More FCS fun this time with the mighty Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks, and this is a team that went 0-11 last year in the Southland Conference. It is safe to say this team will struggle to win games this year and especially against TCU and the Lumberjacks only hav 15 wins in the past four years.
Offense: The offense does return six starters on a team that only managed to score 16 points per game and averaged 185 yards passing and 116 on the ground. Playing a TCU that traditionally has a good defense will be a sore sight for any Lumberjack fan. The quarterback Jeremy Moses was only a freshman last year and split time with now former Lumberjack Danny Southall, now that Moses has full reins he should be able to improve off of his last years stats where he six touchdowns and seven picks. He did have a bright spot by completing over sixty percent of his passes.
The top two rushing players graduated and now this year that responsibility belongs to Jabara Williams who had 1 score, but did see action in 10 games and start in three of those. The succes will come from using two or three backs to have a change of pass back to give starters a rest and to have more versatiity.
The wide outs do return their top two pass catchers which will help in continuity between the quarterback and the wide receivers. The top two returning are Dominique Edison and Aaron Rhea who combined for just over 1,000 yards and five touchdowns. If the offensive line can do a decent job then the Lumberjacks could have one of the most improved offenses in I-AA.
Defense: This is the area that caused the Jacks trouble last year, they gave up 35 points per game and six of those were over 30 per game. This unit was unimpressive in nearly every statistical area, by not able to create many turnovers or sacks. The problem with the defense was that nearly all the starters were underclassmen and by returning nine starters from last year the the team should be better just by having the experience. Do not expect this to be a daunting defense in the FBS division, but improvement will be seen by having that many starters back.
Early Prediction: TCU blowout by at least three touchdowns.