Underdog Dynasty
An unofficial The American, Conference USA, Sun Belt, and Independent football blog
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2026 Week 4 Preview: Missouri State Bears @ SMU Mustangs
Game notes Setting the scene All eyes are on Casey Woods in his homecoming. Woods landed a head coaching position at Missouri State this offseason, and his work at SMU helped get him there. He spent four seasons as the Mustangs’ offensive coordinator under Rhett Lashlee, finishing top-12 nationally in scoring offense three times. “I […]
2026 Week 4 Preview: Delaware Fightin’ Blue Hens @ Virginia Cavaliers
Game notes Setting the scene Under normal traffic conditions, the drive between Newark, DE and Charlottesville, VA can be completed in under four hours. Yet, the two opponents, relatively close in proximity, have never met on the gridiron before. This is only Delaware’s second season as an FBS program, but the Fightin’ Blue Hens have […]
NAU at Montana State: Who Has More to Worry About After Lackluster Week 3?
One of the biggest games in the FCS this weekend takes place in Bozeman on Saturday night with #1 Montana State (4-0) hosting #18 Northern Arizona (3-1). As the heart of Big Sky play gets underway, though, both the Bobcats and Lumberjacks enter this primetime contest in a bit of a odd place. Despite both […]
Three takeaways from Week 3 of American Conference action
We are now roughly a quarter of the way through the 2026 regular season, and teams are beginning to separate. For the American Conference, Week 3 certainly wasn’t the league’s finest Saturday. In nine non-conference matchups against FBS opponents, American teams went 2-7, with both victories coming by one score. Florida Atlantic’s defense repeatedly came […]
Western Michigan takes down Rice, 28-21, in battle of physical ground games
The 2008 Texas Bowl showcased the first and only previous meeting between the Rice Owls and Western Michigan Broncos. There hasn’t been much shared history between the programs, but the two share several characteristics that added intrigue to Saturday night’s tilt at Rice Stadium — ground-based offenses with an affinity for controlling the clock, led […]
Shula Bowl XXIV: FAU defense repeatedly stops FIU in 16-10 win
There’s only one college football rivalry that’s defined by Roman numerals like the Super Bowl. Shula Bowl XXIV kicked off from Boca Raton on Saturday night, pitting together Florida Atlantic and FIU teams that enjoyed strong starts to their 2026 campaign. Both quarterbacks in this matchup — Caden Veltkamp and JJ Kohl — were fresh […]
UCF overcomes Barnett absence, improved Georgia State, 44-30
UCF entered the 2026 campaign fueled by renewed optimism. Head coach Scott Frost returned for his second season, which went swimmingly during his first stint with the program. He returned a bulk of the staff. And the Knights addressed one of their biggest struggles of the 2020s decade, landing an established quarterback in Alonza Barnett […]
SMU drops critical ACC matchup at Louisville, 41-31
One of the most pivotal matchups to the 2026 ACC Championship race was slated as early as Week 3. The SMU Mustangs had full reign over the Louisville Cardinals, winning each of the previous four meetings. But on Saturday in Louisville, the Cardinals made a statement in a matchup between two of the most explosive […]
FCS Week 3 Recap: Unmet Expectations
Week 3 in the FCS was a strange one to say the least. While some results panned out like most thought they might, several more did not. Even some of the heavy favorites that did end up winning did not look at all like themselves while doing so. Mix that in with another healthy amount […]
Texas State outpaces North Texas, 49-35, in shootout with 1,170 combined yards
Texas State and North Texas had only shared the field once as FBS opponents. It was the 2024 First Responder Bowl when the two teams combined for 999 yards in a 30-28 Texas State victory. Two years later, many of the players changed, as did the North Texas coaching staff, but both programs still retained […]
Cincinnati snatches final Victory Bell from Miami (OH), 35-31, in dramatic comeback
Not a living being on Planet Earth remembers the first meeting between Cincinnati and Miami (OH). The rivalry is over three decades older than the NFL. It preceded both World Wars. The Wright Brothers weren’t even in the early stages of constructing their plane when Cincinnati and Miami originated their rivalry in 1888. The two […]
Temple stunned by Toledo’s improbable last-minute 14-point comeback, 49-48
Toledo fought hard, but the Rockets just couldn’t compete with Temple’s offense, trailing 45-28 in the waning minutes of the contest. Or so we thought. Right before the 2-minute timeout, Toledo stared down a 4th-and-8 from its own 19-yard line. The team was already 0-of-3 on fourth downs. Failure to convert would have mathematically solidified […]
Are the FCS “Bodybag” Games Still Worth It? Depends on Who You Ask
