Here's another preseason review, though not as insightful as the Athlon one:
http://tinyurl.com/ojvkn9w

As for their projections for the season, they project Ohio to finish 4-8, going 1-3 OOC. I gather they expect Ohio to lose to Marshall, Minnesota, and SE Louisiana? http://tinyurl.com/qc89ff9

BG 6-7 (6-2) [note: wins Division, but not bowl eligible]
Akron 7-5 (5-3)
Buffalo 5-7 (3-5)
UMass 4-8 (3-5)
Ohio 4-8 (3-5)
Kent 2-10 (1-7)
Miami 2-10 (1-7)

NIU 11-2 (8-0)
WMU 9-3 (7-1)
Ball St 8-4 (6-2)
Toledo 5-7 (4-4)
CMU 5-7 (4-4)
EMU 0-12 (0-8)

Fixed it. Good catch on the in-conference numbers not adding up.

Like the other preseason picks so far, they are more optimistic for Akron and NIU than I am, meanwhile I expect better years than they do for Ohio, U.Mass., and Toledo.

The crazy thing is that we don't even play UMass this year.

BG really controls their own destiny in the East. They play all the real competitors (they don't have Fiami on the schedule), so they can get tiebreakers on all of them. They might need this, too. Their last three games are all against the West: @WMU, Toledo at home, @BSU.

Another strange thing about BG: If they repeat last year and win the East with a 5-3 record, they could be 5-7 overall. Their OOC schedule is @Tenn (in Nashville), @Maryland, Memphis at home and @Purdue. Not an easy row to hoe.

Thanks - that got me all jacked up.............

That's preposterous. On a college related board, there are a low number of posts because words are a barrier?

I may have the knock on Solich and staff but your blind allegiance is blind.

Umm, go back and read what I said again. I said nothing about words. I said that the lack of posts containing pictures was probably related to the fact that we can't post pictures anymore.
Here's yesterday's picture:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CJ9r9djWcAA1RNq.jpg

Except for coming off a 2014 season having led the MAC in avg attendance and being in mid July with 14 commits that look like they will stick and actually report next fall. 14 solid commits, mid July, has that ever happened? Sorry Monroe, your agenda is showing.

Says the person who's never come within a million miles of uttering a trace of anything that's not 100% absolutely purely in favor of the program...a program that's been lousy for the last 2.5 years, with a series of huge losses--against one of the easiest schedules in the nation.

Yeah, attendance surely forgives the lack of wins, the lack of MACC.

And, the issue is the lack of excitement here. Which is evident from the lack of posts each day.

Historically speaking most of the summer football wise on BA is a dead zone. Posts will pick up when practice begins. Vids and Arkley stuff will get the juices flowing. Some of us even take in a practice or 2 with some insight coming from those.

As for yours truly I can never get enough of Athens....headin there today for Ohio Brew Week.

I think the feeling going into this season is one of cautious or quiet optimism... no boastful predictions of an undefeated season (I don't think there's any evidence to support that possibility). If there was more of that, those types of predictions garner the most and the most emotional responses.

I think most folks think our returning talent means we are headed for a pretty good season. I think we all know there's not a game we couldn't win nor one we couldn't lose.

Maybe I'm just describing myself. I think we'll have a good year. I hope we have a great year. I don't have enough evidence to support that hope. I'm also not a doomsayer... I don't think anyone really believes we're just going to collapse. That type of post, again, would garner the most and the most emotionally charged responses. So, what we have is the expectation that we will have a typical Frank Solich season. Win more than we lose. Win one we shouldn't, lose one we shouldn't, be in it late, grab a bowl.

It's like sex on Friday night...and only on Friday night. You're glad it's happening, but more would be nice. You're not bragging to your friends about it.

DCF, that's where I am, too. I expect a good, but not great team. They will probably be a 2 TD underdog to Minnesota and a 2 TD favorite over Miami, but the other games should all be competitive. It's impossible to guess how the season will shake out because so many games could go either way. I think this will be a battling team, so I'm cautiously optimistic, and thinking in terms of 7-9 wins.

When you look at teams, each year the team has a different profile. Some have strong defenses and weak offenses. Some have strong lines and weak backs, or the reverse. Some have good receivers, some have a good running game. Some have a strong defensive line, but weak DBs, or whatever.

When I compare this team to past Bobcat teams, oddly, on paper the team that this one profiles the closest to is the team that played Penn State. That team had a strong, veteran offensive line with three seniors (Prior-Carlotta-Allen-Herman-McGrath), and so does the 2015 team. They had a talented but young group of receivers (Foster/So, Dovell/Jr, L. Smith/So), and so does the 2015 team (S.Smith/Jr, Reid/Jr, Cope/So). They had some pretty good running backs (Blankenship, Boykin), and so does this one. The biggest differences on offense are Vick instead of Tettleton, and Mangen instead of Thompson.

On defense the skill levels were comparable at LB (Woseley-Lewis-Moore as opposed to Johnson-Brown-Poling) and at DB (Shaw-Leftwich-Moore-Hughes as opposed to Leyton-Wells-Jones-Macer), but the 2012 had a much better group up front (Huynh-Jones-Scott-Smith backed up by Branz-Crutcher-Hastings-Barber). The 2015 front of Sayles-Tautuaiki-Purdum-Basham backed up by Smart-Aloese-Porter-Laseak may turn out to be good, but it is much more untested.

I think that the start of 2012 team was Solich's best team at Ohio, though that team was wiped out amazingly quickly by injuries, and the team that finished the year was an entirely different cast of characters. I'm most certainly not saying that 2015 will be as good as start of 2012. I'm saying that they are the same type of team, and good in pretty much the same areas, with a few exceptions, like DL and TE.

What you can't tell in advance, though, is what kind of heart a team will have. The 2012 team was unfazed by Penn State, and didn't panic when they fell behind, and they battled back. Will the 2015 group be the battling team that I hope they are? We'll know soon enough. Will the 2015 defensive line mature into a disruptive bunch? We'll know that, too. Will this team gel, and mature as the season goes on, and finish strong, as the 2014 team did? Ask me in 6 months. All I know is that I like the profile - a strong line with good running backs, and a good defense. That's my favorite kind of team.