Fairmont State football coach Jason Woodman said he could tell his defense, which had struggled much of the beginning of this season, was beginning to turn things around. It turned in a record-setting performance last week in its 6-0 win over Urbana, the Falcons' second in a row.
FSU held Urbana to a Mountain East Conference record-low 38 plays and minus-3 yards of total offense in its 6-0 win. Urbana was stuffed for minus-27 yards rushing, as Fairmont State racked up a season high 10 tackles for loss, including four sacks. Those TFLs totaled minus-46 yards.
The Falcons had allowed an average of nearly 411 yards and 39 points per game entering that contest, sitting ninth in the 11-team MEC in scoring defense. That shutout moved them to fifth in the league in that category.
"Obviously, we've improved defensively every week," Woodman said. "If you look back to our first game of the season against West Virginia State, we've improved incredibly."
Fairmont State allowed 509 yards and 59 points to the Yellow Jackets in that season-opening loss.
"We were very disappointed in our performance in Week 1 and we knew we were a lot better than we actually played," Woodman said.
Woodman gave the credit for that improvement to his defensive staff, an experienced group he said has bought into what he has wanted to do with that unit. Those coaches have gotten maximum effort from the players and now they're buying into the philosophy.
"We hold these guys pretty accountable with what they do," Woodman said. "And I think it's more them focusing on things and being a little more conscious of their jobs and their assignments on every play.
"They're starting to kind of figure it out," he said. "Like, hey, if I do my job on this play and everyone does their job on this play, then good things happen. I think we're going to play fairly confident on defense, but that's the way we prepare as well."
Home field isn't always an advantage in the Mountain East, but it has been crucial in short-week contests. Over the first five weeks of the season, home teams have gone 14-15. Their worst showing came last week, when Charleston's win over then-No. 21 Concord was the only win by a home team. MEC home teams went 1-4 overall.
That UC win came on a Thursday, which has been a near-lock for home teams so far. The visitor has only been able to score one short-week win this year, West Virginia State's victory at Fairmont State. The home team is 5-1 on Thursdays so far.
Concord's loss at UC knocked the Mountain Lions out of the AFCA Top 25. CU went from 21st into the "also receiving votes" group. The Golden Eagles' win moved them back into that crowd of those also receiving votes. They had been there for two weeks to start the season until falling 45-25 to Shepherd.
The Rams continued to climb the AFCA poll, moving from 14th last week to 10th this week.
With starting quarterback Luke Casey banged up and unavailable for West Virginia Wesleyan's game last Saturday against West Liberty, the Bobcats found a capable understudy in sophomore Ryan Deal. In his first start, Deal completed 19 of 34 passes for 284 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions in the Bobcats' 38-31 loss.
Casey was injured in Wesleyan's loss to Concord after completing just 4 of 7 passes for 36 yards and two interceptions. WVWC coach George Shehl then turned to Tyler Bolen, who threw for just 57 yards on 7-of-16 passing. Deal completed 7 of 14 passes for 120 yards and two scores against the Mountain Lions, and won the starting job against the Hilltoppers after Shehl decided to allow Casey to heal.
"For making his first start, I was proud of his effort," Shehl said. "I was proud of what he did. Last week, we knew Luke probably wasn't going to play, so it was kind of a competition between Ryan and Tyler all week in practice. It was a silver lining in the loss last week."
Shehl said Casey's health will decide whether he'll play tonight versus Fairmont. On Tuesday, Shehl said the chances were "50-50."