Staff report

SALISBURY — It’s like South Atlantic Conference football has stepped in a time machine.

The good ol’ days are back. Carson-Newman (3-0, 1-0) will come to Kirkland Field at Shuford Stadium on Saturday undefeated and nationally ranked.

That national ranking is a modest 25th in one of the polls, but nationally ranked is what it is. Carson-Newman hadn’t shown up in a Division II national poll since a preseason poll in 2021.

The Eagles’ first two wins this season were pretty routine stuff, but they won in overtime against Wingate last week. Any team that can beat Wingate has to be taken seriously. The Eagles might be back for real.

It will be a night game with a 6 p.m. kickoff, as the Catawba Indians finally get to play in a friendly environment for the first time in 2024.

Catawba (1-2, 0-1) floundered on opening night at Davidson (2-1), but beat a Shaw team that is 3-1, before losing a 31-28 thriller at UVA Wise (2-1) last week. Playing three in a row on the road is tough any time. Three in a row on the road to start a season is really challenging.

Carson-Newman was out-rushed and out-passed by Wingate, but found a way to win last week’s game. The number that jumps off the stat sheet from that contest is Carson-Newman’s seven sacks.

So Catawba’s pass protection and quarterback Preston Brown getting the ball out quickly will probably be as important as anything to determining Saturday’s winner.

Brown is second in the SAC in most of the passing stats. Limestone’s Dustin Noller has been putting up some wild numbers.

A player to watch for Carson-Newman will be long snapper Andrew Bradshaw, a graduate of Jesse Carson High. He’s been one of the league’s best at what he does for a while.

Carson-Newman is favored by eight points over the Indians by the Massey Ratings.