2018 North Greenville Crusaders football team

The 2018 North Greenville Crusaders football team will represent North Greenville University during the 2018 NCAA Division II football season. They will be led by sixth-year head coach Jeff Farrington. The Crusaders will play their home games at Younts Stadium, and are members of the Gulf South Conference.

2018 North Greenville Crusaders football
Conference	Gulf South Conference
2018 record	4–6 (3–4 GSC)
Head coach	Jeff Farrington (6th season)
Offensive coordinator	Trey Elder[1] (1st season)
Defensive coordinator	Greg Harris (5th season)
Home stadium	Younts Stadium (Capacity: 5,000)

2018 Gulf South Conference football standings
	Conf							Overall
Team		W		L					W		L
No. 1 Valdosta State $^		8	–	0					14	–	0
No. 16 West Georgia ^		7	–	1					10	–	2
Florida Tech ^		5	–	3					8	–	4
West Alabama ^		5	–	3					8	–	4
West Florida		4	–	4					6	–	5
North Greenville		3	–	4					4	–	6
Delta State		2	–	6					2	–	8
Mississippi College		1	–	6					3	–	7
Shorter		0	–	8					0	–	11
$ – Conference champion ^ – NCAA Division II playoff participant Rankings from AFCA Poll

The 2018 season marks as the first season as members of the Gulf South Conference.[2]

Preseason

Gulf South Conference coaches poll

On August 2, 2018, the Gulf South Conference released their preseason coaches poll with the Crusaders predicted to finish in 7th place in the conference.[3]

Predicted finish	Team	Votes (1st place)
1	West Alabama	62 (6)
2	West Florida	59 (3)
3	West Georgia	44
4	Delta State	41
5	Valdosta State	38
6	Florida Tech	32
7	North Greenville	24
8	Mississippi College	16
9	Shorter	8

Preseason All-Gulf South Conference Team

The Crusaders had no players selected to the preseason all-Gulf South Conference team.[4]

Schedule

North Greenville 2018 football schedule consists of five home and six away games in the regular season. The Crusaders will host GSC foes Mississippi College, Shorter, West Alabama, and West Florida, and will travel to Delta State, Florida Tech, Valdosta State, and West Georgia.[5]

The Crusaders will host one of the three non-conference games against Lenoir–Rhyne from the South Atlantic Conference (SAC), and will travel to North Alabama, which is a FCS Independent team and Tusculum from the SAC.

Two of the eleven games will be broadcast on ESPN3, as part of the Gulf South Conference Game of the Week.[6]

Date	Time	Opponent	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
August 30	7:00 p.m.	at Tusculum*	Pioneer Field Tusculum, TN		W 13–3	2,920
September 8	7:00 p.m.	Lenoir–Rhyne*	Younts Stadium Tigerville, SC		L 24-51	3,486
September 15	7:00 p.m.	Mississippi College	Younts Stadium Tigerville, SC		Canceled^[a]
September 22	6:00 p.m.	at Delta State	McCool Stadium Cleveland, MS		W 33-20	6,660
September 29	7:00 p.m.	No. 21 West Alabama	Younts Stadium Tigerville, SC	ESPN3	W 20-16	3,695
October 6	2:00 p.m.	at No. 5 West Georgia	University Stadium Carrollton, GA	ESPN3	L 7-31	1,788
October 13	2:30 p.m.	Shorter	Younts Stadium Tigerville, SC		W 41-7	3,102
October 20	3:00 p.m.	at No. 7 Valdosta State	Bazemore–Hyder Stadium Valdosta, GA		L 21-44	5,514
October 27	1:00 p.m.	West Florida	Younts Stadium Tigerville, SC		L 10-26	2,687
November 3	2:00 p.m.	at Florida Tech	Florida Tech Panther Stadium Melbourne, FL		L 7-37	2,800
November 10	2:30 p.m.	at North Alabama*	Braly Municipal Stadium Florence, AL		L 28-31	6,130
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from AFCA Poll released prior to the game All times are in Eastern time

Schedule Source:[5]

^{^[a]} The game between Mississippi College and North Greenville was cancelled in advance of the arrival of Hurricane Florence.[7] The game will not be rescheduled.

Rankings

Ranking movements
Legend: ██ Increase in ranking. ██ Decrease in ranking.
NR = Not ranked. RV = Received votes. т = Tied with team above or below. ( ) = First place votes.

	Week
Poll	Pre	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Final
AFCA	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR

Game summaries

at Tusculum

	1	2	3	4	Total
Crusaders	0	3	7	3	13
Pioneers	0	0	3	0	3

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
6-3	August 31, 2017	W 34-33

Lenoir–Rhyne

	1	2	3	4	Total
Bears	0	27	10	14	51
Crusaders	3	7	0	14	24

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
4-5	September 9, 2017	L 10-22

at Delta State

	1	2	3	4	Total
Crusaders	14	3	13	3	33
Statesmen	10	0	3	7	20

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
0-2	November 4, 2017	L 30-33^OT

West Alabama

	1	2	3	4	Total
Tigers	7	0	9	0	16
Crusaders	0	10	0	10	20

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
1-1	November 11, 2017	L 26-29

at West Georgia

	1	2	3	4	Total
Crusaders	0	0	0	7	7
Wolves	7	17	7	0	31

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
First meeting

Shorter

	1	2	3	4	Total
Hawks	0	7	0	0	7
Crusaders	6	14	14	7	41

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
1-1	November 22, 2014	W 42-16

at Valdosta State

	1	2	3	4	Total
Crusaders	0	0	7	14	21
Blazers	13	10	7	14	44

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
First meeting

West Florida

	1	2	3	4	Total
Argonauts	7	6	13	0	26
Crusaders	0	3	0	7	10

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
First meeting

at Florida Tech

	1	2	3	4	Total
Crusaders	0	0	7	0	7
Panthers	20	10	7	0	37

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
1-1	October 14, 2017	L 31-42

at North Alabama

	1	2	3	4	Total
Crusaders	7	7	0	14	28
Lions	5	7	9	10	31

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
0-4	December 3, 2016	L 0-38

References

1. "Trey Elder tabbed as NGU's next offensive coordinator" (Press release). North Greenville University Department of Athletics. March 7, 2018. Retrieved June 25, 2018.
2. "North Greenville Joins GSC as Football Affiliate". Gulf South Conference. Retrieved July 18, 2018.
3. "West Alabama Tops GSC Football Preseason Poll". Gulf South Conference. August 2, 2018. Retrieved August 28, 2018.
4. https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sites/gulfsouthconference.com/documents/2018/8/2/Football_2018_Preseason_All_GSC_Table.pdf
5. "NGU football releases 2018 schedule" (Press release). North Greenville University Department of Athletics. January 9, 2018. Retrieved June 25, 2018.
6. "GSC Announces 2018 Football Game of the Week Schedule". Gulf South Conference. Retrieved July 18, 2018.
7. "MC football game against NGU canceled ahead of Hurricane Florence". WLBT3. September 12, 2018. Retrieved September 12, 2018.