|
|||||
|
The weekend was a good one for Conference USA. Despite a lack of national TV coverage, the UCF-ECU game lived up to the hype, Tulsa knocked off a big opponent on a national stage, and two other games came down to the wire. UAB 50, Southern Miss 49- Since getting shelled at UCF a few weeks ago, [...] We’re finally getting into the meat of the conference schedule, although even this week we have C-USA teams going out of conference for games. Nonetheless, the results of the games tomorrow will have a profound impact on the league championship race. 12:00 PM, CSS- UAB at Southern Miss: Southern Miss has been playing well lately, but UAB [...] Football on the Fringe Season Previews were ranked, then delivered in random order. We made it. The 54th season preview. Football is mere days away. We’ll do some conference previewing in the next couple days, the first non-BCS Top 25, and real actual game previews by Thursday. Joy. Now, about Buffalo. Despite a quality road win to open the season out at UTEP, Buffalo had a hard time getting things on track after that, dropping their next four games to get behind the eight ball early. They won their next two, then lost three MAC games by 3, 1, and 3 again. The grabbed two more wins at the end of the year to finish out a respectable 5-7, not the numbers they were looking for after a conference championship in 2008. 2010 looks to be tumultuous for the Bulls. Head coach Turner Gill is gone, now in charge at Kansas, and with a new coach will also come a new quarterback and lead rusher. The good news is that 8 players are back from the #3 total defense in the MAC, so if the new offense can score points, the team will be competitive. Football on the Fringe Season Previews were ranked, then delivered in random order. Kent State came painfully close to breaking through the six win barrier last year, which they’ve done only twice in the last two decades. They started conference play well, beat eventual division winner Ohio, but lost to their biggest rival, Akron, who they should have wiped off the field. Even so, they controlled their own destiny when they faced Temple, but couldn’t get it done there and ended the year with a 6-9 loss to Buffalo. Despite the fizzle at the end of the year, there’s a lot to be optimistic about for the Golden Flashes- their quarterback joins 8 other offensive starters, and only four defensive players have been lost. The best in the East will have to come through their stadium, and the coaching staff is stable. Football on the Fringe Season Previews were ranked, then delivered in random order. Hawaii started the year off well, dispatching their season opening 1-AA opponent then beating Washington State in Seattle (we didn’t know yet just how bad the Cougars would be), but then racked up six straight losses, pinning their backs to the wall if they wanted to get to a bowl game. To make it, they had to win their last five games, and they nearly did. They beat Navy at home to set up a showdown with Wisconsin to get to 7-6, but they proved no match for the Badgers, falling 51-10 to close the season at 6-7. Hawaii loses a lot of players this year, including seven on the offensive side, but junior QB Bryant Moniz is expected to lead the offense after starting eight of the last nine games a year ago. The defense has more returning talent, with seven players back, but they’re going to have to be better than the team that gave up 30+ on seven occasions last year. Football on the Fringe Season Previews were ranked, then delivered in random order. Idaho was one of a few teams I “discovered” in the first year of this site, going from barely aware of their presence to openly rooting for them. The timing was nice, since they won more games in 2009 than they had in the previous three seasons, logging their first winning season since 1999. They got there by winning six of their first seven, then hanging on as the best of the WAC stormed through. The faced Bowling Green in the Humanitarian Bowl, practically a home game despite technically being on their rivals’ field. Head coach Robb Akey and his mustache launched into the national consciousness in that game, where he elected to try a two point conversion with four seconds on the clock and grabbed the win, rather than settling for overtime. Expectations will be high for the Vandals for the first time in a long time this year. QB Nathan Enderle is back for his senior season, along with most of the skill position players. The defense only loses two players, but they’ll need more than experience- the defense has to find a way to stop somebody this year- only two teams allowed more points than Idaho did in 2009 (ok, the bowl game skews that number, but Idaho was still 114th in scoring defense). Football on the Fringe Season Previews were ranked, then delivered in random order. After a 9-4 2008 campaign, Western Michigan was expected to be among the best in the MAC last year, but ultimately they weren’t at the level of Northern Illinois and Central Michigan. The losses piled up at the end of the year, leaving the Broncos at 5-7 and home for the postseason. I feel like I’ve written this 30 times in the last three weeks, but the Broncos are back with a lot of returning players, but lose talented QB Tim Hiller and 1100 yard rusher Brandon West. If they can find replacements there, then the other 8 players who do return on offense (and seven on defense) could be enough to keep WMU in the hunt this year. Football on the Fringe Season Previews were ranked, then delivered in random order. Troy University comes to 2010 after four consecutive seasons winning or sharing the Sun Belt Conference championship. Last year, they rebounded from early losses to Bowling Green and the Gators to win seven in a row and nine of their last ten regular season games, sweeping the Sun Belt and setting up a conference-champions showdown against Central Michigan. CMU got the better of the Trojans by 3 points in double overtime, in a game that was much more exciting than some BCS Championship drudgery that happened the next night. 2010 presents a lot of obstacles for the Trojans- holes at quarterback and a defense decimated by graduations (only three starters return, compared with six on the offense) will mean a young, inexperienced team all the way around. Troy has dealt with this well in the past, but the Sun Belt is going to be a difficult league to win this year, especially with such a young team. Football on the Fringe Season Previews were ranked, then delivered in random order. At last we complete the top 10 on the pre-pre-season rankings with Texas Christian University. As a person reading this site, you already know that TCU ran through the 2009 regular season undefeated, only to get turned back in the Fiesta Bowl by Boise State. Like Boise State, TCU is back with their coach, quarterback, and a bunch of the starters from last year’s team. Gone is star DE Jerry Hughes from the defense, but seven of his starting teammates are back on the defense, and eight other starters join QB Andy Dalton on his side. TCU’s schedule is far from easy, but if they can continue the high level of play from last year, they should have their place in the national title picture. Football on the Fringe Season Previews were ranked, then delivered in random order. We come to our fourth consecutive, and final, Conference USA team in the 2010 previews. The first sign that all was not well at Tulsa in 2009 would have been the Oklahoma game, where the Golden Hurricane got wiped off the field to the tune of 45-0, by an Oklahoma squad that wasn’t that good. They bounced back after a 1-AA win and beat Rice, then gave Boise State one of their best games of the year, falling 28-21. That game tipped off a shocking six game losing streak, broken only by beating Memphis in overtime to end the season. 2010 would be a great year to bounce back, because Tulsa’s going to get another chance in the national spotlight. And they should be primed to do just that, with nine starters back on offense, including QB GJ Kinne. If not for that Keenum fella down in Houston, Tulsa might be back as the favorite in the West. They do have to replace six defensive starters, but this is Conference USA, and defense is but an afterthought. |
|||||
|
Copyright © 2012 Football on the Fringe - All Rights Reserved |
|||||