(06-30-2014 04:44 PM)Side Show Joe Wrote:  

(06-30-2014 04:20 PM)correcamino Wrote:  

(06-30-2014 03:30 PM)Side Show Joe Wrote:  Whoever wrote this doesn't know beans about what North Texas is returning this season. It's okay. I hope the teams on our schedule overlook us too. I can't wait for this season to kickoff down in Austin.

?

Phile Steele has you returning the same amount. Not sure what kind of ranking you were expecting. Rice and UTSA should be coming up pretty soon as well imo. Marshall should be the only one that deserves to sneak into the 30s or 40s.

I have no problem with the ranking. It is about what I was expecting. I take issue with his understanding of our personnel. I don't take exception with the number of returning players we have coming back. The number is the number. The problem is this person has never seen Sid Ellis, Fred Scott, or Erick Evans play. He has no idea what these new starters can do on the field. Some people are going to be very surprised. We are good enough to finish higher then 3rd in the West.

It's only those of us that really follow our teams that know what kind of talent we have coming back. Rice was also hit hard by graduation, but I know the players that are coming in to fill the spots are capable. I don't think we'll win the conference, but I fully expect to go to a bowl game somewhere. UNT fans should probably also have similar expectations. Not bad for a "rebuilding year."

Every fan thinks replacing players who have graduated will be a seamless transition though. Im sure Tulsa and La Tech fans werent expecting to have the season they had. Some of the players that were named have little to no playing experience, so in reality its really very much in the air whether they'll be able to replicate last season. It's normal to feel that way so I don't blame you guys I just don't think you should expect unbiased people to feel the same way.

Our big problem is we just didn't have a lot of depth prepared to step in and play last year. No QB, bad WR play, and OL problems sunk us. Losing starters definitely hurts if you don't have guys that have gotten a decent bit of in game snaps as backups.

You can upgrade talent and still have a drop off in production. The new guys may be better than the guys that graduated, but they still have to learn to play together in live action with limited senior leadership.

I don't think the article is a knock at all.

I thought it was a fair article. I think we are,ranked higher than we should be.

As to Sed Ellis......not looking good for him.

Okay, okay,... I overreacted. I read the article again, and it wasn't as bad as I initially thought. Right now I'm reeling from the news about Sed Ellis. I hope those guys get their lives together.

64. Maryland
63. Arkansas State

(07-02-2014 09:04 AM)Side Show Joe Wrote:  Okay, okay,... I overreacted. I read the article again, and it wasn't as bad as I initially thought. Right now I'm reeling from the news about Sed Ellis. I hope those guys get their lives together.

What happened to him?

(07-02-2014 02:33 PM)Afflicted Wrote:  

(07-02-2014 09:04 AM)Side Show Joe Wrote:  Okay, okay,... I overreacted. I read the article again, and it wasn't as bad as I initially thought. Right now I'm reeling from the news about Sed Ellis. I hope those guys get their lives together.

What happened to him?

He didn't get a stipend so he stole a TV from Wally World.

No. 62: Rice Owls

You'd have to go back 15 years to find the last Rice defense that played with such aplomb, and another 30-plus years before that to find a defense that played with such aplomb during a winning season – because winning Rice seasons are admittedly few and far between, rarer even than the Owls' occasional defensive stinginess.

Yet it wasn't the offense that carried the Owls to the third 10-win season in program history, the second under eighth-year coach David Bailiff, in 2013. It was the defense: Rice finished fourth in Conference USA in total defense, trimming its per-game total by roughly 15%, and finished fifth in scoring, allowing one fewer touchdown per game.

Last year's defense allowed only two opponents, both from the SEC, to score more than 34 points; five opponents did so in 2012, with the Owls dropping four of five, and a combined 16 did so from 2010-12. In the Conference USA title game, Rice held high-octane Marshall to 371 yards of offense on 4.76 yards per play – the Thundering Herd's second-worst performance in each category during an otherwise explosive season.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nca.../12072583/

This is where I'd expect us to be. The article is fair and thorough. I'm trying to temper my enthusiasm with the fact that this is a rebuilding year for us.

