Here are this season's MAC games vs. the Snob Conferences:

Akron at Oklahoma (9/5)
Pitt at Akron (9/12)
Ball State at Texas A&M (9/12)
Ball State at Northwestern (9/26)
Bowling Green at Tennessee (9/5)
Bowling Green at Maryland (9/12)
Bowling Green at Purdue (9/26)
Buffalo at Penn State (9/12)
Oklahoma State at Central Michigan (9/3)
Central Michigan at Syracuse (9/19)
Central Michigan at Michigan State (9/26)
Eastern Michigan at LSU (10/3)
Kent State at Illinois (9/5)
Kent State at Minnesota (9/19)
UMass at Colorado (9/12)
UMass at Notre Dame (9/26)
Fiami at Wisconsin (9/12)
NIU at Ohio State (9/19)
NIU at Boston College (9/26)
Ohio at Minnesota (9/26)
Toledo at Arkansas (9/12)
Iowa State at Toledo (9/19)
Michigan State at Western Michigan (9/4)
Western Michigan at Ohio State (9/26)

[Removed Cincy-Fiami]

my choices above.

Iowa St-Toledo and UMass-Colo are real possibilities. MSU-WMU might be really close, given that it's the first week of the season, WMU's at home and they'll be targeting MSU all spring and summer.

Pretty much always the case with Ohio's non-conference schedules anymore. The entire program is overdue for a visit to the dentist with the cupcake schedules Ohio has been choming on compared to our peers. Going 3-1 in essentially our expectation, norm and default when it comes to these games. I get why we do it, but it sure would be nice to put some big boy pants on every now and again and go out and schedule a real non-conference slate every once in awhile these days. Just sayin'.

I have a feeling that this could be our next Penn State-like game. By the fourth game of the year OHIO should be hitting on all cylinders.

I classify the American as "Semi Snob."

I thought about it some more, and revised it a little. We all missed the most likely MAC win, Iowa State at Toledo:

Likely MAC Wins:
Iowa State at Toledo (9/19) <---- Most likely MAC win
Bowling Green at Purdue (9/26)

Possible wins:
UMass at Colorado (9/12)
Bowling Green at Maryland (9/12)
Ball State at Northwestern (9/26)
Oklahoma State At CMU (9/5) <------------This game wasn't on the original list
Central Michigan at Syracuse (9/19)
Kent State at Illinois (9/5)

Unlikely but possible:
Bowling Green vs Tennessee at neutral site (9/5)
Ohio at Minnesota (9/26)
[Cincinnati at Miami (9/19)] <----- Wannabe Snob game
Pitt at Akron (9/12)
NIU at Boston College (9/26)

Very Unlikely
Michigan State at Western Michigan (9/4)
UMass at Notre Dame (9/26)
Ball State at Texas A&M (9/12)
Buffalo at Penn State (9/12)
Kent State at Minnesota (9/19)

Forget it
Toledo at Arkansas (9/12)
Western Michigan at Ohio State (9/26)
Akron at Oklahoma (9/5)
Miami at Wisconsin (9/12)
Central Michigan at Michigan State (9/26)
NIU @ Ohio State (9/19) <-----This game wasn't on the original list

Oh the Humanity
Eastern Michigan at LSU (10/3)

I'd consider Western's game vs MSU a win, just because they got them to play a game in their stadium. They'll probably get crushed on the field.

After reading the article about BG today, I would think that their defense is going to be a big issue when they play the big boys. We put up about 500+ yards against them last year as I recall. They could really be bad on defense unless I'm missing something. Their offense should be great however.

It's in the sidebar today. So hope that works for you.

Note that they replaced the defensive coordinator this year, and that may address some problems. The BG defense that was 2d to last in the MAC last year (giving up 493 yards/game and 33.5 points/game) was made up of mostly the same players that led the MAC in defense in 2013 (321 yards/game and 15.9 points/game). Yes, part of the drop was because of the speed they ran their offense, which meant that the defense was on the field for 1157 plays in 2014 compared to 890 in 2013, but that wasn't all of it. The yards given up per play jumped from 5.1 (best in the MAC) to 6.0 (2d worst).


http://tinyurl.com/oa84epy

newslinks are found in the sidebar on the home page
http://www.bobcatattack.com
(I don't usually enter at the home page, either)

Indeed. I was not expecting BG's defense to go from #1 to #12 in the MAC last year, but it's fine with me if it stays there.

