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Ep#104 Upsets, Rivalries and Weekend Picks · The Blue Creek Outdoors Podcast

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Welcome to the Blue Creek Outdoors podcast, where we're talking faith,
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family, sports, and the great outdoors.
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Welcome back to another episode of the Blue Creek Outdoors podcast.
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I'm Joe Bartlett here with Les Meyer.
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We get Austin Siler back this coming week, so he'll be back on next week as well.
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But another episode with just the two of us. Les, how you doing today? Good.
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Yeah, doing good. Yep. Well, we got not as much outdoor adventure this week,
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but we'll talk through football. We'll talk through the first of the week,
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and then we'll make some predictions. We're both going to attend a college game
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this weekend, so that'll be fun as well.
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And we'll start with the NAIA Top 25 Roundup. Number 25, Georgetown had a bye this weekend.
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Number 24, Evangel lost at number 8, Friends, 59-24.
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Number 23, Baker won against Culver Stockton, 56-14.
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Number 22 Northwestern beat Hastings 33-6 number 21 Dakota State won at Southern Oregon 27-25
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number 20 Louisiana Christian won against Oklahoma Panhandle State 69-24 number
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14 William Penn won at Central Methodist 23-17 number 18 Midland won against
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Dakota Wesleyan 49-0 number 17 Olivet Nazarene had a bye,
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number 16 Dort won at Concordia and Nebraska 51-21 and number 15 McPherson,
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one against Ottawa, 14-10.
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Number 14, one at home against Fort Lauderdale, 45-14.
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Number 13, Carroll College, one at Rocky Mountain, 45-13.
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Lindsay Wilson, one at Union Commonwealth, 49-17. Number 11,
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Marion, and number 10, St. Thomas, and number 9, Campbellsville, all had byes.
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Friends beat Evangel. Number 7, Morningside, one at Mount Marty, 42-7.
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Number 6, Grandview, won at Mid-American Nazarene, 35-13.
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Number five, Benedictine won against St. Ambrose, 34-0. Number four,
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Indiana Wesleyan had a bye.
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And the big game of the week here, number three, College of Idaho won at home
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against number two, Montana Tech, 35-19.
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We'll talk about that one here in a second. And number one, Kaiser beats Cumberland's 58-21.
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And that brings us to the Frontier Conference where Dickinson State is now one
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and four after losing at home to Montana Western 41-27, and that game went into
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halftime a very tight football game.
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Yeah. If you recall, I kind of had Dickinson State maybe winning that because
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it was going to be at their home and Western was struggling.
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But kudos to Western. I think we all probably think Western's a better team anyway.
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But kudos to Western to go all the way across the state and into North Dakota
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and come out with a W. you.
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Absolutely. Mayville State wins on the road. They're now 4-1 after beating Arizona Christian 34-0.
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I forgot to say after that last one, Montana Western is now 2-2.
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Mayville State's now 4-1 and leaving Arizona Christian at 0-3.
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I figured Mayville would go win, but out of three games from Arizona Christian,
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I'm not seeing the step forward that I was kind of expecting them to take this fall, I guess.
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Yeah, that's an interesting, the way they are playing right now.
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If there's not any progress, then there's got to be some soul searching from
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the university, from the college side of things.
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Right. Yeah, it is. It is. Yeah. Not sure what's going on there.
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Be kind of interesting to see what happens over the next few weeks.
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Dig into a little bit more.
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I'm sure we'll learn a little bit as the season progresses here.
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Montana Tech's now four and one after losing at College of Idaho.
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College of Idaho is now, let me see, where am I at here? 4-0.
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I, yeah, I don't know why I thought, like I said last week, my brain was going
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College of Idaho, my heart was going Tech, and my brain won out on that one.
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And if you ask me, College of Idaho is the team to beat in the country right now, in my opinion.
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Yeah, that's a pretty impressive win from a score standpoint.
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Obviously, you need to watch the film and watch the game and get the context of the game itself.
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Not surprised that tech went to call it cfi and lost.
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It might be a very good thing from this from tech standpoint,
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right and you can look at things well you look at last year right tech runs
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the table a regular season cfi had the one loss on the regular season that was two tech
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one of those teams ended up in the semi-finals last year and that was the college
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of idaho so So we'll see how Tech bounces back down the stretch here.
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Dakota State's now 4-1 after winning at Southern Oregon, 27-25.
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Southern Oregon's now 1-3.
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I expected them to beat them. I did not. It was a closer game than I expected,
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but that's a heck of a road trip.
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I mean, Dakota State's dang near in Iowa and Minnesota, clear over there in that corner.
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Are they in South Dakota or North Dakota?
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I can't remember where they're at. They're clear over there on the Minnesota
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border, though, either way.
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So to go to Ashland, Oregon, that's a heck of a trip. So probably maybe didn't
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show out the greatest. Southern Oregon also played them pretty tough as well.
