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Toledo's home schedule is as unattractive as I have ever seen it:

EMU

WMU

EWU didn't know they had football 'til now

NIU

Buffalo

Navy

Eastern Washington is pretty cool. They've got a red field ...


And they're a really good FCS team. They beat Idaho last year, they darn near beat Wazzou, and lost by three late in the FCS tournament. They really are awesome in that division. One of my favorite FCS teams to watch.

"See you at the game" vs. losing teams, a service academy and a team you never heard of!

At least they can sell the prospect of a bunch of points being scored on both ends when they play NIU. It'll be interesting to see how they do with their new coach, who has just two years of FBS coaching expereince and was only the offensive line coach going into last season before two quick promotions. The performance against Florida State was particularly bad, especially on offense which is his supposed specialty. We gave Florida a much tougher game on their home field than they gave the Seminoles.

You really think we would have faired better than that against FSU? We may have looked better against UF but we looked awful against a mediocre VT. I thought we played well against UF too but I also think we benefitted playing them in week one when they hadn't found their identity yet.

FWIW I think Carey was a great pick for HC. He was the O line coach at NIU and did some wonders with that group in the last couple of years. If they wanted to promote from within, I'd say he was the right guy. If he can motivate the rest of the team and get them to play as hard on every play as he has the O line, NIU will not drop at all.

zete wrote: EWU didn't know they had football 'til now

EWU won the NCAA Championship in 2010. They play on the field they call "The Inferno."

zete wrote:Toledo's home schedule is as unattractive as I have ever seen it:

EMU

WMU

EWU didn't know they had football 'til now

NIU

Buffalo

Navy

Navy at home is an attractive game. So is NIU. They get either NIU or BG at home every year. BG basically had that schedule last year when the 1st schedule came out, before Temple left and we were switched back to the East. The conference schedule is what it is.

They get Mizzou at home next year, Miami (FL) in 2015, then Tulsa in 2017, and Nevada in 2018.

The MAC as a whole has been doing a good job scheduling. BG has Indiana, Maryland, Memphis and La Tech. on future schedules.

kdog27 wrote:You really think we would have faired better than that against FSU? We may have looked better against UF but we looked awful against a mediocre VT. I thought we played well against UF too but I also think we benefitted playing them in week one when they hadn't found their identity yet.

It's tough to say because of the variability week to week but I do believe so. NIU's offense was/is completely dependent on the quarterback and his ability to make plays on the run. Once they shut that down with their NFL-caliber defensive line they were done. Our defense would have given Manuel more problems than NIU as well.

MarkL wrote:FWIW I think Carey was a great pick for HC. He was the O line coach at NIU and did some wonders with that group in the last couple of years. If they wanted to promote from within, I'd say he was the right guy. If he can motivate the rest of the team and get them to play as hard on every play as he has the O line, NIU will not drop at all.

The trend in the MAC is to promote from within, but this is still a reach IMHO. They owed it to themselves to do a national search. Could you imagine the caliber of candidates they'd attract coming off an Orange Bowl bid? All they did was partially salvage a recruiting class that didn't turn out to be very good anyway.

Not to begrudge Dave Doeren (who Chris Kingston saw fit to hire at NC State), but that staff greatly benefitted from the work of their predecessor Jerry Kill and got extrodinarily lucky to sneak into the BCS.

That red field is atrocious...