(STATS) - The visit by ESPN's "College GameDay" to James Madison was all the rage in the FCS this past week.
Until the first kickoff on Saturday.
That's when action from so many big games across the FCS commanded the spotlight.
Here are five takeaways from Week 7 of the FCS regular season:
- Most of the 17 schools that have new coaches this season must be pleased. Six have winning records and two more are at .500, with Furman (Clay Hendrix) surging into the black with a 42-10 rout of VMI - its program-record fourth straight game with more than 40 points. Eastern Washington (Aaron Best), Richmond (Russ Huesman) and Elon (Curt Cignetti) are ranked in the STATS FCS Top 25, and Howard (Mike London) and Idaho State (Rob Phenicie) have claimed FBS wins in their improved seasons. Cultures are changing.
- The first-place team in the Ohio Valley Conference is not No. 3 Jacksonville State despite its record 27-game conference winning streak. Eastern Illinois (5-2, 4-0) has been amazing in that all of its wins have been by three points or less, a combined 12 after it topped Murray State 27-24 in two overtimes. Matt Severino's field goal and Terrell Greer's block of a Murray State field-goal attempt combined to be the difference in the second extra session. Oh yes, who's up next Saturday in Charleston? Jacksonville State.
- OK, James Madison was the epicenter of the FCS this past week, with the FCS championship program superbly handling the "GameDay" visit (and a crowd of 14,000 to the campus Quad) and then posting a big defensive performance in its 30-8 win over No. 11 Villanova before the second-biggest crowd in Bridgeforth Stadium history (25,993). The Dukes, who have completely changed the defensive dynamic in the last year under coach Mike Houston and defensive coordinator Bob Trott, said they fed off the atmosphere on campus all week. "This is a reason why we just talk about this just being a special place," Houston said. "There's very fewer schools - I don't care what size, FBS, FCS, Big Ten, whatever - there's very few schools that have that kind of support."
- As expected, the Top 10 matchup in the Missouri Valley Conference between No. 2 North Dakota State and No. 8 Youngstown State lived up to its billing, a slugfest at the line of scrimmage with the six-time defending champion Bison (6-0, 3-0) winning 27-24 in overtime. QB Easton Stick (285 total yards, three total touchdowns) was in control as usual, improving to 26-2 in his career as a starter. The NDSU win meant all seven teams that went into the weekend unbeaten came out of it that way - North Carolina A&T at 7-0, James Madison, North Dakota State, South Dakota and Wofford at 6-0 each, and Ivy League members Columbia and Dartmouth both at 5-0.
- There are some terrific conference races brewing, with teams bunched in larger conferences such as the Big Sky, CAA, MEAC, Missouri Valley and Southland. It would be funny if the tightest, down-to-the-wire race winds up being in the Patriot League. Incredibly, none of the teams have a winning record following an awful non-conference season, though only Fordham, which was in the preseason Top 25, is basically out of the race. Archrivals Lafayette and Lehigh lead the way at 2-0 each (after a combined 0-10 out of conference), with Lafayette getting it done on defense (allowing only 17 points in conference games) and Lehigh rolling on offense (95 points). Colgate at Holy Cross appears to be an eliminator next Saturday.
