I need me some football talk!

OK, it's the spring football season (or nearly so) and an old man's fancy turns to considerations for the upcoming football season. I think there are some interesting story lines that will continue to develop into next season and beyond. Since we need to talk about something, how about these evolving trends and questions:

1. Will the Texas teams dominate in the West, or can LaTech and USM create some noise this season. How about future seasons. Will Texas rule C-USA West? For the next 5 years, I think the answer is YES.

2. Which of our "newbies" to football (Charlotte, Old Dominion, UTSA) will compete for their division titles most consistently? I see UTSA as being the most dominant of these 3 over the next 5 years.

3. How will Charlotte do in their Second season as the prepare for a jump in 2015? Should be competitive in their second season with their schedule, but it's still a limited schedule, so not sure how ready they will be for 2015,

4. How will WKU and Old Dominion compete in their first C-USA season? I think both teams will be a threat to win any East Conference game.

5. What about the Florida schools? FAU showed signs of real competitiveness last season. Will the two Florida schools be able to take advantage of their vaunted recruiting backyards and make some noise? FAU Yes, FIU...nothing tells me that they are going to rise fast.

6. Who will be the surprise team of 2015? Southern Miss will become bowl eligible.

7. How will C-USA compete with other G5 teams? These are the important OOC games to win, and we simply must do better. By my count, we have 20 scheduled games against G5 schools (counting Army and BYU as G5 schools.). 13-7 seems like a reasonable goal. But these are important.

You may want to take a stab at these, or discuss your own themes. But it should be another fun year for C-USA.

(03-21-2014 08:36 AM)Cnelson203 Wrote:  2. Which of our "newbies" to football (Charlotte, Old Dominion, UTSA) will compete for their division titles most consistently? I see UTSA as being the most dominant of these 3 over the next 5 years.

UTSA needs to get it done next year because of the large number of upperclassmen. But for that to happen UTSA's new QB has to work out. If UTSA gets good QB play, UTSA might win the West next season and go to a bowl.

2 years from now will probably be a down season for UTSA.

There is no telling how well UTSA will do after next year. It'll be interesting to watch recruiting and the changes to the coaching staff.

It's hard to tell where UTSA will "settle" when all the dust clears.

(03-21-2014 08:36 AM)Cnelson203 Wrote:  I need me some football talk!

OK, it's the spring football season (or nearly so) and an old man's fancy turns to considerations for the upcoming football season. I think there are some interesting story lines that will continue to develop into next season and beyond. Since we need to talk about something, how about these evolving trends and questions:

1. Will the Texas teams dominate in the West, or can LaTech and USM create some noise this season. How about future seasons. Will Texas rule C-USA West? For the next 5 years, I think the answer is YES.

2. Which of our "newbies" to football (Charlotte, Old Dominion, UTSA) will compete for their division titles most consistently? I see UTSA as being the most dominant of these 3 over the next 5 years.

3. How will Charlotte do in their Second season as the prepare for a jump in 2015? Should be competitive in their second season with their schedule, but it's still a limited schedule, so not sure how ready they will be for 2015,

4. How will WKU and Old Dominion compete in their first C-USA season? I think both teams will be a threat to win any East Conference game.

5. What about the Florida schools? FAU showed signs of real competitiveness last season. Will the two Florida schools be able to take advantage of their vaunted recruiting backyards and make some noise? FAU Yes, FIU...nothing tells me that they are going to rise fast.

6. Who will be the surprise team of 2015? Southern Miss will become bowl eligible.

7. How will C-USA compete with other G5 teams? These are the important OOC games to win, and we simply must do better. By my count, we have 20 scheduled games against G5 schools (counting Army and BYU as G5 schools.). 13-7 seems like a reasonable goal. But these are important.

You may want to take a stab at these, or discuss your own themes. But it should be another fun year for C-USA.

I think because of the room for improvement and returning starters we will see noticeably more competitive teams from FIU, USM and UTEP. UAB may also be noticeably improved if the new qb is good. Whether or not the wins pile up, these bottom teams from last year should help raise the overall image of the league by competing a lot better.

