I have to admit that I "sighed" when I saw this was our 1st opponent, but it's the first football game of the year and I'll be there.

This is Shorter's first season in D-II (formally NAIA). They went 6-4 last year. Funny name, but they're better than Apprentice. They will play Charleston Southern later this season, a school I wish we would play.

Prediction: Camels by 11.

(PFL Pick'Em is over on the PFL board. Deadline Thursday 5pm.)

I think it is actually a very good first opponent.

I know we had the schedule discussion a long ways back, but playing one scholly program a season is enough for me. Even the bad ones are favored against non-scholly programs and I personally think getting your brains beat by scholly program only serves to kill any type of depth you have because of the injuries sustained (See JU last season...they thought they would schedule three scholly programs and it took them half the year or more to recover...Kerwin Bell even said as much this off season.).

The way I see it the gap between an NC State and an Appy State is smaller than the gap between non-scholarship I-AA and a mid to lower level So-Con team.

Go Camels (-6.5)!

Big game! Big atmosphere! Braden Smith is a proven leader and should lead this young Campbell team to victory on Thursday night. I also expect a big performance from Brandon Chandler on D.

Should be electric.

Campbell 28
Shorter 21

I am looking forward to it. I think with all the students on campus and the hype surrounding the night game we should have over 4,000 there if the weather stays good.

I'm fired up. Its officially football season, playing on a Thursday, under the lights, should be a ton of students there (what else do they have to do). I could care less who we are playing, I'm excited.

Im not going to be able to make it to the opener. does anyone know what kind of crowd they are anticipating?

well... that happened. Great crowd, got taken out of the game on the first four drives with the turnovers.

Shorter came to win and they did. Good for them.

Regarding attendance, glad to see so many students there and they were still there in the 4th quarter. We'll see how Saturday night attendance compares to a weeknight next week.

Great atmosphere but disappointing results. We must improve up-front on both sides of the ball; hopefully this will occur by Week 4. Obviously, the fumbles killed us last night, I don't expect this to continue. Braden showed leadership and poise; I do expect this to continue. We also must keep Chandler on the field; can't afford to lose him to cramps in crunch-time.

Go Camels!

I agree about the atmosphere. Great crowd and love the night games. Wish they were all at night. Don't really care for the afternoon games in the heat.

Outcome and performance was another thing. Our offensive line got beat all night. They are worse than the line we had four years ago. They can get better and they need to in a hurry. We are not going to be able to run the ball too well against D-1 schools with that line. They did not even pass block too well either. In the fourth quarter Shorters smaller defense was all in the backfield and Braden was having to dodge them. We are going to have to pass alot this year which means shorter drives and the defense is going to have to play alot.

Defense actually did pretty well. If they had not played well we would have gotten blown out with all the turnovers. I think they tired near the end of the game and Shorter took advantage. They are still too small upfront and we need some linebackers who are going to be more aggressive. D Backs did well first 3 quarters.

Coaching staff - Number 1 they did not have the team prepared mentally or physically for this game. Too many errors and gave out in 4th quarter. It is the DII school that should give out. They were fresh.
Play calling on one drive in the 4th quarter was horrible. We can't run the ball. Are moving it well in the passing game. We call a draw that is met with three guys in the backfield (no blocking) and we fumble. Why are we even running that play at that point?

Then we are down two scores with 4 min left and Steele is going to punt on 4th and 4. You have got to be kidding me. We will not get the ball back and this guy wants to punt. If he had punted he could have just left his resignation in the locker room and got out of town. If the Shorter coach had not called timeout he would have punted. This guy's decision making does not impress me in the least. I have been saying this since year one. We had a good season last year which I was glad we did for the seniors. Steele had some experienced atheletes last year that wanted to win. And they did. I don't know about this year. I don't think we have the athletes we had last year. It may be a long season.

We better do alot better against UVA Wise. If they are anything like they were when we played them a couple years ago at Wise we will have our hands full with them.

May be our best chance at a win this year. Don't know where we get another one at.

I would save my money on the Old Dominion game. That is going to be a slaughter. I would not play Braden in that game. The line cannot protect him and we might lose him for the season.