(STATS) – If misery loves company, then the most-improved don’t mind the crowd getting big.
A number of the FCS programs that struggled the most last year are making the biggest improvement this season. The distinction of being the most-improved team belongs to Stetson, which is 5-1 after finishing 2-9 last season.
That makes the Hatters, a non-scholarship Pioneer Football League team, plus-5.5 in a formula which adds the difference in victories between the two seasons to the difference in losses, then divides by two.
Stetson has won its last two games on the final play: Steven Burdette’s scoop-and-score off a teammate’s lateral that beat Drake 23-21 and Johnny Messina’s 22-yard field goal to edge Jacksonville 38-35.
After the Drake game was one of the signature wins since the program returned in 2013, coach Roger Hughes told his team, “Success makes you slow to learn and quick to forget. We can’t forget what got us here. Humble, hungry, disciplined, doing things the right away because champions do more.”
Second place in the NCAA statistics for the most-improved teams is shared at plus-5.0 between UIW (Southland Conference), which was 1-10 last year and is 4-3 this season, and Indiana State (Missouri Valley Football Conference) and Portland State (Big Sky Conference), which were both 0-11 and are 3-4.
The fifth spot at plus-4.5 is shared by Davidson (PFL), which has gone from 2-9 to 5-3, and Georgetown (Patriot League), which was 1-10 and is 4-4.