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But a good win for Dakota State to go and get.
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Yeah, I had Dakota State winning. And I'm pretty happy with those guys.
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I think if you're going to do that, and now you want to be able to be recognized
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in the conference, then that's the kind of step that you're going to have to
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make. I wonder when those guys left.
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Yeah, that's a good question. Absolutely, yeah. That's a good question.
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We got to start keeping track of, we got to start calling coaches and asking
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them what their plans are with this interdivision play, so.
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Rocky Mountain's now 1-3. They hosted Carroll College and lost 45-13.
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Carroll College is now 3-1.
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Not really a game that I think shocked anybody.
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Interesting, though. Rocky outrushed Carroll.
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Again, they didn't have a lot of yards. 75-43. And then Carroll had 330 yards
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passing versus 173. From a statistical standpoint, that's not a blowout.
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So I haven't been able to look at it enough. I know Rocky had more penalty yards.
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I'm just getting to think that there had to be some defensive turnovers there,
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for Carroll to be able to tack up that many points. For sure.
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MSU Northern is now 0-5 after losing on the road to Eastern Oregon,
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45-14. Eastern Oregon is now, where are we at here, 3-1. So quite the turnaround
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for the Mountaineers this season so far. Yeah, good for those guys.
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Valley City State went down to Simpson and lost 50-45. Valley City is now 1-3. Simpson is now 2-2.
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And for Simpson's first win at home, their first win against an NAIA program,
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and their first win against a Frontier team, and they are scoring touchdowns so far this season.
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Yeah, they are definitely putting some points up. And remember,
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we talked about it at the beginning of the season.
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Their coach said, hey, we're going to win. We're going to take some people by surprise.
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They're 2-2, and they could actually be 3-1.
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Yeah, one of those losses to Southern Oregon was not a blowout.
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It was a one-score game, if I remember correctly. So very easily could have bounced away.
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It would be interesting to see how the season progresses.
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Are they going to gain confidence and then be able to win those close games?
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I bet they want that game back against Southern Orvian. Right.
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Right. Well, we are entering division play this week.
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So it starts us off. The 1-4 Dickinson State is at home against a 4-1 Mayville State.
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Mayville beat Dickinson last year. I think it was like a double overtime game in Mayville.
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And it was the first time they'd beaten them in a very, very long time.
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And I think they're going to make it two years in a row here.
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Yeah, I'm going to say last year was ticked, this year was tack, you know?
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But Mayville. Yep, and Mayville's starting quarterback is starting to kind of
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respond to more stimuli.
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He's following some instructions in the hospital there. He's doing a couple
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things that people tell him to do on command, so that's some good signs there.
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So continued prayers for his improvement there.
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A big game in the Eastern Division right now is this week as well,
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montana tech at four and one is at dakota state who is also four and one
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this game wasn't really that close last year i think it was two or three scores
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if i remember correctly but at dakota state,
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dakota state's one loss is coming to a division two program and tech's one loss
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obviously coming from the c of i are we thinking this would be a closer game
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than last year does montana tech kind of come at this with a vengeance.
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So Tech went to C of I, kind of got counted from a score standpoint,
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and then they turn around and go to Dakota State.
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That's a trick. That's tough. So I'm going to say Tech's going to win it,
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but I'm going to say it's going to be a battle.
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You think the Trojans are going to give them all they can handle for a little
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bit? Yeah, I think they will for a while. Yeah, absolutely.
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Rocky Mountains 1-3, and they are hosting 1-3 Valley City State.
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Kind of like you say there trip to Simpson last week and I know Valley City
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to Rocky Mountain isn't exactly a week-long road trip but you know it's back-to-back
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trips there I want the Bears to pull this one out I want them to win yeah I'm going Bears,
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here absolutely Bears here again that score with with Carroll I don't see it
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being totally reflective of the game when you when you look at just the yards got it,
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MSU Northern is 0-5 but they're on a bye week this week probably a pretty good time to,
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to hit that bye week now and we move over to the western division carroll college
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is three and one hosting the o and three arizona christian and i don't think
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that that one's gonna get i think pretty ugly pretty quick,
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the one thing i'd like to see carroll do is i'd like to see carroll put three
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touchdowns in the first quarter.
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Yeah, just kind of make a statement and then get some young guys some time. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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Southern Oregon is 1-3, and they are traveling to the 2-2 Montana Western.
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Man, after playing Dakota State that tough last week, Western obviously beats
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Dickinson on the road and a good win there.
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I think Montana Western pulls this
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one out, but Southern always has the potential to make it a ball game.
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Yeah, I'm going to go Bulldogs also in this one.
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I think that was a good win in the end of it all against Dickinson on the road,
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given that they have been losing and then to have the intestinal fortitude to
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go there and seemingly dominate.
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Right. In Western. Right. College of Idaho is 4-0. They are hosting the 2-2 Simpson.
