2010 was a memorable year for many of the teams and players in the Mid-American Conference. The ’10 season saw the conference send four of its teams to bowl games and both MAC Championship game participants Miami, Oh and Northern Illinois each won their bowl games. Both the RedHawks and Huskies also finished in the final AP Top 30 and Miami, Ohio had one of the greatest single season turnarounds in college football history going from a 1-11 record in 2009 to a 10-4 season last year which included a MAC Championship.
2010 was also a banner year for several MAC players including Toledo WR/KR Eric Page who was named 1st-Tm All-America by several different services after avg 31.3 yds per return with 3 TD’s. Page also had 99 rec (11.2) and 8 TD’s. Read more…
Categories: Offseason Notes Tags: Akron, Ball St, blog, Bowling Green, Buffalo, Central Michigan, college football, Eastern Michigan, Kent St, mac, Miami Oh, Northern Illinois, Ohio, phil steele, Schedules, Temple, Toledo, Western Michigan
A lot of people ask me if I have a favorite team. I was born and raised and still live in Cleveland, Ohio. I was a fan of many teams as a child but now that I put out a National magazine, I cannot afford to be a fan of any team. I have to pick the teams where I think they will finish each year. I was doing a radio show last week and I was asked if I have a favorite team or teams. My response was a strong YES! The interviewer was surprised by that answer and also eager to hear which team I would pick. My answer was my favorite team each year is the team I pick #1 in the magazine and my favorite teams are the ones I have picked higher than all the other major magazines out there. I then said that each year I establish a list of my favorite teams for that year. I then give this list to my wife. I wear a shirt and tie to work every day during the week and my tie is always a college team. I wear polo shirts during the weekend and when not at work and they are always different college teams. The list I give my wife is the ones to buy that I will be wearing for the upcoming year as these are the teams I will be the biggest fan of for the upcoming season. I was then asked “What teams will your wife be buying ties and shirts of this year? That was a great question and I thought I would answer it in a blog. Read more…
Categories: Offseason Notes Tags: Arizona, Auburn, Ball St, Baylor, blog, California, college football, Colorado, Favorite Teams, Fresno St, Kent St, Maryland, Miami Fl, Michigan, North Texas, Oklahoma, Penn St, phil steele, San Diego St, UAB, USF, West Virginia, Western Michigan
Today’s blog will continue with my series of analyzing the most/least improved units over the last 20 years. Each day this week I will have a new offensive or defensive statistical category to examine and today I will breakdown total defensive yards.
There are many factors that contribute to a significant change in total defense. First, a team may see a significant improvement if they return a bunch of experienced starters from a team that was relatively inexperienced the year before. Naturally a team that loses a bunch of starters especially their star players from an experienced team will usually see a drop off in total defense. Read more…
Categories: Offseason Notes Tags: Baylor, blog, college football, Last 20 Years, Least Improved, Louisville, most improved, Navy, NC State, phil steele, Total Defense, Western Michigan, wisconsin
For the next two weeks, I will be taking a look at the conference teams of the decade for 2000-2009. Factored into my analysis will be conference win %, conference and division titles, bowl games and bowl wins. I will also include BCS bowl wins, final AP rankings and number of national championships for the major conferences. There have been several teams who have changed conferences during that time and I will include them in the analysis for any season(s) they were affiliated with that certain conference. I will also be doing a breakdown of how the conference did in bowl games during the decade and I will emphasis the overall win/loss record, the number of BCS bowl wins, and the records against Non-BCS and ranked bowl teams.
While some conferences may have no-brainers as the top team, other conferences were very competitive over the past decade. Here is the schedule for the upcoming week with the conferences I will be analyzing on each date. Read more…
Categories: Team of the Decade Tags: Akron, Ball St, blog, Bowling Green, Buffalo, Central Michigan, college football, Eastern Michigan, Kent St, mac, Marshall, Miami Oh, Northern Illinois, Ohio, phil steele, Team of the Decade, Temple, Toledo, UCF, Western Michigan
2009 was a memorable year for many of the teams and players in the Mid-American Conference. The ’09 season saw the conference send five of its teams to bowl games for a 2nd straight year and league champ Central Michigan ended the conference’s 14 game bowl losing streak by defeating Troy 44-41 in 2OT in the GMAC Bowl. The Chippewas also finished in the final AP Top 25 at #23.
Temple had one of its best seasons in school history by winning 9 straight games and made their 1st bowl appearance since 1979! Temple HC Al Golden was named MAC coach of the year as the Owls have improved their win total in each of his 4 seasons as coach. With Temple breaking their bowl drought, 11 MAC teams have now been to a bowl game since 2004!
I was very pleased with the way the East Division played out in ‘09 as my magazine was the only magazine in the country to have Ohio winning the division. Every other magazine had the Bobcats projected 4th or lower! Frank Solich has done a great job here as the Bobcats were just 11-35 in the 4 years prior to his arrival. Since 2006, Ohio is 28-24 including 2 appearances in the MAC Title game! Read more…
Categories: Offseason Notes Tags: 2010 Schedules, Akron, Ball St, Bowling Green, Buffalo, Central Michigan, college football, Eastern Michigan, Kent St, mac, Miami, Northern Illinois, OH, Ohio, phil steele, Temple, Toledo, Western Michigan
Navy QB Dobbs has a small crack in his kneecap from a prior inj in HS that will have to be repaired, but he is hoping to play thru the injury and have it fixed after the season….
Michigan’s Rich Brooks isn’t hiding his quarterback decision this week. He’s said true frosh Morgan Newton will start….
S Carolina is looking to avenge last year’s loss to Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt is coming off a 34-10 loss to Georgia and South Carolina’s 20-6 loss at Alabama….
Read more…
Categories: News & Notes Tags: acc, Akron, Alabama, Arizona, Arizona St, Baylor, Big 12 North Title, Boise St, Boston College, Bowling Green, Buffalo, Central Michigan, Cincinnati, Clemson, college football, Colorado, Connecticut, Dan Marino, Doyt Perry Stadium, Duke, Erickson, Florida Atlantic, gameday, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Hawaii, Houston, Idaho, Indiana, individual game ratings, Iowa, Iowa St, Jasper Howard, Jordan White, Kansas St, Kent State, Louisiana, Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisville, LSU, Maryland, Miami, Michigan, Michigan St, Mike Riley, Mississippi, Missouri, Navy, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico St, Notre Dame, Ohio St, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, Oregon, Oregon St, Penn St, Petersen, phil steele, Pittsburgh, SEC Championship Game, South Carolina, Stanford, Sumlin, Syracuse, Temple, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Toledo, Troy, Tulsa, UAB, UCF, UCLA, ULL, USF, Utah St, Vanderbilt, Vanerbilt, Washington St, West Virginia, Western Michigan
