[stupac2]

2-0 in the NY6

Hmm? We went 1-0 in the NY6 bowls.

My point isn't that we shouldn't be the favorite but rather that we won't be.  My guess?  Oregon, UCLA, Unbelievably Spoiled Children, Washington, Washington State.  The narrative will be that our losses are too much to overcome.  They will be wrong, but then they have been wrong since the beginning of time.

I think there's 0 chance that Washington is ranked over us by the media. They do look dangerous but the media tends not to project based on that, but rather picking the names. I wouldn't be surprised if we're picked to win the north, and maybe to win it all. Let's look at the competition in the North:

1) Oregon: Defense was terrible, didn't improve much over the season, losing their best player. Offense mostly returns, but was terrible without Adams and they have no one of his quality coming back (Prukop is demonstrably worse at his FCS school). Maybe they put it together, but given the spectacularly terrible end to the season, I doubt they're picked.

2) Washington: They'll be dangerous, but to pick them over us you have to project a lot of things. Maybe they put it all together, but so far Petersen hasn't been able to, so I don't see why you'd expect him to. Maybe someone more familiar with the roster will say this is wrong, but I have a hard time imagining them higher than #2, and that's only if Oregon really is collapsing.

3) WSU: Losing Falk, and they're not going to get any credit from anyone until they sustain success.

4/5) Cal/OSU: LOL. These teams might end up winning 5 conference games combined next year.


Now in the South:

1) UCLA: They might get the nod for winning the conference, since they have the shiny QB toy, but they are losing a ton of talent and Mora has never shown an ability to get them over the hump and win when they need to.

2) USC: Replacing their QB, the backups have talent but are otherwise completely unproven. Skill players are talented, as always, but so far Helton has shown 0 ability to get anything out of it. Based on the results from this season he might actually be worse than Sark.

3) Utah: They might actually be bad next year. No QB, no Booker, no offense at all.

4) ASU: I can't imagine why they'd improve with a new QB and Todd "I don't understand how to coach game situations at all" Graham at the helm.

5) Arizona: Don't know enough about them, but Wright is gone and without him they were pretty bad.

6) Colorado: Nope.



I honestly think that we will be the favorite. We'll have the early Voldemort favorite, a story of getting better throughout the year, and our losses are either at places we can afford to take the hit (OL, kinda DL) or players that no one outside of our fanbase thinks are good (Hogan). We're the only contender to play a real opponent in a bowl game and smash them, and it takes the least amount of guesswork to see how we're a really good team.

So of course we'll be picked to finish fourth.

[stupac2]

2-0 in the NY6

Hmm? We went 1-0 in the NY6 bowls.

My point isn't that we shouldn't be the favorite but rather that we won't be.  My guess?  Oregon, UCLA, Unbelievably Spoiled Children, Washington, Washington State.  The narrative will be that our losses are too much to overcome.  They will be wrong, but then they have been wrong since the beginning of time.

I think there's 0 chance that Washington is ranked over us by the media. They do look dangerous but the media tends not to project based on that, but rather picking the names. I wouldn't be surprised if we're picked to win the north, and maybe to win it all. Let's look at the competition in the North:

1) Oregon: Defense was terrible, didn't improve much over the season, losing their best player. Offense mostly returns, but was terrible without Adams and they have no one of his quality coming back (Prukop is demonstrably worse at his FCS school). Maybe they put it together, but given the spectacularly terrible end to the season, I doubt they're picked.

2) Washington: They'll be dangerous, but to pick them over us you have to project a lot of things. Maybe they put it all together, but so far Petersen hasn't been able to, so I don't see why you'd expect him to. Maybe someone more familiar with the roster will say this is wrong, but I have a hard time imagining them higher than #2, and that's only if Oregon really is collapsing.

3) WSU: Losing Falk, and they're not going to get any credit from anyone until they sustain success.

4/5) Cal/OSU: LOL. These teams might end up winning 5 conference games combined next year.


Now in the South:

1) UCLA: They might get the nod for winning the conference, since they have the shiny QB toy, but they are losing a ton of talent and Mora has never shown an ability to get them over the hump and win when they need to.

2) USC: Replacing their QB, the backups have talent but are otherwise completely unproven. Skill players are talented, as always, but so far Helton has shown 0 ability to get anything out of it. Based on the results from this season he might actually be worse than Sark.

3) Utah: They might actually be bad next year. No QB, no Booker, no offense at all.

4) ASU: I can't imagine why they'd improve with a new QB and Todd "I don't understand how to coach game situations at all" Graham at the helm.

5) Arizona: Don't know enough about them, but Wright is gone and without him they were pretty bad.

6) Colorado: Nope.



I honestly think that we will be the favorite. We'll have the early Voldemort favorite, a story of getting better throughout the year, and our losses are either at places we can afford to take the hit (OL, kinda DL) or players that no one outside of our fanbase thinks are good (Hogan). We're the only contender to play a real opponent in a bowl game and smash them, and it takes the least amount of guesswork to see how we're a really good team.

So of course we'll be picked to finish fourth.