackets jump over .500 and the Highland Cavs stay winless.

WV State 28 UVa-Wise 16

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