Here is the "probable" scheduled teams we'll play. I have an issue or two with the scheduler on several fronts, but for right now "it is what it is".
*I took the nonconference schedule from wikipedia and assume we will be playing the conference teams from this year in reverse (home games on road and road games at home) - although that may not be completely correct. So if anyone can help, I'll correct it.
Non conference
San Jose St (H)
Ohio St (A)
North Carolina A@T (H)
Fresno St (A)
Conference Teams
Houston (A)
ECU (H)
Memphis (A)
SMU (H)
UCF (A)
Cincinnati (H)
Navy (A)
Tulane (H)
My main "initially" glaring problem is the body bag/no return game to Columbus and trading it for a "nothing" home contest with North Carolina A@T. We need to stop this! Also, why are we scheduling non-conference games with G5 teams on the coasts where our fans can't drive and we have little recent history? That makes no sense and is a killer for our loyal fans who are long time season ticket buyers. Its idiocy! And one other thing - it makes the team have to travel even further to play which wears them out. We'll rack up thousands of travel miles. Why do it this way?
Dear Scheduler: Please make Phillip Montgomery happy so he'll actually stay here a while by scheduling teams from his native Texas such as in El Paso, San Antonio, Houston (RICE), Denton, San Marcos (Tx), and even short trips to Ruston and Monroe.
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So using that template, our home schedule would be - drum roll.
San Jose St
North Carolina A@T
ECU
SMU
Cincinnati
Tulane
So how many people are going to travel from San Jose California, North Carolina (2 games), Cincinnati Ohio and New Orleans to watch their team play? Not many. And how will a schedule like this improve attendence?
I think our defense will be a little better and the year after that a little better still........I'm looking for 7-5 next year with a few close losses......I would love to have one those close losses be to Ohio St.....but they always have a BIG(size wise) defense and I don't know how our offensive line with hold up!!!!!
I have to agree with what you're saying jfisher. Maybe we could steal a game and get to 8 wins, but 7 sounds about right after looking at the schedule.
As far as the O-line, I think they'll be improved from this year to next. We only lose one starter, and there's some young guys with size that are freshman or coming in for 2016. Now, as far as matching up with Ohio St. there may not be much we can do, but overall I think the unit will be better.
I think we "can" now beat Memphis since Paxton Lynch declared for the NFL draft and Fuente is gone and replaced by a young first year HC (ex-TU WR coach Mike Norvell). Some of those games on the schedule will be pickems, but I think we will be better than a couple teams we got beat by last year.
Wins
Tulane (H)
SMU(H)
NC A@T (H)
ECU (H)
UCF (A)
San Jose St (H)
Tossups
Cincy (H)
Memphis (A)
Fresno (A)
Navy (A)
Underdog
Houston (A)
Ohio St (A)
If our defense developes and improves at CB, we can win eight or even 9 imo.
Houston's win over Florida St shows that the AAC west was very strong at the top and is probably better overall than the FB teams in the east right now. UCONN, USF, Cincy and Temple surprisingly tanked in the bowl games and just weren't very competitive. But Navy won, Houston won and we almost did against a highly motivated ACC team. Memphis' loss wasn't surprising since they were coachless and in some turmoil with their unmotivated players being led by a staff mostly looking for work elsewhere. The league in general established itself as a winner in perception even though those eastern teams were disappointing. The most shocking bowl team performance was Cincy and I think we take them down next year at home.
TU gained a lot of respect and probably some new recruiting lookers with its performance in Shreveport. if you are looking at a team trending up, its TU!
Our schedule is ready made to advance - winwise - but we still have flaws on the adminsitrative end imo. Our scheduler needs to adopt a different longterm strategy IMHO.
No more NC A&T......I can't believe UTEP or UTSA or Ark ST or LA Monroe or just about anybody but NC A&T wasn't available. We aren't going to recruit in North Carolina!!!
(01-01-2016 01:25 PM)jfisher Wrote: [ -> ]No more NC A&T......I can't believe UTEP or UTSA or Ark ST or LA Monroe or just about anybody but NC A&T wasn't available. We aren't going to recruit in North Carolina!!!
Rather than play a nothing game against NCAT, I bet we could have made a quick call to Springfield, Missouri (Missouri St U) and they'd have jumped at the chance to schedule us - even change their schedule to do it if they could. Even any old MVC school we used to play - SIU, Illinois St, Indiana St, etc. They are on the NCAT level and might even bring some fans. But NCAT is ridiculous. No history. Too far. Everyone will mark it down as a "game to miss/ignore".
But in the end, this is an example of scheduling a game with a MAC school in the first place.
The scheduler needs to find another line of work imo.
I'm not super pumped about NC A&T but it isn't the end of the world. There is a deeper issue we seem to have with scheduling - if you look at our future schedules, we have done a really poor job of scheduling 1-1 games with lower to mid level big12, sec, ACC and big10 teams. We should be working to get 1-1 with teams like Kentucky, Texas tech, Kansas, Illinois, Duke, vandy, northwestern, Indiana, Rutgers, and so on. I don't have a huge problem with the 2-1 with the big time programs or even the money games coming up against Ohio state and Texas. What I do have a problem with is that all our 1-1 deals are strictly with MAC and MWC teams coming up (some MWC 1-1 is ok). There are no exciting home games coming up for quite some time... That's how you draw in casual fans.
(01-04-2016 09:29 AM)goldenhurricane2 Wrote: [ -> ]I'm not super pumped about NC A&T but it isn't the end of the world. There is a deeper issue we seem to have with scheduling - if you look at our future schedules, we have done a really poor job of scheduling 1-1 games with lower to mid level big12, sec, ACC and big10 teams. We should be working to get 1-1 with teams like Kentucky, Texas tech, Kansas, Illinois, Duke, vandy, northwestern, Indiana, Rutgers, and so on. I don't have a huge problem with the 2-1 with the big time programs or even the money games coming up against Ohio state and Texas. What I do have a problem with is that all our 1-1 deals are strictly with MAC and MWC teams coming up (some MWC 1-1 is ok). There are no exciting home games coming up for quite some time... That's how you draw in casual fans.
Those are pretty much my sentiments as well. I might take it a bit further and say that we only sign one for one contracts period. If that means we won't sign that body bag contract with Ohio St or OU, then so be it. Let them keep playing Akron if they want to. We should play games that aren't viewed as public executions imo. We should never get "Arkansas'ed" so to speak. But we should also make it more lucrative to have a home game with those teams that won't cause them or us to lose money on the deal because of our smaller stadium - or our fans to pay exhorbitant amounts of money for the pleasure of watching that game in person when its on TV anyway. I have a somewhat doable solution, but i'd like to wait and discuss it in the long, long, long off season.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Caro...University
They are a predominantly-traditionally black school that plays in the MEAC which is also a predominantly and traditonally black conference. That is fine, but this is OUR football program for crying out loud. Let NCAT play teams nearer to them and at their level and in their footprint. This had better not happen again!
(01-04-2016 12:12 PM)rabidTU2 Wrote: [ -> ]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Caro...University
They are a predominantly-traditionally black school that plays in the MEAC which is also a predominantly and traditonally black conference. That is fine, but this is OUR football program for crying out loud. Let NCAT play teams nearer to them and at their level and in their footprint. This had better not happen again!
A ticket to that game might be worth it if they bring the band.