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.

OCF--The difference is that I keep on describing specifics re results, strategy, play-calling, etc but all your side puts up is generalities about how we're better than the 40 years in the 'dessert' and Solich and staff are so great (still an overall losing record I'm pretty sure at OHIO after so many years) and our team is deep in experience (okay--but if guys are so good how come no one's much shone over the last 2.5). I deal in reality; you deal in vague dreams.

For 2.5 years they have struggled to compete with anyone decent, and have been repeatedly embarrassed by the top of the MAC

****THAT*** is the issue.

Its not about Solich's record over the past decade.

Its not about losing to NIU in the MACC...I couldn't care less. That was a great game and our guys gave it their all.

Its not about winning the MACC at all for me.

Its about holding your own against good teams.

Who cares about beating Miami when you lose by > 20 to every top MAC team you play?

For the umpteenth time, that is the issue at hand.

For 2.5 years they have struggled to compete with anyone decent, and have been repeatedly embarrassed by the top of the MAC

****THAT*** is the issue....

Each of us has a slightly different opinion, obviously, which is normal. For me, I feel like I understand what happened, so the last 2 1/2 years don't bother me. For me Ohio had a good run from 2009-mid 2012, and good runs always end at some point. In the middle, however, they had a bad recruiting class in 2010, which no one was too concerned about at the time. It wouldn't have mattered that much, but when Ohio then hit a flukey string of season ending and career ending injuries in 2012, they needed there to be some solid backups, so those two compounded each other, and led to a rebuilding period.

Since you and Monroe like to draw an arbitrary beginning date of the Miami game in 2012, I'll draw an arbitrary ending date. I feel like that "2.5 years" that you and Monroe talk about ended last year after the WMU game. In my opinion, the team played very solidly the last three games of the year, with the exception of the first quarter against Miami. In that three game period they trounced a decent Buffalo team, held their own against the best team in the MAC (as opposed to "being embarrassed" or "losing by 20"), and they had a great comeback to defeat their biggest rival.

For me, Ohio is done rebuilding, and is at the beginning of another good run that should last at least until 2018. They don't need anything miraculous. They just need to pick up where they left off in 2014, and then keep improving from there.

Oh, and 45 Days: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CKX3ZbNUsAAoJpY.jpg

Are there any schools in the MAC, Sun Belt or CUSA which have NOT experienced the occasional two year dip that LC suggests? Some on here seem to think that a very long tenure by a head coach should make us immune from the normal cycles experienced by programs in the MAC, Sun Belt or CUSA. On the other hand, I think those cycles, with occasional lulls, is more to be expected than a continual upward climb for ten years, even with the same head coach.

No, I don't think any program ever really gets to that point. Some years are always better than others, but depending on the team, the highs and lows can be different. For example, an Alabama might compete for #1 a few years in a row, then "slump" to the bottom of the top 20 for a year or two.

Getting back to Ohio, some slump was to be expected after those good years. It took both the 2010 class, and the incredible number of injures in 2012 to cause the slump to be as deep as it was, and even then, they stayed bowl eligible.

Really, though, the cycles aren't that hard to see coming. Back in about 2007-8 I could see the cycle building towards a high in 2011-12, and predicted an undefeated season in 2011 followed by a potential win over Penn State early 2012. 2011 didn't quite happen, but it was still a very good year. Now I see the next cycle started, and running to a high in 2017 or so.

It isn't rocket science. Look at the current Sophomore class, which is made up of recruits from 2013 who redshirted, and recruits from 2014 who played as true Freshmen. They aren't necessarily starters, but they form a solid core that will be supplemented by players in the classes behind them. With this solid group, there will be no more rebuilding until after they are gone. In 2018-19 there may or may not be another rebuilding year. I'm inclined to say not since the Freshmen behind them look strong, too. Anyway, here are the Sophomores, and they, alone, would not be a bad team, other than the absence of a QB.

OL - Lowery, Adams, Pruehs, Wood, McCray, Murdock
TE - Morgan
QB -
RB - OUellette, Brown
WR - Brunis, Cope, Walker, Helton, Jarid Brown, Cedric Brown

DE - Smart, Robbins
DT - Aloese, Porter
LB - Poling, Grillot, Chad Moore, Daugherty,
CB - Brunson
S - Nelson, Quallen