Arkstfan

Depends did Ross manage to convince ASU's QB to throw four lame ducks into traffic (two of which Army managed to actually catch and hold on), fumble three times (losing one), get TWO penalties behind the play on a punt return, and keep a couple Army drives alive with a variety of penalties including two 15 yard face mask calls. If Ross can do that, he's an awesome coach. If not...

Only if you exclude the three straight before it.

Considering that only Temple a worse total offense and only Temple, Buffalo and Miss. St. have worse scoring offenses, just who would you NOT swap offenses with? From what I've seen the past few years, the UNT offense has basically been "we're gonna whip your tail at the line of scrimmage." Well that worked fine in a league where half the teams were either on the verge of firing unsuccessful coaches or adopting new systems under the coaches hired to replace the unsuccessful. Other than being more entertaining you can't exactly say that Texas Tech is actually putting together great teams. They've won 8 games this year, but look at who they beat. The last place team in the Sun Belt. Two I-AA's one that is 3-6 and one that is 0-11. Kansas who is 5-5 but only 2-5 in the Big 12. Nebraska 6-3 but 3-4 in conference, Kansas State 4-6, 1-6 in conference, Baylor 4-6, 1-6 in conference, TAMU 5-5 and 3-4. They got routed by Texas and lost to Oklahoma State 4-5, 1-5 in conference. They've been routed by at least one quality team every year since Leach arrived and lost at least four games. Leach's winning percentage is a bit better than what Spike Dykes had but he's playing weaker non-conference games. It's a fun offense. It's entertaining but its not a cure-all.

Well the article is a little too glowing about the Run and Shoot. It did APPEAR unstoppable at first (most innovations do) but George Allen of the Arizona Wranglers solved the Run and Shoot problem after sending film of the Gamblers to Al Davis they cooked up a scheme to shut it down. I don't remember the particulars but as I recall most teams had blitzed up the middle for fear of the QB rolling away and either throwing on the run or rushing the ball. As I recall the scheme they cooked up eliminated almost all middle blitzes instead choosing the flood a side to force the play to one side of the field and stacking things up and basically leaving the QB the option of throwing across the field to hit one of the uncovered receivers. The danger though was that the QB would generally have to set up to make that throw allowing the d-backs a chance to break back across to break up the play. If you hit it, home run but if you missed, it was a pick. The Wranglers beat the Gamblers 17-16 less than half their normal scoring average. The word eventually spread and though it generally didn't help weaker teams, similar teams could stop hold back the run and shoot enough to have a shot at winning and better teams could beat them. Even at the height of the run and shoot Texas stopped Jenkins and Houston's unbeaten run with a 45-24 win. Pardee at hs two year peak lost to TAMU 30-16 and 17-13, Arkansas 26-21, and Washington State 24-22. The Run Shoot allowed for easier routs against inferior teams and maybe won some extra games against comporable teams by jumping out to quick leads.

I think we are stable from what I gather. Most schools are in one of two camps. Those that would desperately like to leave but pretty much get along because it is where they are and those that are happy with the association (though they wouldn't mind a call from another a league) and figure making the place you are at better, is in their best interest. I don't sense there is anyone would that leap at just any offer and we saw that in action with the WAC and with the Mid-Con's attempted raid of UALR, USA, and UNO. My impression is that there are a couple of I-AA's that have made some noise about wanting to come in and that the league feels confident enough in where it is that they better have a solid plan that is funded for moving to I-A and being competitive in basketball or they will be encouraged to not apply. All the signs point to the folks believing that when the normal five year shake-up rolls along that the shakes will be minor and are unlikely to impact them (ie. Big East won't expand or will only add one school).

As I said. I like ULM fans. But I intensely dislike numerous things that have been done over the years and they aren't the fans fault. ULM was going to have a place in the Sun Belt because they had the friends in the league to make it happen (notably Arkansas State and Louisiana Lafayette who were totally fed up with La.Tech), but issuing the a press release announcing your "secret" decision made the process harder than it should have been and it nearly caused UNT to balk because UNT was very anti-ULM at the time. ULM didn't make Sun Belt football happen, the ULM administration made it happen later than it should have. Then later when the NCAA hit us with new rules requiring 8 full members we were down to inviting flippin Idaho to join in all sports because ULM was trying to clean up a mess. All that said. Cofer from all accounts has been a great hire. That doesn't excuse forcing league members to pay for help. As to Weatherbie, he may be a good Christian and he is getting the program on track but he is the only coach in this league that I can think of to ever insult one player, much less two on the record.