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So first things first, College of Idaho is going to win.
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But what I think this week will tell us a lot, if Simpson puts up 21 points in this game,
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just based on what other people have scored against the College of Idaho,
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I think that'll actually be a very good indicator of how good Simpson's offense
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is. And I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility.
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Now, I think College of Idaho scores 50.
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But if Simpson could score three times, I think that kind of solidifies them,
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as a formidable offense.
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It's funny that that's the angle that you took, because that's exactly what
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I was wondering. There you go. I just wanted to say.
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How many points are they going to score? And I think it'd be cool if they got 21 points, 24 points.
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Yeah, I think so too. It'd be against that defense, top team in the country,
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getting three scores, maybe, God forbid, four scores.
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We've got a pretty serious offense on our hands here, so...
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Eastern Oregon has a bye this week, and that rounds out the frontier there.
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I'm going to start including the standings here as we enter into East and West
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play in the next few weeks.
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Moving on to the FCS in the top 25 roundup. Number 25, Mercer won at Abilene Christian, 34-17.
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Number 24, Southern Illinois beat Murray State, 46-6.
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Number 23, Villanova was upset by Colgate, 28-21. Number 22,
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Campbell, I think had a bye, or I missed it, one of the two.
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Number 21 harvard won at brown 14 to 10 number 20 west florida beat southeast missouri 20 to 17
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number 19 rhode island lost at north carolina a and t 22 to 18 number 18 northern
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arizona lost at number one montana state 28 to 14 number 17 yale lost at cornell 38 35
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number 16 south carolina state won at bethune cookman 31 21 number 15 lamar
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beats nichols state 49 to 18.
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Number 14, Idaho State won at Southern Utah 28-24.
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Number 13, Austin Peay beats UT Martin 35-12. Number 12, Tennessee Tech beats Wofford 42-38.
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Number 11, Youngstown State wins at home against number 8, South Dakota 47-21.
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And number 10, UC Davis lost at home to number 5, Montana 62-22.
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Number 9, Stephen F. Austin beats Northeastern State 63-14. Number seven,
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North Dakota wins at number three, Illinois State, 42-35.
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Number six, Lehigh beats Penn, 20-7. Number four, Tarleton State was on a bye.
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And number two, South Dakota State beat Eastern Illinois, 42-7.
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So a little bit of a shakeup in the top 10 there that will be reflected in this
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week's poll. But that brings us to the Big Sky Conference where Montana State's
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5-0 after beating Northern Arizona, 28-14. That game was very close,
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deep in the fourth quarter.
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But Montana State without Justin Lamson, Saco Dallar, and Caden Dallar, I believe also,
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So some pretty key starters there, but showing why they are number one in the
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nation. You go down three very key players and you still come out 28-14 against
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an 18-ranked Northern Arizona.
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Yeah, I just think that kind of signifies the depth the Bobcats are working with right now.
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That's the one thing is obviously this is the time of the season when polls
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are just polls. You're just ranking people just to rank people.
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Right there, not because it's Montana, but what they did to number 10 UC Davis,
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at UC Davis, South Dakota losing to Youngstown by a couple of scores.
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And you have Illinois State losing to Northern Iowa.
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It just, those things start shaking up.
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And here in a couple of weeks, those polls probably will become a little bit
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more believable, even though we know good and well there's going to be upsets
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with it within the top 15 for sure right right i.
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Let's see here yeah northern north i can't remember who northern northern iowa
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a lot beat illinois state and i said illinois or north dakota did i can't remember
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who north dakota beat but idaho was on a bye this week perfect time for a bye
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for them because they're 0-4 montana,
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won at uc davis 62 to 22 i don't think i was expecting that and what were your thoughts on that game,
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yeah i i can't quite remember our conversations but i'm pretty sure we thought
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that that game was going to be tight yeah it's huge game probably game of the week in the big sky,
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And for them to get.
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Over 600 yards on the road down there where it's 90 degrees or 100 degrees,
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I didn't get to watch the game, but from what I gathered is people that watched
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the game were pretty impressed with the offensive line.
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Gotcha. Yeah. Yeah.
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Southern Utah is now 1-4 after losing at home to Idaho State, who is now 4-0.
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I'm surprised Southern Utah is 1-4, and I think I screwed up last week.
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I think I said they beat St. Thomas at home, and St.
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Thomas actually had gone in and beaten them at home, which was a game that we
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did not want to drop, but one and four going into big sky play for the stretch here.
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So that's going to be interesting as we see that, but you Weber States now two
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and three after losing at home to Portland state, 44, 41, Portland state gets
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their first win to be one and four.
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That was a walk-off field goal that Portland state kicked as time expired to
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go up three points to win the game. So pretty, pretty big win by a Portland state there.
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Yeah, pretty good. Great job by PSU. None of us had those guys picked.
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I don't know if I'm more impressed with Portland State winning or more disappointed
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in the fact that Weber lost that game. Right, right.
