Scouting report? Illini and ECU

[BDYZR]

North Carolina A&T at East Carolina | Sept. 1
Defending Celebration Bowl champion North Carolina A&T came in at No. 14 in the first STATS preseason poll after a 12-0 finish last year. This year, the Aggies will head to Greenville, North Carolina to play ECU, who got trounced by 20 points vs. James Madison at home last season.

History is beside the Aggies, who've beaten an FBS foe in two straight years. North Carolina A&T handled Charlotte 35-31 in 2017 and Kent State 39-36 in four-overtime thriller in 2016.

The Pirates finished with the worst scoring defense last year at 45 points allowed per game and were picked to finish last in the preseason AAC media poll. Along with Northern Arizona, North Carolina A&T has one of the easier paths to continuing the trend of FCS over FBS victories.

 

Western Illinois at Illinois | Sept. 8
Western Illinois is another FCS squad with recent success against the upper level. The Leathernecks blasted FBS newcomer Coastal Carolina 52-10 last year and knocked off Northern Illinois the year prior.

Big Ten opponent Illinois was picked to finish 12th out of 14 teams in the preseason conference poll and is without a proven quarterback entering coach Lovie Smith's third season at the helm. The Illini shut out WIU 44-0 in their last meeting in 2015, but expect this year's matchup to be much more competitive.

WIU returns its starting quarterback Sean McGuire (2,852 yards) and top rusher Max Norris (656 yards) to form a strong nucleus on offense. On defense, the Leathernecks look to once again boast a top 10 turnover margin.

Jared Elliot takes the reins this year after former head coach Charlie Fisher left for a staff position at Arizona State. It'd be quite a start to Elliot's tenure to pick up a win over an in-state Big Ten team in Week 2.

https://www.ncaa.com/news/football/article/2018-08-07/7-potential-fcs-over-fbs-upsets-may-happen-2018

 

[NewEnglandBull]

I don’t know how much we will be favored vs. Illinois but I feel confident that whatever it is we will cover. 

[OcalaBull2]

****, there’s a good chance ECU could lose to NCA&T. I’m sure Illinois will win vs WIU but these are two games to pay attention to. 

[NewEnglandBull]

9 hours ago, OcalaBull2 said:

****, there’s a good chance ECU could lose to NCA&T. I’m sure Illinois will win vs WIU but these are two games to pay attention to. 

WIU was a 1aa playoff team last year, Illinois could lost that one too. 

[GaUSFBull]

Is Scottie Montgomery still there?  I pretty much root for him to lose every time.  

[George_Bullnard_Shaw]

I'll worry about them after we beta Elon.
I'm haunted by the first 2 games of last season.

[GaUSFBull]

8 minutes ago, George_Bullnard_Shaw said:

I'm haunted by the first 2 games of last season.

Why would you be haunted by games that we won?

I'm haunted by 4th and 24.  

[George_Bullnard_Shaw]

6 hours ago, GaUSFBull said:

Why would you be haunted by games that we won?

I'm haunted by 4th and 24.  

Because we looked like crap against two terrible teams and struggled to win each game and it was a very rude awakening for what I thought would be the magical season.

[Triple B]

1 hour ago, George_Bullnard_Shaw said:

Because we looked like crap against two terrible teams and struggled to win each game and it was a very rude awakening for what I thought would be the magical season.

We did not struggle to win the SJSU game, a game over at the half with us having 550 yards of offense. The first quarter obviously skewed memories .... and StonyBrook wasn't a terrible team, losing only 1 other reg season game .... and then losing to top ranked JMU in the second round of the FCS playoffs. Still should have won by a larger margin looking a lot more like an offense learning a new system than in the first game but it was the lowest offensive production until the 4th and 24 game about 9 weeks later.