Eastern Kentucky Colonels at Jacksonville State Gamecocks
Sat Sep 5 · 6:00 PM CT
By Pablo SanchezUpdated 8d ago·2 min read
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The Gamecocks kick off their second season under Charles Kelly against an FCS opponent that has no business hanging around, but season openers have a way of getting weird before they get predictable.
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Best BetJacksonville State
Jacksonville State is coming off a 9-5 season and a bowl win, has its rushing centerpiece in Caleb Creel back, and is squaring off with an FCS program that finished with a losing conference record last year. The class gap alone makes the Gamecocks the easy side to trust here regardless of price.
Eastern Kentucky
+Nothing-to-lose spoiler spot, no pressure
+Sixth-year coach Wells provides steady structure
−Finished 2025 around 5-7, sub-.500 in UAC
−FCS depth overmatched vs. FBS roster size
Jacksonville State
+Coming off 9-5 season and bowl win
+Creel's rush/pass production headlines return
−Brand-new OC after Trickett left for Arkansas
−First game jitters possible under new playcaller
Jacksonville State enters 2026 off a 9-5 season that ended with a Salute to Veterans Bowl win over Troy, and the engine behind it returns: junior quarterback Caleb Creel, who piled up 1,076 rushing yards and 7 rushing scores to go with 1,500-plus passing yards and 9 touchdowns through the air. The Gamecocks ran for close to 3,500 yards and 32 scores as a team last year, and that ground-and-pound identity is the whole story of this program under Kelly.
The wrinkle is on the sideline. Offensive coordinator Clint Trickett left for Arkansas in December, and tight ends coach Taylor Housewright was bumped up to replace him. A brand-new playcaller getting his first live rep in charge is normally a bigger deal — except the opponent across the field is Eastern Kentucky, an FCS team from the United Athletic Conference that finished 2025 around 5-7. This is about as low-risk a proving ground as Housewright could ask for.
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EKU Eastern Kentucky
JXST Jacksonville State
Eastern Kentucky, for its part, isn't walking into Jacksonville with much beyond pride. Sixth-year head coach Walt Wells has kept the program steady but unspectacular, and the Colonels are coming off a losing UAC campaign. The gap in roster size, depth, and simply the level of competition between an FBS Conference USA program and an FCS mid-major is real, and it tends to show up fastest in the trenches, where Jacksonville State's rushing numbers already suggest a mismatch.
Eastern Kentucky Colonels
Jacksonville State Gamecocks
Aug 29?@ North Dakota State—
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None of that means Eastern Kentucky should be dismissed entirely. Buy games like this one are exactly where FBS teams occasionally trip over their own depth chart in Week 1 — new coordinator, new rotations, home crowd expecting a laugher — and FCS programs have snuck out wins in bigger mismatches than this. Wells' teams have generally played hard-nosed, disciplined football even in years the record didn't show it, and there's zero pressure on Eastern Kentucky here. They're the spoiler with nothing to lose.
Eastern Kentucky Colonels
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Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Jacksonville State Gamecocks
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Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Injury report — info via ESPN.
Still, college football news outlets already have Jacksonville State penciled in as a Conference USA title contender for 2026, and openers against outmatched FCS opponents exist for a reason — get the new pieces (OC included) synced up before conference play actually matters. Expect Creel and that run game to be the whole story Saturday, September 5, with Eastern Kentucky trying to hang around as long as its depth allows.
