(05-26-2015 04:59 PM)Boca Rocket Wrote:  Athlon Picks UT to beat BGSU for the MACC. They have UT going to the Boca Raton Bowl against ECU.

Lindy's picks BGSU to win their 3rd straight MAC Championship"(Very credible magazine)."

It appears that both the writer and proof editor overlooked the word "West" that should have appeared between "MAC" and "Championship".

(05-27-2015 03:25 PM)T-Town Wrote:  

(05-26-2015 04:59 PM)Boca Rocket Wrote:  Athlon Picks UT to beat BGSU for the MACC. They have UT going to the Boca Raton Bowl against ECU.

Lindy's picks BGSU to win their 3rd straight MAC Championship"(Very credible magazine)."

It appears that both the writer and proof editor overlooked the word "West" that should have appeared between "MAC" and "Championship".

East.

(05-27-2015 03:36 PM)toledobigmike Wrote:  

(05-27-2015 03:25 PM)T-Town Wrote:  

(05-26-2015 04:59 PM)Boca Rocket Wrote:  Athlon Picks UT to beat BGSU for the MACC. They have UT going to the Boca Raton Bowl against ECU.

Lindy's picks BGSU to win their 3rd straight MAC Championship"(Very credible magazine)."

It appears that both the writer and proof editor overlooked the word "West" that should have appeared between "MAC" and "Championship".

East.

Well so much for my chance to be an editor

(05-26-2015 04:59 PM)Boca Rocket Wrote:  

(05-26-2015 04:54 PM)H2Oville Rocket Wrote:  I expect Athlon to have something like "wideout Julious Brown will be the primary target for returning starter Gene Swick". They're my favorite for insights like that.

Athlon Picks UT to beat BGSU for the MACC. They have UT going to the Boca Raton Bowl against ECU.

I like this, I really like this projection. Beating our arch-rival in the MAC title game would be amazing, can you imagine if we also beat them in the reg. season for a 6th straight year, how awesome that would feel? And then a matchup with East Carolina in a bowl game may be as good as we can get. With all the changes occurring in NCAA football, I'm not sure how good our chances are at getting a P5 opponent in a bowl game. ECU is on the rise, has a very strong fan base, and you gotta love that pirate logo.

I like a lot of the optimism on this thread, but I also respect the pessimism. Rockets return a good amount of talent. The stars are beginning to align on defense so that we should not be seeing an abysmal defense that we've grown accustomed to in recent years. Yes, we return a lot of players at the CB position, but how much good does that do if none of them are really all that great? Maybe one or two of them will surprise us with their improvement, lets hope. On offense, if our backs can stay healthy (cough, cough Kareem the Dream) and Russell has a breakout year at WR, that's certainly going to help with the transition of our entire new OL. Not sure how I feel about Ely or Woodside at QB. I'm praying they've each improved.

My predictions for 2015, take them for what they're worth...not much lol.

1 vs Stony Brook W
2 @ Arkansas L
3 vs Iowa State W MC gets his first career victory over a P5 team
4 vs Arkansas State W We were clearly the better team in the bowl game, we return enough to say I'm confident we're still the better team.
5 @ Ball St L Curse of Muncie lives on, mid season OL struggles kill us in this one
6 vs Kent St W
7 vs Eastern Michigan W
8 @ Umass W
9 vs Northern Illinois W We finally overcome the NIU Huskies...but 5 years too late because we won't win the MAC West.
10 @ Central Michigan W
11 @ BGSUcks W I hate these guys, so why not a 6th straight win over them?
12 vs Western Michigan L The hype turns out real, Broncos take over the MAC and Fleck marches his way to a P5 contract.

Bowl game- We get another opponent similar to Arkansas State, one whom we certainly should beat...and do. Rockets finish the year with a 10-3 record. Campbell probably moves elsewhere with a double-digit win season.

I'll state it again, we are not going to lose to WMU in the Glass Bowl!!!

Wow! A lot of great input in the previous posts. It's going to be a very interesting year in UT football (very young O-line, very experienced D, great coaching staff). I am in fact looking forward to the 2015 season more than any other in recent memory. Maybe it's my point in life but my interest is peaking.

