(11-05-2017 01:36 PM)Nevadanatural Wrote:  Tulsa will be playing Arkansas and Texas next season but they will need to improve greatly in order to pull off wins against those two.

Yeah, but when Memphis handled Ole Miss a few seasons and and what Houston did last season it showed THIS conference has an outside chance with a couple of those kinds of wins to get into the playoff.

Had Houston gone undefeated last season I 100% believe they would have been a #3 or #4 seed in over Washington.

(11-05-2017 01:36 PM)Nevadanatural Wrote:  Tulsa will be playing Arkansas and Texas next season but they will need to improve greatly in order to pull off wins against those two.

I don't know enough about Tulsa to know what they return this year. But they have shown some flashes of real explosiveness on offense. It just needs to be more consistent...and develop something resembling a defense.

(11-05-2017 01:44 PM)Square Knight Wrote:  

(11-05-2017 01:36 PM)Nevadanatural Wrote:  Tulsa will be playing Arkansas and Texas next season but they will need to improve greatly in order to pull off wins against those two.

I don't know enough about Tulsa to know what they return this year. But they have shown some flashes of real explosiveness on offense. It just needs to be more consistent...and develop something resembling a defense.

Arkansas also almost just lost @ home to 1-7 Coastal Carolina or something. Anything is possible.

(11-05-2017 01:44 PM)Square Knight Wrote:  

(11-05-2017 01:36 PM)Nevadanatural Wrote:  Tulsa will be playing Arkansas and Texas next season but they will need to improve greatly in order to pull off wins against those two.

I don't know enough about Tulsa to know what they return this year. But they have shown some flashes of real explosiveness on offense. It just needs to be more consistent...and develop something resembling a defense.

After graduating the top playmakers on offense last year it’s not nearly as bad this year. They will lose Deangelo Brewer but most everyone else is back. One of the problems this year has been ineligibility and injury. The projected number two RB at the start of the season was academically ineligible for the second year. Next in line had an injury and then (from what I hear) had grade issues which is what lead to pulling the redshirt from Shamari Brooks. Then Shamari broke his collar bone so we are down to Brewer, who is fighting through an injury, and a senior walk on.

The defense had similar issues losing three DBs and putting a ton of freshmen on the field. The upside is that these talented young players will now have on the field experience to build on.

SMU gets @ Michigan and TCU @ home next year. Should be really good if we could pull those two out. Morris says we will be better but we lose DE Lawler and WR C. Sutton, two big ones. Defense looked much better against UCF than before them... improvement permanent? Navy will test us next week.

(11-05-2017 01:01 PM)Tigermaniac Wrote:  We all (Including Memphis) need to consider scheduling more quality. It's like we're going for the SEC/ACC type schedule but we don't have the quality within the conference to pull it off...

Meh - planning a schedule as far in advance as we do, it's a crapshoot whether your team is going to be peaking at the time to take advantage of it. USF had FSU last year and has Georgia Tech next year, but this year was crap (though, with the way Gilbert's ruined our offense, I'm not sure we would have taken advantage of having a better schedule anyway).

Next season, here are the "P5" games on the schedule:

Cincinnati - at UCLA
ECU - North Carolina, at Virginia Tech
Temple - at Maryland, at Boston College
UCF - at North Carolina, Pittsburgh
UConn - at Syracuse (also play at Boise, FYI)
USF - at Illinois, Georgia Tech
Houston - at Texas Tech, Arizona
Memphis - at Missouri
Navy - vs. Notre Dame (in San Diego)
SMU - at Michigan, TCU
Tulane - at Ohio State
Tulsa - at Texas, at Arkansas

Who's in position to take advantage of that? If Frost returns, I have to figure UCF is the favorite in the East, but will wins over UNC and Pitt really move the needle? In the West, knowing Ferguson's a senior, I'm going to say I expect Houston or SMU to be the likely favorites. An SMU win in the Big House would be a big deal, but wins at Texas Tech and Arizona wouldn't have that big of an impact.

USFFan

(11-05-2017 07:09 PM)usffan Wrote:  

(11-05-2017 01:01 PM)Tigermaniac Wrote:  We all (Including Memphis) need to consider scheduling more quality. It's like we're going for the SEC/ACC type schedule but we don't have the quality within the conference to pull it off...

Meh - planning a schedule as far in advance as we do, it's a crapshoot whether your team is going to be peaking at the time to take advantage of it. USF had FSU last year and has Georgia Tech next year, but this year was crap (though, with the way Gilbert's ruined our offense, I'm not sure we would have taken advantage of having a better schedule anyway).

Next season, here are the "P5" games on the schedule:

Cincinnati - at UCLA
ECU - North Carolina, at Virginia Tech
Temple - at Maryland, at Boston College
UCF - at North Carolina, Pittsburgh
UConn - at Syracuse (also play at Boise, FYI)
USF - at Illinois, Georgia Tech
Houston - at Texas Tech, Arizona
Memphis - at Missouri
Navy - vs. Notre Dame (in San Diego)
SMU - at Michigan, TCU
Tulane - at Ohio State
Tulsa - at Texas, at Arkansas

Who's in position to take advantage of that? If Frost returns, I have to figure UCF is the favorite in the East, but will wins over UNC and Pitt really move the needle? In the West, knowing Ferguson's a senior, I'm going to say I expect Houston or SMU to be the likely favorites. An SMU win in the Big House would be a big deal, but wins at Texas Tech and Arizona wouldn't have that big of an impact.

USFFan

Very winnable OOC games for Edsall's second year.

(11-05-2017 06:51 PM)AusTxPony Wrote:  SMU gets @ Michigan and TCU @ home next year. Should be really good if we could pull those two out. Morris says we will be better but we lose DE Lawler and WR C. Sutton, two big ones. Defense looked much better against UCF than before them... improvement permanent? Navy will test us next week.

Very exciting. You win those, along with UCF starting in the top 15 and there will be an earthquake.