Lots of respect shown to the MAC:
<a href='http://www.ctnow.com/sports/hc-themac1215.artdec15,1,136810.story?coll=hc-headlines-sports' target='_blank'>http://www.ctnow.com/sports/hc-themac1215....eadlines-sports</a>
Hey Oddball, do you think you could cut and paste since most of us probably aren't members?
Please cut and paste the text, I forgot my password... TIA :)
MAC's Maxim: Take Offense
Top-Heavy Conference Not So Lightly Regarded
December 15, 2004
By DESMOND CONNER, Courant Staff Writer
Mid-American Conference football teams will go anywhere to play anyone at any time. The big-timers like to have them come into their place, thinking they can get an easy win. But MAC teams go into the big houses with big dreams - and many times they have come true.
And many have noticed, including ESPN, which signed a contract with the MAC last year to broadcast regular season games.
"You need to understand this," said Northern Illinois coach Joe Novak, whose Huskies knocked off Maryland, Alabama and Iowa State last year.
"We've got a lot of kids that play football here and a lot of them think they should play at Southern Cal and Notre Dame and Penn State. And when these kids get a chance to play a team of that caliber, they've got a little chip on their shoulder. They got a little something to prove. They're not spoiled. I've been around some bigger programs and sometimes you get kids through the course of recruiting, they get a little spoiled and bigheaded. Our kids are not like that because they're not over-recruited."
And that's not all. While determination plays a big role in the MAC's success, so does parity in college football.
"Ever since we've gone to our limit of 85 scholarships - years ago scholarships were unlimited so the big schools would stockpile and then they started lowering it, 115, 105, 95 now 85 - it has pushed a lot of really good football players down to the so-called mid-major schools," Novak said.
Some go to the Western Athletic Conference, Mountain West and Conference USA. Many go to the MAC.
In the past couple of years, MAC teams have beaten the big and the bad, such as Big Ten schools Purdue, Minnesota, Penn State and Iowa.
This year, second-ranked Oklahoma, a 321/2-point favorite over Bowling Green in the season opener, had its hands full before prevailing, 40-24.
Much of the conference's success can be attributed to some ridiculous offensive numbers, especially this year.
In the MAC, they like to let it fly, baby.
"Well," Bowling Green coach Gregg Brandon said with a laugh, "some of us score a lot of points."
Most folks know about Ben Roethlisberger from Miami of Ohio and Chad Pennington and Byron Leftwich from Marshall.
Don't be surprised if more quarterbacks from the MAC come into the NFL right behind them. That includes Toledo junior Bruce Gradkowski.
Gradkowski (6 feet 2, 210 pounds) leads the nation's second-ranked passing offense and is the fifth-rated passer. Though he sustained a broken hand and a separated shoulder in the conference championship game against Miami, he still threw four touchdown passes and was 18-for-24 for 251 yards in a 35-27 victory at Ford Field in Detroit.
He'll look to put up similar numbers against UConn when he returns to that stadium for the Motor City Bowl Dec. 27.
"I saw the [MAC championship] game," said UConn quarterback Dan Orlovsky, who has had great success against the bottom feeders of the MAC but will be facing one of the upper echelon teams in the conference for the first time. "He's pretty good."
Last year, Gradkowski threw for more than 400 yards and four touchdowns in a shocking 35-31 victory over Pittsburgh, which was ranked ninth in the country at the time.
There is one big knock on the MAC. Top to bottom, it's not a great conference.
Central Florida and Western Michigan were both 0-8 in the conference this year. UCF, which heads to Conference USA along with Marshall next season, ended up as the only winless team in Division I-A. UCF produced Minnesota Vikings quarterback Daunte Culpepper before it joined the MAC.
Another downside to the MAC is that some conference schools are struggling to average 15,000 fans for home games over a two-year period. That became a requirement for I-A teams beginning this season. If the rule was in effect in 2003, the I-A status of Akron and Kent State would be in jeopardy.
But the MAC is really good at the top. Made up of two six-team divisions, it has five teams playing in bowls: Toledo, Bowling Green, Marshall, Miami of Ohio and Northern Illinois. Only Marshall and Akron average less than 33 points. Bowling Green, led by MAC player of the year Omar Jacobs - a sophomore quarterback - averages 43.
"A lot of the teams you see scoring a lot of points in our conference are very multiple and use a lot of maneuvering, a lot of movement and lot of different looks to score," Brandon said."There are a lot of different ways to skin a cat. A lot of us put it in the air. But you take a team like Northern Illinois, they just pound you."
Jacobs leads the nation with 36 TD passes. He is fourth in passing efficiency with a rating of 167.8 and second in total offense (357.1 yards a game).
MAC quarterbacks stack up well with their Big East contemporaries, if not better. Gradkowski has a passer rating of 162.2, good for seventh nationally. Not one Big East quarterback ranks in the top 10. West Virginia's Rasheed Marshall is the highest at No.17 (147.19).
And in the total offense category, Jacobs isn't the only MAC quarterback in the top 10. Kent State's Joshua Cribbs (310.8 yards) and Eastern Michigan's Matt Bohnet (293.7), rank No. 4 and No. 7. Temple's Walter Washington (281.5) and Orlovsky (279.7) are 11th and 12th.
Rutgers junior quarterback Ryan Hart (26) and Orlovsky (24) are third and fifth nationally in pass completions per game. Jacobs (25), Gradkowski (23) and Kent State's Cribbs (21) are fourth, seventh and 10th.
"It's a dangerous, dangerous situation," Boston College coach Tom O'Brien said less than a week after his Eagles ran out of Muncie, Ind., with a 19-11 victory over Ball State.
And the Cardinals won only two games all season.