As you probably know by now, Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford won the Heisman trophy Saturday night in one of closest races in recent memory. Bradford, who becomes the fifth Sooner in history to win the award, totaled 1,724 total points in the voting, edging out Colt McCoy’s 1,604 points and Tim Tebow’s 1,575 points. While all three candidates seemed more than deserving to win the award, what was most interesting about this year’s voting process was that it was actually Florida’s Tebow - not Bradford - who received the most first place votes.

As our good friend Chris Huston of Heismanpundit tells us, Tebow’s third place finish is the first by a leading first-place vote getter since Oklahoma’s Tommy McDonald in 1956. As always Heismanpundit.com has the historic presentation covered from all angles, as Chris continues to recap Saturday night’s events and their implications for next year at his site.

While Bradford’s Heisman triumph was the college football story of the day it was by no means the only one, as the FCS, Division II, and Division III playoffs all rolled on, with the game of the day taking place in Cedar Falls, Iowa. After building a 20-7 lead in the fourth quarter the Northern Iowa Panthers looked poised to head to Chattanooga to face off against Montana in the FCS Title game, but a late-game surge by Richmond quarterback Eric Ward and the Spider offense ultimately put Richmond on top 21-20.

While it may have been tough to top Friday night’s Montana-James Madison finish the Spiders and Panthers did just that, with Ward’s touchdown pass to Joe Stewart with fourteen seconds left to go in the game completing Richmond’s comeback. It’s been an improbable run to the FCS Championship game for the Spiders, who weren’t on anyone’s radar to make the playoffs after starting the year at 4-3.

The stage is set for yet another Mt Union-Wisconsin Whitewater showdown in the Division III National Championship next week, as both the Purple Raiders and Warharks won their semifinal games to advance to the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl. For the Purple Raiders is was all about senior running back Nate Kmic, who broke Danny Woodhead’s one year old NCAA rushing record with a 310-yard day against Wheaton College. Kmic, who we told you about last week, surpassed Woodhead’s mark by 24 yards in the win, boosting his career rushing total to 7,986 yards.

He currently holds the all-division NCAA mark for touchdowns and career points as well, with 129 scores and 774 total points in his illustrious career. Saturday’s game will mark the fourth straight meeting between Wisconsin Whitewater and Mt. Union for the Division III National Title, with the Purple Raiders looking to avenge last year’s upset loss.

In coaching news, Iowa State’s now-former headman Gene Chizek took the Auburn head coaching job, while Army, fresh off a seventh consecutive loss to Navy in the annual Army-Navy game, canned second year man Stan Brock. Yet with a defensive pedigree and a 5-19 career record as a head coach Chizek was not the answer Auburn fans were hoping for, writes SI.com’s Andy Staples. As far as Brock goes, his 0-2 record against Navy (losing the ‘07 and ‘08 games by a combined 78-3 margin) speaks for itself, but it was ultimatly his incompatability with coaching option football that doomed him. Who is next for the Black Knights?

My guess is they take a long look at Wake Forest offensive coordinator Steed Lobotzke. And how about Ball State’s Brady Hoke? After leading the Cardinals to a 13-1 regular season he’ll be taking hs services to San Diego State. Hard to imagine that being a step up, but when you’re offered a raise of nearly three times what you’re currently making in this economy I don’t blame him. Look for Ball State offensive coordinator Stan Parish to replace him in Muncie.

Finally, I’d like to direct you’re attention to a fantastic article about Navy senior quarterback Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada. Bill Wagner of the Annapolis Capital says that a lingering hamstring injury nearly led the signal caller to quit the team with a month left to go in the season, but that Navy offensive coordinator Ivin Jasper talked him into sticking the year out. It proved to be the best advice Kaipo received all season, as the Hawaii native returned against Army last week to give Navy’s offense a much needed spark in the 34-0 win.

