Talking CFB: DeSean Jackson Beats Former Teammate Michael Vick, Boise State QB Crisis, HBCU Program Ends 4-Year Losing Streak & More

90 percent of the coverage in college football covers 10 percent of the teams. All the national media wants to talk about is the SEC or the Big 10, and occasionally the Big 12 and ACC. If your favorite team isn’t in one of those conferences, it can be difficult to find reliable and consistent coverage of your school. But that’s where we come in.

At EssentiallySports, we believe every program deserves the spotlight, not just Alabama or Ohio State. That’s why we spend every weekday digging into the stories that matter across HBCUs, FCS programs and smaller schools.

From, Delaware State’s close win to the FCS top-25 getting shaken up, there’s plenty happening outside the Power conferences. Here’s what you might have missed this week.

Delaware State Completes Double-Digit Comeback Against Norfolk State

DeSean Jackson and Michael Vick, who had so much success together as teammates in the NFL, are now rivals at the college football level. Jackson, the head coach at Delaware State, faced off against his former quarterback, who is the head coach at Norfolk State, this past weekend, and it was a battle.

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Entering the fourth quarter, Norfolk State led 33-19, but Jackson’s Hornets clawed their way back to come from behind and take a 36-33 victory. Delaware State’s starting quarterback, Marqui Adams, threw for 243 yards and four touchdowns in the win.

Delware State improves to 5-4 on the year, while Norfolk State falls to 4-5. Jackson is now 2-0 against his former QB as coaches.

Alabama A&M Ends Four-Year Long Streak Against Alabama State

Alabama A&M and Alabama State have a long-standing rivalry, which has been dubbed the “Magic City Classic.” For the past four years, Alabama State has dominated the rivalry, but this past weekend, A&M finally got the dub.

After finishing 4-8 last season, nobody expected much from Alabama A&M this year, but they have quickly turned things around, and after a , 31-28 win over Alabama State, the Bulldogs are 7-2 with a 4-1 SWAC record. They are firmly in the hunt for the SWAC Championship with just a few more games to go.

Multiple Top-25 FCS Teams Fall in Week 9

This year has been a wild one for upsets at the FBS level, but it’s also been a crazy upset year in the FCS. And on Halloween night, things got real spooky in FCS land.

Seven ranked FCS teams lost this past weekend. No. 6 South Dakota, No. 11 North Dakota, No. 15 Campbell, No. 16 Harvard, No. 18 ETSU, No. 19 Richmond and No. 21 UC Davis all lost, and these games weren’t particularly close. Only North Dakota and ETSU lost by one score. The rest were by nine or more points.

The FCS playoff race just got a whole lot more interesting.

Fresno State Ends Oregon State’s Five-Game Win Streak

Oregon State opened the season with back-to-back losses to Houston and Texas Tech. However, they bounced back completely, riding a five-game win streak that included a big win against Washington State before they fell victim to a trap game.

The Beavers hit the road to face the Bulldogs this past weekend, and things got spooky in Fresno. Despite putting up over 400 yards of offense, Oregon State scored just 22 points while their defense gave up 38. Braden Atkinson only threw one touchdown pass and Jesse Legree had seven receptions for 70 yards.

OSU’s CFP bid is likely out the window with this loss, but this has still been a very strong season for a team not many had high hopes for.

Boise State’s Maddux Madsen Injury Raises Fresh Concerns

Boise State starting quarterback Maddux Madsen has been everything they could’ve asked for this season. Through eight games, he has totaled over 1,800 total yards with 18 total touchdowns and just one interception while leading the Broncos to a 7-1 record.

This past weekend, Madsen exited Boise State’s game against Texas State early, but luckily backup quarterback Max Cutforth was able to throw three touchdowns and keep their CFP hopes alive. Now, the Broncos are waiting to find out if their star QB can go this week.

Madsen avoided a serious knee injury, but he’s still listed as day-to-day. The Broncos have just four days until their next game against Colorado State, who is 3-5, so Madsen better heal up quickly, or it will be Cutforth taking snaps for Boise this weekend.

Wyoming Quietly Builds Mountain West Championship Hopes After Poor Start

The Wyoming Cowboys started the season very slow, losing three of their first five games. They were 2-3 with a 1-1 Mountain West record, but over the past three weeks, they’ve slowly, but surely, built themselves into Mountain West contenders.

Since their 2-3 start, Wyoming has won three straight games against San Jose State, NIU and Air Force to move to 5-3 (4-1) on the season. With four games left on their schedule, they have to go 3-1 at the very least to make the Mountain West Championship Game, but after this run the last three games, anything is possible.

UNLV Survives Northern Illinois Despite Being Out-gained

UNLV is another team in contention for the Mountain West Championship. They’re 5-3 on the season and 3-1 in the Mountain West, but the just barely survived NIU this past weekend.

The Rebels led by 14 in the third quarter, but the Huskies cut the lead to seven and entered the fourth in a one possession game. NIU threatened at times in the fourth quarter, but threw an interception and missed a field goal that caused them to drop a one-score game to the Rebels.

Despite the loss, NIU put up 493 yards of offense and out-gained UNLV by 20 yards. But at the end of the day, all that matters is the numbers on the scoreboard, and those ones say NIU lost the game.

HBCU Star RB Athean Renfro Jr. Delivers Incredible Performance

Texas Southern edged out Grambling, 23-20, on Halloween night, but if it weren’t for senior running back Athean Renfro Jr., their Halloween wouldn’t have been so sweet.

Renfro Jr. came into the game off the heels of a 135-yard performance against Southern the week before, and he decided Halloween night was a great time to scare another Louisiana team in Grambling.

Renfro Jr. ran for 233 yards and two touchdowns on just 21 carries, which included a long of 86 yards. He also added 17 receiving yards on top of that, bringing his grand total to 250 yards on the night. He accounted for well over 50 percent of Texas Southern’s yards in the narrow, overtime win.

It was one hell of a performance from Renfro, and it’s one he’ll never forget.

Arkansas-Pine Bluff Pits Up a Historic Scoring Display

Arkansas-Pine Bluff had one of the all-time great blowout wins this past weekend. After Bethune-Cookman took down top-ranked Jackson State last weekend, many thought they would continue to roll and take down Arkansas-Pine Bluff this weekend, but that was far from the case.

The Golden Lions started the game with 28 first quarter points before taking a 49-0 lead heading into the half. Then, on their first drive of the second half, they scored another touchdown, making it 56-0 in the first 35 minutes of the game. They let off the gas a bit after that, going on to win 63-21, but I can’t remember seeing many teams start off with 56 unanswered points.

Central State Strengthens SIAC Championship Bid

The SIAC race is heating up big time, and Central State seems to be a big contender after a 35-28 win over Edward Waters.

Through nine weeks, there are three teams tied at the top of the SIAC. Benedict, Kentucky State and Central State all sit at 6-1 in conference play, and all three of them have one game left on their regular season schedule. And what would you know, Central State and Benedict play this upcoming weekend with a trip to the SIAC Championship Game on the line.

Kentucky State plays Morehouse, who is 3-4 in conference play, so it’s fair to assume they’ll win and get in. That leaves the winner of the Central/Benedict game as the other championship contender. It should be a very entertaining matchup between two of the best SIAC schools.

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