With a schedule like this last season, they should've won them all.

Kentucky (2-9)
Army (2-9)
UNC (6-6)
ECU (2-9)
USF (4-7)
Memphis (8-4)
TCU (5-6)
Houston (3-8)
Cincinnati (7-5)
Tulane (5-6)
and the loss to Miami.

The preseason BEast polls made me laugh too...

2005 FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

9-4-05 at Kentucky (Sun.)
9-17-05 OREGON STATE
9-24-05 at South Florida
10-1-05 FLORIDA ATLANTIC
10-8-05 NORTH CAROLINA
10-15-05 at West Virginia
10-22-05 at Cincinnati
11-3-05 PITTSBURGH (Thur.)
11-11-05 RUTGERS (Fri.)
11-26-05 SYRACUSE
12-3-05 at Connecticut


We shall see how it unfolds. Best of Luck Cards...

Pitt's schedule wasn't exactly a monster either, and neither was West Virginia's. I think schedule strength in a lot of cases is a copout. Louisville as that good last year.

After going to all the open full contact practices I would say we are further along then we were last year at the same point. I really like the young talent on this team and watch out for Mario Urritia, the kid is going to be a monster at WR.

What makes me laugh is that it was West Virginia's conf to win last year, they had one monster game(BC) at home, that was circled all year, and they get taken to the woodshed without a whimper.

WVU has lost too much of their offense and a key shutdown corner to be ranked highly in the preseason. UL and Pitt are the only two teams that are logical favorites at this point. That's not to say some younger guys for other teams won't step up and help their teams contend, but UL and Pitt have proven talent returning.

UL's schedule wasn't terrific last year, but UNC was a good team that beat Miami, and Cincy had a good QB and really got nastier as the year went on. Memphis was a very dangerous team last year, with a top notch RB and a very good QB.

The schedule was a little weaker than average, but certainly not enough to take away the very high ranking they eventually earned.

And you left out a game...a bowl win against a top 15 team.

The Boston College game last year was a lot like the one the Steelers Played against the Texans where the steelers outplayed Houston in every aspect but the most important....We out gained BC by over 200 yards...now we didn't win...but that does not mean we got whipped it was just a game that we were meant to lose...kind of like the game BC played against Syracuse either the next week or a few later where they got beat at home by a lot...some games have that feel where nothing will go right I'm sure all of us remember a breakdown on our teams for a game

Quote:What makes me laugh is that it was West Virginia's conf to win last year, they had one monster game(BC) at home, that was circled all year, and they get taken to the woodshed without a whimper.

-- You are showing your ignorance friend....if you had spen anytime at all on WVU message boards or reading our comments on this site last yr at this time you would have known that WVU players and fans had one game circled over everyone last yr and that was Maryland...The Terps game was more important to WVU fans/players in the preseason then Pitt or Virginia Tech or anyone...Of course I wouldn't expect a Southern Miss fan to know anything about big football rivalrys....who is your big game? Tulane or UAB? :laugh:

-- Give BC credit they came in to Morgantown, played well and won a big game...the first Eagles squad to win a big game against West Virginia in 20 + yrs (something Doug Flutie and Glenn Foley couldn't do)...but what makes me laugh is after beating there traditional nemisis they went out and blew the Cuse game...now that's funny


Jackson

Jackson1011 Wrote:

Quote:What makes me laugh is that it was West Virginia's conf to win last year, they had one monster game(BC) at home, that was circled all year, and they get taken to the woodshed without a whimper.

-- You are showing your ignorance friend....if you had spen anytime at all on WVU message boards or reading our comments on this site last yr at this time you would have known that WVU players and fans had one game circled over everyone last yr and that was Maryland...The Terps game was more important to WVU fans/players in the preseason then Pitt or Virginia Tech or anyone...Of course I wouldn't expect a Southern Miss fan to know anything about big football rivalrys....who is your big game? Tulane or UAB? :laugh:

-- Give BC credit they came in to Morgantown, played well and won a big game...the first Eagles squad to win a big game against West Virginia in 20 + yrs (something Doug Flutie and Glenn Foley couldn't do)...but what makes me laugh is after beating there traditional nemisis they went out and blew the Cuse game...now that's funny


Jackson

Jackson do you think some of the antics of Chris Henry and Pac Man cause the WVU collaspe at the end of last season. Talent wise you guys should not have lost at most 1 game.

