2019 MWC Football hunches.

Fresno State-  Bulldogs will have to rely on their D until they break in a new QB.
 Hawaii- Cole Macdoald, the Rainbows QB, will  face three Pac12 teams to start the season but should recover when they get into conference play.

Nevada : Only returns ten starters.
San Diego State: Coach Long  will try stretch the O beyond it's major foucus on rushing. 
 UNLV: Promises, promises
San Jose State  Permanent t re-build mode
 

MWC Mountain

Utah State: It's difficult not to take QB #jordanlove and the Ags. Gary Anderson  has found his way baco to being the #USU HC.   He replaces Matt Wells who took the Texas Tech job.

Boise State : Replacing Mattison's numbers (1400 yards, 17 TDs ) will be tough
 Colorado State  Bobo's job is one theline
 New Mexico Same for Bob Davie
Wyoming  Big ? Maybe they'll get bowl eligible
Air Force remains grounded .

aug 8

In some future news: San Jose State adds future home-and-homes with Toledo(MAC), UTEP(CUSA). The 2023  gave with Toledo will be  their first regular season  matchup. They met in California Bowl in 1981, a 27-25 win for Toledo.

aug 10

Sappy or catch : #UtahSt promoted Love for the Heisman Trophy with candy hearts (“Vote Love”) at the media preview

Aug 13

Bob Davie(HC) returns to Notre Dame as an opponent. UNM at ND on Sept 14

Aug 23

 #fresnost opens the season at USC (p10) then hosts Minnesota (B10).

aug 27

McDonald(378 yds, 4tds) outgunned Tate(361 yards, 3 tds)  in Hawaii 45-38 OOC win over Zona (Pac12).

aug 31

Talton hit a 56yd FG at the end of regulation in Nevada's 38-35 upset of Purdue (B10). Utah St lost to Wake Forest(ACC)  despite a solid effort from Jordan Love (416 yards, 3 tds, 3ints)

sept 1

 Quarterback Sean Chambers rushed for 120 yards and a TD, and X.Valladay rushed for118 yards rushing and a TD to lead Wyoming to an upset of Mizzou(SEC). Fresno fell to USC(Pac12), and I'm not sure what to make of San Deigo St scoring just two FGs in a 6-0 win over Weber (1AA). Plus, Boise St  roared back to knock off FSU (ACC). Bachmeier threw for for 407 yards and Mahone rushed for 142 yards and two TDs

sept 19

#hawaii fell to Washington 52-20 in its first loss this season. They face Central Arkansas this week, then its MWC play.

aug 13:
Read more here: https://www.idahostatesman.com/sports/college/mountain-west/boise-state-university/boise-state-football/article233349717.html#storylink=cpy

2019 AAC Football hunches

American Athletic East Division
UCF Knights - Coach Heupel has QB battle between Winbush, the ND transfer, and Darriel Mack.
Cincinnati Bearcat will be nipping at the Knights' heels led by 1k yards rusher Michael Warren.
South Florida Bulls-Big year for Taggart. Has he lost his touch?
Temple Owls will rely heavily on a solid D.
East Carolina Pirates: Rebuild continues
Connecticut Huskies- The Edsels are descending to AA.
West Division

Houston Cougars-Coach Holgorsen will have these guys scoring 40 plus points a game
Memphis Tigers will miss RB Darrel Henderson 
 SMU Mustangs- Dykes herd take a big step up. D appears solid.
Tulsa Golden Hurricane may not be so golden.
Tulane Green Wave D is decent but may not get them into the West race.
 Navy Midshipmen will slightly improve from a poor 2108 season
Aug 15:  #houston /OK game will be on in prime time Sunday Sept 1.
Aug 22:  UConn schedules home and home with BC for 2022/23 They've met 14 times previously. BC leads the series 12-0-2. The Eagles took the most recent meeting 39-16 in 2017.
Aug 24:  #Tulsa tailback Corey Taylor II thinks he and his teammates will rush for over 200 yards against Michigan St.. High hopes indeed!
Aug 28: Arkansas (SEC) will host Cincinnati(AAC) on Saturday, Sept. 3, 2022 in Fayetteville, AR. It's a one game deal and the first football matchup between the schools. AAC needs more  games against P5 teams. 
Aug 30: Big  Bearcats win over UCLA (Pac12) : Mildly surprised Warren rushed for less than a hundred yards.  Tulane Green Wave buried FIU (CUSA) 42-14. McMillan tossed two TD passes and Dauphine rushed for two TDs.
Sept 2: Yes, I know OK is a good team but Holgorsen's team , as usual, lacks Defense. King , the Cougars QB, was their offense.

