2023 Offseason

[mbenecke]

Practice footage...

Looks a bit slow...slow release

https://twitter.com/18Timosciek/status/ ... 6622514176

I don’t think his release looks THAT slow. He’s also kinda throwing deep bombs on that highlight tape, so I give him a break for that.

No disrespect to Matt McDonald, but I’ve never seen a QB with a slower windup and release than him. So I can live with this - especially for a guy who will be the 3rd or 4th guy in the room.

Tim Tebow?

Hey, maybe that's Scottie L's calling card! I can teach QBs the best ways to NOT throw the football!

Tebow’s throwing motion is just lefty Matt. Lol

[Flipper]

PWO at Purdue...Big dude...appears to have a power arm but not too mobile...like Elvis Grbac at UM when Scot was there...I think

on edit...nah, Grbac was there before SL. Ryan Mallet was there when SL was...he was big and immobile...but he was a ***** recruit

Ryan Mallett drowned at a FL beach today...he was just 35 years old

[jpfalcon09]

Season ticket holder scrimmage and luncheon has been announced for August 19th.

[Redwingtom]

Season ticket holder scrimmage and luncheon has been announced for August 19th.

What a great idea. Can't wait to see the season ticket holders square off on the field. How are they picking teams though? Some of them are probably pretty old!

Sorry, couldn't resist.

[TommyG]

[quote=jpfalcon09 post_id=454941 time=<a href="tel:1688580032">1688580032</a> user_id=830]
Season ticket holder scrimmage and luncheon has been announced for August 19th.

What a great idea. Can't wait to see the season ticket holders square off on the field. How are they picking teams though? Some of them are probably pretty old!

Sorry, couldn't resist.
[/quote]

That one made me chuckle….well done

[Falconfreak90]

Man. Four mid-week games. Those are going to end up being the death of MAC football. Multiple people who have transferred out of the MAC (including Jalen Grant) have said how hard it is to have class and then go play a game.

4 mid-week games is brutal. 2 home games during the week, when there are only 5 home games in the first place, is brutal.

It completely screws over fans in favor of the few hundred thousand gamblers that are bored on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. Hate, HATE that our conference has been duped into thinking it’s a good thing.

Agreed. Only 5 home games this year and 2 in mid week. I have vacation days to burn so I'll be at the Ball State and tsun games...and Kent on a weeknight is no BiG deal being 20 min from me. But damn, two home games in Sept and ONE in Oct. Ffs. Check out Ohio U's sked.

https://ohiobobcats.com/sports/football/schedule/2023

They play TWO mid week games, have TWO byes and their first 9 games are all on Saturday. And they don't play back to back road games all year. How the hell did they manage this?

[mbenecke]

Media day in Detroit is here, and with it comes the preseason poll.

East
1. Ohio (9) - 63
2. Miami (2) - 52
3. Buffalo (1) - 51
4. Bowling Green - 35
5. Akron - 26
6. Kent State - 19

West
1. Toledo (11) - 66
2. Eastern Michigan (1) - 55
3. Northern Illinois - 38
4. Central Michigan - 37
5. Ball State - 27
6. Western Michigan - 23

[TommyG]

1. Games BG loses…
Liberty, UM, Ohio

2. Games BG likely loses…but you could play a 2nd/3rd string QB…
GT (I think GT should be in the first column but i’ll be overly optimistic) Miami, UT

3. Toss up games…
Akron, Buffalo, Ball State, WMU

4. Games BG should win under any circumstance…
EIU, Kent

I think it’s almost a lock to see BG lose every game in the first 2 groups.

I think it’s a stretch to say BG does any better than 2-2 in group 3.

There is probably about a 5% chance for this team to get to 6 wins. They’d have to get better breaks than they did last year….that would be crazy in back to back seasons.

I think if you combined the 2 divisions BG is realistically 9th or 10th.

[mbenecke]

We should win 5 games this year, minimum.

Eastern Illinois, Kent, Ball State, WMU, and Akron should all be wins, based on the poll.

But we should also be expecting more than that this year, right? So we will need to spring at least one upset to even reach bowl eligibility.

I’m optimistic about this relatively talented roster, but I’m also ready to be realistic about this year, too.

[jpfalcon09]

We should win 5 games this year, minimum.

Eastern Illinois, Kent, Ball State, WMU, and Akron should all be wins.

But we should also be expecting more than that this year, right? So we will need to spring at least one upset to even reach bowl eligibility.

I’m optimistic about this relatively talented roster, but I’m also ready to be realistic about this year, too.

Consistency is the key this year. No wild ups and downs like 2022. I think six wins is attainable. Outside of Ohio the East will be a crapshoot. I'm not convinced the Liberty game will be a guaranteed loss either.

[Flipper]

I think we start 1-6 and maybe 2-5. The string of games with Akron, Ball State and Kent are crucial. I thnk we lose to UT and probably WMU...we barely beat them last year at home when they started a RS freshman QB.

I think our best case scenario is 5-7....worst case 1-11.

We finished with a losing record last year...not sure we're demonstrably better at any position group. Pretty sure we're worse in the secondary and DL

[hammb]

. Pretty sure we're worse in the secondary and DL

And until I see otherwise, QB.

I'm not a fan of MacDonald at all, but he did develop into an average MAC passer last year. I'm not convinced any of the new guys will be as good right away.

[BillyLP]

What I think should happen: 7 wins or Loeffler gone
What I think will happen: 5-7 and Loeffler stays
Best case scenario: 8-4 with bowl game
Worst case scenario: 2-10
What I think would need to happen for Loeffler to get canned? 4-8 or worse.

Would love to be proven wrong but I've not seen enough to assume we have improved. Perfect scenario would be we go 10-2 with only losses to UM & GT and Loeffler gets hired away by Rice or Syracuse or some desperate program and we can hire someone who has a 21st century offense. Odds of that are roughly 250,000 to 1.

[TommyG]

If you could promise me that Stewart would stay healthy and in a creative offense get 20+ touches per game, I’d think bowl game would be likely, even with a below avg defense. That isn’t likely, at least the creative offense part…I’d count on 4-8. I think 5 wins is the ceiling. 6 wins would require some big upsets where the other team is extremely injured or turns it over 4-5 times.

[roguewarrior]

If you could promise me that Stewart would stay healthy and in a creative offense get 20+ touches per game, I’d think bowl game would be likely, even with a below avg defense. That isn’t likely, at least the creative offense part…I’d count on 4-8. I think 5 wins is the ceiling. 6 wins would require some big upsets where the other team is extremely injured or turns it over 4-5 times.

I wouldn’t count on Stewart as a savior, at all. Nor would I count on Emmett Smith’s clone being fed the ball in this offense. It just won’t happen.