Since we're talking football, here is more or less what I'm expecting for this fall, a too-early look at the fall on a position by position basis:

OFFENSE
Offensive line - Last year all the pundits agreed that Ohio had one of the least experienced offensive lines in the country. This fall they return not only every starter, but every person that played (unless Bubba Williams played a few snaps that I'm not aware of). In addition they will return a couple guys that didn't play, or didn't play much, due to injury (Gibbons and Wood), and also add in a couple JUCOs. With everyone having a year more experience and maturity, this should be a very good offensive line, probably not quite up to the levels of 2011-2012, but very good.

Receivers - There is a lot of talent at receiver, but it is still young. There will be no Seniors anywhere on the 2-deep at WR or TE. They should be effective this year, but they will really shine in 2016.

QB/RB - If Vick stays healthy, QB should not be a problem, but I continue to hope one of the backups improves a lot, just in case something happens again. At RB Ohio should be solid, with AJ back, plus Irons fighting for time, and hopefully Dorian Brown losing his fumble problems, and showing what he can really do, which I believe is a lot. Daz will mix in as a change of pace player, and he can excel at that.

Overall Offense - Last year's offense was not very good, but this year, with a much improved offensive line, it should look much better. I expect that Ohio will be able to push defenses back, and consistently gain yardage on the ground. That, will mean defenses can't do as CMU did last year, and defend Ohio with a nickle. Instead, they will have to load the box, which in turn will open up the play action passing game. (I expect a lot of TD passes to the tight ends again.) The net result won't be an offense as good as 2011, but it should be significantly better than last year.

DEFENSE
Defensive Line - One of the bright spots in last year's team was the defensive line. Unfortunately there are heavy losses there, and I expect that 2015's line won't be quite as good. How good the line turns out to be is difficult to predict because we'll see some players we haven't seen much of yet, Porter and Aloese. Players at DT will include Purdum, Tautuaiki, Porter and Aloese, plus perhaps Sayles or Kuhar. If the line is solid, this defense will be good.

Linebackers - Last year the linebackers were good, but very young. They looked even better than they were because of the excellent DT play up front from Crutcher and McLeod who kept the OL away from them. This year they will be better and more experienced, but can the DTs keep the linemen away, and allow them to shine again? I think this is the best group of linebackers since 2006 (Tyler-Russ-Graham) or 2008 (Renfro-Brown-Keller), so I think they will be fine.

Defensive Backs - It will be a defensive backfield loaded with Seniors (Bass, Wells, Layton, Carpenter, Jones), so this is a group that should make very few mistakes. There have been defensive backfields with more talent, but not ones with more experience. I think they will be very good this fall.

Overall Defense - Overall, if they can solve the problems up front, and I think they can, this defense is going to kick some serious butt. I think the best defense overall that Ohio has put on the field under Burrow was the 2012 squad, before they got ripped apart with injuries. The defense that played Penn State was a great defense (no other team held Penn State to 14 that year). This defense has the capability of being as good as the pre-injury 2012 defense.

TEAM AS A WHOLE - I really like what I see here. I see a balanced and strong defense that has the capability of getting a lot of 3 and outs, and I see an offense that, while not as dynamic as some of Ohio's past offenses, has the capability of punishing opposing defense with a strong running game and sustaining drives. Those two things go together very well. Take the ball away quickly, and then keep it a long time, and you wear the other team down.

My prediction above just so happens to be exactly my favorite type of team. Some people like teams with a lot of flash and sizzle. I like teams with win by wearing the other team down. If things go as I expect, I am going to LOVE football this fall. In fact, when it's all over, this may be my favorite Bobcat team yet.

SCHEDULE
As I said in the other thread, the scheduling gods were not kind to Ohio this year. My prediction for the west is WMU, then NIU, Ball State, and Toledo, followed by CMU and EMU at the bottom. Ohio plays BG on the road, and the three top West teams, WMU, Ball State, and NIU. I think that the winner of the East this year will have 2 MAC losses, so, Ohio will need to either beat BG and one of the three West teams, or if they lose to BG, beat all three West teams. It's a tough road, but not an impossible one.

Good analysis, LC.

I expect we'll get 7 to 9 wins this year, 10 or 11 with a few breaks, and should be in the hunt for the East title.

It's time that we get a break with the injury bug. These past 3 years have hurt the depth of our team.
If we do get a break our chances of a good season improves dramatically.
I am waiting to hear somethings about Joey and his chances this year for some PT.




GO BOBCATS

Perspective.

Smith and Reid need to stay on the field yet Walker, Cope, Wilson, Brunis and Brown need more time and to step up?

Effective passing so Ds don't stack the line, while L.C. is hoping for a good enough running game so Ds do stack the line to open up the passing.

I'm conflicted/confused.

Not really. Run the ball, Stop thr run, Win the Game!!!

Simply put...if you can't pass it will be harder to run the ball.

If D's worry about and play for the pass it will make it easier to run.

The reverse is also true. If you can't run the ball, it's a lot harder to pass the ball. For examples of that you need to only look to the CMU and WMU games. Neither team feared Ohio's rushing attack, so they lined up in the nickle defense much of the time, which made it a lot harder to throw the ball.

I think next year Ohio should be able to do both. Will the run open up the pass? Will the pass open up the run? Answer: Both.

L.C.. I think you are on to something, though, I believe Ohio can effectively run from their current sets. Beau behind a representative line ran for 1,600 yards.

Win the East.
Win the MACC.
Win the bowl game.

Offense will come down to the offensive line. It wasn't very good last year. There's no reason to think it won't be much better this year. With improved offensive line play, the offense will be much better. I doubt the offense has any All-MAC first-team players at QB, RB or WR this year, but I think all positions can be above average with good line play, which should be good enough with the potential the defense has to be outstanding.

I'll go out on a limb and say we'll exceed Monroe's expectations. ;-)

DT and QB are the two positions that I think swing this season on both sides of the ball.

This team has too much experience for us to miss a bowl game. With our schedule, the MAC is going to be tough. We are going to need to come to play to win it.

Agreed. Winning the MACC is far more important than any of the bowl games we'll be playing in.

I believe so, but that wasn't what this thread was about. In the title, the last word has two "L"s and no "I".