Monroe has some really good fans that really deserve better. In the last two years their administration has held up a schedule change ASU needed (OU was dropping a game with us and we were able to get LSU to move a game from 2005 to 2004) until they got a $50,000 "fee" for their trouble in moving in game on "short" (ie. 7 months) notice. Then they did the same thing for UNT getting $50,000 out of the deal (at least LSU picked up the tab that time instead of UNT). Over the years ASU has had to shift games before to help out conference mates and never charged a fee and UNT has done likewise. ULM's administration is the only one that charges to be helpful. Same administration that was supposed to send a "secret" binding notice to the Sun Belt to declare whether they intended to join the Sun Belt for football and sent out a press release announcing their what their intention was. Any school sending in the declaration to join was obligating itself to join but it did not assure them of an invitation and since it would be secret they wouldn't be embarassed if they didn't get invited. ULM was afraid that enough intent letters would come in and they wouldn't be invited. The ULM announcement caused La.Tech to publicly announce that they would not join because if they did and ULM got left out it would be clear WHY ULM didn't get invited, that is that Tech successfully lobbied against them. So it was easier for Tech to just declare they wouldn't join and hope it fell apart. Tech publicly announcing they were out, caused Central Florida to pull out. If ULM had kept their trap shut Central Florida likely ends up in the Belt instead of the MAC.

Weatherbie is a frickin 'tard. This is from last year's game with ASU "Their punter is so bad, you don't know where to line up," Weatherbie said. The thing is he had a great average but the coaches had drilled into his brain the importance of net yards over punt average and taught him to kick away from good returners, put it out of bounds, etc, whatever it took to turn the field around without giving up a good return so kicked the ball over the place against Monroe and they had basically zip in returns and got pinned inside the 20 several times. As to thinking Weatherbie took a shot at JT, no doubt about it. According to an article that had been posted on TribalGrounds after the UNT-ULM game he apparently said that if Jamario didn't have learning disability he wouldn't be at UNT because he would have academically qualified to place some place else. (ASU fans HATE Weatherbie and we keep fairly close track of his horse arse comments). After that same game he whined about ULM having better stats but giving the game away. Just as he made the same complaint after the last two ASU wins over them. Did I mention that ASU fans hate him.

Wow, NIU had dropped 15 straight at Toledo. Most notable was the loss in 2003 that knocked NIU out of the hunt for the MAC title game and left them at home with a 10-2 record after beating Maryland, Alabama, and Iowa State.

December juco = one that graduates in December and can enroll in the spring and go through spring drills before his first season.

The MAC pre-Marshall was pretty lousy, the conference didn't have much direction and fairly decent hoops was about all it seemed to have going for it. But it had two really big things going for it. 1. Tight geography that allowed them to spend money in other directions instead of on travel. 2. An eight game schedule (some of the seasons a nine game schedule. From 1981 to 1991 the Big West went 7-4 against the MAC in the California Bowl. Then 1992 to 1996 the Big West was 3-2 against the MAC in the Las Vegas Bowl. But typically the MAC school came in with the better record because they played more conference games. The worst in conference record any of those 16 years playing against the Big West was 6-2. They had a bunch of 8-0 and 7-2 years. The Big West most years played one or two fewer conference games, many of them two fewer. So the MAC despite being crummy most of that time was posting good records, so they were perceived better. The Big West in the same time period was playing tougher games, especially Pacific, San Jose State, Utah State, and NMSU and they were a lot of folks cannon fodder so the Big West was seen as lower. The addition of Marshall changed the game in the MAC. They entered dominant. As time went on the gap narrowed and they were passed. Marshall didn't so much stumble, even though they went down some, as the league passed them. In 2003 Northern Illinois beat three BCS schools and didn't win their division in the MAC. This is the same program that went 3-30 from 1996 to 1998. From 1999 to 2001 they were 17-16. From 2002 to 2004 they were 27-9. All of those seasons under Joe Novak. It basically took Northern Illinois 6 years of being awful to mediocre to be an overnight success in the 7th year and no one noticed until the 8th year. I've mentioned this before but look around the Sun Belt. ULM. Weatherbie is in season 3. Ten wins so far (2 games to play) vs. 6 the three years before he arrived. ULL. Bustle season 4. He has 16 wins (one left to play) vs. 8 the four years before he arrived. ASU. Roberts season 4. He has 19 wins (two left to play) vs. 11 the four years before he arrived. FAU. 5th year of football. Beat the defending champion. Lost by 7 to the first place team this year. Beat ULL one of the three teams still with a shot to win the league. Lost by 3 in OT to ASU, one of the three teams left in the race. FIU. 4th year of football. Beat the first place team in the Sun Belt this year. Beaten by 21 by ULL and 42 by ASU. Right there you have five teams that you look at and have to believe there is reasonable evidence that they have positive momentum. MTSU. A real split personality squad. Sometimes looks very good, sometimes looks pretty inept. Unless they change coaches you have to think they will be the sort of school that with a few breaks wins it all and with a few bad breaks is fighting to stay out of the basement. Probably the hottest seat in the Sun Belt because they had some good talent returning and they started out bad instead of starting good like you would expect from an experienced squad. Troy. Had a lot of transition this year. Only suprise to me was that they weren't more competitive against ULM. Rest of the schedule fell together fairly predictably. UNT. Just have to wonder what would have happened if UNT had signed a December juco QB for this season and created enough of a pass threat that defenses wouldn't dare UNT to pass. Of those three. I think it is reasonable to think Troy's season is part of the natural cycle. MTSU may have a problem. UNT all I can say is that with four conference titles you expect a team to be more competitive and have no choice but to wait until next year to see if it is a trend. But again I think you have six programs you can feel fairly confident are on the right track. In the case of UNT if you aren't, then at least you getting the infrastructure in place.

