Upset, yes.... but surprise, no - at least, not for fans of FCS football. As Rick mentioned, NDSU has made beating FBS teams routine. They have wins over Colorado State, Minnesota, and Kansas - and now Kansas State.
...and back to back FCS national titles...
Not bad for a school that was playing D2 ball 6 years ago.
That is what Jax State fans aspire for the Gamecocks to be, and it is not far-fetched. JSU was a dominant program at D2, and has had flashes of greatness in FBS - but Crowe was the definition of mediocrity. Like other JSU fans, I would get totally disgusted at Crowe when he interviewed on mass media outlets. He would spend more time talking about his time at Arkansas and Auburn, than the Gamecocks - even 10 years after he took the helm. Under Crowe, JSU beat Ole Miss in Oxford in 2010, and then gave up a huge 4th quarter lead to a pedestrian, Watson Brown coached Tennessee Tech team. In 2011, all JSU had to do to win the Ohio Valley Conference outright and get the automatic playoff bid, was hold on to a 24 point lead over EKU at home - with 7 minutes left in the game. Inexplicably, Crowe emptied the bench against a talented EKU team, and the Gamecock nation watched in horror as EKU came back to win.
After each season Crowe spewed the same rhetoric... "We did some good things, had a good team... but we didn't get accomplished all that we wanted. Next year we will focus on...blah blah blah." The next season was the same old same old. Crowe snatching defeat from the jaws of victory... all the while screaming obscenities from the sidelines.
JSU's new AD Warren Koegel pulled the plug on Crowe after last season. Crowe's buddies who had empowered him were all up in arms because he had all these winning seasons - but never a playoff win, and always a bad loss or two. JSU would out-talent and desire good teams where the players were self-motivated, and struggle against lesser teams due to coaching. His S&C program was poor, discipline was poor, and academic support was poor; arguably the best team JSU had under Crowe (Ryan Perriloux's senior senior season) was unable to go to the playoffs because of APR probation. That JSU team finished 8-3, with a tough 37-17 loss at Ga Tech, and a loss to Florida State in a game they could have (and should have) won. Even that season, Crowe managed to drop a game to Eastern Illinois. EIU got the auto-bid because JSU was ineligible, and proceeded to lose to SIU 48-7.
JSU fans have high hopes for Bill Clark. He is a hometown guy, JSU grad, and was extremely successful as the head coach at Prattville before moving to USA as DC. He is, in many ways, the Anti-Crowe. Young coach on the upswing of his career...full of love for JSU, with fire and determination. JSU opens with Alabama State today, and they could well lose - ASU is loaded (Isaiah Crowell and a ton of FBS transfers)...but I think the future under Clark is bright.
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