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Yeah, so we had kind of some interesting, kind of a question mark with Weber
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State coming in, brand new head coach that's been a high school head coach for
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the last 10 years coming in to the collegiate level. So it was kind of a question mark there.
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We'll see how we can shape up here in the next few weeks. But Eastern Washington's
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now 1-4 after losing at home to Cal Poly, 31-27. Cal Poly's now 3-2.
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That game was very close for the stretch. Eastern Washington was even ahead
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for a decent amount of that game.
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And then a couple mistakes happened. Cal Poly kind of roared back and took the
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lead with, if I remember correctly, not a heck of a lot of time left in that game.
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But Eastern Washington kind of managed to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory
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for that game, which is disappointing. Yeah.
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There's probably a lot of Montana fans that are pretty happy to see Eastern,
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getting beat. Right, right.
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All of that being said, it's a pretty good rivalry, and what brings out the
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best, and everybody's having that rivalry.
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So in a way, it's kind of sad to see where Eastern Washington has gone in the
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last three years. Right.
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And maybe four years for that matter. And the last two for sure has been a struggle
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for, good for Cal Poly, but it's been a struggle for EWU.
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Right. Utah Tech's now 0-5, 0-4 in the Big Sky after losing at Northern Colorado,
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37-13. Northern Colorado picks up a Big Sky win there. So good for the Bears
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there. They're sitting at 2-3, 1-1 in Big Sky play.
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Kind of brings us to these current standings here. Number one,
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Montana State at 2-0 in conference play.
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Montana's 2-0 cal poly's 2-0 so those three are tied right now
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uh idaho state's 1-0 at number four number or nau is 2-1 at number five
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number six number so uc davis portland state weber state and northern colorado
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are six through nine all at one and one and then 10 through 13 is idaho at 0-1
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eastern washington and southern utah 0-2 and utah tech at 0-3 in conference
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play there so So moving on to this week's games here, we've got Montana at Idaho.
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I know the Kibbe Dome has been a difficult place to play. I'm sorry, Montana State at Idaho.
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I know the Kibbe Dome has been a difficult place to play in the last few years,
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but even taking three starters out, Idaho is not what Northern Arizona was.
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I don't know. I think the Bobcats go in there and win rather handily.
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How about young Patrick Duchesne? Absolutely.
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Class B boy playing some QB and fitting right into their system.
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Good for him, good for them. Yep, and I think he got some first start jitters
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shooken off, and I think they're going to handle Idaho pretty well.
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Montana is at home against Northern Colorado. As much improved as the Bears
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are this season, it ain't going to matter in Washington-Gersley Stadium this Saturday. I don't think,
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this is going to be a difficult game. I believe, I think I'm going to pick Montana to win it.
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I just think you go to UC Davis and you win that big. And now everybody's patting
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yourself at me on the back.
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You've you're scoring like you did in the nineties and now it's homecoming week,
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and it's Northern Colorado.
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It's a good point. It's just going to be more of a game than what it feels like on paper.
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That makes sense for, Yeah, for sure.
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Southern Utah at 1-4 now is at Utah Tech this weekend. That's a good rivalry
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game down there. I think it's called the Battle for the Axe.
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They're not that far from each other, and I think Southern Utah is going to
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take out some newly found Big Sky frustrations on Utah Tech.
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Yeah, not that far apart, but they're a long ways away from one another from
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a football perspective.
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Southern Utah will handle it.
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UC Davis is now three and two. They host Eastern Washington,
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who's one and four this week.
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And I think they also will probably be taking out some frustrations from last
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week's performance against Eastern Washington as well.
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Yeah, UC Davis. Yeah. Weber State's at Cal Poly. They're two and three.
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Cal Poly is three and two.
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Probably, you know, beginning of the season, I'd have told you Weber State all
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day. And now I don't know.
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I, it's interesting. I think that, let me look at the last.
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So we got Cal Poly. We've got, let me check here.
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Let me see if it shows me the last five, last five games for each point.
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So Weber State, you know, they beat UNC.
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They lost to Southern Utah. They lost to Colorado. They beat Northwestern State.
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So they beat two bad teams, you could say.
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I mean, they lose to Portland State. Cal Poly opens the season beating Idaho,
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beating Central Washington, who's a very good Division II team.
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They lose to San Jose. They lost to San Diego, which we all scratched our heads at.
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And then they beat Eastern Washington. So if you just look at the last five
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games, I might lean Cal Poly on this one, to be honest with you.
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Yeah, that's where I'm going to go with it, too.
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That Portland State loss is huge, I think, for Weber.
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And then by Cal Poly beating Eastern at Eastern, in the game that they play,
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yeah, I'm just going to pick Cal Poly.
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And it's home. Right, right.
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Well, and then that brings us to what, in my opinion, is the game of the week
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in the biggest guy right now, Now, Northern Arizona is 3-2. Idaho State is 4-0, both top 25 teams.
