Wins have come against VMI, Eastern Michigan and UMass. Winnable home game for sure which could provide positive momentum for season finale at NIU.
It would be nice to get Papi back for this game for some game reps prior to Northern and possible bowl game.
I keep wondering if Poling had not been hurt how it would have impacted the 3 losses. WMU is the game where he was hurt and our defense imploded.
Keeping my fingers crossed for 8-4 and decent bowl game.

I have to believe that winning this one nails down a bowl bid. Losing it eliminates a chance at a bowl in my opinion, because winning at NIU is a tough one to expect to win.

We are not "big bucks" college football.

I agree completely. I watched the Northwestern game (ranked #19 at the time) and I thought BSU had a great shot at winning. I've also watch bits and pieces of some of their other games and they always look like a better team than what the final scoreboard says. I hope that their scoreboard deficit continues one more week.

While the return of Poling certainly sparked the Ohio defense....Kent was about as challenging as stopping the Trimble Tomcat JV team.

Slowing/stopping Ball State's offense will be the true test of whether this defense has turned the corner from their disastrous stretch of WMU/UB/BG.

Not that Ball State is an offensive juggernaut, but they do have a pulse. And we proved (especially vs. UB) that we couldn't stop anything with a pulse during those 3 games.

This will go a long way in determining whether we have any prayer vs. NIU or in a bowl game.

And, I do think that at 6-6 we make a bowl. Sorry...there are just too many slots to fill at this point.

As bad as their offense is, I don't see Akron getting to 7-5...maybe 6-6 (and we'd get in at 6-6 before them)

And if Akron does get to 7-5 (or 6-6) that means they might have beaten Buffalo which leaves them at 6-6 probably....not sure a bowl would take UB (and their miserable fan base) over ours at 6-6

CMU will get to 7-5 (Kent and EMU left)
WMU at worst goes 6-6 (which is likely with NIU and Toledo left)
NIU/Toledo/BG are your guaranteed 7/8/9/10 win MAC teams

So that's 5 for sure from that group....

I think even at 6-6, we are the best option for a 6th MAC bowl team (unless Akron gets to 7-5)

And if that's the case...as I said earlier....we get in to that 7th slot at 6-6 over Buffalo at 6-6 (even tho UB crushed us earlier....it's all about TV ratings/$$$/fan travel when it comes to bowls....and we have more cachet than UB)

I think Akron will beat both Kent and Miami, and Buffalo will beat U.Mass. That means that both Akron and Buffalo will be bowl eligible, with the winner of the Akron-Buffalo game being 7-5, and the loser being 6-6.

I get that we're not at that level. But that's not really my point. I was responding to the thought that one of our players was at the very peak of effective players in college football. That's not likely given that we play well below that peak. (Also, playing every game..avoiding injuries.. is part of that peak effectiveness, like it or not.)

That said, I remain firmly disappointed that we've no MAC title over the course of Solich's term, especially being nowhere near that level in the last four seasons.

If we're going to have a program, it's got to be better than not very competitive in MAC.

One of the things that I find kind of funny about how bowl season works is that we may end up sneaking into a bowl game, even with a 6-6 record, to help fill a void another conference cannot fill. We could possibly go to a more "name brand" bowl as a result of this than those who finished higher in the conference standings.

This game coming up I think is a great opportunity to show some pride and play all out to end the home slate on a high note. While I think we will have a respectable showing against NIU, Ball State appears to be the best chance to get one more win this year. We are pretty evenly matched at this point I think so we need to come out and smack them early and often.

They've had our number the past two games where they picked our pocket 23-20 and then pounded us 52-27 the last time we met. We owe them a loss.

I'll print the t-shirts:

"2015: A SEASON TO REMEMBER"

"THE DROUGHT IS OVER"

"OHIO IS NOW 1-13 VS. WINNING MAC TEAMS SINCE 2012"

"OHIO 14, AKRON 12"

"#NEVERFORGET"

ROTFL!

I'll buy one . . .

Yes. For sure. My blood is already boiling. So ready for this game.

If we can get a W, there's a chance at getting to 8 wins against NIU (I'll be at that game) which I think, all things considered, would be a fairly good season.

We open as 7pt favorites.