The FCS is the least understood, yet most impressive college football level in Division I — and Gridiron Heroics is going to tell you all about it, for 12 months a year, conference by conference, beginning with this week’s FCS football preview series for 2022. Today we publish the FCS’ Colonial Athletic Association Football Preview for 2022.
The college football programs are good, these programs produce NFL-level talent, they beat FBS teams every year (want evidence? stay tuned – we will publish this in the next week) and they still get overlooked. But Gridiron Heroics won’t be overlooking the FCS as everybody else does annually, we will be embracing the level and the stories these schools tell, year in and year out.
Enjoy the preview.
Also, from Monday, Aug. 22 until our FCS overall preview finale, Gridiron Heroics’ team of eight (yes, eight) FCS reporters break down the 15 conferences that make up the awesome, special level that is — the FCS. Check out the previews with the links below, conference by conference:
THE REST OF THE BEST FCS CONFERENCES IN AMERICA (click on links below)
OVERALL FCS PREVIEW: Overall FCS Preview
MONDAY, AUG. 22: ASUN-WAC & Big Sky
TUESDAY, AUG. 23: Big South, CAA, MVFC
WEDNESDAY, AUG. 24: OVC, Patriot
THURSDAY, AUG. 25: Pioneer, Southland
MONDAY, AUG. 29: HBCU DAY – MEAC & SWAC
TUESDAY, AUG. 30: NEC, SoCon
MONDAY, SEPT. 13: Ivy League (1st game Sept. 16)
RELATED STORY: The Top 30 for 30 Shows in College Football — We Rank Them
BMAC AND THE NACH PODCAST (Aug. 23 episode at top)
FCS NUTS AND BOLTS: All of the key facts for the 2022 FCS season
THE FCS CONFERENCE: Colonial Athletic Association (CAA)
THE TEAMS: Albany, Delaware, Elon, Hampton, Maine, Monmouth, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Richmond, Stony Brook, Towson, Villanova, William & Mary. (FUTURE ADDITIONS: Campbell and North Carolina A&T).
THE 2021 CHAMPIONS: Villanova (10-3 overall, 7-1 in CAA) was the co-champion with now departed James Madison. It was the Wildcats’ first championship — or share of one — since the four-way tie in 2012 with New Hampshire, Richmond, and Towson.
THE NEXT BEST TEAMS: After ‘Nova and JMU, Elon held third place alone, while the usual logjam in the middle of the CAA happened with Rhode Island, Maine, Richmond, William & Mary, and Stony Brook all chopping each other up and finishing 4-4 in the league.
All but Stony Brook (5-6 overall) finished with overall winning records, but none of the teams after the two co-champions made the FCS postseason — a clear problem when a league eats its own.
THE FIVE BEST PLAYERS (STATS): RB/Sr. Ty Son Lawton, Stony Brook (1,088 yards, 10 TDs); DL/Sr. Nate Lynn, William & Mary (12 sacks, 13.5 TFLs); QB/Jr. Tony Muskett, Monmouth (2,651 passing yards, 25 TDs); RB-KR/Sr. Bronson Yoder, William & Mary; DL/Soph. Josiah Silver, New Hampshire (20.5 TFLs).
The Good and the Bad
THE GOOD: Once again, this 13-team league looks deep — even without perennial powerhouse James Madison. In fact, if you took the top half of this league and stacked it up with the top half of any other league in the FCS.
From a fan’s perspective, this makes the CAA a lot of fun, as you’ll never know for sure what’s going to happen on a Saturday — and it makes for a fascinating late-season run in November when some of those classic rivalry matchups take place and playoff spots and even championships are on the.
Some great football is about to be unleashed, and the league is even more wide-open than it used to be annually now that JMU has moved on to the FBS.
THE BAD: This is simple — the parity described above in the “The Good” spot of this preview could also backfire. Seem crazy? Here’s what I mean: From a fan’s and media perspective, parity is an awesome thing. It’s exciting, it’s something to debate and talk about — but, as 2021 was a perfect example: It can also create a tough situation.
It’s a situation where one of the clearcut top three FCS conferences ends up with only its co-champions in the national playoffs when there have been recent years the CAA has had nearly half the conference make it.
The league clearly doesn’t want this. The typical year sees three or four CAA teams make it. Last year a 7-4 Rhody team didn’t make it with a 4-4 league record. Second-place Elon didn’t make it because it had a 6-5 overall record. Now, you reverse those situations (Elon finishes second with a 7-4 record) and undoubtedly the CAA would have had at least three teams make the postseason.