Quote:Jackson do you think some of the antics of Chris Henry and Pac Man cause the WVU collaspe at the end of last season. Talent wise you guys should not have lost at most 1 game.

-- I think last yr was a combination of things: Personally, I think Jones and Henry decided last fall before the season started that they were going pro early and seemed to play distracted and where looking ahead to next yr

-- WVUs special teams were horrible and directly lead to the Ls to VT and BC, which also lead RichRody to start giving out scholis for kickers/punters and the Mountys signing the #1 kicker and punter in the country according to scout.com

-- The injury to Kay Jay Harris really hurt...he set the conference single game rushing record against East Carolina...got hurt the next week against UCF and was never healthy again to the bowl game where he rushed for 100 yrds against FSU (who probably had the best run "D" in the country)

-- also I think the experts/fans underrated the impact the seniors from the yr before had...when you lose Quincy Wilson, Grant Wiley, Lance Fazior and Brian King who not only were all- BE players in the yr the league had the most talent...but all four of them were great in the locker room...we missed there leadership


Jackson

Jackson1011 Wrote:

Quote:What makes me laugh is that it was West Virginia's conf to win last year, they had one monster game(BC) at home, that was circled all year, and they get taken to the woodshed without a whimper.

-- You are showing your ignorance friend....if you had spen anytime at all on WVU message boards or reading our comments on this site last yr at this time you would have known that WVU players and fans had one game circled over everyone last yr and that was Maryland...The Terps game was more important to WVU fans/players in the preseason then Pitt or Virginia Tech or anyone...Of course I wouldn't expect a Southern Miss fan to know anything about big football rivalrys....who is your big game? Tulane or UAB? :laugh:

-- Give BC credit they came in to Morgantown, played well and won a big game...the first Eagles squad to win a big game against West Virginia in 20 + yrs (something Doug Flutie and Glenn Foley couldn't do)...but what makes me laugh is after beating there traditional nemisis they went out and blew the Cuse game...now that's funny


Jackson

You ought to get ot more often. I didn't realize that fans on message boards were the ones who determine which game is the most important to the players in the pre-season. All of the talk from every media outlet(including WV) was the BC game as the biggest obstacle for WV to get to the BCS(conf title). The only reason all of the WV"fans circled the Maryland game is because they have embarrassed WV repeatedly recently. I watched the game and the only time you guys "outplayed" BC was in garbage time(which was a large portion of the game)

Quote:You ought to get ot more often. I didn't realize that fans on message boards were the ones who determine which game is the most important to the players in the pre-season. All of the talk from every media outlet(including WV) was the BC game as the biggest obstacle for WV to get to the BCS(conf title). The only reason all of the WV"fans circled the Maryland game is because they have embarrassed WV repeatedly recently. I watched the game and the only time you guys "outplayed" BC was in garbage time(which was a large portion of the game)

-- message boards offer an excellant guage of what fans expect and who they are looking forward to playing...and last yr Maryland was THE game in the preseason....the majority of quotes in the papers from players where about UMD more then any other school and Don Nehlen commented on a Mountaineer carvaan tour about how huge that game has gotten

-- Considering I LIVE IN WEST VIRGINIA...I think I can be a bit better judge about what game got hyped up in the preseason...and that was the Terps....but I will not make the argument that we "outplayed BC" in anyway...they played a great game and certainly deserved to win

-- At least I can counsel myself with the idea that my school had a "down yr" and still made a new yrs day bowl....when your school becomes something more then the red headed step child to the people in Mississippi then maybe we can talk about "big games"...isn't it time you go back to the CUSA board and start another thread about how much you hate Louisville...or maybe you should start getting ready for the big USM/Rice bball game were attendance may rise over 2,000 :laugh:

Like I said, you need to get out more often. :micro:

And like I said...you need to go back to your board :wave:


Jackson

This post is odd to me in that it continues to question the merits of UofL's excellent season based on the schedule. UofL won all the games they were supposed to in an unquestionable fashion and outplayed the only team they were expected to loose to. Our season was a saving grace for the conference and allows us to get on our feet and prove we belong with the big guys. The poster did show class at the end by wishing the Cards good luck this season and that is appreciated. I'd like to wish every team in the BEast luck this year...the better each of us do, the better it is for all of us.

cardtopper Wrote:UofL won all the games they were supposed to in an unquestionable fashion.....