I bring all of this up because I actually had a fairly awkward elevator ride with Kaipo coming out of the Navy-Notre Dame game a month ago in which you could pretty much tell the usually incredibly upbeat Kaipo wasn’t himself. After the game a couple of the other Navy beat writers and I had a conversation about it, and we all pretty much concluded that we wouldn’t likely be seeing Kaipo on the field for the rest of the season. Just goes to show how a little determination can go a long way, and how a determined and motivated college athlete can prove a group nosy sportswriters (and I include myself here) wrong any day.

Friday night treated us to a good game between Montana and James Madison. Just when we thought it couldn’t get any better, Richmond and Northern Iowa play a thriller that wasn’t settled till extremely late in the 4th quarter.

The Spiders are going to their first ever championship game, and did it when Eric Ward threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to Joe Stewart with 14 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter to beat Northern Iowa 21-20. At the end of 3 quarters, it looked as if the Panthers were going to be the ones playing for the FCS title, but 14 unanswered points by the Spiders changed it all.

Richmond quarterback Eric Ward threw for 2 touchdowns, and ran for another, amassing 313 yards of total offense in the win. Both road teams won this weekend. The FCS Title game will take place in Chattanooga Tennessee on Saturday at 8pm.

These two teams met in 2004 when James Madison clinched the school’s first national title with a 31-21 win over Montana in the championship game. In this game it was built as the brawn of Montana against the speed of James Madison.

Traveling three-fourths of the way across the country and playing the #1 team in the FCS seemed like a insurmountable task for the Grizzlies, but they took advantage of sloppy play by the James Madison Dukes, and hung on to win 35-27 in the first FCS semi-final game this weekend.

Unfortunately for the Dukes, they lost quarterback Rodney Landers early in the game with an ankle injury. If that wasn’t bad enough, they gave the Grizzlies great field position with two fumbles in the first half. Chase Reynolds was a beast running the ball for Montana while Cole Bergquist did an adequate job running the offense in the first half. Reynolds had 2 rushing and 1 receiving touchdowns and in the second half, Bergquist was 8 for 8 with a pair of touchdown throws and some key runs that helped Montana in their 21 point 3rd quarter.

Obviously turnovers were the big story of this game, but the Grizzlies stopped the Dukes on 4 consecutive plays inside the 5 yard line with 10 minutes to go in the 4th quarter but then 4 plays later the snapper put the ball over the punter’s head and JMU was within two scores.

The Dukes didn’t waste time after the free kick. They drove down the field and Drew Dudzik made a nice run for the Dukes to score, his second touchdown run of the night. James Madison went for two and Dudzik ran up the middle again, did a flip and the ball just broke the plane of the endzone after replay review to get the two point conversion. For those who didn’t see it, imagine Sam Bradford’s helicopter on the sideline, only better.

Montana will face the winner of the Richmond at Northern Iowa game which will be played on Saturday at 4pm on ESPN.

There will be a new champion in the FCS ranks as Appalachian State fell to Richmond. The rest of the quarterfinal scores are below:

James Madison 31 vs Villanova 27
Montana 24 vs Weber State 13
Northern Iowa 36 vs New Hampshire 34
Richmond 33 vs Appalachian State 13

Semi-Final Games

4. Montana at 1. James Madison
7. Richmond at 3. Northern Iowa

James Madison 38 vs Wofford 35
Villanova 55 vs Colgate 28

Montana 31 vs Texas State 13
Weber State 49 vs Cal Poly 35

Northern Iowa 40 vs Maine 15
New Hampshire 29 vs Southern Illinois 20

Richmond 38 vs Eastern Kentucky 10
Appalachian State 37 vs South Carolina State 21

Second Round Games
8. Villanova at 1. James Madison
12. Weber State at 4. Montana
11. New Hampshire at 3. Northern Iowa
7. Richmond at 2. Appalachian State

The FCS announced its brackets today. The first round games are all played at the higher seeds.

