NCAA Division II

Yeah, only two starters back from last year's team for Incarnate Word.

And so far we've only seen them play a Division II team.

So not much to know about them other than what we saw last year and not much experience.

So, yeah, I'll take Northern Arizona.

North Alabama is not good.

North Alabama was a Division II power.

Went up to 1AA about 12 years ago, 10 years ago, whenever.

And it's just been mediocre at best for 10 years.

That puts them, I can tell you, behind most of FBS, all of FBS.

probably virtually all of FCS and probably a bunch of Division II teams, because that was like where UMass was last year.

And they were behind D2 teams, and then they just beat Rutgers last week.

Yeah, I

I would have much rather they did that.

But instead, they play two Division II opponents, HBCU or not.

They play two Division II opponents, and then they're jumping straight to Grambling.

Essentially, they just did what TCU was about to do.

They blew out teams who are on a lower subdivision.

It's like I went to draft out of high school or went to JUCO or I went to this Division I program.

And there's not a lot of love given to like the Division II and the Division III schools.

Can you give us a little bit of insight into what was it like playing Division II baseball and working up and being able to get drafted out of that?

Yeah, I think, first of all, I think it's a great route for a lot of people that, to your point, Nico, gets overlooked.

And largely because of that exact thing, right? From high school, you always have the dream of playing for LSU, Tennessee.

Nobody dreams, really, of going to a Division II school, right? I mean, that's just not what people's goals are, right? And as a baseball player, either...

you're trying to get drafted out of high school and make a big impact that way.

Or if you don't get drafted, you say, well, I'll just do a year or two in JUCO and then transition to one of those bigger schools if I don't play.

But what was this offense gonna look like? Who was gonna call plays? And he was very cagey about that.

He basically said, who the OC is, we're going to run my system, we're going to be a run-heavy team, and it doesn't necessarily really matter, you know, who that primary play caller is, and like you mentioned, through two games, you know, they certainly have not looked like they've missed a beat, you know, again, a Division II opponent, you have to take that into account, but I think you've definitely seen, you know, bringing in Bruce Eugene, you know, a Grambling State legend, a quarterback's coach, I think you've definitely seen the quarterback production has been pretty, you know, steady so far for Grambling State, that was definitely a hiccup for this team last year, and it And through two games, you know, Coach Eugene has definitely done a good job with them.

And, you know, I think overall offensively, I think it's pretty much the style that they were expecting, you know, regardless of if Chiron was here or not.

And so, you know, we'll see when SWAC play arrives as to, you know, if this offense can truly sustain this level of production.

I'd like to see some more explosive plays out of them, but You know, it might be tough when you just don't have game breakers here, but they gave us a little early scare, then pulled away late, and I think they should be able to do the job here.

Bowling, we got their quarterback, get this, from Division II, Assumption.

Hadn't heard of that name in a long time, that college, but I think that they just own so many edges here, and You know, it just depends on what they want to show.

And you've got to play, like I said, clean, free games.

They've got over 50 new players that came in via the portal, a lot from Southern Miss, others from elsewhere.

They've got a former Division II starting quarterback.

Last time we saw that was, oh, I don't know, the playoff semifinals last year with Trinidad Chambliss.

Their win at UNLV was not something that I'd expected.

Sorry, I won't say no one.

Division II and Division III schools, I wanted to play D1.

I had academic scholarship opportunities and athletic scholarship opportunities, and I just did not want to go to Podunk University because they gave me a scholarship.

academically, I didn't want to go there or they didn't have the majors I wanted or they wasn't in the area.