I think Athlon Sports did a pretty good job with this preview. Nothing is blatantly wrong, which is common in a lot of these pre-season hack jobs.

http://athlonsports.com/college-football...prediction

Bailiff specifically mentioned at the Coaches Caravan event in Houston that a big part of the summer would be finding a guy to kick. Farrimond is a great example of a guy that's made great strides during his time at Rice, but it's a bit much to expect him to handle all the kicking and punting duties again. Hopefully Fox can be the guy we need for FGs and PATs.

Projects us as #89 in FBS. Ouch.

(06-05-2015 12:55 PM)owl40 Wrote:  Projects us as #89 in FBS. Ouch.

Well we're not really much better than that until we prove it.

All-C-USA first-teamer Brian Nordstrom, who had 7.5 sacks and 19.5 tackles for a loss, quit football to take a six-figure job in the oil and gas industry.

Not something you would see in most football previews.

From the Athlon ranking system, which doesn't mean much, our W-L record is predicted to be by conference:

Conf USA: Win 7 -5
American Conf: Win 6-6 to 7-5
Mountain West: Win 7-5 to 8-4
Big 12: ~ Win 3-9 (Win one conf game)
Big10 , Pac 12, and SEC: Win 2 -10 (Loose all conf games).

A good example what a terrible conference we are in and how far we have fallen since leaving SWC and Mountain West. I am sure Dr. K is aware.

(06-08-2015 10:46 PM)OldOwl Wrote:  From the Athlon ranking system, which doesn't mean much, our W-L record is predicted to be by conference:

Conf USA: Win 7 -5
American Conf: Win 6-6 to 7-5
Mountain West: Win 7-5 to 8-4
Big 12: ~ Win 3-9 (Win one conf game)
Big10 , Pac 12, and SEC: Win 2 -10 (Loose all conf games).

A good example what a terrible conference we are in and how far we have fallen since leaving SWC and Mountain West. I am sure Dr. K is aware.

Well, Athlon is stupid then. We'd win a few conference games in both the Big 10 and Pac 12 (Purdue, Indiana, Rutgers, Colorado, Wazzu, Cal). In the SEC, I think we'd be competitive with Vandy, Kentucky, and maybe Tennessee.

I hope you are right. I guess we will see.

(06-08-2015 11:00 PM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  

(06-08-2015 10:46 PM)OldOwl Wrote:  From the Athlon ranking system, which doesn't mean much, our W-L record is predicted to be by conference:

Conf USA: Win 7 -5
American Conf: Win 6-6 to 7-5
Mountain West: Win 7-5 to 8-4
Big 12: ~ Win 3-9 (Win one conf game)
Big10 , Pac 12, and SEC: Win 2 -10 (Loose all conf games).

A good example what a terrible conference we are in and how far we have fallen since leaving SWC and Mountain West. I am sure Dr. K is aware.

Well, Athlon is stupid then. We'd win a few conference games in both the Big 10 and Pac 12 (Purdue, Indiana, Rutgers, Colorado, Wazzu, Cal). In the SEC, I think we'd be competitive with Vandy, Kentucky, and maybe Tennessee.

(06-08-2015 11:00 PM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  

(06-08-2015 10:46 PM)OldOwl Wrote:  From the Athlon ranking system, which doesn't mean much, our W-L record is predicted to be by conference:
Conf USA: Win 7 -5
American Conf: Win 6-6 to 7-5
Mountain West: Win 7-5 to 8-4
Big 12: ~ Win 3-9 (Win one conf game)
Big10 , Pac 12, and SEC: Win 2 -10 (Loose all conf games).
A good example what a terrible conference we are in and how far we have fallen since leaving SWC and Mountain West. I am sure Dr. K is aware.

Well, Athlon is stupid then. We'd win a few conference games in both the Big 10 and Pac 12 (Purdue, Indiana, Rutgers, Colorado, Wazzu, Cal). In the SEC, I think we'd be competitive with Vandy, Kentucky, and maybe Tennessee.

In the SEC we'd be in the West, so we'd probably see Vandy as our "traditional" rival and no more than one of the other two, most years neither. Plus I think Tennessee might well be one of the breakthrough teams next year.

I think we'd go 3-9 or 4-8 against Big, Pac or XII.

Are we talking about BEING in one of those conferences?

Or being in CUSA?

I think it pretty obvious that we'd be better in a p5 conference than we would be in a g5 conference, but we'd also be less unique... thus it is somewhat easier for us to imagine 'dominating' a g5 conference (and dominating g5 for that matter) than it is to imagine dominating p5.

I think we will be much better than #89 by year end, but I don't think that's an outlandish prediction until as someone said, we prove otherwise.... and I think we will.

(06-08-2015 10:46 PM)OldOwl Wrote:  From the Athlon ranking system, which doesn't mean much, our W-L record is predicted to be by conference:

Conf USA: Win 7 -5
American Conf: Win 6-6 to 7-5
Mountain West: Win 7-5 to 8-4
Big 12: ~ Win 3-9 (Win one conf game)
Big10 , Pac 12, and SEC: Win 2 -10 (Loose all conf games).

A good example what a terrible conference we are in and how far we have fallen since leaving SWC and Mountain West. I am sure Dr. K is aware.

I think you mean leaving the Big 12, Mountain West, and American.

Belonging to the AAC or Conf USA is not much difference in win loss total.

(06-09-2015 10:43 PM)owl at the moon Wrote:  

(06-08-2015 10:46 PM)OldOwl Wrote:  From the Athlon ranking system, which doesn't mean much, our W-L record is predicted to be by conference:

Conf USA: Win 7 -5
American Conf: Win 6-6 to 7-5
Mountain West: Win 7-5 to 8-4
Big 12: ~ Win 3-9 (Win one conf game)
Big10 , Pac 12, and SEC: Win 2 -10 (Loose all conf games).

A good example what a terrible conference we are in and how far we have fallen since leaving SWC and Mountain West. I am sure Dr. K is aware.

I think you mean leaving the Big 12, Mountain West, and American.

Phil Steele's preview was released on iOS devices this week.

Previews are just guesses and opinions. I'm ready to hear leather pop.

Is it September yet?