16. Wofford (9-2) at 1. James Madison (10-1)
9. Colgate (9-2) at 8. Villanova

13. Texas State (8-4) at 4. Montana (11-1)
12. Weber State (9-3) at 5. Cal Poly (8-2)

14. Maine (8-4) at 3. Northern Iowa (10-2)
11. New Hampshire (9-2) at 6. Southern Illinois (9-2)

10. Eastern Kentucky at 7. Richmond (9-3)
15. South Carolina State (10-2) at 2. Appalachian State (10-2)

There is one week left in the FCS season, and if you want to read more about who has made the 16 team playoff field, and who is close to making it, read David Coulson’s article called Defogging the playoff picture.


1. James Madison Dukes (106) 9-1 2,986
2. Appalachian State Mountaineers (13) 9-2 2,871
3. Cal Poly Mustangs (1) 8-1 2,623
4. Northern Iowa Panthers 9-2 2,517
5. Montana Grizzlies 10-1 2,499
6. Villanova Wildcats 8-2 2,355
7. Richmond Spiders 8-3 2,188
8. Weber State Wildcats 9-2 2,161
9. Wofford Terriers 8-2 2,005
10. Southern Illinois Salukis 8-2 1,988
11. New Hampshire Wildcats 8-2 1,659
12. Elon Phoenix 8-3 1,473
13. Central Arkansas Bears 9-2 1,448
14. McNeese State Cowboys 7-3 1,272
15. South Carolina State Bulldogs 9-2 1,231
16. William & Mary Tribe 7-3 1,106
17. Maine Black Bears 8-3 900
18. Tennessee-Martin Skyhawks 8-3 863
19. Harvard Crimson 8-1 769
20. Furman Paladins 7-4 595
21. Colgate Raiders 8-2 506
22. Liberty Flames 9-2 409
23. Western Illinois Leathernecks 6-4 338
24. Jacksonville State Gamecocks 8-3 242
25. Tennessee State Tigers 8-3 238



Others receiving votes: Holy Cross 196, Prairie View 185, Eastern Kentucky 174, North Dakota State 147, Grambling 117, Montana State 111, Texas State 107, South Dakota State 87, Lafayette 47, Massachusetts 43, Florida A&M 35, Albany 28, Georgia Southern 23, Bethune-Cookman 18, Brown 10, Northern Arizona 7, Dayton 6, Jacksonville 5, San Diego 4, Yale 3, Monmouth 2 Northwestern State 2, South Dakota 2.


11/18/08


1. James Madison Dukes (91) 8-1 2,729
2. Appalachian State Mountaineers (17) 8-2 2,642
3. Cal Poly Mustangs (2) 7-1 2,390
4. Northern Iowa Panthers 8-2 2,364
5. Montana Grizzlies 9-1 2,247
6. Villanova Wildcats 7-2 2,169
7. Richmond Spiders 7-3 2,034
8. Weber State Wildcats 9-2 1,967
9. Wofford Terriers 7-2 1,767
10. Southern Illinois Salukis 7-2 1,757
11. Elon Phoenix 8-2 1,685
12. William & Mary Tribe 7-2 1,394
13. New Hampshire Wildcats 7-2 1,375
14. Furman Paladins 7-3 1,191
15. Central Arkansas Bears 8-2 1,153
16. McNeese State Cowboys 6-3 949
17. South Carolina State Bulldogs 8-2 871
18. Tennessee State Tigers 8-2 653
19. Harvard Crimson 7-1 598
20. Tennessee-Martin Skyhawks 7-3 583
21. Maine Black Bears 7-3 561
22. Massachusetts Minutemen 6-4 462
23. Colgate Raiders 8-2 387
24. Liberty Flames 8-2 279
25. Western Illinois Leathernecks 5-4 274



Others receiving votes: South Dakota State 195, Lafayette 131, Prairie View 118, Jacksonville State 101, Holy Cross 79, North Dakota State 78, Eastern Kentucky 63, Grambling 57, Northern Arizona 53, Montana State 33, Texas State 19, Florida A&M 16, Dayton 14, Northwestern State 13, Albany 12, Monmouth 9, San Diego 6, Morgan State 5, Penn 4, Samford 3, Bethune-Cookman 2, Georgia Southern 2, Hampton 2, Jacksonville 2, Sacred Heart 2, UC Davis 2.