No, I never said that losses by 25 points or more are the only ones that are significant. I didn't address the meaning of the close losses at all, which is a totally different subject, and one we can discuss separately, if you like.

What I did say was that teams should rarely, if ever, lose by 25 or more, at least, not unless they are playing an unusually good team. When a team loses by 25 or more consistently, it is an indication of a problem. When I showed that the 2013 team lost not one, but four games by more than 25, only one of which was to a "very good team", I was using data to confirm your hypothesis that there was something very wrong in 2013. Instead of seeing my data as a confirmation of your point of view, which is what it was, you inexplicably took it as an attack on your view.

2013 by all measures had a lot of returning talent, and they should have been a good team. Somehow, instead of being good, they managed to lose repeatedly by 25 or more. By the same measures, 2014 had very little returning talent, losing the QB (Tettleton), RBs (Blankenship, Boykin), both TEs (Hill, Talbert), the three starting WR (Foster, Waters, Dovell) and most of the OL (Prior, Johnson, McGrath, Lechner, plus Wood due to injury), plus some key defenders (Branz and Barber from the DL, K. Moore and Russell at LB, and Carrie, Shaw, Hughes, and Carpenter due to injury from the DBs). The 2014 team played about 20 Freshmen (True+Redshirt). There was no reason to expect it to be good. Yet, the 2014 team won nearly the same number of games as the 2013 team. Even more significantly, they played competitively against both teams in the MAC Championship. For the level of experience that they had, I thought that the 2014 team played well last year, though you are free to disagree.

2015 will not be a rebuilding year. Virtually everyone is back. Unlike last year, there is no reason that the 2015 team should not be every bit as good as the 2009-2011 teams. Will they win the MAC? I don't know, but they have as good a chance as anyone. The schedule isn't the best, with BG on the road, and the three teams that I believe will be the best in the West this year, WMU, NIU, and Ball State. (Toledo could be in the top three as well, but I think they will be 4th, with CMU-EMU bringing up the rear). Even with the tough schedule, I don't rule out a MAC Championship. I expect all four of the above games (WMU, NIU, Ball State, and BG) to be decided by less than a TD, and how these four games shake out will determine where Ohio fits in the final pecking order. (Here is where we can discuss the meaning of winning or not winning the close ones).


I'm not sure who this is directed at, but I don't expect anyone to be 100% positive. The converse of that, however, is that I don't expect anyone to be 100% negative, either.

As for me, not 100% positive, but I admit that I'm an optimist, and I've always been an optimist. If you hate optimism, there isn't much I can do about that. I wasn't happy about what happened in 2013, and I don't think anyone was. I know that applied to people inside the program as well as to us, as fans. I know the players weren't happy - they went to Solich looking for changes. I know Solich wasn't happy, and you could see it in his face and comments, and in the changes he made. He brought in the Navy Seals training guy, and he brought in another group, including a member of this board, to consult on new ideas to improve team unity.

As an optimist, it isn't hard for me to see progress. I saw a team that should have been good go 7-6, and then I saw a team that should have been bad go 6-6. I saw a team that, in a rebuilding year, still managed to win enough games to be bowl eligible, and manage to stay competitive in most of the other games, even though they had key injuries to Vick and AJ. I see a team for this fall that returns all it's key talent, a team that matches in experience and talent levels the teams of 2009-2011.

Monroe, I don't expect that we'll ever completely agree, but I do expect that by the end of the season, you and I will be closer to agreement. If the 2015 team only wins 6, then it will be a team, that like 2013 underperforms my expectations. If they win 9-10, as I expect, then they will exceed your expectations. If they win more, or a MACC, everyone will be happy....at least until 2016. ;)