MAC Previews 2016

[K-Roo]

Campus Insiders

 

 

MAC Football Team That Will Disappoint

Akron - It was a phenomenal stunner of a 2015 under Terry Bowden going 8-5 with five straight wins to close out finishing with a bowl victory. But that was with a veteran team and a loaded defense, and now it’s rebuilding time. Bowden has come up with a nice base of players to start with, and there’s hope for the systems on both sides to be good enough try to recreate the magic. It’s not going to happen. The schedule is harder, the team has to replace too many key parts, and it’ll take a minor miracle to get to six wins.

[ZippyRulz]

I don't see Oklahoma on the schedule this year. Toledo and BG have new coaches, BG has a new QB. Zips have a returning starter at QB and bolstered WR corps. Even if the defense is a little weaker, we should be able to score more points to compensate. I don't think any of our opponents will be viewing us as an easy out and I don't think 6 wins would be miraculous.

 

[skip-zip]

I don't want to get into over-analyzing the schedule at this point.  But, hopefully we can get 2 OOC wins again, with the two home games.  If so, we enter league play at 2-2 again.  From there, lets face it, we cleaned up on the weakest opponents in the league at the right time last year.  This year, there's no UMass, and Buffalo and Ken+ are road games.  Those were 3 of the 4 weak opponents that we had must-win situations with last year.  

 

I usually hate the narrow view that the prognosticators usually have when it comes to assessing the MAC, but it's hard to argue with someone who doubts our ability to equal last year when they see the magnitude of the holes we have to fill.  It's up to us to show them all that we've plugged those holes adequately.   

[zipsoutsider]

40 minutes ago, skip-zip said:

From there, lets face it, we cleaned up on the weakest opponents in the league at the right time last year.  This year, there's no UMass, and Buffalo and Ken+ are road games.  Those were 3 of the 4 weak opponents that we had must-win situations with last year.  

That's one way to look at it. However, I thought as went on the 5 game tear last year, "This team is learning how to win." The big won over Buffalo was important because we did not just match the level of play of our competition, we went to the next level. We have never returned players to the field with that many wins before. There is a lot of room for optimism. To me, beating Utah State was like beating an Ohio level team. 

[skip-zip]

Sure, you hope that we grew as a team during that period, and may be ready to reach the "next level".  But with so many of the important pieces gone, and a much tougher road vs. 2-3 of the victories we had last year, is it really difficult to argue with someone who sees that matching last year appears to be an uphill battle right now?

 

Only us here, as the most connected fans, have any real knowledge of the newcomers, and can really be hopeful about if/when some of these guys may be able to produce.   

[Sergeant Zip]

Toledo has a home and home with Miami (FL) in 2017 and 2018

 

http://twitter.com/UTPaulHelgren/status/756190396959559685

[K92]

1 hour ago, Sergeant Zip said:

Toledo has a home and home with Miami (FL) in 2017 and 2018

 

http://twitter.com/UTPaulHelgren/status/756190396959559685

The Hurricanes can't entice anyone to come to a game in Miami, so they might as well play in Toledo.

Beware Rockets, Miami players will probably be stoked to play in front of such a big crowd, though.

[Blue & Gold]

Reminds me of a tweet I saw a few years ago from a reporter at a Miami game.  It read, "There are hundreds of people at the Hurricanes game today."  

[Captain Kangaroo]

USA Today's Take

 

Not sure what you learn about the Zips in the piece, but you do learn a little about the rest of the MAC.