FOOTBALL Early 2025 football discussion
- Thread starter Matt Dossett
- Start date
I’d be lying if I I said I had any inkling of how we’re going to be…much less our opponents at this level.
I like the fact that we have a returning quality QB, we seem to have added some talent in the recruiting and portal classes.
But the defensive back 7 was so so bad last year; can it be fixed in one offseason?
We have a chance to get off to a pretty good start with the 2 newbs and APSU and Kennesaw in the first 6 games and Marshall’s program pretty much imploded.
Need to get to a bowl to show some progress by Mason.
I like the fact that we have a returning quality QB, we seem to have added some talent in the recruiting and portal classes.
But the defensive back 7 was so so bad last year; can it be fixed in one offseason?
We have a chance to get off to a pretty good start with the 2 newbs and APSU and Kennesaw in the first 6 games and Marshall’s program pretty much imploded.
Need to get to a bowl to show some progress by Mason.
Those are my thoughts too. Nevada was 3-10 last year, but that doesn't mean anything as their coach was decent at Montana St. before.
KSU, JSU, FIU, Marshall all have new head coaches, three of which are first time. Again, that doesn't always mean anything.
The portal makes it hard to base anything on the previous year. I 10000% agree though that if we don't make a bowl this year, we are in for a long road with Mason.
KSU, JSU, FIU, Marshall all have new head coaches, three of which are first time. Again, that doesn't always mean anything.
The portal makes it hard to base anything on the previous year. I 10000% agree though that if we don't make a bowl this year, we are in for a long road with Mason.
As long as the school is afflicted with scumbag smith and mediocre mcphee, I don't expect football, men's basketball, or baseball to be anything other than average.
In spite of the portal system, NIL or the other crap college football has become, we should be able to get 5-6 wins from this schedule. If not, we need to drop from FBS and try to win at a lower level.
Any chance the GoMiddle folks are going to do a position breakdown of the roster?
I was looking at our Corners, Safeties, and Linebackers and had a hard time telling who was returning and who was new.
I know folks aren't disposed to giving this program any benefit of the doubt (and why would you, they haven't earned it), but damn there were some injury problems in the secondary and linebacker corps last year that may have made a difference on the field.
I know coaching got a lot of heat, but from my watching last year, it was at least 50% an issue of athleticism. Our guys just looked perpetually behind a lot of the guys they were supposed to cover. It makes the margin for error so small and makes things like a bad angle just look so bad.
Let's hope the Football Gods smile at us for once and we stay healthy this year.
I was looking at our Corners, Safeties, and Linebackers and had a hard time telling who was returning and who was new.
I know folks aren't disposed to giving this program any benefit of the doubt (and why would you, they haven't earned it), but damn there were some injury problems in the secondary and linebacker corps last year that may have made a difference on the field.
I know coaching got a lot of heat, but from my watching last year, it was at least 50% an issue of athleticism. Our guys just looked perpetually behind a lot of the guys they were supposed to cover. It makes the margin for error so small and makes things like a bad angle just look so bad.
Let's hope the Football Gods smile at us for once and we stay healthy this year.
The level doesn't matter. Football, men's basketball, and baseball will continue to be mediocre as long as thugs control the school. When athletics return to WMOT, you'll know they care.
Yes we will be doing previews by position. They are waiting for the transfer cycle to be over before doing it.
When is it done till December?
Question, are there different portals for the different seasonal sports? I guess football is all I ever paid much attention to.
The portal is closed - so guys can't go in.
But guys who are in can move around up until the start of fall camp.
Gotta give props to this promotion at Missouri State for the upcoming football season.
I may have to show up Nov 8th just to see how many points Willie Simmons will try to hang on Massaro. If you know, then you know. 😂
Memphis plays Tulane on ESPN the night before.
Memphis plays Tulane on ESPN the night before.
ESPN has our Strength of Schedule at 134 going into the season. Out of 136 FBS teams.
FIU 79
SHSU 86
NMSU 93
UTEP 95
LaT 100
WKU 101
Mizz St 102
KSU 114
Delaware 117
Jax 135
Liberty 136
There is zero reason for us to not have a winning season.
FIU 79
SHSU 86
NMSU 93
UTEP 95
LaT 100
WKU 101
Mizz St 102
KSU 114
Delaware 117
Jax 135
Liberty 136
There is zero reason for us to not have a winning season.
Floor is 5 ceiling is 8. When looking at our roster im not sure how competitive we'll be against some of these teams that arent p5
I’m still not convinced that we will be any better. Hope I’m wrong but I’m feeling the ceiling is 6 and I’d put the over/under at 3.5 wins.
3.5?
I'd take the over on that one easy. But if you made it 4.5 or 5? Much harder.
We may not be great, but we have one FCS lightweight so we really only need 3 more wins and there are a lot of teams on the schedule that are struggling as much or more than we are.
