2018 Shorter Hawks football team

The 2018 Shorter Hawks football team will represent Shorter University during the 2018 NCAA Division II football season. They will be led by first-year head coach Zach Morrison. The Hawks will play their home games at Barron Stadium, and are members of the Gulf South Conference.

2018 Shorter Hawks football
Conference	Gulf South Conference
2018 record	0–11 (0–8 GSC)
Head coach	Zach Morrison[1] (1st season)
Offensive coordinator	Blaise Holzer (1st season)
Defensive coordinator	Chad Creamer (1st season)
Home stadium	Barron Stadium (Capacity: 6,500)

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

Preseason

Gulf South Conference coaches poll

On August 2, 2018, the Gulf South Conference released their preseason coaches poll with the Hawks predicted to finish in 9th place, last place in the conference.[2]

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 Hawks had two players at two positions selected to the preseason all-Gulf South Conference team.[3]

Offense Lewis Hayes – WR Defense Nehemiah Reddish – DB

Schedule

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

The Hawks will host one of the three non-conference games against Tusculum Pioneers football from the South Atlantic Conference and will travel to North Alabama, which is a FCS Independent team and Samford from the Southern Conference.

Two of the eleven games will be broadcast on ESPN3, as part of the Gulf South Conference Game of the Week.[4]

Date	Time	Opponent	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
August 30	7:30 p.m.	at No. 11 (FCS) Samford*	Seibert Stadium Homewood, AL	ESPN+	L 9–66	5,252
September 8	1:00 p.m.	Tusculum*	Barron Stadium Rome, GA		L 14-61	2,782
September 15	7:00 p.m.	at No. 13 West Florida	Blue Wahoos Stadium Pensacola, FL		L 7-51	5,479
September 22	7:00 p.m.	at No. 16 Valdosta State	Bazemore–Hyder Stadium Valdosta, GA		L 0-52	5,103
September 29	1:00 p.m.	No. 6 West Georgia	Barron Stadium Rome, GA		L 27-58	1,345
October 6	1:00 p.m.	West Alabama	Barron Stadium Rome, GA		L 17-48	1,384
October 13	2:30 p.m.	at North Greenville	Younts Stadium Tigerville, SC		L 7-41	3,102
October 20	1:00 p.m.	Mississippi College	Barron Stadium Rome, GA	ESPN3	L 24-37	1,225
October 25	7:00 p.m.	at Delta State	McCool Stadium Cleveland, MS	ESPN3	L 20-46	3,333
November 3	6:00 p.m.	at North Alabama*	Braly Municipal Stadium Florence, AL		L 14-41	6,289
November 10	1:00 p.m.	Florida Tech	Barron Stadium Rome, GA		L 7-55	1,575
*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	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR

Game summaries

at Samford

	1	2	3	4	Total
Hawks	0	0	2	7	9
Bulldogs	17	28	7	14	66

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
First meeting

Tusculum

	1	2	3	4	Total
Pioneers	0	31	16	14	61
Hawks	6	0	0	8	14

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
0-1	September 9, 2017	L 12-39

at West Florida

	1	2	3	4	Total
Hawks	0	0	0	7	7
Argonauts	20	17	14	0	51

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
0-2	October 21, 2017	L 29-42

at Valdosta State

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

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

West Georgia

	1	2	3	4	Total
Wolves	14	24	13	7	58
Hawks	0	14	7	6	27

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
1-5	October 27, 2017	L 6-42

West Alabama

	1	2	3	4	Total
Tigers	14	17	14	3	48
Hawks	7	0	3	7	17

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
0-6	September 29, 2017	L 0-62

at North Greenville

	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	L 16-42

Mississippi College

	1	2	3	4	Total
Choctaws	7	21	3	6	37
Hawks	7	0	7	10	24

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
2-2	November 4, 2017	L 29-30

at Delta State

	1	2	3	4	Total
Hawks	6	7	0	7	20
Statesmen	14	14	18	0	46

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
1-5	September 22, 2017	L 20-54

at North Alabama

	1	2	3	4	Total
Hawks	0	0	7	7	14
Lions	14	14	10	3	41

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
0-6	October 11, 2017	L 0-48

Florida Tech

	1	2	3	4	Total
Panthers	10	28	10	7	55
Hawks	0	0	0	7	7

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
0-5	September 16, 2017	L 6-31

References

1. "Member of Shorter Hawks Inaugural Team Returns to Shorter University to Head Football Program" (Press release). Shorter University Department of Athletics. January 3, 2018. Retrieved June 25, 2018.
2. "West Alabama Tops GSC Football Preseason Poll". Gulf South Conference. August 2, 2018. Retrieved August 28, 2018.
3. https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sites/gulfsouthconference.com/documents/2018/8/2/Football_2018_Preseason_All_GSC_Table.pdf
4. "GSC Announces 2018 Football Game of the Week Schedule". Gulf South Conference. Retrieved July 18, 2018.
5. "2018 Football Schedule". Shorter University Department of Athletics. Retrieved June 25, 2018.