2019 MAC football hunches

MAC EAST
 1) Ohio Coach Solich's squad is getting a lot of love with its solid rushing attack and Nathan Rourke at QB.
 2) Kent St returns a lot of starters, particularly Jamal Parker, a standout DB.
 3) Miami (ohio) You never know
 4) Buffalo lost a lot of starters.
 5) Bowling Green will miss Doege since the QB transferred
 6) Akron breaks in a new HC.
MAC WEST
 1) Western Michigan will be led by the solid passing of QB Wassink
 2) Toledo-Bryce Harris , the center, anchors a strong O-Line
 3) Ball St brings back 18 starters
 4) NIU needs some Viagra on Offense
 5) Eastern Michigan Is QB Mike Glass a breakout player?
 6) Central Michigan- Coach McElwain has a tall task ahead of him.

Aug 11

 The #MAC will be the only collegiate football conference to host a game on the 150th anniversary of college football ,Wednesday, Nov. 6.  Miami(Ohio) will travel to face the Ohio Bobcats at Peden Stadium in Athens, Ohio.  ESPN2 will televise it.

Aug 21

#toledo will play UK(SEC) in Lexington during the 2025 and 2028 seasons, with the Wildcats traveling to the Glass Bowl in 2027.

Early 2019 Sunbelt football season predictions

East Division
1. Appalachian State-  Zac Thomas(QB)
2. Troy- BJ Smith (RB)
3. Georgia Southern- Monquavion Brinson (DB)
4. Georgia State- Brandon Wright (P)
5. Coastal Carolina- Malcom Williams (WR)
West Division
1. ULL- Ja’Marcus Bradley (WR)
2. ULM –  Caleb Evans (QB)
3. Arkansas State-  Kirk Merritt (WR)
4. South Alabama- Tyree Turner (DB)
5. Texas State- Bryan London II (LB)

 Ark St and ULM  will  make ULL work for the West title. In the East App St is easy to like, but Troy U always finds a way. I'll stick with my predictions and add some notes  as the 2019 season nears.
Aug 16- This is goofy from ULL coach Billy Napier: Every scholarship member of the football program will now be required to make a donation of at least $50 to the Ragin' Cajun Athletic Fund (RCAF)
Sept 1:  Not big stats but a W: Ellington finished with 139 yards passing, 61 yards rushing and three total touchdowns for Georgia St in its huge upset of the Vols. ULL and  South Bama played decent in losing efforts to , respectively, Miss St and Nebraska. CCU's D cracked in the second half in a loss to E.Michigan (MAC)

Early CUSA 2019 football chatter,well knows names

#KaiLocksley  #UTEP s likely starting QB, and son of Terps HC Mike Locksley has been suspending for the off the field violations.  Rahsaan Lewis, Ray's son , is transferring  from UCF to FAU, and Frank Gore Jr is a part of FAU's 2020 recruiting class. More updates coming.
June 15: Beer sales at college football games is a hot topic, and #MTSU of the CUSA has interesting approach.  It is  setting up a beer garden in the south end zone of the stadium and partnering with students at the school to help come up with specific microbrews for each opponent that comes to Murfreesboro, TN

June 16

How is this for week 1 toughies?  FAU at Ohio St,  MTSU at Michigan, and Louisiana Tech at Texas?

June 17

#herd visit Boise St (MWC) on Sept 6 . That's not a regular OOC matchup

June 19

 #herd got some  short yardage WR help with TavinRichardson , a grad transfer from Kentucky.

June 27

  Louisville adds Marshall’s leading sacker,Ty Tyler, as grad transfer. Derrek Pitts , a WVU safety, is joining the #herd.

july 15

 CUSA athletic directors have reportedly discussed trading schools with other leagues. It's mostly chatters about the Sun Belt and probably ties into cutting down on the trips from the east coast to west Texas. It could be just chatter.

july 18

  #CUSA league media picked   #Marshall  to win the East and #northtexas to win the West
july 23: Kiffin confirmed ex-FSU QB Deondre Francois won’t be transferring to FAU
july 26:  #brentStocksill ,  former #MTSU QB and the son of the head coach, was hired as the FAU Owls’ offensive player personnel assistant.
july 30:  UCF,  #FIU (CUSA) reportedly agree to home-and-home series in 2020 and 2022.
july31:   #QuardraizWadley , UTEP's leading rusher, is out for the 2019 season with a toe injury.
aug 2:  Georgia and Charlotte (CUSA) reached an agreement on a matchup that will be played in Athens,GA in 2025.
aug 5: UTEP QB #KaiLocksley back with the team despite his legal casse not being resolved.
aug 7- USC transfer WR Keyshawn Young moves on to #Marshall. Doubt if the #herd get a lot of Trojan transfers.
aug 31- Rice played  decent D but fell at Army 14-7