The Big West had some nice wins but the typical Big West non-conference win was over teams from the MAC, WAC and MWC (basically like winning a WAC, MAC or CUSA game for us) and over the dregs of the Pac-10 and Big 12. The Sun Belt schools have scheduled stupid in the past. If you look at Boise or Marshall the schools to make a big splash moving to I-A you see they rarely went on the road to play a top 25 or even top 35 school. From the schedules that are emerging, you apparently will see less of that in the future in the Belt. Losing by 7 to a BCS school rated #50 has a very different impact on team confidence and fan interest than losing by 50 to a top 10.

To follow up. 1999 Boise won its first Big West title. Before that they were fairly crummy. They were rated 42 in Massey playing the 102nd toughest schedule. They lost to UCLA (4-7), Hawaii and UNT. Wins of note. UNLV (3-8), Utah (9-3) 2 I-AA, and Louisville at Boise in the Humanitarian Bowl. 2000. Beat 2 I-AA's, beat a MAC, beat a MWC, lost close games at a mediocre Arkansas and mediocre Washington State (4-7) who had lost to Idaho. Schedule rated 88. The 2002 UNT team was rated 54 and played a schedule rated 70th, tougher than either of the "darling" Boise teams, the difference was UNT lost five games vs UNT losing 5 over those two years... because Boise played weaker teams.

Boise was barely better in the Big West than UNT the last couple years. The difference was that Boise played a softer non-conference schedule and played bowl games in that ice box of a stadium they have. The difference though is Boise parlayed that success into building increasingly stronger teams (until this year).

Hang on just a second. Lemme see if I get your argument. The Sun Belt is weak and that drags down UNT? UNT is 0-11 vs. Top 50 programs the last five years. Not a terrible shocker. UNT wins over 80% of its games vs. sub-100 programs. UNT the last five years has won only 31% of games against schools rated 51 to 100. Since UNT hasn't lost 6 games in Sun Belt play the last five years that means someone else has beaten the Mean Green. The numbers you post do not suggest that UNT is being drug down by the Sun Belt rather they show quite clearly that against programs that are worse, UNT generally wins, against programs rated below it and loses to programs rated above. There are very few wins there vs. teams rated 51-100. A team rated 50 ought have a winning record against teams rated 51-100 because it will be highly rated enough to always be the favorite against them at home and a favorite against a majority on the road. Even a team rated 75 probably ought to be at least .500 against that group because it would be favored against most teams at home and a few on the road. The results you posted don't show that. They show a team that is lower tier among the 51-100 group, not because of "Strength of Schedule" but "Strength of Results".

Not in I-A or its equivalent. ASU played in what is now the Florida Citrus Bowl but at the time it pitted small colleges.

ULM has to win in Denton to stay in the conference hunt and the race for the New Orleans Bowl. ASU has to win in Denton to stay in the conference hunt and the race for the New Orleans Bowl. http://www.theadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll...335/1006/SPORTS

In 2000 UNT was the only I-A team Baylor beat and was Arkansas State's only win of the season. The only I-A wins were over 1-10 ULL and 3-8 NMSU.

But Hawaii was an independent country to start with.

Not a great deal of difference there. Texas taken by force by American biz interests then cutting a deal to join in vs. Hawaii being taken by force by American biz interests and then cutting a deal to join.

You've forgotten the kingdom of Hawai'i. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Hawaii Also any flag may be flown at the same level as the US flag. http://www.snopes.com/history/american/texasflag.asp

Chattanoga inquired after East Tenn dropped football and was expelled from the Southern because they now have no close opponents. Guess they figured MTSU beat nothing and the Belt would be a step up in hoops but they have no inclination to go I-A. Georgia State has inquired because under Thompson the Belt was going to the nobody cares metro schools without football (FIU and Denver). App State has some boosters who have inquired but they don't have a plan in place for I-A. Missouri State was contacted to see if they had any inclination to go I-A and they did not. The Belt membership is set. Only thing that changes it is if WKU goes I-A, La.Tech comes back or CUSA splits up in the next realignment.

Right now there is no serious entry on the list that has 2 wins and no one on the waiting list with two wins. If you want on you are going to have to excel at losing.

Host Troy, travel to UNT. Get ya'll confused with each other ever since the media declared you two the teams to beat.

No the rule is exactly as it was in 2001. The Sun Belt and New Orleans Bowl modified their contract so that if two teams are tied and one is bowl eligible and the other is not the bowl can disregard who won head-to-head and take the bowl eligible team.