11/11/08


1. James Madison Dukes (91) 8-1 2,707
2. Appalachian State Mountaineers (17) 7-2 2,617
3. Cal Poly Mustangs (1) 6-1 2,373
4. Northern Iowa Panthers 7-2 2,296
5. Montana Grizzlies 8-1 2,233
6. Villanova Wildcats 6-2 2,110
7. Richmond Spiders 6-3 1,984
8. New Hampshire Wildcats 7-1 1,874
9. Weber State Wildcats 8-2 1,767
10. Wofford Terriers 6-2 1,747
11. Elon Phoenix 7-2 1,690
12. Southern Illinois Salukis 6-2 1,650
13. Massachusetts Minutemen 6-3 1,262
14. William & Mary Tribe 6-2 1,202
15. Furman Paladins 7-3 1,081
16. Central Arkansas Bears 7-2 887
17. Western Illinois Leathernecks 5-3 824
18. McNeese State Cowboys 5-3 789 20
19. South Carolina State Bulldogs 7-2 750
20. Tennessee-Martin Skyhawks 7-2 527
21. Harvard Crimson 6-1 463
22. Tennessee State Tigers 7-2 425
23. Northern Arizona Lumberjacks 6-3 395
24. Colgate Raiders 7-2 207
25. Liberty Flames 7-2 195


Others receiving votes: Maine 181, South Dakota State 136, Northwestern State 114, North Dakota State 97, Jacksonville State 95, Lafayette 89, Georgia Southern 81, Prairie View 78, Eastern Kentucky 63, Grambling 54, Holy Cross 41, Morgan State 34, UC Davis 26, Albany 25, Brown 14, Hampton 13, Sacred Heart 12, Dayton 10, Texas State 9, Florida A&M 7, San Diego 6, Nicholls State 5, Montana State 4, Monmouth 2, Penn 2, Jacksonville 1.


11/4/08


1. James Madison Dukes (102) 6-1 2,669
2. Appalachian State Mountaineers (3) 5-2 2,527
3. Elon Phoenix (1) 7-1 2,270
4. Wofford Terriers 5-1 2,210
5. Northern Iowa Panthers 5-2 2,033
6. Cal Poly Mustangs (1) 4-1 2,022
7. Villanova Wildcats 5-1 2,018
8. Montana Grizzlies 6-1 1,833
9. Richmond Spiders 5-3 1,746
10. New Hampshire Wildcats 5-1 1,540
11. McNeese State Cowboys 4-2 1,511
12. Western Illinois Leathernecks 5-2 1,311
13. Central Arkansas Bears 6-1 1,241
14. Southern Illinois Salukis 4-2 1,205
15. Northern Arizona Lumberjacks 6-1 1,136
16. Weber State Wildcats 6-2 1,043
17. Massachusetts Minutemen 4-3 991
18. Furman Paladins 6-2 912
19. Tennessee State Tigers 6-1 608
20. Liberty Flames 6-1 529
21. Jacksonville State Gamecocks 5-2 448
22. Hampton Pirates 5-1 392
23. William & Mary Tribe 4-2 357
24. Lafayette Leopards 5-1 244
25. Harvard Crimson 4-1 190


Others receiving votes: South Carolina State 119, North Dakota State 97, San Diego 83, Tennessee-Martin 75, South Dakota State 73, Eastern Washington 57, Georgia Southern 45, Colgate 42, Grambling 32, Florida A&M 30, Texas State 25, The Citadel 24, Maine 20, Sam Houston State 13, Eastern Illinois 12, Prairie View 12, UC Davis 10, Sacred Heart 8, Delaware 6, North Dakota 6, Albany 5, Eastern Kentucky 3, Butler 1, Central Connecticut State 1, Holy Cross 1, Penn 1.


10/21/08