"Unquestionable fashion"? - Come on the game against my Tigers was a track meet; whichever team had the ball last was going to win - the Cards had the ball last. Now the year before you lost, yes, to the Tigers in "Unquestionable Fashion"!

Now Elvis,
We have disagreed on very few things in the past and I've never known you to be a "hater", but yes, Louisville beat your team too. You had a good squad and you are a rivary game, which is always hard fought....but there was no way your team was going to win that game....tight as it may have been. So should I change that to....we won every game we should have and in unquestionable fashion except Memphis???? Is that a little easier on the ego? Should I also have mentioned your basketball team demolished our Final Four Basketball team before we eeked out the last two wins at your place? Should I also bring up all the other football games we lost before the season in question??? There have been quite a few. I don't know, what do you want? I give Memphis their due. Could we just get a little respect as well...Gosh, finish 11-1 with a final ranking of six and we still have to constantly defend ourselves. People, I don't know that anyone in the BEast will be able to match that (including UofL) for a few years.

Tigeer Wrote:"Unquestionable fashion"? - Come on the game against my Tigers was a track meet; whichever team had the ball last was going to win - the Cards had the ball last. Now the year before you lost, yes, to the Tigers in "Unquestionable Fashion"!

Yep, the Memphis game could have gone either way. I don't know if the Cards threw in a clunker on defense or the Tigers learned a lot from the Miami game. Nevertheless, look at the margin of victory in all the other regular season games, and certainly the Cards showed they were the dominant team.

KENTUCKY W, 28-0
at Army * W, 52-21
at North Carolina W, 34-0
EAST CAROLINA * W, 59-7
at Miami L, 41-38
SOUTH FLORIDA* W, 41-9
at Memphis * W, 56-49
TCU * W, 55-28
at Houston * W, 65-27
CINCINNATI* W, 70-7
at Tulane * W, 55-7
vs Boise State W, 44-40 (Liberty Bowl)

I think some are not completely sold on the Cards because it was Cusa that they dominated so badly. Some media folks say that at least a couple of teams that played in the BE last year could have won cusa. I agree with that. But I must say that no team in the BE would have run roughshod over cusa the way that the Cards did. I mean its one thing to win a conference, but its quite another to just steamroll a conference. Thats what Louisville did to cusa. Sure a couple of BE teams could have won cusa last year, but i seriously doubt that WV or Pitt or BC would have had a cakewalk .

And unfortunately for the Cards, they ended up playing Boise State in the Liberty Bowl. Even though Boise State was ranked 10th at the time, I'm sure people look at Boise St the same way they look at Louisville, i.e. overrated. If they had beaten a big football name in a bowl game, even one that was having less than a stellar season like Florida State or LSU, then I'm sure critics would have given Louisville more credit.

On the other hand, they did shut out both an ACC team and an SEC team. The SEC team happened to be the worst one in their conference, but shutouts are nevertheless hard to come by.

cuseroc Wrote:I think some are not completely sold on the Cards because it was Cusa that they dominated so badly. Some media folks say that at least a couple of teams that played in the BE last year could have won cusa. I agree with that. But I must say that no team in the BE would have run roughshod over cusa the way that the Cards did. I mean its one thing to win a conference, but its quite another to just steamroll a conference. Thats what Louisville did to cusa. Sure a couple of BE teams could have won cusa last year, but i seriously doubt that WV or Pitt or BC would have had a cakewalk .

I don't think anyone in the BE last year was consistent enough to go 8-0 in CUSA last year. I do think that Pitt definitely would have won the league.

For WVU and BC, they definitely would have had a great shot, and been right there, but in my mind I don't think they would have won it for sure. Of course we'll never know but interesting to discuss I guess.

I do think some BE fans discount the quality of the top half of CUSA to some degree. Where I totally agree is that the BE is devoid (THANKFULLY) of at least 2 teams a year (and they would rotate year to year in CUSA) that are absolutely pitiful that year and cannot even give top teams a game. For example, last year ECU fit the bill here, despite all their past history of solid teams. Heck, in 1997 UofL was one of those teams. However, we made the commitment to improve and not everyone in our prior league seemed to follow that mantra when it came time to put their money where their mouth was.