http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/football/ncaa/08/29/preseason-crystal-ball/index.html?eref=sihp&sct=hp_t11_a0


about half way down the page...."best bet to bust the BCS"

this time its Stewart Mandel

Dont get me wrong, I abso-freakin-lutley would love to see undefeated happen....
 
but for me the Penn State game does not worry me, its the nature of the MAC and how every year, whether its football or basketball, the teams tend to beat up on each other in coference play and games get won by teams that should have never won the game...ie...Ball State and even Buffalo beating us last year.

I think all the talk of undefeated season is a bit overblown.  Last year, we went 9-3 during the regular season playing only three teams that had a winning season (Rutgers, Terd and Temps) and with most of the better teams at home.  That gave us an edge over them.  This season, we have three teams with winning records from last year (Penn St, Terd and Norfolk St) but the better teams based on last year's records are on the road (Penn St, Terd, BSU, UMass, Fiami and Kent).  Going unbeaten is always tough, and it doesn't help to have the better opponents on the road.  It can be done, but it's a long shot.  I'm not going to get excited about it unless we're unbeaten at the end of October.

"...that schedule is a certified clown show."
 
Gotta love that.

Penn State worries me, mainly because I want to keep dreaming of undefeated.  Just imagine college green on a Tuesday or Wednesday in late fall.  Colored leaves, hipsters juggling, and an undefeated Bobcats football team.  The buzz would be unreal.

edit: I guess I should make it clear that unless there are some insane loses that really open things up, we probably don't deserve BCS, even if we're undefeated...  But I compare this to a case of a clear holding call against us.  I know it is the right call but I still boo the refs.  

Also, how cool is it that we get to talk about this stuff?  Being good is fun.

One interesting aspect of all this is that half the pickers at the Daily News chose us over Penn St.  Could be that they're just wishing nothing but bad things for Penn St, but I'm surprised they've even heard of a team named Ohio that doesn't have "$U" after it.  Even as recent as last year we probably wouldn't have been given a chance to beat them.  This program has come a long way.

To clarify, I'm not saying we will go undefeated -- it's a very high goal with so many variables, and we may well stub a toe somewhere but still have a marvelously successful season.  I'm more marveling over the change in perception our team has undergone in the last several years.

People are discounting our MAC schedule a little too easily.  Is there a team on our schedule that is not supposed to be better than last year?  The only team that is supposed to step back from last season is NIU and that's because they won the conference and lost their superstar QB.  they still might be very good with any improvement on D as they had a very solid backup.

Tack on Marshall and NMSU, both of whom will be better than last year. Penn State is an unknown, but the win has cachet if we can snag it.  Norfolk State I have no idea, but I don't begrudge the FCS game - it ensures we can have 2 home out of conf. games.

My greatest concern is how our offense absolutely sputtered to the finish.  Fairly lame performances against Miami, NIU and Utah State.  I hope we are healthy and ready to move fast this year.  We need Tettleton to be unconscious to win this weekend.

We set all kinds of school records last year, but that's not really saying much. All that means is we had an average year by Toledo standards. I think we still have lots of room to improve on the offensive side of the ball. especially in our consistency.