Bill Connelly, one of the best in the business, previews Ohio: http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2016/4/14/11409302/ohio-bobcats-football-2016-preview-schedule-roster

After reading through this article I have only 1 concern relative to this author that would have elevated this piece to be outstanding and on point.
In his discussion around the 3 game, mid-season losses, he failed to mention the injury situation that was the real cause, i.e. line backer position. Once healthy we then won our last 3 games.
While I know no publication is as close to the team as we are, still the injury issue was big during the 3 game losing stretch.



GO BOBCATS

The article is missing some tidbits that you'd know if you were reading this site regularly, but still that was a great preview. Lots of interesting analysis.

He challenges my long-held belief that returners on the lines are more important than returners at positions like the secondary (which he ranks as the single most important factor). This is especially relevant for Ohio, since an amazing 7 of the top 9 players in the defensive backfield are gone for 2016, but a strong Dline is coming back.

Here's a separate article where he talks about the importance of returning experience in different categories. A couple of caveats, his findings are based on only a couple of years of data, and Phil Steele (who is as good at this as anyone) has said some things before that are the opposite of Connelly's findings. Steele says returning OL experience is a major factor, whereas Connelly finds sort of amazingly that it's a complete non-factor. (Connelly is counting total returning starts instead of total returning starters, which may be part of the explanation.)
http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2016/2/5/1092191...