Go Rockets!

p.s.: Yes the O-line is young but it will be great by 2016 and the D will still be very good along with the skilled positions so 2016 will be very good as well. The program is very solid and almost self-perpetuating

(05-28-2015 10:01 AM)inductchuck16 Wrote:  I like a lot of the optimism on this thread, but I also respect the pessimism. Rockets return a good amount of talent. The stars are beginning to align on defense so that we should not be seeing an abysmal defense that we've grown accustomed to in recent years. Yes, we return a lot of players at the CB position, but how much good does that do if none of them are really all that great? Maybe one or two of them will surprise us with their improvement, lets hope. On offense, if our backs can stay healthy (cough, cough Kareem the Dream) and Russell has a breakout year at WR, that's certainly going to help with the transition of our entire new OL. Not sure how I feel about Ely or Woodside at QB. I'm praying they've each improved.

My predictions for 2015, take them for what they're worth...not much lol.

1 vs Stony Brook W
2 @ Arkansas L
3 vs Iowa State W MC gets his first career victory over a P5 team
4 vs Arkansas State W We were clearly the better team in the bowl game, we return enough to say I'm confident we're still the better team.
5 @ Ball St L Curse of Muncie lives on, mid season OL struggles kill us in this one
6 vs Kent St W
7 vs Eastern Michigan W
8 @ Umass W
9 vs Northern Illinois W We finally overcome the NIU Huskies...but 5 years too late because we won't win the MAC West.
10 @ Central Michigan W
11 @ BGSUcks W I hate these guys, so why not a 6th straight win over them?
12 vs Western Michigan L The hype turns out real, Broncos take over the MAC and Fleck marches his way to a P5 contract.

Bowl game- We get another opponent similar to Arkansas State, one whom we certainly should beat...and do. Rockets finish the year with a 10-3 record. Campbell probably moves elsewhere with a double-digit win season.

I'll believe it when I see it!

UT gets a mention in Sports Illustrated's preview. There's a story about this on the UT site. Here's a link.

http://www.utrockets.com/news/2015/8/6/F...h=football

11-1 is possible. If we lose 2 MAC games it wont be BSU and WMU tho...

It's too early for me to be quite as optimistic. Aside from Arkansas, I could imagine us losing to ISU, ASU, UMass, NIU, BGSU, or WMU. Not trying to say all of them, or any are necessarily likely.

I don't know how good ISU is projected to be this year, but they might be more athletic. Don't forget that ASU put up 44 points on our defense and 2 of our scores were on fumble recoveries for touchdowns which is kind of rare. When our offense scored, ASU came right back and scored a number of times. We are probably a little stronger program, but they are dangerous. Fredi Knighten and Booker Mays are both back. Having some of these teams at home probably helps somewhat. Having watched us lose to Ball State and NIU at home in recent years causes me to think that home field advantage may be overrated.

Home field advantage in November is weak for any MAC program. Earlier in the year with near sell out crowds is where we grab an edge. Against BG in 2012, UC in 2012, Navy in 2013, and EWU in 2013 our 20k+ helped us.

(05-26-2015 04:59 PM)Boca Rocket Wrote:  Athlon Picks UT to beat BGSU for the MACC. They have UT going to the Boca Raton Bowl against ECU.

Lindy's picks BGSU to win their 3rd straight MAC Championship"(Very credible magazine)."

I really hope the Rockets and ECU square off here in Boca. I've got a friend who is an ECU alum and I have the ability to get into the luxuary suites at FAU.
*fingers crossed*

(08-07-2015 05:55 AM)cnyrocketfan Wrote:  UT gets a mention in Sports Illustrated's preview. There's a story about this on the UT site. Here's a link.

http://www.utrockets.com/news/2015/8/6/F...h=football

Great recognition for the Rockets but a big time error by Sports Illustrated. In the column highlighting the article, they mention Kareem Hunt had 866 rushing yards last year. He had over 1,600! The 866 total was from his freshman season.