"Group of 5" Sleepers?

Say it all here
Forum rules
NOTICE: Please be sure to check the CFP Message Board Rules and Regulations and the Read Me page before posting.
User avatar
Eric
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 10287
Joined: Thu Dec 29, 2005 1:51 am

"Group of 5" Sleepers?

Postby Eric » Sat Sep 17, 2016 10:26 pm

Don't look now, but Central Michigan and Army are actually set up to do very, very well going forward. It sounds a little nuts, but Central needs to beat Virginia, Toledo, and Western Michigan and they'll probably be undefeated heading into the MAC championship. I bring up Army because, after upsetting Temple, they managed to pound Rice and UTEP (granted no difficult task, but they throttled UTEP 66-14 with 400+ rushing yards and 7 TDs). Army's toughest tests remaining are Navy, Duke, and Notre Dame. I highly doubt either team goes undefeated, but we could be looking at a couple of 10-win football teams if they catch some breaks. Western Michigan in their own right has the potential to go undefeated after they dispatched their second Big 10 foe in Illinois this week. They get Georgia Southern up next week, probably still the best team in the Sun Belt and a team that whipped them last year.

Of course all of this is moot as the committee will surely prefer a 1-loss Houston or AAC champion or Boise State over anybody else, but it would be interesting, wouldn't it? :lol:
Running bowl/MSU/OSU record '05-present: 11-32

User avatar
Eric
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 10287
Joined: Thu Dec 29, 2005 1:51 am

Re: "Group of 5" Sleepers?

Postby Eric » Sat Sep 17, 2016 10:31 pm

I would also have to put San Diego State, Georgia Southern, and Navy into that mix along with Houston and Boise as some of the top contenders for that Go5 slot, but then again I couldn't really call them "sleepers." Western and Toledo were obvious picks to be in contention for the MAC championship, but Central was predicted to finish a little bit behind. CMU looks like they could be the real deal. The MAC West is going to be a dogfight especially with NIU out of the picture. Rod Carey needs to be fired. NIU fans have been upset with him for about 3 years. He backed into the job but it was obvious that he was in over his head. The "residue" so to speak of the previous administration is completely gone now, so these are all of his guys with his "development" and it's not looking pretty. I thought it was obvious that he had no clue what was going on.

Maybe NIU can manage 6-6 and a measly bowl game, but I think he's gone. They're probably going to lose to Western Illinois next week. Heard it here first :roll:
Running bowl/MSU/OSU record '05-present: 11-32

User avatar
Cane from the Bend
Athletic Director
Athletic Director
Posts: 5061
Joined: Thu Dec 29, 2005 1:25 am
Location: South Bend, IN (domerville usa)
Contact:

Re: "Group of 5" Sleepers?

Postby Cane from the Bend » Sun Sep 18, 2016 11:34 pm

Eric wrote:I would also have to put San Diego State, Georgia Southern, and Navy into that mix along with Houston and Boise as some of the top contenders for that Go5 slot, but then again I couldn't really call them "sleepers." Western and Toledo were obvious picks to be in contention for the MAC championship, but Central was predicted to finish a little bit behind. CMU looks like they could be the real deal. The MAC West is going to be a dogfight especially with NIU out of the picture. Rod Carey needs to be fired. NIU fans have been upset with him for about 3 years. He backed into the job but it was obvious that he was in over his head. The "residue" so to speak of the previous administration is completely gone now, so these are all of his guys with his "development" and it's not looking pretty. I thought it was obvious that he had no clue what was going on.

Maybe NIU can manage 6-6 and a measly bowl game, but I think he's gone. They're probably going to lose to Western Illinois next week. Heard it here first :roll:


Yeah, No Illinois had a string of luck, with the last three coaching hires. I don't know if the administration simply assumed their school was just built for success, or if they truly thought they found gold in Rod Carey. Someone should have checked his resume more closely. because, even if he is a decent coach, he certainly is not the right fit, there.

