2018 Valdosta State Blazers football team

2018 Gulf South Conference football standings
	$ – Conference champion; ^ – NCAA Division II playoff participant; Rankings from AFCA Poll

Valdosta State Blazers football
2018 Valdosta State Blazers football
NCAA Division II national champion; GSC champion
NCAA Division II Championship Game, W 49–47 vs. Ferris State
Conference	Gulf South Conference
Ranking
Coaches	No. 1
2018 record	14–0 (8–0 GSC)
Head coach	Kerwin Bell (3rd season)
Defensive coordinator	Danny Verpaele (2nd season)
Home stadium	Bazemore–Hyder Stadium; (Capacity: 11,249)

The 2018 Valdosta State Blazers football team represented Valdosta State University during the 2018 NCAA Division II football season. They were led by third-year head coach Kerwin Bell, who also served as offensive coordinator. They won the NCAA Division II Football Championship. The Blazers played their home games at Bazemore–Hyder Stadium and are members of the Gulf South Conference.

Preseason

Gulf South Conference coaches poll

On August 2, 2018, the Gulf South Conference released their preseason coaches poll with the Blazers predicted to finish in 5th place in the conference.[1]

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 Blazers had five players at five positions selected to the preseason all-Gulf South Conference team.[2]

Offense

Kenny Benjamin – AP

Jeremy King – OG

Defense

Raymond Palmer – DB

Special Teams

Jairus Jones – BT

Stewart Spence – UTL

Schedule

Valdosta State 2018 regular season football schedule consisted of five home and four away games in the regular season and one neutral site game. The Blazers hosted GSC foes Delta State, North Greenville, Shorter, and West Georgia, and traveled to Florida Tech, Mississippi College, West Alabama, and West Florida.[3] Three games were broadcast on ESPN3, as part of the Gulf South Conference Game of the Week.[4]

The Blazers also hosted non-conference foe Albany State from the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) and competed in the Okefenokee Classic against Fort Valley State, also from the (SIAC).

After an undefeated regular season, the Blazers were a #1 seed in the NCAA Division II football playoff.

Date	Time	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
September 1	7:00 p.m.	Albany State*		Bazemore–Hyder Stadium Valdosta, GA		W 45-14	6,770
September 8	7:00 p.m.	vs. Fort Valley State*		Memorial Stadium Waycross, GA (Okefenokee Classic)	ESPN3	W 55-6	3,107
September 15	7:00 p.m.	at No. 8 West Alabama		Tiger Stadium Livingston, AL		W 58-24	3,285
September 22	7:00 p.m.	Shorter	No. 16	Bazemore–Hyder Stadium Valdosta, GA		W 52-0	5,130
September 29	8:00 p.m.	at Mississippi College	No. 13	Robinson-Hale Stadium Clinton, MS		W 63-42	2,654
October 6	1:00 p.m.	Delta State	No. 10	Bazemore–Hyder Stadium Valdosta, GA		W 59-28	2,036
October 13	1:00 p.m.	at Florida Tech	No. 8	Florida Tech Panther Stadium Melbourne, FL		W 51-21	3,679
October 20	3:00 p.m.	North Greenville	No. 7	Bazemore–Hyder Stadium Valdosta, GA		W 44-21	5,514
November 3	5:00 p.m.	at West Florida	No. 7	Blue Wahoos Stadium Pensacola, FL	ESPN3	W 48-21	5,893
November 10	7:00 p.m.	No. 3 West Georgia	No. 5	Bazemore–Hyder Stadium Valdosta, GA (Rivalry)	ESPN3	W 47-31	10,558
November 24	1:00 PM	No. 25 Bowie State	No. 3	Bazemore–Hyder Stadium Valdosta, GA (Division II Playoffs Second Round)		W 66-16	2,467
December 1	1:00 PM	No. 17 Lenoir Rhyne	No. 3	Bazemore–Hyder Stadium Valdosta, GA (Division II Playoffs Quarterfinals)		W 61-21	1,999
December 8	12:00 PM	No. 11 Notre Dame (OH)	No. 3	Bazemore–Hyder Stadium Valdosta, GA (Division II Playoffs Semifinals)	ESPN3	W 30-24	4,672
December 15	4:00 P.M.	vs. No. 2 Ferris State	No. 3	McKinney ISD Stadium McKinney, TX (Division II National Championship Game)	ESPNU	W 49-47	4,306
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from AFCA Poll released prior to the game All times are in Eastern time

Schedule Source:[5]

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	RV	RV	RV	16	13	10	8	7	7	7	5	3	1

Game summaries

Albany State

	1	2	3	4	Total
Rams	0	0	0	14	14
Blazers	14	14	10	7	45

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
17-2	September 2, 2017	L 12-29

Fort Valley State

	1	2	3	4	Total
Wildcats	0	3	3	0	6
Blazers	21	0	6	28	55

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
18-3	September 7, 2013	W 36-21

at West Alabama

	1	2	3	4	Total
Blazers	21	14	10	13	58
Tigers	7	7	7	3	24

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
32-5	November 4, 2017	L 14-38

