2017 Southern Conference football season

2017 Southern Conference football season
2017 Southern Conference football season
League	NCAA Division I Football Championship
Sport	Football
Duration	August 26, 2017 – November 18, 2017
Number of teams	9
TV partner(s)	SoCon Digital Network; American Sports Network; ESPN3
Southern Conference football seasons
	← 2016 2018 →

The 2017 Southern Conference football season was the 96th season of college football for the Southern Conference (SoCon) and formed a part of the 2017 NCAA Division I FCS football season.

2017 Southern Conference football standings
v t e
Team	W		L	W		L
No. 6 Wofford $^	7	–	1	10	–	3
No. 18 Samford ^	6	–	2	8	–	4
No. 19 Furman ^	6	–	2	8	–	5
Western Carolina	5	–	3	7	–	5
Mercer	4	–	4	5	–	6
The Citadel	3	–	5	5	–	6
Chattanooga	3	–	5	3	–	8
East Tennessee State	2	–	6	4	–	7
VMI	0	–	8	0	–	11

$ – Conference champion ^ – FCS playoff participant Rankings from STATS Poll

Head coaches

Tom Arth, Chattanooga – 1st year
Brent Thompson, The Citadel – 2nd year
Carl Torbush, East Tennessee State – 3rd year
Clay Hendrix, Furman – 1st year
Bobby Lamb, Mercer – 5th year

Chris Hatcher, Samford – 3rd year
Scott Wachenheim, VMI – 3rd year
Mark Speir, Western Carolina – 6th year
Mike Ayers, Wofford – 30th year

Preseason poll results

First place votes in parentheses

Media^[1]			Coaches^[2]
Place	School	Points	Place	School	Points
1	Wofford (11)	178	1	Wofford (7)	63
2	The Citadel (6)	166	2	The Citadel (2)	54
3	Samford (3)	156	3	Samford	52
4	Chattanooga (2)	152	4	Chattanooga	41
5	Mercer	101	5	Mercer	32
6	Furman	87	6	Western Carolina	27
7	Western Carolina	71	7	Furman	26
8	ETSU	49	8	ETSU	17
9	VMI	30	9	VMI	12

Preseason All-Conference Teams

Offensive Player of the Year: Devlin Hodges, R-Jr., QB, Samford
Defensive Player of the Year: Kailik Williams, Sr., DB, The Citadel

Position	Player	Class	Team
First Team Offense
QB	Devlin Hodges	R–Jr.	Samford
RB	Cam Jackson	Sr.	The Citadel
RB	Detrez Newsome	Sr.	Western Carolina
WR	Kelvin McKnight	Jr.	Samford
WR	Terryon Robinson	R-Sr.	Western Carolina
TE	Sam Walker	R-Jr.	Mercer
OL	Tyler Davis	Jr.	The Citadel
OL	Matthew Schmidt	Sr.	Furman
OL	Thomas Marchman	Sr.	Mercer
OL	Josh Cardiello	Sr.	Chattanooga
OL	Roo Daniels	Sr.	Wofford
First Team Defense
DL	Ahmad Gooden	R-Jr.	Samford
DL	Isaiah Mack	Jr.	Chattanooga
DL	Miles Brown	Jr.	Wofford
DL	Tyler Vaughn	Sr.	Wofford
LB	Shaheed Salmon	Sr.	Samford
LB	Dale Warren	Sr.	Chattanooga
LB	Allan Cratsenberg	Sr.	VMI
LB	Datavious Wilson	So.	Wofford
DB	Kailik Williams	Sr.	The Citadel
DB	Omari Williams	Sr.	Samford
DB	Lucas Webb	Sr.	Chattanooga
DB	Devin Watson	Jr.	Wofford
First Team Special Teams
PK	Cole Fisher	Jr.	Mercer
P	Ian Berryman	R-Jr.	Western Carolina
RS	Detrez Newsome	Sr.	Western Carolina
Reference:^[2]

Rankings

**Legend**
		Increase in ranking
		Decrease in ranking
		Not ranked previous week

		Pre	Wk 1	Wk 2	Wk 3	Wk 4	Wk 5	Wk 6	Wk 7	Wk 8	Wk 9	Wk 10	Wk 11	Wk 12	Final
Chattanooga	Stats	12	13	15	RV	RV	RV	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	C	13	14	15	RV	RV	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	FCS	Not released												Not released
The Citadel	Stats	16	14	13	10	8	17	23	RV	RV	RV	–	–	–	–
	C	12	13	13	10	11	17	22	RV	RV	RV	–	–	–	–
	FCS	Not released												Not released
East Tennessee State	Stats	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	C	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	FCS	Not released									–	–	–	Not released
Furman	Stats										23	21	20	22	19
	C											RV	24	25	20
	FCS	Not released									–	–	–	Not released
Mercer	Stats	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	C	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	FCS	Not released									–	–	–	Not released
Samford	Stats	19	17	17	18	25	20	19	16	9	16	16	17	14	18
	C	19	17	17	17	23	20	18	18	8	15	14	13	14	17
	FCS	Not released									–	–	–	Not released
VMI	Stats	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	C	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	FCS	Not released									–	–	–	Not released
Western Carolina	Stats	–	RV	RV	RV	RV	22	21	19	18	24	22	RV	RV	RV
	C	–	–	–	–	RV	RV	25	21	20	RV	25	RV	RV	RV
	FCS	Not released									–	–	–	Not released
Wofford	Stats	11	10	11	9	7	5	5	5	8	8	8	7	8	6
	C	11	10	9	9	7	5	5	5	10	9	8	7	9	7
	FCS	Not released									–	–	–	Not released

Regular season

Index to colors and formatting
SoCon member won
SoCon member lost
SoCon teams in bold

All times Eastern time.