Northern Illinois had a long run. But in a conference such as the MAC, falling off is much more difficult to recover from. If the Huskies go next season as poorly as this one, their past success will be as much of an after thought as Michael Johnson's 400m world record @ 43.18, when Wayde Van Niekerk ran a 43.03 @ the Olympics ... now everyone is all, Michael who? "Isn't he a retired basketball player?"

Seriously, another down season, and NIU may not recover. And that would be bad for the MAC. Because they need more teams with parity that win more than 8 or 9 games each year, to bring a broader interest in the conference.

.
.
.
Cane... [__]

"It is only impossible until it has been accomplished." ... then it becomes standardized ...

Success is measured by results; whereas Character is measured through the means by which one achieves those results . . .

It seems the Rapture did come for two worthy souls:
In Memory of Grandpa Howdy
In Memory of Donovan Davisson

User avatar
highfly24
Assistant Coach
Assistant Coach
Posts: 326
Joined: Mon Sep 29, 2014 6:36 am
Location: Scott AFB

Re: "Group of 5" Sleepers?

Postby highfly24 » Mon Sep 19, 2016 7:30 pm

Eric wrote:Don't look now, but Central Michigan and Army are actually set up to do very, very well going forward. It sounds a little nuts, but Central needs to beat Virginia, Toledo, and Western Michigan and they'll probably be undefeated heading into the MAC championship. I bring up Army because, after upsetting Temple, they managed to pound Rice and UTEP (granted no difficult task, but they throttled UTEP 66-14 with 400+ rushing yards and 7 TDs). Army's toughest tests remaining are Navy, Duke, and Notre Dame. I highly doubt either team goes undefeated, but we could be looking at a couple of 10-win football teams if they catch some breaks. Western Michigan in their own right has the potential to go undefeated after they dispatched their second Big 10 foe in Illinois this week. They get Georgia Southern up next week, probably still the best team in the Sun Belt and a team that whipped them last year.

Of course all of this is moot as the committee will surely prefer a 1-loss Houston or AAC champion or Boise State over anybody else, but it would be interesting, wouldn't it? :lol:


Army is certainly looking very solid this year. Bradshaw is running the option very well right now and the FB Davidson has been a load in short yardage, even more so than in other situations. I was hoping for 7 wins but right now I'm thinking 9 or with some breaks even double digit wins is possible. Duke has not looked good at all, struggles against Wake and N'Western. That will be a good game but if Army comes out of it 5-0 WOW. See no way they beat Notre Dame, at all. May not even be close. It would be nice for the casual fan tho if Navy and Army arrive in Baltimore with 9plus wins. Think that would get some buzz the game hasn't had in a while.

User avatar
Eric
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 10287
Joined: Thu Dec 29, 2005 1:51 am

Re: "Group of 5" Sleepers?

Postby Eric » Mon Sep 19, 2016 11:01 pm

I think NIU has had such a solid, consistent program for a number of reasons. An average head coach could come in there and, as long as he didn't screw anything up, they could get their 8 wins in the bag. I just think Carey is very incompetent. He had no head coaching experience. He was an offensive line coach at (I believe) North Dakota before getting the same job at NIU and then getting promoted. Promotion-from-within I think is generally a bad idea, unless you have an obvious guy-in-waiting as one of the coordinators. At a smaller school, you probably don't have the right talent for the job from one of your position coaches.

NIU has also had better teams than what they have showed against top competition in recent years. They were demolished by Arkansas and lost to the Mountain West in a couple of recent bowl games (Utah State and Boise State beat them pretty thoroughly). Part of that is the offense that they were running because it was so one-dimensional. They don't have a great passing game, but they rarely even tried to develop one in MAC play. This hurt them once better defenses just decided to key in on the QB run, and they were totally hamstrung. Now they don't have the same type of running game and their passing game is still miserable.
Running bowl/MSU/OSU record '05-present: 11-32


Return to “General Discussion”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 65 guests