I do some see positive things in Sprague. The play he made on 3rd down to keep the drive alive in the first drive of the game showed athleticism and poise. He will need to keep playing better.

The Bobcats were close to making big plays against Akron, such as the interceptions they narrowly missed. They will have to make those plays this week. And find a way to get to the quarterback more.

I would really like to see them run more play action off the zone read action, especially on first down. That play is becoming too predictable...Ohio doesnt have the dominant line to get away with that much predictability.

Let's hope those listed as questionable heal up and the Bobcats play a great game on Saturday.

Since LC nearly predicted the exact score last week, I look forward to his prediction!

It will be a few days. I don't have a handle on WMU yet, other than that they are young, but improving. I know this - it won't be an easy game. I see this as the hardest remaining game. Ohio is a 9.5 point underdog, and that's probably about right.

In any case, Ohio9704's guess was even close than mine. I was at 19-16, he was at 23-21.

WMU's average age of players is very comparable to Ohio on their first string, and their backups are actually slightly younger than Ohio's. As starters, WMU lists 3 true freshmen, playing RB, FB, and WLB, and on second string they have another 7 true freshmen, at LG, RG, RT, and TE on offense, plus DE, DT, and FS on defense.

While it will be nice to not be facing a lineup of all Juniors/Seniors such as Akron and CMU had, keep in mind that WMU's recruiting class last year was off the charts for a MAC class; they had a class that many P5 schools would have been happy with.

With all this youth, like Ohio, WMU has improved a lot from the beginning of the year. In Fleck's first year, he took a top half of the MAC program (under Cubit), and turned it into a cellar dweller, trying a lot of radical things. This year I haven't heard about any crazy stuff, so he seems to have returned to fundamentals, and has WMU again positioned as a top-half of the MAC team.

I believe Seth Everhart (shoulder surgery not the appendectomy) and Devin Jones were both recently noted as out for the year. Vick and White are more likely Questionable as they are both practicing now. Cope will play this week. Purdum played against Akron so should probably be removed from the list.

Brunis was in full pads but I don't remember him getting in the game. He did grab his helmet and run to the offensive huddle during to's. White is one that I didn't see on the sidelines period. Could have missed him!

Blair Brown returns this week too.

So, we should have Cope, Purdum, Brunis, Blair Brown, and Ingol all back this week? That would certainly help, and make the injury list the shortest in quite some time.

As a tidbit of information, I note that the leading receiver for WMU in terms of yardage is Corey Davis, the younger brother of Titus Davis, who played for CMU.

Ohio won the tunrover battle vs. Idaho. Poling had 3 INTs.

Nic Gibbons shows up again on the WMU depth chart. :-)

We have four left and I think Buffalo is probably our best shot at a win. Despite the joy of pulling off the upset against Akron on Saturday, I still think there's a strong possibility we lose out. Akron's situation played right into our hands breaking in a new, inaccurate QB and not having a running game to speak of (i.e. on that particular day, they were the only team in the conference with a worse offense than Ohio). WMU, NIU and Miami all have offenses that we simply can't keep up with. Should be interesting. I hope we grab one of those other three to at least finish 6-6.

Anyone else kinda glad we don't have to deal with UMass's offense this season?

Make fun of PJ Fleck all you want (seriously, you should), but his recruiting has been bananas, and he has already quadrupled his win total from year 1 to year 2. Oh, he also just totally shut down the defending MAC champ, and the team that embarrassed us on homecoming 10 days ago.

No, this weekend is not an impossible task, but it's hardly a pick 'em. WMU is a double-digit favorite for a reason. On top of that, our history in their building stinks to high heaven. I look for a *fairly* competitive game, but I believe it will take a +3 in turnovers or a couple special teams/defense scores to win. I predict that we will pretty much be out of it when the 4th quarter hits.

I see us hanging around for four quarters and pulling it out again at the end on another late kick just as we've done in our other two MAC wins.

OU 24
WMU 23

In his defense, he was busy being a flake last year, but I haven't heard of anything flakey this year. He seems to have buckled down and focused on coaching. On the other hand, it's not fair to compare his win total this year to last year, because it's entirely too low of a target. Under Cubit WMU was typically 3rd behind Toledo and NIU, and he won 6 in 2010, 7 in 2011, and 4 in 2012. If Fleck only gets to 5-6 wins this year, he will have just gotten back to the level Cubit was. Like Ohio, though, he has a young team, and they will be a force in the MAC for the next several years.


Fleck is a salesman, there is no doubt about it. Still, seven 3-star players out of 25 recruits is good, and they will probably be the top class in the MAC again this year, but it is not off-the-charts good, like his class last year, when he had fourteen 3-star recruits.

One question, though: Does WMU take partial qualifiers? I thought I read that some of those fourteen 3-star players from last year did not qualify academically, but were enrolled and sitting this year out. Clearly if you are willing to take partial qualifiers, it's a recruiting advantage because you can go after the 3-4 star players that the P5 won't/can't touch because of academics. Marshall is another school that takes partial qualifiers, and they have used that method to collect some impressive talent for a G-5 team.

By contrast, Ohio does not take partial qualifiers; they route them to JUCO, and in a few cases they return, but in most cases they do not. That's fine with me. I think Ohio should not compromise on academics, and I like seeing players who excel as academics as well as on the field, even if it means a few less wins.


If his team does rise to the top of the MAC, a P5 job will be ready for him very quickly, probably no later than next year. A salesman that can recruit that much better talent than his conference peers will always be in demand.