http://collegefootball.rivals.com/conten...CID=898567

Wow, could this really happen to start next year? one team ranked 24th and thats it? They dont even have any other BE teams receiving consideration.

I would at least expect Pitt to be ranked. Cincy is losing a lot of players so they wont be. WVU should be good as long as the backup whos name escapes me does fine. Not sure who Rutgers is bringing back.

Our best bet next year might just be one team steam rolling the entire league and finishing in the top 5 or 10 with maybe one other team barely in the top 25. That seems to work fine for the pac 10, they never get any heat.

Hopefully (for me at least) USF is that team, we can either make a lot of noise by beating FSU and Miami, or let that ruin our season early. A lot hanging on those 2 games. Personally id just like to see us avoid the conference meltdown we have every year, but a win over FSU and Miami would be awesome.

I think the Big East could start the year with one or no team in top 25. But what really matter is where we all end up. I see next year as another very competitive year for the league with no team really looking to be heads and shoulder above the rest. It will be determined on the field once again and the Bulls will be one of those teams fighting it out

They move my thread to the expansion thread yesterday, but this just supports what I was saying about BE football! Go over to the expansion board and read it. I know you guys do not want to hear it but we are lowly preceived in the football world.

(01-11-2009 12:21 AM)Wilkie01 Wrote:  They move my thread to the expansion thread yesterday, but this just supports what I was saying about BE football! Go over to the expansion board and read it. I know you guys do not want to hear it but we are lowly preceived in the football world.

We could easily derail this thread with talks of expansion.. Not that im complaining, i love talking expansion, id just rather keep this thread here for a while.

We definitly need another team or 2, but there are no quick fixes. Too bad we cant pick Boise and Utah up and move them over a couple thousand miles.

One or 2 teams will be ranked in the 20-25 range, probably Cincy and either Pitt or WVU, and a 3 others will be receiving votes, USF, UConn, and Rutgers. So 5-6 teams will start out the year getting votes. Win and things will take care of themselves, and you move up. For USF, there is plenty of opportunity to bolt up the charts again with a game at FSU and against Miami. Win and they will get all the rankings they can stand.

Oh, and by the way, FSU is going down this year, mark it down.

(01-11-2009 12:21 AM)Wilkie01 Wrote:  They move my thread to the expansion thread yesterday, but this just supports what I was saying about BE football! Go over to the expansion board and read it. I know you guys do not want to hear it but we are lowly preceived in the football world.

There was no problem in 2006 when WVU, Rutgers and Louisville were all ranked in, or near, the top ten. 2007 wasn't a big deal when we had four or five teams around the top 25 all year.

The league is now taking a huge hit in perception because WVU and UL (who "carried" the league in the early going) made crappy hires, and are now losing games to the likes of Colorado and Kentucky. Mix in the annual WTF loss by Wanny, the slow start by Rutgers, and perennially underperforming Syracuse, and it's clear that Cincinnati, as much as I hate to admit, pretty much won the league by default.

The only thing that will better this league is an upgrade in coaching and talent. Sure hope the 'Cuse got it right this time.

Tony Barnhart has Pitt at #10. This was published before Shady decided to go pro (of course it's still not 100% he will). No doubt even if Shady comes back, Pitt's season will depend on QB play.

Rutgers was listed in 10 others to watch (between #26 and #35)

http://www.daytondailynews.com/s/content...oll09.html

The obvious key to rebuilding the perception is winning the out of league games.

Cincinnati has: SeMo, at Miami-O, Fresno State, at Oregon State, Illinois - FSU worries me due to our inexperienced D, but it's at home, and I think we take it. Illinois is late in the season, so I think our D will be solid by then. OSU will be tough in Corvallis.

I have no feeling as to how the rest are looking next year, so I'll let everyone else comment in depth on their schedules.

UConn: URI, at Ohio, UNC, at Baylor, at ND - 4/5 wouldn't be bad.

UL: at UK, at Utah, Southern Miss - Can they win any of those?

Pitt: Youngstown, at Buffalo, Navy, at NCSt, ND - Without McCoy, I suspect they may lose two of those.

RU: at Maryland, at Army - Most of their offense is leaving.

USF: Wofford, at WKU, FIU, at FSU, Miami - Can they get 4/5?

SU: Akron, Minny, at PSU, NW - If their fans are talking 6-6, does that mean they take three of these?

WVU: Liberty, at AU, Colorado, Marshall, ECU - Most at home, Auburn's bad hire, can they sweep? They lose White and all OL starters, so probably not.

IMO, its very possible that that no BE teams will be ranked in the preseason, although if McCoy comes back I think Pitt will be

IF McCoy does not come back...USF would be the favorite going into Spring Ball IMO

Quote:WVU: Liberty, at AU, Colorado, Marshall, ECU - Most at home, Auburn's bad hire, can they sweep? They lose White and all OL starters, so probably not.

--I'm assuming the OL comment is in referance to the blog on ESPN recently....Selvish Capers who was a starter will be back. He was one of the last of the non qualifiers allowed by the BE so as long as he graduates (which is expected to happen) he gets another year. Eric Jobe, the center, started the last four or five games. Two other OL were basically co-staters during the year.

The problem with blogs like that is the author probably literally just looked at the roster/lineup and nothing else. Will depth be a problem for the OL? Yes, its going to be a young group. But, there is not much worry about four of the starting five. If Isander would have stayed, the starters would have been set from day 1 of spring ball

Jackson

(01-11-2009 07:54 AM)Jackson1011 Wrote:  IMO, its very possible that that no BE teams will be ranked in the preseason, although if McCoy comes back I think Pitt will be

IF McCoy does not come back...USF would be the favorite going into Spring Ball IMO

Quote:WVU: Liberty, at AU, Colorado, Marshall, ECU - Most at home, Auburn's bad hire, can they sweep? They lose White and all OL starters, so probably not.