1. Will the Texas teams dominate in the West, or can LaTech and USM create some noise this season. How about future seasons. Will Texas rule C-USA West? For the next 5 years? I think a Texas team comes out of the mix next year hands down. Long term I might put money on La Tech. They recruit well and are a storied program.

2. Which of our "newbies" to football (Charlotte, Old Dominion, UTSA) will compete for their division titles most consistently? I see UTSA as being the most dominant of these 3 over the next 5 years. I agree with you especially since we are recruiting well and already proving our worth

3. How will Charlotte do in their Second season as they prepare for a jump in 2015? I'm a UTSA fan so I will never doubt the new guy. Charlotte get ready to hear how you are going to get stompt every game. Prove 'em wrong

4. How will WKU and Old Dominion compete in their first C-USA season? Both should do well but I would give a slight edge to WKU

5. What about the Florida schools? FAU showed signs of real competitiveness last season. Will the two Florida schools be able to take advantage of their vaunted recruiting backyards and make some noise? FAU Yes, FIU...nothing tells me that they are going to rise fast. Agree. FIU football is slumping

6. Who will be the surprise team of 2015? Give me La Tech after an off year or WKU making noise coming into CUSA

7. How will C-USA compete with other G5 teams? These are the important OOC games to win, and we simply must do better. By my count, we have 20 scheduled games against G5 schools (counting Army and BYU as G5 schools.). Being truthful, not good

(03-21-2014 08:36 AM)Cnelson203 Wrote:  3. How will Charlotte do in their Second season as the prepare for a jump in 2015? Should be competitive in their second season with their schedule, but it's still a limited schedule, so not sure how ready they will be for 2015,

I think Charlotte will improve with another recruiting class joining the ranks and some actual college game experience under their belts. Remember last year they had 4 FCS ranked opponents on their schedule - there was a rough week-after-week lineup of ranked opponents in the middle of the schedule that was brutal for an out of the box program. I'd like to see them with a winning record going forward into FBS.

I agree with most of your points Cnelson. However, I think FAU will be the surprise team. I know they went 6-6 this year, but sustaining and building on that success would be a surprise to me.

(03-21-2014 10:09 AM)MUsince96 Wrote:  I agree with most of your points Cnelson. However, I think FAU will be the surprise team. I know they went 6-6 this year, but sustaining and building on that success would be a surprise to me.

Not sure they are considered a "surprise" when they will be one of the favorites

(03-21-2014 10:09 AM)MUsince96 Wrote:  I agree with most of your points Cnelson. However, I think FAU will be the surprise team. I know they went 6-6 this year, but sustaining and building on that success would be a surprise to me.

SB Nation, in their countdown of all FBS teams, was very high on FAU's ability to sustain its growth of last season. I think they are definitely an up and coming program. They seem to have generated more interest in SE Florida than FIU.,

I understand it won't be a surprise to everyone. FIU and FAU just typically have a tough go of it. So seeing FAU take the next step would just surprise me. I hope they can and fight for 2nd and 3rd place in the East regularly....I'd like us to hold down #1 lol.

Will I be able to stay sober for more than a quarter?

Highly unlikely.

I look for the USM and Tech to be at the top of the west in less than 5 years with USM being ahead of Tech. I also think the Texas schools will continue to improve and if I had to pick one now it would UNT but who really knows. All of the schools have solid potential for the future and things usually go in cycles.

I think 13-7 is doable. We have a lot of favorable match ups. I think we have a legit shot at 15 wins looking at the schedules.

After the past 2 seasons, everything is "reset". I used to have a really good feel for C-USA. Not so much any more. Cato gives Marshall the early edge in the East. The West division seems wide open.