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So if you look at the last, but Northern Arizona, they haven't played a joke
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of a schedule, that's for sure. So I know one's undefeated, one is not.
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But so Northern Arizona, they began the season with a win against Eastern Washington.
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They lost to Arizona in a money game.
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They beat Incarnate Word. They beat Utah Tech, and then they lost.
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I mean, I know 28-14, I know that's double the points that they scored,
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but until late in the fourth quarter, that game was not out of the – the Cats
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were not out of the woods.
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They played them very tough. So when you look at Idaho State's wins for this
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season, they beat VMI, they beat Utah State, they beat San Diego,
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they beat Southern Utah.
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I would say arguably Utah State and Southern Utah are the best wins on there, obviously.
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But I uh it's in northern Arizona.
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I yeah yeah I uh I'm gonna go Idaho State on this one,
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yeah I flip flopping back and forth as you're talking there myself and then
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looking at it I I just think that that,
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that's a quality win for Idaho State to beat Southern Utah right at Southern Utah. At Southern Utah.
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And I know now they're,
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Is Idaho State hosting Northern Arizona? Yes, it is. Oh, no,
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you're right. It is in Pocatello, Idaho. Yeah. Yeah.
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So I'm going Idaho State, even though I don't think – I think I know that game
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with Montana State was close with Northern Arizona, but,
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a little bit disappointed in some of their games early on in the season. Gotcha. Yeah.
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Well, that brings us to the FBS. Yes, we'll go through the AP Top 25 pull here from this last week.
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Number 25, Houston beats Georgia Southern, 42-28.
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Number 24, Mississippi State beats Missouri, 31-24. Where did Mississippi State
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come from? That's a talk everybody's having at the moment.
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Number 23, Texas. Say what?
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QB is good. Yeah, he's really good. Number 23, Texas A&M lost at number 10, LSU, 35-6.
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Number 22, SMU beats Missouri State, 34-24.
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Number 21 florida travels to number
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four ole miss and beats them 52 to 28 number 20 oregon wins at usc who,
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was ranked 12 41 to 27 number 19 missouri lost to mississippi state number 18 michigan lost to
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iowa and iowa was number 17 yep 20 to 19 did you by chance catch that game less
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no but i did watch some of the highlights and some yeah final final play of
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the game final play the game iowa score throws a touchdown pass to to win every high school college,
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nfl team should watch that clip on how not to play the last play of the game
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i could not believe yeah he was in chase mode.
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Yeah, total trail technique, which was wild to me. Terrible, yeah.
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Number 16, Louisville lost to Wake Forest, 30-27. Shout out to Jake Dickert's
26:26
squad at Wake Forest, a former Wyoming coach on the staff in Laramie.
26:31
But number 15, Utah wins at Iowa State, 31-17.
26:35
Number 14, Tennessee lost at home to number 1, Texas, 20-17.
26:40
Number 13, Penn State loses to Wisconsin, 24-20.
26:44
At number 11, Texas Tech beats Sam Houston 49-14. Number 9, BYU had a bye.
26:50
Number 8, Alabama beats South Carolina 49-18.
26:54
Number 7, Ohio State beat Illinois 42-19.
26:57
Number 6, Miami beat Central Michigan 52-3. Number 5, Indiana beat Northwestern
27:03
29-23. That one was a bit of a nail-biter.
27:06
At number 3, Notre Dame beats Purdue 49-10. Number 2, Georgia beats Oklahoma
27:11
41-13. And that brings us to the Mountain West Conference.
27:14
North Dakota State's 4-0, had a bye this week.
27:17
And then a heartbreaker out of Reno. Air Force is 2-1 after beating Nevada 36-33
27:23
in double overtime. Nevada is now 1-3.
27:26
And man, there was a couple times that I was positive Nevada had it put away.
27:33
And Air Force just didn't go away.
27:36
Yeah, I thought there in the first half, even though the score was tight,
27:39
I just thought Nevada had control of the game.
27:43
And they were going to maybe just not walk away from it, but just...
27:48
Slowly outdistanced them. Air Force just stuck with it. And then Nevada made
27:52
it, had a few mistakes too, here and there.
27:55
That quarterback from Air Force is a man. Yes, he is. Yes, he is. Yes.
28:01
Yeah, he's a force we reckon with there. Well, I'm sure they're not done winning
28:05
a few games down the stretch. But UTEP is 1-3 after losing to Oregon State, 33-7.
28:11
And Northern Illinois is 0-4 after losing at Georgia State, 35-14.
28:15
New Mexico is 3-1 after beating New Mexico State 42-18.
28:19
UNLV is 2-2 now after beating Akron 38-10.
28:23
San Jose State, I believe, had a bye this weekend there, 2-2.
28:28
Hawaii is 1-3 after losing at Wyoming, 27-10. Wyoming's now 2-2.