Playing O5 baseball catchup

 AAC- ECU (17-2) leaders on offense is Bryant Packard with .376 AVG and in pitching its Jake Agnos with 7 wins and 108  K's. I'm a bit surprised that USF and UCF are near the bottom of the conference.
CUSA: USM (19-6) and FAU(18-7) are in a fierce battle for first place. Bryan Bowen is batting .359 for USM and Mitchell Hartigan is batting .341 for FAU.
MAC: CMU  (17-5) is led by Garrett Navarra .371 avg and Zach Gilles 370 AVG.
MWC: Fresno St (16-7-1) Zach Ashford is batting .373 and Ryan Jensen has 8 wins and 74 K's.
SunBelt: Texas St (17-8) leads the West. Jaxon Williams is batting .335 and has five steals.
In the East every teams has a shot except for Georgia St.

May 12: 

 Fresno St hasn’t been to the postseason since 2012.

mAY 15

USM lost it's last two games while FAU split,  leaving both teams at 19-8 in the CUSA .

May 16

Ball St (17-5) has moved to within two games of CMU in the #MAC. #Aaaronsimpson is batting .339 with 14 SB

May 18

#herd beat Rice in ten innings  which should  get them in the top 8  and make them eligible for the CUSAT.

May 19

ECU is easily the favorite in the AACT , but keep your eyes on #JoeyWeimer (6hr, 26 rbi)  and the 2 seed Cincy Bearcats against  7 seed Memphis on May 21.

May 20

Sunbelt: Seeds 7-10 will play-in for the 7 and 8 seeds.  Texas St is the 1 seed and Georgia Southern is the 2 seed.

 May 23

  #CUSA rd1: Marshall first baseman Shane Hanon hit a two-RBI single in the with two out in the top of the 12th to provide the decisive runs in 6-4 win over La Tech.

may 25 

D1 O5 baseball bubble watch:  TXst (sunbelt)  , UCF and Houston (AAC) may get in  and USM (CUSA) may not.

MAY 27, 2019

Automatic Bids: AAC-Cincy, MAC- CMU, MWC- Fresno St, CUSA-USM, SunBetlt - Coastal Carolina.

May 28

At large from O5- FAU (CUSA). AAC: ECU, UConn
June 2: All O5 teams remain alive in the CWS. Fresno St got a big win over Stanford yesterday.
June 4:  ECU (AAC) is the sole O5 team to make the round of 16. The Pirates double-dipped Campbell to move on and face Louisville.

June 8

ECU was pounded 14-1 by Louisville and needs to beat Cards today or they're done 

June 9

 ECU lost 12-1 yesterday. Louisville swept ECU and scored its 26 runs off of 32 hits, none of them home runs.

April 17, 2021

So I got curious about some the players mentioned in this blog since 2020 was a terrible year for kids in the MLB minor league system.

LF #BryantPackard, who played for ECU, was assigned to West Michigan Whitecaps in the Detroit Tigers' system.

May 12, 2021

Nevada's #TylerBosetti ( 5-10, 170 pounds)  homered in his ninth consecutive game, breaking an NCAA Division I record of 8 consecutive games.  It was his 11th homer in 10 games.  

May 26, 2021

Four Memphis players hit home runs, highlighted by back-to-back-to-back dingers by Alec Trela, Austin Baskin, and Taylor Howell in a 11-1 AACT upset of 11th ranked ECU. This is the fourth straight time the AACT  1 seed  lost to the 8 seed in the quarterfinal round. 

May 31, 2021

Automatic bids for O5: Sun Belt South Alabama,  AAC South Florida, CUSA Old Dominion

MAC: Central Michigan,  MWC Nevada: regular season winners

At large bids will be announced later today.

June 8 2021

Marshall athletic director Mike Hamrick is stepping down at the end of the month to become special assistant to university president Jerome Gilbert for one year and will focus on fundraising and planning for the university's baseball stadium project. Gilbert, who  is leaving in 2022,  appointed associate AD and chief of staff Jeff O'Malley as interim AD, effective July 1.

july 25, 2021

#SamBachman RHP, Miami (OH) of the MAC went 14th overall to the Angels in the recent MLB draft. His fastball has been clocked at 101MPH. Later in the draft they took Tulane's(AAC) Braden Olthoff.

March 28, 2022

I was looking around to see if any O5 teams were in the top 25 in baseball and only see TX ST (Sunbelt). 