62. Rice

Quote:You'd have to go back 15 years to find the last Rice defense that played with such aplomb, and another 30-plus years before that to find a defense that played with such aplomb during a winning season – because winning Rice seasons are admittedly few and far between, rarer even than the Owls' occasional defensive stinginess.

Yet it wasn't the offense that carried the Owls to the third 10-win season in program history, the second under eighth-year coach David Bailiff, in 2013. It was the defense: Rice finished fourth in Conference USA in total defense, trimming its per-game total by roughly 15%, and finished fifth in scoring, allowing one fewer touchdown per game.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nca.../12072583/

(07-04-2014 12:00 PM)mufanatehc Wrote:  62. Rice

Quote:You'd have to go back 15 years to find the last Rice defense that played with such aplomb, and another 30-plus years before that to find a defense that played with such aplomb during a winning season – because winning Rice seasons are admittedly few and far between, rarer even than the Owls' occasional defensive stinginess.

Yet it wasn't the offense that carried the Owls to the third 10-win season in program history, the second under eighth-year coach David Bailiff, in 2013. It was the defense: Rice finished fourth in Conference USA in total defense, trimming its per-game total by roughly 15%, and finished fifth in scoring, allowing one fewer touchdown per game.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nca.../12072583/

I thought Rice would place a little better on this list. I thought they would come in around 55.

(07-04-2014 05:03 PM)Side Show Joe Wrote:  I thought Rice would place a little better on this list. I thought they would come in around 55.

Myerberg has never liked us. I think he is a UH graduate.

Note that last year he had us at 94 pre-season, and reranked us to 48 at year end. I hope the 2014 team forces another post-season upgrade.

(07-06-2014 10:23 AM)ESE84 Wrote:  

(07-04-2014 05:03 PM)Side Show Joe Wrote:  I thought Rice would place a little better on this list. I thought they would come in around 55.

Myerberg has never liked us. I think he is a UH graduate.

Note that last year he had us at 94 pre-season, and reranked us to 48 at year end. I hope the 2014 team forces another post-season upgrade.

In similar proportion.

(07-06-2014 10:23 AM)ESE84 Wrote:  

(07-04-2014 05:03 PM)Side Show Joe Wrote:  I thought Rice would place a little better on this list. I thought they would come in around 55.

Myerberg has never liked us. I think he is a UH graduate.

Note that last year he had us at 94 pre-season, and reranked us to 48 at year end. I hope the 2014 team forces another post-season upgrade.

To be fair, that #48 year-end ranking was better than the #54 year-end ranking he gave UH even though UH narrowly beat you guys.

I think #62 is perfectly fair for us this season when looking at the preseason roster.

The fact that we are about "mid-table" in D1 after losing as much as we did off the roster says to me that we're finally making some progress in erasing decades of negative perception. Still much work to go, however.

#60 - UTSA

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nca.../12263685/

This is about where I thought we'd be, certainly much better than last season. Myerberg had us at 119 at the beginning of last year and 66 by year-end.

Favorite Quote: "A monster has been born on the Riverwalk: UTSA is so good, so fast that it nearly defies logical explanation."

60. Texas - San Antonio

Quote:You have to learn how to crawl before you can walk, unless you're UTSA – in which case you skip crawling, walking, potty training, remedial spelling and cursive, opting instead for hitting the ground running at a pace beyond even the Roadrunners' wildest expectations.

The program played its first game on Sept. 3, 2011, when Urban Meyer was in the midst of his one-year interregnum between Florida and Ohio State. That 2011 team drew in 56,743 fans for its debut, setting a new Football Championship Subdivision attendance record for a start-up program. The Roadrunners averaged 35,521 fans for the home slate, likewise a start-up record.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nca.../12263685/