College Football Week: Day Three

Today is day three of my college football week and there are finally some teams of major interest. CMU, WMU, and EMU are all in today's MAC predictions and I also have the independents for you. 

Enjoy!

MAC

East

1. Ohio 10-2 (7-1) – The Bobcats will experience the same success they had last year. QB Tyler Tettleton is an amazing threat on the ground and in the air. He only gained experience from last year, so he will be one of the best players in the conference this year. Tettleton will also get back two of his major targets from last year. The defense will improve on their numbers from last year, but will continue to just be a middle of the road unit.

Key Wins: Marshall, Bowling Green, Miami. Key Losses: Kent State, Penn State.

2. Kent State 6-6 (5-3) – Kent State will have a great season as well. The problem is that they will be really far behind the rest of the MAC’s top teams. The offense has a great core of returning players and will do much better than last year. They will at least be in the middle of the conference in most of the major stats. On the flip side, the defense will regress. The Golden Flashes lost some great talent on defense, but it will only hurt them slightly.

Key Wins: Ohio, Western Michigan, Eastern Michigan. Key Losses: Bowling Green, Miami, Ball State.

3. Bowling Green 6-6 (4-4) – The defense will be the better part of this Falcon team. Returning starters are all over the roster and the secondary doesn’t have a new player from last year. The defense went through a lot of tough situations last year, so the group will be tight knit and ready to lead the team to victory. The offense also has a lot of key players returning. The offensive line has experience and so does the man they are protecting. The only issue will be the wideouts. They are all very young and it will be interesting to see how they handle the pressure. 

Key Wins: Kent State, Buffalo, Idaho. Key Losses: Ohio, Miami, Toledo.

4. Miami 4-8 (3-5) – All you need to know about Miami is that they have an incredible QB. Zac Dysert had one of the better years in the Nation last year. The Redhawks passing offense was ranked 14^th in all the land. This year Dysert is a senior and will be experienced enough to make a great impact on the MAC. The only issue is that he doesn’t have the supporting cast. The right side of offensive line is weak and the running game won’t be there this year. The defense is going to stay about the same. They will get the benefit of practicing against a prolific passer, but besides that there isn’t much upside.

Key Wins: Kent State, Bowling Green, Akron. Key Losses: Massachusetts, CMU, Buffalo.

5. Buffalo 3-9 (2-6) – This Buffalo team will be tough this year, but just like the previous year they will lose a lot of close games. They have the talent to hang with a lot of the teams in the MAC, but there just isn’t that player to put them over the edge. The running game will be strong with Branden Oliver spear heading the attack. The defense will be solid as well. The secondary will continue to be the best part of this unit. The Bulls down fall will be the rush defense.

Key Wins: Massachusetts, Miami, Morgan State. Key Losses: Bowling Green, Western Michigan, Toledo. 

6. Akron 2-10 (1-7) – If it wasn’t for the new comers behind them, they would be the worst team in the MAC. Akron hasn’t had a great season in a while, but that may change soon. First year coach Terry Bowden has a career record of 140-62-2 and I believe he can turn this program around. As for this year, the defense will really let them down. The put up some pretty good numbers last year, but lost a lot of talent. QB Clayton Moore really needs to step it up this season. His 9 touchdowns last year just aren’t cutting it.

Key Wins: Massachusetts, Morgan State. Key Losses: Miami, Toledo, CMU.

7. UMass 1-11 (1-7) – This is UMass’ first season in the MAC and not much can be expected from them. They don’t have the players for D1 yet and I think they will have some difficulties going on the road to places like Western and Michigan. They may shock some people and keep it close in a few games, but ultimately they will only get one shocking win.

Key Win: Miami. Key Losses: Buffalo, Akron, CMU, Western Michigan, Michigan. 

West

1. Toledo 9-3 (8-0) – This is an extremely talented team. They lost a whole lot of talent last season, but they still have the best player in the league. The offense will be impeccable. They balance the running and passing game so well that it’s hard to know what’s coming next. The defense will have bad numbers because of the teams they are playing, but they are still a strong unit of guys. As long as their line can get pressure on the QB, I think they will be fine.

Key Wins: Northern Illinois, Western, Ball State. Key Losses: Arizona, Wyoming, Cincinnati.

2. Northern Illinois 7-5 (6-2) – The Huskies will do just enough to get second in the MAC West this season. They will have the speed and the size that they always seem to have, but the loss of their QB and running back will really hurt them. The offense pretty much has new personnel all around, so they won’t be as fluid as last year’s team. The defense will be the rock for the Huskies. They are coming off a disappointing season last year, but there is a lot of upside in the secondary this year. Will it be enough to stop the likes of Toledo or Western? Not at all, but it should limit the damage and will dominate the weaker MAC teams.