It’s a tightrope situation that the CAA can embrace in some ways and loathe in others.
The Games
THE BIGGEST CONF GAME OF THE YEAR (AND WHY): To me, this is a no-brainer: Delaware visits Villanova on the final week of the regular season, Nov. 19. Don’t be surprised if this game — sitting just two days prior to FCS selection Sunday — settles the CAA championship picture, pits the top two teams in the league, and may even have national seeding ramifications.
The Blue Hens haven’t exactly lived up to their end of the bargain in recent years (aside from the CoVid-shortened Spring 2021), but that could change soon.
THE BEST CHANCE FOR AN FBS UPSET WIN (AND WHY): Obviously it’d be easy to go with one of the two CAA powers knocking off a service academy (Villanova over Army or Delaware over Navy) but the academies are better than they were in say, the 1990s when that happened almost regularly. I’m going to go with an easier call here: Stony Brook over UMass.
The Seawolves are stout this year, and UMass honestly is an FBS in name only — but, this would still be a great way for Stony Brook to nab a win like this before CAA play. A darkhorse game would be William & Mary’s ever-improving program over Charlotte in September. Maybe a tad bit far-fetched, but certainly worth paying attention to.
The History
THE HAPPY CONFERENCE HISTORY NUGGET: Did you know 2021 CAA co-champion Villanova has actually won two bowl games in its school history before it became a I-AA/FCS school? In fact, the Wildcats tied Auburn in the Bacardi Bowl in 1936, which was played in Cuba. Villanova’s last of five bowl-game appearances was in the 1962 Liberty Bowl when it lost 6-0 to Oregon State. William & Mary also has played in bowl games, going to the Dixie Bowl in 1948 on New Year’s Day, falling to Arkansas by two points, while winning the Delta Bowl one year later against what later became known as Oklahoma State.
The Predictions
WHO GOES TO THE FCS POSTSEASON (AND WHY): Oh man, why do we torture ourselves with these categories? Can I just ignore this one in 2022? Geez, this is tough. Yes, I saw the 2022 STATS/Perform poll (since it’s election day, let me type it – I Voted!). Obviously, Villanova deserves serious respect in this category.
The Wildcats have consistently fielded a tough program, recruited like a top 10 program does (stealing “FBS-level” prospects every year — ‘Nova will be there. They’re dangerous. Rhody got love in the polls and has done some good things in recent years. Delaware is looking to change its recent fortunes, especially on offense — where the Blue Hens have struggled.
Monmouth moves in from the Big South, where it has been on the top for years. Richmond looks as good as it has since Kyle Lauletta went in the NFL Draft. Want me to go on? I can. Stony Brook is always a hammer-hard program, as it New Hampshire. Don’t forget Maine won a CAA title and went a few rounds just a few short years ago. Elon finished third last year, and William & Mary has been improving …
See what I mean? I’m cross-eyed so I’ll stop.
WHO WILL SHOCK THE CONFERENCE (AND WHY): I mentioned Monmouth in the above segment, but I’m not real sure the Hawks are getting the respect they deserve in their first year in the CAA since coming over from the Big South Conference. Yes, the Big South has traditionally been weaker than the CAA, but the Hawks have been successful in recent years.
I’m not saying Monmouth wins the conference title, but it has the talent to make quite an impression in its first season — starting with talented quarterback Tony Muskett, who did get respect when he was named the preseason first-team signal caller.
Top Three Finishers
THE TOP THREE (AND WHY)?: Why do we keep punishing ourselves with these prognostications? Because we have to.
OK, let’s go with this: 1) Villanova; 2) Delaware; 3) William & Mary. There, I did it. I could sub out William & Mary for New Hampshire, too. Villanova and Delaware have been popular on a lot of ballots. Why all the love for the Blue Hens? Well, I’ve seen first-hand what new head coach Ryan Carty did at Sam Houston State while calling plays, and he has a background in the CAA (New Hampshire prior to Sam Houston State, played at Delaware). He’s going to change things, and he has an experienced QB in Nolan Henderson.
Hard-nosed New Hampshire is perennially strong in a tough CAA and should be respected this year with a nice contingent back. William & Mary hasn’t looked this good on paper since it made the FCS playoffs in 2015. But could the order above be jostled? Richmond and Elon intrigue me, as does Rhody.
I’m not trying to type out of both sides of my … um … typing fingers.
I’m cross-eyed again. One thing is for certain about the CAA: It’s going to be fun to watch for fans and those of us writing about it. (It’ll be stressful for the coaching staffs though).