--I'm assuming the OL comment is in referance to the blog on ESPN recently....Selvish Capers who was a starter will be back. He was one of the last of the non qualifiers allowed by the BE so as long as he graduates (which is expected to happen) he gets another year. Eric Jobe, the center, started the last four or five games. Two other OL were basically co-staters during the year.

The problem with blogs like that is the author probably literally just looked at the roster/lineup and nothing else. Will depth be a problem for the OL? Yes, its going to be a young group. But, there is not much worry about four of the starting five. If Isander would have stayed, the starters would have been set from day 1 of spring ball

Jackson

Thanks for clearing that up Jackson. I actually quoted a poster who read the blog, which is even worse

Depth is a factor for OLs, but only where injuries are concerned, it seems. Starters are usually in most plays.

(01-11-2009 05:44 AM)BJUnklFkr Wrote:  UL: at UK, at Utah, Southern Miss - Can they win any of those?

No, No, Maybe

Hopefully next season will be Failthorpe the Destroyer's last year.

They haven't predicted The BEast correct since the split. Why should that be any different now?

Blogs, unless it's from a reporter who follows the team, and I don't mean ESPN's bloggers, who don't follow the teams. ESPN's Bloggers follow news articles, just like the rest of us. That's obvious, if you read the blogs...

Nobody really knows how to do in-depth journalism any longer. There are no journalists in sports any longer. They're all former athletes and coaches without any journalistic training what so ever...

Who cares what they think in the preseason? Look at last year's preseason poll. These same idiots picked that lineup and look what happened...

Thats the main problem perception wise with our league. BigTen you can say OSU oor PSU will win it. PacTen it has been USC for awhile. Big!@ is always Texas or Oklahoma. So the nation sees same team over and over being talked about as good. The Big East hasnt had that domination it has been a lot of teams fighting for it and until last year when WV was being talked about as NC team before losing o Pitt we werent being talked about.
It will be another tough year because I see 6 teams that could end in top 25 but it would take a lot of luck, heathy players for any team to go 11-1 or 12-0 and be in top10.
The league is too wel balanced

(01-11-2009 05:44 AM)BJUnklFkr Wrote:  USF: Wofford, at WKU, FIU, at FSU, Miami - Can they get 4/5?

Can they? They BETTER win 4 out of 5. There are 3 "must haves" - Wofford, WKU, and FIU. I am also, "expecting" a win against Miami, that game is at home. That's 4 right there. A win at FSU would be icing, but it is definitely doable. USF always plays good in OOC, so I am expecting at least 4-1, possibly 5-0. Anything else would be disappointing.

I think we have a good shot at 4 out 5 but Im not going to say that we will go 4-1. FSU and Miami will be just as fired up playing us and it wont be easy both games could go either way. USF needs to do a better job with the BE games, we need to win the conference and go to a BCS Bowl. That in my book is goal #1

(01-11-2009 03:13 PM)Cubanbull Wrote:  I think we have a good shot at 4 out 5 but Im not going to say that we will go 4-1. FSU and Miami will be just as fired up playing us and it wont be easy both games could go either way. USF needs to do a better job with the BE games, we need to win the conference and go to a BCS Bowl. That in my book is goal #1

I just don't see it happening with Grothe under center. He makes too many mistakes if a team forces him to beat them with his arm. Unless he greatly improves his TD to INT ratio next year, I see another USF season like the last 2, a good start and a so-so finish.

No offense but I don't think USF has done anything this previous year to warrant being a pre-season top 25

(01-11-2009 03:58 PM)UltimateCFBfan Wrote:  No offense but I don't think USF has done anything this previous year to warrant being a pre-season top 25

i agree completely

pitt and wvu should be preseason ranked... usf, uconn, cincy, and ru should all be getting votes

(01-11-2009 03:47 PM)subflea Wrote:  

(01-11-2009 03:13 PM)Cubanbull Wrote:  I think we have a good shot at 4 out 5 but Im not going to say that we will go 4-1. FSU and Miami will be just as fired up playing us and it wont be easy both games could go either way. USF needs to do a better job with the BE games, we need to win the conference and go to a BCS Bowl. That in my book is goal #1

I just don't see it happening with Grothe under center. He makes too many mistakes if a team forces him to beat them with his arm. Unless he greatly improves his TD to INT ratio next year, I see another USF season like the last 2, a good start and a so-so finish.

Grothe has his faults, but he is the best returning qb in the BE. Over 10,000 career yds to date. And he looks phenomenal at times. If he can cut down the INTs a few, I see no reason why USF can't win the BE next year. USF made it to the top 10 with Grothe throwing picks the last 2 years.

Also, I think the TD to INT ratio is skewed on Grothe. First, all INTs are not the qbs fault. Some are, some aren't, so other areas have to be shored up to. And second, he has over 2,000 yds rushing and a boatload of tds, so make sure you add the rushing tds when comparing the td to int ratio. In that case it is much more impressive. Running is such a big part of his game, so you can't dismiss those tds because they didn't come in the passing dept.

Remember with Grothe under center the last 3 years, USF has had 9, 9, and 8 wins. So even just a little improvement would seem to equal 9-10 wins, all other things being equal.

USF stunk it up in BE play, but other than the RU game were right there, and could have easily come up with a couple more Ws. USF outplayed WVU in my opinion and was right there - should have won. Same thing at Cincy, 2 red zone TO's killed them. So they are right there with these teams--and there is a lot of talent returning, unlike some teams.