2024-25 Week 2 Coaches Inc. Highlights

This week’s edition features some dominant performances, an FCS over FBS upset, and a Head Coach’s first home victory. Off the field, the much anticipated House Settlement has run into issues with the judge overseeing the case and the two sides have been tasked to make more changes. As legal expert Michael McCann discussed with us via Zoom over the summer, there is a real chance the settlement falls apart and the changes being discussed, most notably revenue sharing with players, could be in legal jeopardy. Some seats are getting hot for a few college head coaches but there’s a lot of season left for guys to turn things around.

The NFL season kicked off as well and our guys at the Bears - Chris Beatty, Thomas Brown, Jason Houghtaling; Chargers - Justin Poindexter; and Seahawks - Chuckie Keeton all walked away 1-0.

The South Carolina Gamecocks traveled to Kentucky for the first SEC Conference game of the season after an underwhelming win over Old Dominion in Week One that had USC fans questioning what to expect for this season. After Saturday’s performance, the outlook for the 2024 season is looking much brighter in Columbia.

South Carolina’s DBs Coach, Torrian Gray, is considered by most to be one of the best DBs coaches in the country and Saturday’s effort proved why. He has consistently developed NFL players throughout his career and we are sure to see a couple from his current group play on Sundays. In the win over Kentucky, Gray’s DBs and the South Carolina defense held Kentucky to just 44 passing yards and only 183 total yards. DB Nick Emmanwori returned an INT 24 yards for a TD in the third quarter that effectively sealed the game for South Carolina. DB Jalon Kilgore added his second INT of the season and the Gamecocks now have 4 INTs in just two games. The schedule ahead doesn’t get easier, but South Carolina should fare well as long as the defense continues to play at an elite level.

BYU knew going into Dallas that stopping the high-powered SMU offense would be a key to victory and they were able to do just that in front of a national television audience on Friday night. With neither team’s offense doing much, the game came down to Red Zone efficiency and BYU held SMU to just 6 points in 5 trips. Overall, SMU did not score a TD and was held to just 261 yards of offense. Special Teams Coordinator/DEs Coach Kelly Poppinga’s defensive group was physical, consistent, and disciplined; helping the defense collect two fumble recoveries and an interception. BYU heads to Wyoming on Saturday looking to finish up its out of conference schedule 3-0.

Florida International University made headlines recently when the school partnered with Miami-native recording artist Pitbull to rename the football stadium Pitbull Stadium. The team played its first game in the renamed venue and must have made Mr. Worldwide proud.

Defensive Coordinator, Jovan Dewitt, put on a show as his unit tied a program record with 5 interceptions and held CMU to just 16 points, a performance that earned him 247Sports’ C-USA Defensive Coordinator of the Week honors. One of those INTs was retuned 21 yards for a TD and the others provided FIU’s offense with great field position. Associate HC/RBs Coach Eric Hickson and the FIU offense finished the day having rushed for 4 TDs and 185 yards on 33 attempts, which was good for an average of 5.6 yards per rush. Dale FIU!

Memphis RBs Coach, Lee Marks, knows a thing or two about winning. He also knows the unfortunate consequences that can sometimes come from it. After helping the University of Washington reach the National Championship game last season, Lee was looking for work after his Head Coach left UW for Alabama late in the cycle and did not have an on the field role available for him at the time. Despite the professional setback, Lee landed at Memphis and has kept his winning ways going. The Tigers are now 2-0 and moved into the 25th spot in this week’s Coaches’ Poll after beating Troy 38-17.

In last weekend’s game, his group paved the way for Memphis’ 38 points, amassing 372 total yards of offense with 211 coming on the ground. Mario Anderson Jr., who started his career in D2, had 17 carries for 125 yards, his career-best performance in D1, 4 receptions, and 2 TDs. RB Thomas Brandon added 2 carries for 3 yards and 2 TDs as the Tigers totaled 4 rushing TDs on the day. Lee’s group is a big reason many prognosticators believe the Tigers can make the CFP at the end of the year.

NC A&T Head Coach Vincent Brown was hired to help the Aggies transition to its new conference, the CAA, after having just completed the 2022 season where he won the CAA Championship, advanced in the FCS Playoffs, and compiled the most single-season wins in W&M history as DC for the Tribe. Year One of the transition in Greensboro proved to be a struggle and the Aggies managed just one win, and that was on the road. However, the 2024 season is off to a much better start and Coach Brown got his first win in front of his home crowd in an OT thriller over Winston-Salem State on Saturday night.

Maybe the most important addition to the team in Year Two is new Offensive Coordinator, David Marsh, who brought proven success from OC stints at Texas Southern and Campbell. The Aggies put up 408 yards of offense on Saturday that included a 15-play drive to set up a game-tying FG as time ran out at the end of regulation. RB Wesley Graves rushed for the game winning TD in OT and earned his first career 100-yard rushing game. Special Teams Coordinator/RBs Coach, Charles Bankins, didn’t just get a solid performance from this RBs, but his PK, Andrew Brown, came through in the clutch and also hit  a 52-yarder for his second FG of 50+ in just two games this year. For an offense that ranked near the bottom in every category in 2023, Coaches Marsh and Bankins have them averaging 372.5 ypg after games against WSSU and Wake Forest.

Going into Saturday’s game at Kent State, the Saint Francis Red Flash had never beaten an FBS opponent. By the end of the afternoon, that statement was no longer true. Not only did SFU get the win but the team never trailed, and built a 17-0 lead early in the second quarter. Kent State came back and added a late field goal to make it 23-17 but SFU recovered the ensuing onside kick and ran out the clock.

SFU had 402 yards of offense and much of that can be attributed to a great performance by the offensive line led by first year SFU OL Coach, Cullen Casey. SFU had 16 first downs, 207 yards rushing and another 195 through the air, and won the time of possession battle 34:24 to 25:36. The line paved the way for the ball control offense and gave up just two sacks against their FBS opponent.

Cullen came to SFU in March to run his first collegiate position room after spending last year as an OL GA at Wisconsin. He spent time in off the field roles at Liberty and Georgetown and started his coaching career at Gonzaga College High School (DC) where he coached four P5 linemen including Olu Fashanu (Penn State) who was drafted No. 11 by the Jets.

We mentioned him last week but Lindsey Lamar’s RB, Desmond Reid, at Pitt became the first player in school history to have 100 yards and 100 yards receiving in the same game.

Henderson State HC, Greg Holsworth, who became the youngest HC in the country when he was promoted from Defensive Coordinator this summer, won his first game as HC for the Reddies.