Players of the Week
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SOU had a strong showing when the conference awards were handed out this morning. Details here.

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SOU had a strong showing when the conference awards were handed out this morning. Details here.
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Details here. Don’t miss the Coach Howard interview video about the importance of keeping the fan interest level high. 😉
After the game Coach Howard told the Raiders it’s time to “run the table”. Eight more wins in a row is not out of the question, but it won’t be easy. Massey gives the Raiders just an 8% chance of running the table in the regular season. Next week appears to be easier than previously imagined with Carroll College losing to Montana Northern today. However, the Raiders still need to clean some things up if they want to make it back to Daytona. Although they almost lost this game to Montana Western, they also could have won it by 20 or so points had they not given the ball up, or been penalized, in a few key situations.
New Massey Ratings will come out on Sunday. New coaches’ poll will come out on Monday. The Raiders will likely move up to #9 in the NAIA Coaches’ Poll with #9 Saint Xavier, #10 Eastern Oregon University, and #11 Kansas Wesleyan all losing today.
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Mostly sunny with a high in the 80s and the Raiders first win of the season.
Massey gives Southern Oregon a 70% chance of victory. The spread is a touchdown. If the Raiders have a positive or neutral turnover differential (something they haven’t come close to so far in 2016) then I predict a win by 17 points.

Dylan Alexander (342) finished 4th at Western Oregon’s Ash Creek Invitational, helping the Raiders to a 1st place finish overall
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Details here.
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Southern Oregon will be in Portland this weekend before opening their CCC games next weekend in Ashland. The 3-2 Raiders will play Corban at 3 on 9/23 and Northwest Christian at 4 on 9/24. Both games will be at Raider Stadium. The Opening Welcome for new SOU students and their families will take place at Raider Stadium following the Friday game. Hopefully some of those students and family members will come early to watch the action.

tackling Jr.s
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This Saturday’s game is a nominee for “NAIA Game of the Week”. Click on the image below and then like it on FB to vote.
Today the NAIA Football Coaches’ Top 25 Poll came out. Eastern Oregon University deservedly moved up from #26 to #10 after beating previously #2 SOU at home and #22 Montana Western on the road to start the season. The coaches have only 3 Frontier Conference teams in the top 20 while the more objective Massey Ratings has 7 Frontier Conference teams in the top 13. Frontier Conference teams are “only” 2-2 against non-conference opponents. However, the losses were both against NCAA DI teams! EOU is the only undefeated team from the Frontier Conference. SOU will get another crack at EOU, this time in Ashland, on October 15.
As I predicted yesterday, the coaches have some teams ahead of the Raiders like Doane (at #5) and Kansas Wesleyan (at #11) who wouldn’t finish in the top half of the Frontier Conference. One example of how the coaches aren’t paying attention is they have Montana Western and Dickinson State tied in the standings even though Montana Western just beat Dickinson State by 16 points at a neutral field.
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The Cascade Collegiate Conference chose the Raiders as their team of the week for 2-0 and 4-0 victories this past week. Southern Oregon will open CCC play this week in Portland and Walla Walla. They will return to Ashland to play a couple of home games on the 23rd and 24th, just before fall term begins on the 26th.
@jasonshelley_ @SOURaiders @SOU_Football
At first glance, yesterday’s game looks like a bit of a blowout with a final score of 52-35. It remains to be seen if the NAIA coaches will punish the Raiders for losing to an NCAA D1 school when the new poll comes out on Monday. They probably will as strength of schedule isn’t something they seem to look at much. Don’t be surprised if they have Doane and maybe even Kansas Wesleyan ahead of SOU even though Massey Ratings has Doane at #17 and Kansas Wesleyan (who the Raiders beat 52-8 in the playoffs last year) at #50.
However, before saying UC Davis dominated SOU, let’s look a little closer at the stats. The Raiders actually gained more yards than UC Davis (653 to 617). Ignoring the interception on the “Hail Mary” at the end of the game, had the turnover differential been zero instead of -4, the Raiders probably would have won the game.
Even with the horrible turnover differential, had three plays been different (two blown calls by the officials and one mental error that turned into a very costly penalty) the final score may have been 42-38 in favor of SOU.
The first was in the second quarter with about 7 and a half minutes on the clock. The refs gave UC Davis a touchdown on a pass that was fairly clearly out of bounds. You can watch a replay of the game, BTW, here.
The second was on a third and long, the UC Davis quarterback threw a pass out of bounds. A late hit resulted in a UC Davis first down (instead of UC Davis being forced to punt on fourth and long) that turned into a touchdown for the Aggies. That TD would not have happened without the penalty against SOU.
The third was in the 3rd quarter with about 10 and a half minutes on the clock. A pass to Jason Shelley was caught in the back of the end zone. He got one foot down, which is all you need in college, and he didn’t bobble the ball at all. I have a series of photos showing this (one pictured above). You can also see it on the video. The official did not give the Raiders the earned touchdown, and SOU subsequently failed to score on the drive.