28:34
I didn't, in a million years, believe that Wyoming was going to win,
28:38
but I did say, and I should pay attention to history, I guess,
28:43
Hawaii does not play well in Wyoming. They've lost eight of the last nine games played in Laramie.
28:49
And Wyoming does not travel. It's not that bad for Wyoming and Hawaii,
28:53
but it's still not great.
28:56
Two things are true. Hawaii is cursed in Laramie. Also, I don't think it's the
29:00
Hawaii team we were all maybe expecting at the beginning of this season. Yeah.
29:06
I thought that I had actually picked Wyoming, Joe. You did?
29:10
I thought that I had, but I have written down Hawaii.
29:14
So maybe, I don't know if I flip-flopped during it or not, but anyway,
29:18
we did talk about Laramie and the height or, you know, the elevation.
29:23
We did talk about all the problems that it could have for, you know, for the Ireland team.
29:30
And probably in some of that, it came true.
29:34
And I think there's a level of confidence if you're playing in Laramie and if,
29:42
you know, former, you know, current players, your coaches look at history.
29:48
I think Wyoming went into that game with some confidence that they can win this game. Right, right.
29:55
Well, as it sits right now, thanks to that game, there's a three-way tie for
29:58
first place in the conference right now. That's North Dakota State,
30:01
UNLV, and Wyoming, who are all 1-0 in conference play. Number four sits Air Force.
30:06
Number five, six, seven, and eight are all 0-0 with New Mexico,
30:11
San Jose, UTEP, and Northern Illinois.
30:14
Nevada sits at 9 with 0-1 in conference play, and Hawaii is at 10 with 0-2.
30:19
This week's game is coming up. We enter conference play for the most part.
30:23
Not everybody, but North Dakota State hosts Wyoming this weekend.
30:27
It is a new rivalry game. There is a new trophy for it.
30:30
I just saw pictures of the actual trophy today. The top of the trophy is an
30:35
oil rig drill bit and it is called the Battle of the Basins,
30:39
which I think is pretty cool. The only unfortunate part about this situation
30:43
is that North Dakota State is going to take the first one.
30:45
ESPN has them at a 91.6% chance to win the football game, and I have a hard time arguing with them.
30:54
Yeah, it's interesting that they immediately made it a rivalry game,
30:58
immediately made it a trophy game. I think the trophy looks great.
31:04
It's just funny that they did this right now.
31:07
Yeah, I think Wyoming and North Dakota State, I think it makes sense as a rivalry.
31:12
Two similar, obviously not two similar track records and pedigrees,
31:15
but two similar cultures, I guess you could say maybe. I'm kind of pumped about it.
31:21
I'm looking forward to it. I think it'll be a cool series for the next several
31:25
years. So I'm excited about it. The only unexcited thing is NDSU is going to take the first one.
31:30
Have you spent much time in Fargo? Have you been in Fargo? I have driven through
31:34
Fargo probably 10 times, but I've never been to their football stadium.
31:40
What I would say after spending a little bit of time in Fargo about how metropolitan it is.
31:47
Yeah, it's a big city. Yeah, and not that Laramie isn't, but I mean,
31:53
it's almost blue collar versus white collar.
31:56
There you go. Yeah, you could make that argument for sure.
32:00
Air Force is two in one. They are hosting Navy this weekend. Navy is one and two.
32:06
They beat Towson and then they lost to FAU and UAB.
32:12
So they have yet to beat an FBS program. Air Force ESPN has them at a 65.1% chance to win the game.
32:19
And I'm going to lean Air Force on this one.
32:22
Lean Air Force too, just because I watched them play. The only thing I would
32:25
say is that that game with Nevada was a battle for both teams.
32:30
I mean, yes, I think it was devastating for Nevada to lose, but it would have
32:35
been devastating for Air Force to lose.
32:38
And it was physical. And so...
32:42
Air Force is going to have to bounce back from the physicality of that game,
32:47
late game, double overtime game, against now their rival of Navy.
32:53
So I'm going to pick Air Force, but they have to have a great week of practice
32:58
and be healthy. Right, right.
33:01
UTEP is 1-3 now. They are at New Mexico, who is 3-1.
33:05
It's no surprise that ESPN has New Mexico at a 96.7 chance to win.
33:11
I'm not going to argue with them. I think this one gets ugly real quick in the first quarter.
33:17
Yeah. Northern Illinois is on a bye this week, which is probably pretty good
33:20
timing. Citadel and four, good time to regroup.
33:23
And Nevada is also on a bye this week. Probably not a bad time for Nevada.
33:26
Either get your four games in, get a little bit of a rest, take a break.
33:30
UNLV this weekend is two and two in a non-conference matchup, hosting Cal.
33:37
Cal is two and two. They beat, they lost to UCLA. They beat Syracuse.
33:42
They beat Wagner in FCS program, and they just lost to Clemson this last week in ACC play.
