Small college football teams aren’t feeling small anymore

If you thought you heard a creaking sound amid the roars of the William & Mary fans at Virginia’s Scott Stadium after Saturday’s 26-14 upset, that was just the gap between FBS (formally NCAA Division I-A) and FCS (Division I-AA) getting a little smaller.

Appalachian State over Michigan two years ago wasn’t a fluke, it was a signal that college football is changing. Schools such as Virginia used to schedule smaller programs like William & Mary for a guaranteed victory, a tune-up before the real games began.

Teams like the Tribe used to go on the road to face schools from major conferences just to collect the paycheck. Not any more. Ever since the NCAA began limiting the FBS programs to 85 scholarships, more high level players have slipped through the cracks and landed at schools like William & Mary, Richmond and Southern Illinois.

Think Virginia coach Al Groh needs to go because his Cavaliers couldn’t beat the Tribe? Well Duke’s David Cutcliffe might disagree. His Blue Devils couldn’t beat defending FCS champion Richmond this weekend either.

Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz might understand that beating FCS teams isn’t easy, after all the No. 22 Hawkeyes barely escaped Saturday with a 17-16 victory over Northern Iowa. And Southern Illinois went to Huntington, W.Va., and gave Marshall everything it wanted.

It’s not a stretch to say that the Colonial Athletic Associaton – with William & Mary, Richmond, James Madison, Delaware and Villanova all in its Southern Division – isn’t that far behind the ACC.

And the reason is the scholarship limit leaves more good players to go around while big-time programs used to be able to stockpile players. Coaches such as Groh have to make the right decisions in recruiting, which isn’t easy.

A player such as former Eastern View running back Stevie Strother can go unwanted by the Virginias and Virginia Techs of the world and head off to Southern Illinois, where his career at a FCS power is off to a nice start.

Tribe quarterback R.J. Archer grew up in the suburbs of Charlottesville and played at Albemarle High School, just a few miles from Scott Stadium, but the Cavaliers didn’t have a scholarship for him
William & Mary did, and after he completed 23-of-45 passes for 184 yards and a touchdown and rushed for 50 yards, the Tribe wouldn’t have traded him for anybody on Virginia’s roster.

FEELING SPECIAL: If Terrence Fells-Danzer is going to make his mark on Virginia’s football team this season, it looks like the opportunity to do so will come on special teams.

Fells-Danzer, a sophomore linebacker out of Culpeper County High School, didn’t get on the field with the defensive unit Saturday, but was a first-stringer on the Cavaliers’ kickoff team.

His speed helped him get in the mix on all of William & Mary’s returns, though he wasn’t credited with any tackles. The bad new for Fells-Danzer: Unless Virginia’s offense improves, the Cavaliers kickoff team might not see the field a lot this year.