The Southern Miss "rebuild" should take hold this season. "Shell shock" is what we're feeling after 1-23. We have a QB, 2 RBs, a DT, an MLB, and a DB that are proven. The rest is very young. We didn't have an OLine, at all, last season, until the final 2 games of the season, after the OLine coach was canned. Average OLine play this season will go a long way towards bowl eligibility.

(03-21-2014 10:33 AM)shiftyeagle Wrote:  Will I be able to stay sober for more than a quarter?

Highly unlikely.

I think we will be better than last year. We would almost have to be. But, yeah, we could wind up in rehab before its all over with.

How did we get it in our heads that the texas teams were going to dominate anything?

I figure the east shapes up like this. Marshall, FAU, WKU, MTSU, ODU, UAB, FIU.

IMHO if ODU has even a high school level defense ( which would be a step up from what we have now) they can hang with any team in the conference.....The offense is as good as any offense you'll see in college....very slick and tricky with special teams too.....but boy that defense sucks something terrible so it's really hard to say if they can hang with a team like Marshall...

I think UAB will be significantly better. The new coaching staff is a solid upgrade across the board, and their relationship with the Alabama High School coaches is hugely better. We'll be getting recruits whose coaches would have been telling them to *run* the other way if we tried to recruit them last year.

Besides, it couldn't be any worse.

La Tech will have a new QB (transfer from Iowa) this year that is supposed to be pretty good. Our new DC (who was the Texas Longhorn's DC last year) will improve our defense, as it can't possibly get any worse than it was last year. If we see marked improvement in these two areas, we'll be in the mix for the West title, but I think one of the Texas teams will win it in 2014. I don't see a clear favorite between them, but I'll predict that UTSA will win it.

1. Will the Texas teams dominate in the West, or can La Tech and USM create some noise this season. How about future seasons. Will Texas rule C-USA West? I think Rice, UNT, and UTSA have the momentum right now, so a Texas team should probably win the West. It really depends on if LA Tech and Southern Miss can rebound from bad seasons.

2. Which of our "newbies" to football (Charlotte, Old Dominion, UTSA) will compete for their division titles most consistently? I think UTSA. I think the East will be a stronger division next season. Marshall, MTSU, FAU, and WKU were all bowl eligible last season. In the West, Rice, North Texas, and UTSA were bowl eligible. UTSA is already in the running for their division, and I think Coker is a great coach.

3. How will Charlotte do in their Second season as the prepare for a jump in 2015? 5-6 last season, and they didn't play a FBS team. I don't believe they play one next season either. A winning record next season would be nice.

4. How will WKU and Old Dominion compete in their first C-USA season? WKU will compete just fine. They were the second best team in the Sun Belt last season and should have gone to a bowl. ODU beat Idaho and gave Pitt a tough game. I think they can post a 3 win season in their first FBS season. All home wins over, Hampton, Eastern Michigan, and FIU.

5. What about the Florida schools? FAU showed signs of real competitiveness last season. Will the two Florida schools be able to take advantage of their vaunted recruiting backyards and make some noise? I think FAU will continue to get better, though a tough OOC schedule might keep fans from noticing. They may even play the spoiler in the race for the Eastern Title.

6. Who will be the surprise team of 2015? WKU. I think they will contend for the Eastern Title.

7. How will C-USA compete with other G5 teams? Not well. Too many body bag games. Rice plays both Notre Dame and Texas A&M. Middle Tennessee plays both Minnesota and BYU. UTSA plays both Arizona and Oklahoma State. FAU plays both Nebraska and Alabama. The only one of those games I see C-USA even having a chance of winning is MTSU vs. Minnesota. These kinds of schedules will continue to keep C-USA from gaining ground on the AAC and MWC. Of our bowl eligible teams from last season, only North Texas, Marshall, and WKU were smart enough to not schedule more then one dangerous P5 opponent. We need more OOC games against top MWC and AAC teams, with a few dangerous and winnable P5s sprinkled in. C-USA should have a formula for scheduling, (1 strong P5 game+combination of 2 games from weak P5s, MWC, or AAC+1 game from the MAC, Sun Belt, or FCS).