Rankings reflect that of the Sports Network poll for that week.

Week One

Date	Time	Visiting team	Home team	Site	Broadcast	Result	Attendance	Reference

Players of the week:

Offensive		Defensive		Special teams
Player	Team	Player	Team	Player	Team

Reference: Weekly Release

Week Two

Date	Time	Visiting team	Home team	Site	Broadcast	Result	Attendance	Reference

Players of the week:

Offensive		Defensive		Special teams
Player	Team	Player	Team	Player	Team

Reference: Weekly Release

Week Three

Date	Time	Visiting team	Home team	Site	Broadcast	Result	Attendance	Reference

Players of the week:

Offensive		Defensive		Special teams
Player	Team	Player	Team	Player	Team

Reference: Weekly Release

Week Four

Date	Time	Visiting team	Home team	Site	Broadcast	Result	Attendance	Reference

Players of the week:

Offensive		Defensive		Special teams
Player	Team	Player	Team	Player	Team

Reference: Weekly Release

Week Five

Date	Time	Visiting team	Home team	Site	Broadcast	Result	Attendance	Reference

Players of the week:

Offensive		Defensive		Special teams
Player	Team	Player	Team	Player	Team

Reference: Weekly Release

Week Six

Date	Time	Visiting team	Home team	Site	Broadcast	Result	Attendance	Reference

Players of the week:

Offensive		Defensive		Special teams
Player	Team	Player	Team	Player	Team

Reference: Weekly Release

Week Seven

Date	Time	Visiting team	Home team	Site	Broadcast	Result	Attendance	Reference

Players of the week:

Offensive		Defensive		Special teams
Player	Team	Player	Team	Player	Team

Reference: Weekly Release

Week Eight

Date	Time	Visiting team	Home team	Site	Broadcast	Result	Attendance	Reference

Players of the week:

Offensive		Defensive		Special teams
Player	Team	Player	Team	Player	Team

Reference: Weekly Release

Week Nine

Date	Time	Visiting team	Home team	Site	Broadcast	Result	Attendance	Reference

Players of the week:

Offensive		Defensive		Special teams
Player	Team	Player	Team	Player	Team

Reference: Weekly Release

Week Ten

Date	Time	Visiting team	Home team	Site	Broadcast	Result	Attendance	Reference

Players of the week:

Offensive		Defensive		Special teams
Player	Team	Player	Team	Player	Team

Reference: Weekly Release

Week Eleven

Date	Time	Visiting team	Home team	Site	Broadcast	Result	Attendance	Reference

Players of the week:

Offensive		Defensive		Special teams
Player	Team	Player	Team	Player	Team

Reference: Weekly Release

Week Twelve

Date	Time	Visiting team	Home team	Site	Broadcast	Result	Attendance	Reference

Players of the week:

Offensive		Defensive		Special teams
Player	Team	Player	Team	Player	Team
Reference: Weekly Release

Week Thirteen

Date	Time	Visiting team	Home team	Site	Broadcast	Result	Attendance	Reference

Records against other conferences

FCS conferences

Conference	Record
Big South	5–1
CAA	1–2
MVFC	0–1
NEC	1–1
OVC	0–2
Patriot	1–0
Pioneer	2–0
Total	10–7

FBS conferences

Conference	Record
ACC	0–3
MWC	0–2
SEC	0–5
Total	0–10

Attendance

Team	Stadium	Capacity	Game 1	Game 2	Game 3	Game 4	Game 5	Game 6	Total	Average	% of Capacity
Chattanooga	Finley Stadium	20,668	10,141	10,101	9,651	7,521	8,434		45,848	9,170	44.4%
The Citadel	Johnson Hagood Stadium	21,000	7,467	9,969	8,543	11,609	7,384		44,972	8,994	42.8%
East Tennessee State	William B. Greene Jr. Stadium	10,000	9,530	7,544	8,022	8,540	7,087	7,327	48,050	8,008	80.1%
Furman	Paladin Stadium	16,000	6,342	7,104	7,216	8,108	10,105		38,875	7,775	48.6%
Mercer	Moye Complex	10,200	9,727	11,727	10,207	9,864	10,200		51,725	10,345	101.4%
Samford	Seibert Stadium	6,700	4,908	4,509	9,233	3,523	5,178	4,673	32,024	5,337	79.7%
VMI	Alumni Memorial Field	10,000	4,654	5,311	3,310	4,119	4,229		21,623	4,325	43.2%
Western Carolina	E. J. Whitmire Stadium	13,742	11,763	12,018	8,300	9,973	10,681		52,735	10,547	76.8%
Wofford	Gibbs Stadium	13,000	7,237	7,211	6,982	7,236	5,012	5,153	38,831	6,472	49.8%

Notes

References

^ "Wofford Picked by Media to Win Football Title". Southern Conference. July 18, 2017. Retrieved December 27, 2018.
^ ^a ^b "Southern Conference Announces 2017 Pre-Season Poll and Team". Southern Conference. Retrieved December 27, 2018.

[1] "Wofford Picked by Media to Win Football Title". Southern Conference. July 18, 2017. Retrieved December 27, 2018.

[socon-2] "Southern Conference Announces 2017 Pre-Season Poll and Team". Southern Conference. Retrieved December 27, 2018.

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