On Friday night in Eugene, Oregon the Ducks pounded their lone FCS opponent of the year. Portland State came in and… to the surprise of absolutely no one… got ran out Autzen Stadium. The final score? 84-0. Oregon picked up 43 first downs in the game compared to PSU’s five. They had 726 yards of […]
Meet the QBs: Baylor and Louisiana Tech turn to backups for Week 3 matchup
We’ve only completed two full weeks of the college football season, and most teams have a relatively good bill of health at the moment. However, others have been less fortunate and are already down their starting quarterbacks. One Week 3 matchup has been particularly burdened by quarterback injuries. Baylor quarterback DJ Lagway (ankle) is listed […]
Three takeaways from Texas Tech’s 28-26 win over Houston
Week 3 of the college football season started with a bang. Friday night featured a ranked Big 12 matchup between No. 13 Texas Tech and No. 22 Houston in a potential changing of the guard game for the league. While defending champion Texas Tech was tested and trailed the Cougars 10-0 in the first quarter, […]
Texas Tech holds off Houston, by inches, in 28-26 Friday night thriller
The Friday night lights shined on Lubbock, TX, which spent a night as the capital of the college football world for a high-stakes Big 12 clash. No. 13 Texas Tech entered as the conference’s standard-bearer. The defending champions cruised to their first Big 12 title last season, winning eight conference games by 22 points or […]
Athlete’s Thread helps Delaware’s viral ‘Cockfight’ shirt take flight
College football has never needed much help being weird. This is, after all, a sport in which people bark at children, carry goal posts through town, and organize entire fall Saturdays around the movements of a live buffalo. But every once in a while, it produces something so perfectly absurd that everyone, from diehard fans […]
2026 Week 3 Preview: Georgia State Panthers @ UCF Knights
Game notes Setting the scene It’s the 404 vs. the 407. The cities of Atlanta and Orlando will be represented at the Bounce House on Saturday night in the first-ever meeting between Georgia State and UCF. The Panthers have already eclipsed their 2025 win total. Fresh off a 1-11 season, Dell McGee’s team handled reigning […]
SC State, Furman Meet in Exciting Non-Conference Tilt
One of the most fun games of the entire FCS slate this weekend will go down on Saturday in Greenville, South Carolina and yet it may not be registering on a lot of radars for the casual fans. The top HBCU team in the country, SC State, rolls in for a date with Furman and, […]
Ivy League Play Begins this Weekend
The FCS season is already going strong but the Ivies haven’t played a game yet. That changes this weekend as likes of Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth and the rest are set to join the party. Here’s a quick look around the Ancient Eight and who they’ve got on deck to kick off their 2026 season: Dartmouth […]
2026 Week 3 Preview: Coastal Carolina Chanticleers @ Delaware Fightin’ Blue Hens
Game notes Setting the scene Before we get to the football, we need to address the name. Coastal Carolina’s mascot is a Chanticleer, essentially a proud, literary rooster. Delaware’s is a Blue Hen, a bird historically bred for cockfighting. Naturally, Saturday’s first meeting has become “The Cockfight.” Delaware is fully embracing the bit. A t-shirt featuring […]
2026 Week 3 Preview: SMU Mustangs @ Louisville Cardinals
Game notes Setting the scene Is this the most important ACC game of the year? When you have a 17-team conference, it’s all about scheduling. Every tiebreaker among the top teams in this conference is paramount. Just ask Duke, which won a five-team tiebreaker and ultimately claimed the ACC title after prevailing in the right […]
2026 Week 3 Preview: North Texas Mean Green @ Texas State Bobcats
Game notes Setting the scene North Texas and Texas State only met once as FBS opponents, and it was a memorable one. That’s when the Mean Green sent a former walk-on named Drew Mestemaker to make his first start at quarterback since ninth grade, long before he was leading the FBS in passing or engineering […]
FCS Week 3 Game of the Week – Youngstown State Penguins @ South Dakota State Jackrabbits: How to Watch, Preview, Predictions
Date: Saturday September 19, 2026 Time: 7:00 PM (ET) TV: ESPN+ The Quick Hits It’s time for some big boy football in the Missouri Valley and it may not get bigger than the showdown that’s going to happen in Brookings on Saturday evening. #2 South Dakota State (2-1) opens its doors to the high-flying Youngstown […]
2026 Week 3 Preview: Houston Cougars @ Texas Tech Red Raiders
Game notes Setting the scene It’s a Texas-sized showdown under the Friday night lights in Lubbock. No. 13 Texas Tech and No. 23 Houston collide in a matchup with potential early-season Big 12 title stakes, and it’s one both teams have circled all offseason. For Texas Tech, it’s a chance to make a statement. While […]
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