Shorter

	1	2	3	4	Total
Hawks	0	0	0	0	0
Blazers	10	0	21	21	52

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
6-0	November 11, 2017	W 52-0

at Mississippi College

	1	2	3	4	Total
Blazers	7	35	14	7	63
Choctaws	7	14	14	7	42

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
9-7-1	October 14, 2017	W 55-3

Delta State

	1	2	3	4	Total
Statesmen	14	14	0	0	28
Blazers	14	14	17	14	59

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
17-19-1	October 21, 2017	W 34-13

at Florida Tech

	1	2	3	4	Total
Blazers	14	10	0	27	51
Panthers	0	0	7	14	21

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
4-1	October 28, 2017	W 42-14

North Greenville

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

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
First meeting

at West Florida

	1	2	3	4	Total
Blazers	14	3	7	24	48
Argonauts	0	14	7	0	21

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
2-0	September 23, 2017	W 30-19

West Georgia

	1	2	3	4	Total
Wolves	7	14	7	3	31
Blazers	10	24	3	10	47

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
24-13	October 7, 2017	L 13-42

Bowie State

	1	2	3	4	Total
Bulldogs	7	9	0	0	16
Blazers	0	21	17	28	66

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
First meeting

Lenoir-Rhyne

	1	2	3	4	Total
Bears	0	7	7	7	21
Blazers	10	24	13	14	61

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
1-0	November 29, 2014	W 23-21

Notre Dame (OH)

	1	2	3	4	Total
Falcons	0	10	7	7	24
Blazers	9	0	21	0	30

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
First meeting

Ferris State

	1	2	3	4	Total
Bulldogs	10	14	14	9	47
Blazers	7	21	14	7	49

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
First meeting

Players drafted into the NFL

Round	Pick	Player	Position	NFL Club
7	238	Stephen Denmark	CB	Chicago Bears

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References

"West Alabama Tops GSC Football Preseason Poll". Gulf South Conference. August 2, 2018. Retrieved August 29, 2018.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sites/gulfsouthconference.com/documents/2018/8/2/Football_2018_Preseason_All_GSC_Table.pdf
"Okefenofee Classic among games on VSU's 2018-19 football schedule" (Press release). Valdosta Daily Times. February 14, 2018. Retrieved July 5, 2018.
"GSC Announces 2018 Football Game of the Week Schedule". Gulf South Conference. Retrieved July 18, 2018.
"2018 Valdosta State Blazers Football Schedule". Valdosta State University of Athletics. Retrieved July 5, 2018.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[1] "West Alabama Tops GSC Football Preseason Poll". Gulf South Conference. August 2, 2018. Retrieved August 29, 2018.

[2] ttps://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sites/gulfsouthconference.com/documents/2018/8/2/Football_2018_Preseason_All_GSC_Table.pdf

[VS18-3] "Okefenofee Classic among games on VSU's 2018-19 football schedule" (Press release). Valdosta Daily Times. February 14, 2018. Retrieved July 5, 2018.

[4] "GSC Announces 2018 Football Game of the Week Schedule". Gulf South Conference. Retrieved July 18, 2018.

[5] "2018 Valdosta State Blazers Football Schedule". Valdosta State University of Athletics. Retrieved July 5, 2018.

Valdosta State Blazers football
Venues	Bazemore–Hyder Stadium (1982–present)
Bowls & rivalries	West Georgia (Battle for the Peach Basket)
Culture & lore	Blaze
People	Head coaches NFL draftees
Seasons	1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
National championship seasons in bold

NCAA Division II football champions
1970s	1973: Louisiana Tech 1974: Central Michigan 1975: Northern Michigan 1976: Montana State 1977: Lehigh 1978: Eastern Illinois 1979: Delaware
1980s	1980: Cal Poly 1981: Southwest Texas State 1982: Southwest Texas State 1983: North Dakota State 1984: Troy State 1985: North Dakota State 1986: North Dakota State 1987: Troy State 1988: North Dakota State 1989: Mississippi College† Vacated
1990s	1990: North Dakota State 1991: Pittsburg State 1992: Jacksonville State 1993: North Alabama 1994: North Alabama 1995: North Alabama 1996: Northern Colorado 1997: Northern Colorado 1998: Northwest Missouri State 1999: Northwest Missouri State
2000s	2000: Delta State 2001: North Dakota 2002: Grand Valley State 2003: Grand Valley State 2004: Valdosta State 2005: Grand Valley State 2006: Grand Valley State 2007: Valdosta State 2008: Minnesota–Duluth 2009: Northwest Missouri State
2010s	2010: Minnesota–Duluth 2011: Pittsburg State 2012: Valdosta State 2013: Northwest Missouri State 2014: CSU–Pueblo 2015: Northwest Missouri State 2016: Northwest Missouri State 2017: Texas A&M–Commerce 2018: Valdosta State 2019: West Florida