Check out this mid-season run:
Marshall, @ Kennesaw, Missouri State, @ Delaware - 2 newbs, Kennesaw with a new coach, and Marshall with a new coach and they lost like their entire roster.
We absolutely must win at least 3 of those - and possibly expect to sweep them - they should all be behind us in the rebuilding program timeline.
If Mason's going to make it, we need to show a 2nd year bump. I think we will.
Doug, one of MT's most entrenched traditions is granting FBS noobs their first win. So there's that.
Delaware is likely going to beat us imo. On the road and a good group. The others are winnable but I’m not convinced we’ve solved the problems we had last year. Luckily for CDM, the schedule is the most manageable we’ve had since I’ve been a fan. Hopefully I’m wrong but my expectations are really low.
Delaware won't be easy. Even as FCS last year, their 2024 ESPN SP+ ranking put them around 100 in the FBS. We were 131 for reference. They return 65% of their production while we return 60.
I'm not saying we will lose, but I'm not saying it is a gimme win either.
KSU should be better too. Mack is a good coach and I'm super intrigued to see how he does, as he is who I wanted us to hire. And we all know Simmons now at FIU can coach too.
Gibby at Marshall is a first time head coach, but is a WV boy and knows Marshall and the players they need. As said above, they are super depleted as Huff took the bulk of last year's 10 win team with him to S. Miss. Same for Kelly at Jax being first time/first year. Longo at SHSU has one stint 20yrs ago as head coach at La Salle with a 7-14 record. So with all three, who knows.
As of right now we are predicted with around a 50% chance of 6+ wins in most places. In other words, the ball could bounce either way. Pundits are more often wrong than right, but many don't see much improvement in CDM's second year.
I'm not saying we will lose, but I'm not saying it is a gimme win either.
KSU should be better too. Mack is a good coach and I'm super intrigued to see how he does, as he is who I wanted us to hire. And we all know Simmons now at FIU can coach too.
Gibby at Marshall is a first time head coach, but is a WV boy and knows Marshall and the players they need. As said above, they are super depleted as Huff took the bulk of last year's 10 win team with him to S. Miss. Same for Kelly at Jax being first time/first year. Longo at SHSU has one stint 20yrs ago as head coach at La Salle with a 7-14 record. So with all three, who knows.
As of right now we are predicted with around a 50% chance of 6+ wins in most places. In other words, the ball could bounce either way. Pundits are more often wrong than right, but many don't see much improvement in CDM's second year.
Every team on the schedule could beat us on a bad day. On the other hand, other than Wisconsin, I don't think there's anyone on the schedule we absolutely cannot beat on a good day.
Pessimistic fans (not saying you or anyone is one) always think everything will always go right for our opponents and everything will always go wrong for us. But even the best teams seem to lose one or two and the worst always manage to scrape one or two out.
I admit I don't know much about much of our CUSA opponents. It seems like Liberty is always a head above, and WKU is a solid program year in and year out. Other than that? Just a bunch of teams with a ton of turnover and new players all over the place, so who knows.
I do know we have been adding talent just about all over the field, have some system/coaching continuity that those other programs don't. And when in doubt, I go with the team that has the better and more experienced QB.
I think we win 5 and very possibly 6.
All about confidence the team plays with to how this season will go. A lot of the time last year, it loos like the gave up and played defeated.
on the defensive side of the ball our DT's are small. I know we have an attacking style defense, but for it to work consistently the tackles will have to win 1on1 blocks or be able to hold the gap.
Have no idea why they didn't hit the portal hard for D Lineman. I'm wondering if they just struck out on the ones they wanted?
How many opponents on our schedule will have an OL that can take advantage of that though? Or, as I like to think of it - what happens when the stoppable force meets the moveable object?
We don't have to be good in the Ohio State sense of football where every position is filled with talent and size and experience - we just need to be better than at least 5-6 of the other extremely flawed teams on the schedule.
I also take y1 with a grain of salt because it was a transition year. But allowing 6.67yds/a play and 20 sacks isn't good. Fitting gaps and getting pressure is important in both the run and pass game. While we may not have 'elite' talent size does play a part. Only having one true NT we'll definitely be rotating our 4i guys. In my opinion linebacker/edge play is even more important.
I'm sure Coach Stewart has something cooked up now that he's gotten a full offseason cycle with the roster.
The NT's are all over 300 the boundary end/DT's avg 270.. I would say they weigh more since ly and they update roster before camp. They are big enough
I think we might be overlooking this as an advantage for us this year.
I've mentioned in other posts how, in the G5, the first year is going to be so much harder for new coaches - there's so much portal turnover, and you're limited by the NCAA in practice and installation of systems. Something like 15 of 17 new coaches in the G5 had losing records last year.
Our opponents have at least 5 new coaches that I know of off-hand (Kennesaw, FIU, SHSU, Marshall, J-Ville).
Continuity is an advantage - whether than plays out when the game kicks off remains to be seen.
