(02-04-2014 10:49 PM)keebler645 Wrote:  

(02-04-2014 05:34 PM)perimeterpost Wrote:  

(02-04-2014 01:30 PM)keebler645 Wrote:  Now that the schedules are out, rank your team's games from toughest to easiest.

1. @ Akron (this is sad)
2. @ Old Dominion
3. FAU
4. @ Southern Miss
5. MTSU
6. WKU
7. @ UAB
8. Ohio
9. @ FIU
10. Rice
11. @ Miami (OH)
12. Rhode Island

I like to do these every year when the schedules come out and this has been by far the toughest year to rank. Anybody who watched Marshall play ECU and Rice a week apart knows how good we can be at home and how awful we can be on the road.

Normally, this means about 5 of my top 6 in these rankings are road games, but this year is unusual in that almost all of our road opponents were abysmal last year. 4 of them - Southern Miss, FIU, UAB, and Miami - might all have been in the bottom 5 FBS schools last season. Conversely, we get all of the supposedly better C-USA teams at home. Then again, MTSU, FAU, and WKU are among the bottom of the NCAA in returning starters while the bad teams return almost everybody.

As a result, some of these might seem weird but it's just what I think will be the toughest for Marshall. It's certainly not a ranking of best teams in C-USA.

Rice is so low because a Texas team has never won in Huntington, they have a history of slowly building to a big season then collapsing, and also the revenge factor. Southern Miss's high ranking is a gut feeling that they won't be that awful once again. The game in Hattiesburg will be tough if they improve to even around 4-8. Old Dominion scares the crap out of me. WKU would be higher but good luck winning on Cato's senior day. As for UAB, I can't fully express my hatred of Legion Field with words.

how in the hell do you have Akron first? they won 5 games last year, they won a total of 6 games in the 4 years before that combined.

and I know Ohio is going to be down compared to years past, but they've beat you 3 years in a row with, as Marshall fans claim, "lesser talent". you've got them 8th and ODU (who?) is 2nd???

you've got to be trolling because there is no way this list is serious.

As I said in the original post, home and away means everything. 4 of our 6 road games are against teams that combined for 4 wins last year. UAB had the highest Sagarin ranking of those 4 teams at 167. That leaves road games against a team who gave up 80 in a game last year and Akron, a quickly improving team whose (albeit now different) home field has historically been a house of horrors for Marshall.

Old Dominion scares me because of their quarterback and their stadium that I'm sure is gonna be rocking for their second ever home C-USA game.

As for Ohio, I respect the Bobcats and always root for them to win the MAC. I just think they're due for a significant step backwards this year losing more starters than most teams and also Tettleton, who had our number his entire career. I think there's plenty of evidence to expect FAU, MTSU, and WKU (the other home games on my list ahead of Ohio) to be better than the Bobcats. I don't expect most of the road teams ahead of OU on the list to be better than the Bobcats, just tougher games for Marshall.

I know Ohio won in Huntington in 2012, but that was a squeaker against our almost-worst-in-the-country D and a couple games before our O turned into the beast that it is now. The Herd will be frothing at the mouth for revenge just like Ohio was in 2011. It will not be pretty. I'd set the line at -28 right now.

As I said on Herdfans, Ohio goes down as an L until it's a W. I will not predict a win against them while Solich has Doc's number. However win or lose against them, I hope they don't tank the rest of the year as they did the last couple. We need all the help we can get from them, SoS wise. How they get up for us and then sleepwalk the last 5-6 games on their schedule is beyond me.

(02-04-2014 10:49 PM)keebler645 Wrote:  

(02-04-2014 05:34 PM)perimeterpost Wrote:  

(02-04-2014 01:30 PM)keebler645 Wrote:  Now that the schedules are out, rank your team's games from toughest to easiest.

1. @ Akron (this is sad)
2. @ Old Dominion
3. FAU
4. @ Southern Miss
5. MTSU
6. WKU
7. @ UAB
8. Ohio
9. @ FIU
10. Rice
11. @ Miami (OH)
12. Rhode Island

I like to do these every year when the schedules come out and this has been by far the toughest year to rank. Anybody who watched Marshall play ECU and Rice a week apart knows how good we can be at home and how awful we can be on the road.

Normally, this means about 5 of my top 6 in these rankings are road games, but this year is unusual in that almost all of our road opponents were abysmal last year. 4 of them - Southern Miss, FIU, UAB, and Miami - might all have been in the bottom 5 FBS schools last season. Conversely, we get all of the supposedly better C-USA teams at home. Then again, MTSU, FAU, and WKU are among the bottom of the NCAA in returning starters while the bad teams return almost everybody.