Key Wins: CMU, Ball State, Eastern Michigan. Key Losses: Toledo, Western, Army.

3. Western Michigan 8-4 (5-3) – Unfortunately for Chippewa fans, the Broncos will have a banner year in K-Zoo. The offense will be the center piece just like last year. They have a huge offensive line and Alex Carder is incredible. I believe they will lead the conference and nearly the nation in passing yards this year and the running game will improve. The defense will be the Achilles heel though. It will be improved up front from last year, but it will still not be good enough to keep up with the likes of Toledo and Ohio.

Key Wins: CMU, Northern Illinois, Connecticut. Key Losses: Toledo, Eastern Michigan, Kent State.    

4. Ball State 5-7 (4-4) – Ball State will have a pretty good year in the MAC this season. The offense will continue to be one of the better units in the conference. Keith Wenning will improve on last season by throwing for 3,000 yards and 20 TDs. The defense will really hold them back. They were near last in every category and even if they improve a bit, they will still have a tough time against the likes of Toledo or Western. The last area that will really hurt the Cardinals is their out of conference schedule. They would have a chance at a bowl game this year, but the out of conference schedule is brutal.

Key Wins: CMU, Eastern Michigan, Kent State. Key Losses: Ohio, Toledo, Western Michigan.

5. Central Michigan 6-6 (4-4) – CMU will surprise some people this year. QB Ryan Radcliff will have a great receiving group to throw to and the O-line should be solid. The only three questions should be if the running game can show up this year, if Radcliff can take care of the ball, and if the defense is ready for the task at hand this year. The MSU game will really be the test for this CMU team. If they can keep it close, it will give them a lot of momentum for the rest of the season. If they lose terribly, Dan Enos will be shown the door at the end of the season.

Key Wins: Eastern Michigan, Miami, Navy. Key Losses: Western Michigan, Ball State, Michigan State.

6. Eastern Michigan 3-9 (2-6) – Eastern will continue to be in the basement of the MAC. Though last season showed some promise for the Eagles, I believe it was a bit flukey. The offense will be vastly improved this year. All the key areas look pretty solid. The defense will let them down this year. They had issues in the secondary last year and I expect that to really cripple the Eagles once again.

Key Wins: Western Michigan, Bowling Green, Illinois State. Key Losses: CMU, Toledo, Northern Illinois.

Championship: Ohio over Toledo

Independents 

Army 5-7 – Army will have another ho-hum year. The scheme that they run is so predictable these days that it isn’t even funny. Watch for the tail backs to rack up over 1,000 yards and score nearly 100% of the touchdowns while the QB and Wide Outs are hung out to dry. You stop the run with this team and the game is over. The defense has a great secondary. They don’t give up a lot of passing yards, but as soon as a team goes on the ground, they are one of the worst. They will grab some pretty good wins this year, but once again they won’t go to a bowl.

Key Wins: Wake Forest, Northern Illinois, Eastern Michigan. Key Losses: Air Force, Navy, Temple.

Navy 8-4 – This will be one of Navy’s better seasons. They too run a very predictable offense, but for some reason head coach Ken Niumatalolo does a better job with it. The Midshipmen lost a lot of guys on offense, but they will be able to reload. The defense will be improved this season. They got a lot of returning starters and a good mindset, so I think they will do quite well stopping the opposing offenses.

Key Wins: Air Force, Army, East Carolina. Key Losses: Notre Dame, CMU, Indiana.

BYU 9-3 – At the end of the season, I expect that the Cougars could be a dark horse for the top 25. With QB Riley Nelson and WR Cody Hoffman coming back, the offense has a great pipeline for TDs. The defense will also return a lot of players and I think there is a leader in almost every stage of the defense. The Cougars will also benefit from a semi-weak schedule, but will still have enough big wins to break into the top 25 at the end of the year.

Key Wins: Washington State, Oregon State, Georgia Tech. Key Losses: Utah, Boise State, Notre Dame.   

Notre Dame 8-4 – Last season was a good year for Coach Kelly. His team was a factor in every game they played and they lost some really close games. The problem is that there will be more of that this year. I’m sick of the media over ranking this team every year when clearly they are a 8-4 team. Sure, Tommy Rees will look really good this year, but is he really going to beat the likes of Oklahoma and Michigan? No. Both sides of the ball ill continue to be mediocre and until the team can get back to recruiting great players, that’s where it will stay.

Key Wins: Miami, Stanford, Navy. Key Losses: Michigan, USC, Michigan State.

Thanks for reading!