33:48
ESPN has UNLV at a 54% chance to win the game.
33:54
I am not at all sure about that.
33:58
They got beat by Memphis. They beat Hawaii. And then North Texas takes UNLV
34:03
to the woodshed a couple weeks ago.
34:05
And then beating Akron, congratulations, I guess. I don't know what to tell you. I don't know.
34:12
I'm not seeing what ESPN is seeing here, I guess.
34:16
I'm not seeing why. Yeah, I don't think so. I think Cal probably beats them.
34:22
I'm saying go Cal Bears. Go Cal Bears. There you go. There you go.
34:30
San Jose this week is at Hawaii. San Jose is 2-2, Hawaii is 1-3.
34:36
And barring, they have Hawaii at the 66.1% chance to win.
34:41
But I don't know. I think this one could be a tougher game than people think it's going to be.
34:47
San Jose has beaten. Their two wins are against Eastern Michigan and Cal Poly.
34:54
So an FCS program and a max school. They lost to USC and they lost to Fresno.
34:59
They put 26 points on fresno star on usc they played them tough 42 to 26 i know
35:04
that gap's big but fresno state beat them 26,
35:08
to 10 i i don't know the answer to this i stanford or stanford beat hawaii unlv
35:13
beat hawaii hawaii beat new mexico state that's and then they lose to wyoming so,
35:18
Man, being at home, I know, is a factor, but I would almost lean San Jose State here.
35:24
Yeah, I'm going to San Jose State. It's different than going to Laramie,
35:30
San Jose, going to Hawaii.
35:33
Very different. Yeah, I'm going to San Jose.
35:36
Well, that concludes the games for the Mountain West Conference.
35:41
It's going to be an interesting week here as we enter conference play across all the divisions.
35:46
Boise State here, even though Austin's not here. Boise State's 3-1 right now.
35:50
They beat Western Michigan 32-7 in a pretty convincing win. They start conference
35:53
play this week at home against Utah State, and I don't think that one's going
35:58
to go very well for Utah State.
36:00
I think the Broncos are going to get that win and get it pretty convincingly.
36:04
Yeah, I still want to see how good Boise State's going to be.
36:08
They're going to beat Utah State, plus they have them at home.
36:12
It's interesting. Well, Boise State and North Dakota State are getting looks
36:16
at the potential of making the college football play out.
36:20
Yeah, yeah. North Dakota State is favored in the rest of their games this season as of now.
36:25
So that's a very interesting fact to look at.
36:28
I think if they both run the tables, Boise State has a better resume than NDSU
36:34
does if they both happen to win out the stretch.
36:38
But we'll see there. But Fresno State's 3-1, beating Rice 38-24.
36:44
They are at Washington State this week. I am excited to go watch that football
36:48
game. I watched Washington State play against Arizona last week.
36:52
Played them very tough. It was a good football game, but I don't know what I think of Arizona.
36:57
So it's kind of a weird gauge to see where Washington State is.
37:02
But yeah, I'm not sure. I'm excited to watch it. I know Fresno came out of the
37:06
Rice game pretty beat up, though.
37:09
I think Fresno is more than happy to not have to play Rice again.
37:15
Yeah. That quarterback to Rice was good. And.
37:22
I thought in the first half, Rice was going to beat him and walk away from it
37:27
because they really, defensively, I think Fresno has an answer for just about
37:34
everybody defensively.
37:35
They do not have an answer for Rice.
37:38
Luckily, they got a few stops, key stops. And then the bottom line is,
37:43
what was very, very encouraging was that it's 38 points that Fresno State put up.
37:49
Right. So, yeah. It's a big deal.
37:52
Yeah. That's a big deal. Yeah, I'm excited. I'm excited to watch that one and
37:56
see them play. And I've never been to a game at Wazoo before.
37:59
So that'd be a cool one to check out another stadium off the list as well.
38:03
Absolutely. But no. Say what?
38:06
But we will see you there. Absolutely. I'm looking forward to it.
38:09
But no outdoor adventures this week. But the elk tag that I drew,
38:14
my buddy that actually lives there, he's been sending me pictures of some bulls,
38:18
getting me pretty excited.
38:19
So I will be the opening weekend. I will not be recording that weekend.
38:22
We might have to bump that one or you and Austin can get after it,
38:25
one of the two. But I will hopefully be killing a bull that weekend.
38:29
But verse for the week is 1 Corinthians 16, 13 through 14. Be on guard.
38:35
Stand firm in the faith. Be courageous, be strong, and do everything with love.
38:39
So take that with you as you go through the next week or so.
38:42
And we're getting into conference playlists. The picture will start falling
38:46
into place here over the next six to eight weeks.
38:49
And then we'll enter the best time of year, which is Christmas time and bowl season.
38:54
Yeah, I haven't looked at the polls for FCS or FBS.