As a result, some of these might seem weird but it's just what I think will be the toughest for Marshall. It's certainly not a ranking of best teams in C-USA.

Rice is so low because a Texas team has never won in Huntington, they have a history of slowly building to a big season then collapsing, and also the revenge factor. Southern Miss's high ranking is a gut feeling that they won't be that awful once again. The game in Hattiesburg will be tough if they improve to even around 4-8. Old Dominion scares the crap out of me. WKU would be higher but good luck winning on Cato's senior day. As for UAB, I can't fully express my hatred of Legion Field with words.

how in the hell do you have Akron first? they won 5 games last year, they won a total of 6 games in the 4 years before that combined.

and I know Ohio is going to be down compared to years past, but they've beat you 3 years in a row with, as Marshall fans claim, "lesser talent". you've got them 8th and ODU (who?) is 2nd???

you've got to be trolling because there is no way this list is serious.

As I said in the original post, home and away means everything. 4 of our 6 road games are against teams that combined for 4 wins last year. UAB had the highest Sagarin ranking of those 4 teams at 167. That leaves road games against a team who gave up 80 in a game last year and Akron, a quickly improving team whose (albeit now different) home field has historically been a house of horrors for Marshall.

Old Dominion scares me because of their quarterback and their stadium that I'm sure is gonna be rocking for their second ever home C-USA game.

As for Ohio, I respect the Bobcats and always root for them to win the MAC. I just think they're due for a significant step backwards this year losing more starters than most teams and also Tettleton, who had our number his entire career. I think there's plenty of evidence to expect FAU, MTSU, and WKU (the other home games on my list ahead of Ohio) to be better than the Bobcats. I don't expect most of the road teams ahead of OU on the list to be better than the Bobcats, just tougher games for Marshall.

I know Ohio won in Huntington in 2012, but that was a squeaker against our almost-worst-in-the-country D and a couple games before our O turned into the beast that it is now. The Herd will be frothing at the mouth for revenge just like Ohio was in 2011. It will not be pretty. I'd set the line at -28 right now.

Ohio beat Marshall in Huntington in a 2012 in a squeaker and Marshall blew out a much less talented Ohio team in Huntington in 2010.

No wait, that's not what happened, Ohio lost because they went for 2 to win instead of the PAT to tie and the Ohio receiver "slipped" in the end zone. that's right.

No doubt Ohio will be rebuilding but 28 points? c'mon. sure Tettleton is gone but you've already met his replacement. 28 points? dream on little dreamer.

We started 1-6 in 2010. It was Doc's 2nd home game and he had Snyder talent. We are light years from then. You mention the receiver slipping on the conversion but not the hail mary completion that gave you that chance. If "slipped" means you're implying it was PI, you're out of your mind.

28 is not a dream. The last game played in Huntington was a 31 point win over a then 9-2 team who easily handled you guys in their next game. I respect what Ohio has done against us the last three years but these are two teams going in opposite directions with the Herd having a big advantage in 2014.

The last 4 Huntington MU/OU games before 2010 were 131-21 in favor of the Herd.

UTSA
-------
1) @ Oklahoma St
2) Arizona
3) @ Houston
4) @ WKU
5) @ Rice
6) North Texas
7) @ LA Tech
8) @ FAU
9) New Mexico
10) UTEP
11) USM
12) FIU

(02-04-2014 09:09 PM)CivilEng Wrote:  The consensus has us as the weakest team. Hopefully we'll disappoint a couple of you

With 8 home games and only a handful of graduating seniors, we're going to surpirse some people.

For Rice

at Texas A&M
at Notre Dame
at Marshall
UTSA
North Texas
at Louisiana Tech
at Southern Mississippi
Old Dominion
TBA (rumored to be Southeastern Louisiana)
at FIU
at Army
UTEP

This is a travel unfriendly schedule with the Owls playing in Indiana, New York, West Virginia, Florida, Mississippi and Louisiana. I don't like the rotation set-up where we get all three of the other Texas schools at home this year, which means they might all be on the road in 2015?

For the MTSU fan trying to start something, Its a fact in the last few games, the road team usually wins in the series besides one game this has been true...

Interesting a lot of people have WKU ranked pretty high as far as toughest goes, I think our offfense will be solid but really worried about our defense, we lost a lot from the defensive side of the ball from our 8 and 4 season.....Teams may get us early but hopefully by mid October we have if figured out...

(02-05-2014 08:23 AM)FIUFan Wrote:  

(02-04-2014 09:09 PM)CivilEng Wrote:  The consensus has us as the weakest team. Hopefully we'll disappoint a couple of you

With 8 home games and only a handful of graduating seniors, we're going to surpirse some people.

You ranked us pretty low as well. Maybe we will surprise you.