Game 1 of the Night

Previous GotN Prediction/Result: Hillsdale 34 - Tusculum 21 / Hillsdale 34 - Tusculum 9

Intro/comments/match-up: Season 138 is here. If you haven't already, you still may have time to red-shirt up to three players. Although preseason, the "smart dog" feels he is in mid-season form with his first pick of the season. Since I didn't see a match-up that stood out, I decided to use this first game to put a spotlight on an old D3 rival. For tonight's Game of the Night, we find North Dakota State travelling east to face Edinboro.

Team: North Dakota State

Coach: Zharkins # of Seasons: 2

Roster Breakdown:

Seniors: 7

Juniors: 12

Sophomores: 14

Freshmen: 17

Offensive Formations: Shotgun

Defensive Formations: 3-4, Nickel

Key Wins: N/A

Losses: N/A

Comments: North Dakota State has had human coaches for 8 of the last 10 seasons. Coach Zharkins took over from Bama2448 who had the team the two previous seasons. Coach Zharkins ran a passing factory at D3 Claremont McKenna-Harvey Mudd-Scripps College for 35 seasons. During that time, his passing attack was extremely hard to stop. The "smart dog" had the misfortune to face him three times in the playoffs and getting skunked for the effort. It looks like he is getting the roster set up with four freshmen WRs to go with the three WRs from last season. His only RB is a carryover from the previous coach. The RB sees some action when the coach goes to Trips.

Team: Edinboro

Coach: Vhoward415 # of Seasons: 6

Roster Breakdown:

Seniors: 12

Juniors: 11

Sophomores: 12

Freshmen: 15

Offensive Formations: Trips

Defensive Formations: 4-3

Key Wins: N/A

Losses: N/A

Comments: Edinboro is coming into this season after back-t0-back playoff experiences. Team is ranked #29 in the AP poll. The team has a difficult schedule with seven games against human coaches, including four during the out of conference portion. Coach Vhoward415 has a nicely balanced roster on both sides of the ball. His strength looks to be at wide receiver with two red-shirt seniors, one red-shirt junior, and two red-shirt sophomores.

Tonight's Prediction: Between both teams I see at least 700 yards passing. I give Edinboro the edge with their combined seniors and junior, but something (probably flashbacks) tells the "smart dog" to go with North Dakota State. That being said, the final score in this pass happy affair will be North Dakota State 49, Edinboro 45.