39:01
And man, can you imagine the shakeup that has transpired?
39:06
Well, since we're recording on Wednesday right now, the cool thing about that
39:11
is we can take a quick peek here.
39:13
So the stats, I've been using the stats before. I'm top 25. Montana State's still number one.
39:19
South Dakota State's number two. Montana's number three. Tarleton State is number four.
39:24
North Dakota's at five. Lehigh's at six. Stephen F. Austin at seven.
39:29
Youngstown State at eight.
39:31
Number nine is Tennessee Tech. Number 10 is Illinois State. They dropped to
39:34
10, rounding out the top 10 there.
39:37
11 is Austin Pease. Idaho State jumps to 12. Then South Dakota at 13, dropping down.
39:44
Lamar at 14. South Carolina State. UC Davis dropped to 16.
39:49
West Florida at 17. Campbell at 18. Northern Arizona drops to 19.
39:54
20 at Harvard. Southern Illinois, 21. Colgate, 22.
39:58
Mercer, 23. Richmond, 24. Jackson State at 25,
40:02
Villanova Rhode Island and Yale all dropped out I'm trying to see if there's
40:07
any other big sky teams receiving votes and at the moment there is not,
40:13
so in the top 25 I.
40:17
Wonder what it'll take to get Idaho State in the top 10 that's what I was just
40:22
wondering heck I mean they went from 14 to 12 so I guess that's product process,
40:27
progress but in the top 25 here's the undefeated teams. Jackson State at 25 at 4-0.
40:32
Harvard at 20 at 2-0. South Carolina State at 5-0 at number 15. Idaho State at 12 at 4-0.
40:39
Number nine, Tennessee Tech at 4-0.
40:42
Seven, Stephen F. Austin at 5-0. Six, Lehigh at 5-0.
40:46
Number four, Tarleton State at 4-0. And Montana State at 5-0 at number one.
40:50
So that's kind of interesting there.
40:53
And then as far as the FBS goes, now that you said that, I am very,
40:58
very much intrigued here.
41:01
So this week's AP poll, top 25, Texas 1 at 4-0.
41:05
Georgia 2, North Dakota, or sorry, Notre Dame 3. and number four, Miami, all 4-0.
41:13
Number five is Ohio State at 3-1. Number six is Indiana at 4-0.
41:19
Number seven is Alabama at 4-0. Number eight, Florida at 4-0.
41:23
So heck, they jump 13 places to number eight.
41:28
Number nine is Ole Miss at 3-1 and the top 10 rounds out with BYU at 3-0.
41:33
LSU drops to 11 at 3-1.
41:37
Texas Tech at 4-0 is 12 Utah is 13 at 4-0 Iowa is 14 at 4-0 15 is Oregon at 3-1
41:46
Mississippi State is at 16 at 4-0 17 is Tennessee at 3-1 18 USC 19,
41:54
Oklahoma State 20 Houston 21 SMU 22 Boise State 23 UCLA 24 Kentucky and number 25 is Mizzou.
42:06
Wake Forest is receiving votes. Wisconsin is receiving votes.
42:08
Penn State, Duke, Virginia Tech, Michigan, Pittsburgh, Nebraska,
42:13
Louisville, Cincinnati, James Madison, Arizona, Minnesota, North Dakota State
42:17
receiving six votes, and Northwestern.
42:21
Interesting. Interesting. Yeah.
42:25
The bad part about that is the SEC is going to start getting into their own gauntlet. Yes.
42:32
And that's going to be – that's just not right. Right.
42:36
Right. I was thinking to myself the other day, I was like, heck,
42:39
you play a nine game schedule in the SEC.
42:42
And I don't think this would happen. But, you know, in theory,
42:46
in theory, a team could be a three and nine team and be a top 20 team in the country.
42:54
Yeah, that that is not out of the realm of possibility. So the tough,
42:59
tough, tough, tough, tough gauntlet going through there.
43:02
Yeah, I don't think they have everybody ranked. I just don't correctly.
43:06
I just don't know where you'd move people.
43:08
I understand why Texas has won because of their quality wins.
43:12
Georgia, maybe they are the best.
43:15
I think LSU, just because they lost, that was not a quality loss by Ole Miss.
43:23
No, no. That's going to hurt LSU. Yes.
43:28
But LSU, I don't know how many teams actually want to line up and play LSU. Right, right.
43:34
Yeah, it's the next few weeks. You're going to get pretty interesting.
43:36
We'll see what the playoff picture looks like.
43:38
But I think we're going to see a lot of the SEC in the playoff picture,
43:42
and deservedly so if this continues.
43:45
So appreciate you, Les. We'll get back on here next week talking about week
43:50
five, and we're going to have some teams getting bowl eligible here in the next
43:53
couple weeks. Yeah, good stuff.
43:56
All right, catch you later. I appreciate you guys for listening.
43:58
We'll catch you next week. Thanks, all.