Then I notice Maryland dropped to 18-5 on the season, after falling to Dallas Baptist(MVC) twice in three days. MD/DB regular season games are not a common occurrence. 

Also, Liberty who's on a path to the CUSA is in the top 25. 

April 9, 2022

Update on how one of these kids is doing. #TylerBosetti returned to Nevada(MWC) for his senior year and the infielder if  off to a solid start with 19 RBIs and 4 SB s. 

June 7, 2022

Sweet 16 in CWS 2022 has two O5 teams: ECU(AAC) and Southern Miss(CUSA). Sunbelt adds S.Miss next season.

Going out West for some hoops---why?

 #PAC12 hasn't received much respect this season and after watching parts of UW's ,the top team in the league with an 11-1 record, narrow win over a pesky WSU (3-9) squad, I get it. Utah(8-5) looked  as if it was ready for a good run , but they lost to ASU(8-5). Stephen Thompson Jr. had 22 points and Oregon State (8-4) swept the Civil War series against Oregon(6-6). UCLA(6-7), who may be worse since firing Coach Alford, was blown out by Stanford(7-6) 104-80. USC (7-6) beat Cal(0-13). Maybe four teams  , UW, , OSU,ASU, and UTAH get Dance tickets.
In the WCC, Gonzaga(12-0) is gong Dancing regardless of how they do in the conference tournament #byu (18-10, 10-3), who defeated Loyola-Marymount yesterday, may be in line for an at large ticket, but they haven't fared well against big name OOc teams with losses to Houston and Miss St, but they beat intra-state rival Utah. San Francisco and St Mary's have to win the WCCT for a dance ticket.

feb 18

Tough times in the desert:  Colorado (16-9, 7-6 Pac-12) sends Arizona (14-12, 5-8 Pac-12) to its 7th straight loss, 67-60.

feb 21

Then Colorado(7-7) turned around and lost to WSU(4-9) 76-74. Utah(8-6) scored only 18 points in the second half of a 62-45 loss to UW(12-1). ASU(9-5) got 16 PTS, 5 REB, 4 AST from Rob edwards in a 80-62 win over Stanford (7-7)

feb22

Is it Pac 12 parity or mediocrity? UCLA(7-7) edged Oregon St(8-5), USC(8-6) blew out OU Ducks(6-7), and Zona(6-8) kept Cali winless in P12 play. Top 3 remains at UW, ASU, and Oregon St.
In the WCC Zaga rolled Pepperdine.  BYU(10-4) lost to San Fran (9-4). St Mary's (9-4)  won while holding Pacific(3-10) to 32 points.San Diego(6-7) kept Portland winless in WCC play

feb 24

 Matisse Thybulle had 17 points, six steals and five blocked shots  for UW(13-1) in its win over Colorado(7-8). Beavers (9-5)  beat the Trojans. Utah (9-6) beat WSU, and UCLA beat Oregon.
In the WCC BYU's 34 point lost to Zaga probably means they need to win the WCCT to get an at large ticket . St Mary's beat San Diego to  move to 10-4 in WCC play while  San Fran fell to 9-5 with a loss to Santa Clara.

march 1

This can't help the Pac 12 get more dance tickets.  Darius McNeill scored 19 points and Connor Vanover had 18 to help the California(1-15) snap a 23-game losing streak in Pac-12  play by beating No. 25 (overall) Washington(13-2) 76-73 on Thursday night. Oregon St (9-6) lost at the buzzer to Zona(8-8)  while ASU (10-6) lost 79-51 to Oregon (7-8). That's a rough night for the top 3 Pac12 teams. UCLA (9-7) beat USC(8-8) and Stanfords (8-8) crushed WSU(4-11)
IN the WCC the Zags beat Pacific while Saint Mary's(20-10, 11-4 WCC)kept it's thin Dance chances alive with a 65-48 win over Portland

march 3

Jordan Ford had decent numbers for St Mary's, 19 PTS, 3 REB, 1 AST, but the Gaels wilted in the secod half of a 69-55 WCC loss to Gonzaga.  More goofiness from the P12 .Cali beat WSU for it's second win in a row. Zona follow up a solid win over Oreg. St with a 73-47 loss to Oregon , while Utah's descent continued with a 71-63 loss to Colorado. What a mess after UW (13-2).  see blog

Arizona State	10-6		19-9
Oregon State	9-6		17-10
UCLA	9-7		16-13
Utah	9-7		15-13
Colorado	8-8		17-11
Oregon	8-8		17-12
Stanford	8-8		15-13
USC	8-8		15-14
Arizona