We all hate this time of year, not much happening, especially with our once powerful Blue Wave kind of swooshing instead of crashing the shoreline, expect for me to bring some different type of tibits as we try to feed our football cravings till the pre-season starts.

Last year we played a rather tough OC schedule with a bunch of toddlers being potty trained for most of the season and this year is no different with the exception the toddlers have now grown-up and there isn't any need for those, ugh - diapers.

Last year six of our seven losses where to Bowl teams, yet we managed to finish with a winning record in our first SB season at 4-3 and 5-7 overall.

This year is no different, we play a tough OC schedule: Minnesota, Kentucky, USF, Oklahoma St. & Florida. And of the 12 games we will be playing this year, seven of those games will be against teams that played a Bowl and with-in the first six games of the season we play five bowl teams.

So, with a 4-3 SBC record and a 5-7 overall last year, what would determine a successful season for the Owls this year:

-Nothing less then an appears in the New Orleans Bowl, meaning we would be playing for a SBC Championship

-Any Bowl game, even if we are not playing for a SBC Championship

-An OC victory, with no SBC Championship

-Improvement from last years SB record of 4-3

Being conservative, 7-5 would be an improvement over last year and look respectable. That would indicate win all SBC games and lose all OOC. Thats not what we are hoping for.

8-4 win all SBC games and an upset in one OOC game. This could be realistic. The toughest SBC opponent will be Troy. I'm just hoping we can come away from the Florida game looking like we belonged there.

ill go with 7-5 to 8-4 and our FIRST BOWL APPEARANCE! :D

I am going to say that 6-6 would be an improvement for the simple fact that 6-6 is better than 5-7. However, I would like to see 7-5 with one win against a non-conference opponent. I think that would be great and that would be a successful season. Anything more would be outstanding. I think FAU has a realistic chance of running the table in the SBC. First and foremost a conference title has to be the goal. If FAU goes 7-5 it will most likely win the SBC and be playing in New Orleans in December.

GO OWLS!!!

Ditto. I say 7-5. That gets us a bowl bid. We can go 6-1 in SBC and 1-4 in OOC, that should be good enough. Or we go 7-0 in SBC and 0-5 in OOC and that gets a bowl due to SBC championship. If we go 5-2 in SBC, we need to go 2-3 in OOC...very difficult to win 2 in OOC, but possible, and that would most likely get us to a bowl. We need 7 wins however we get them. Any more wins is an unbelievable season; 6 wins is a stepping stone to 2008 season.

I will also say 7-5 and like the one OOC as a win. It is no easy road ahead and two years ago it was brutal. Last year wasn't much better mainly because of the OOC but every week you could see the team coming together. l

I'l be optimistic and say we go 6-6 and win the Sun Belt.

Our goal every year should be to win the SBC Championship, with that said the SB is much like any conference where if any team falls asleep one week and they can get they rear-ends kicked-in.

Troy & MTSU should be the favorites going into the season, with a group of teams clogging the middle - ASU, ULL, ULM & FAU and then you have UNT & FIU looking to improve on last years results.

Going undefeated in conference play is always difficult and will require for us to have a few breaks go our way. A team we have yet to beat, is Troy and until that happens, I don't see us going 7-0 in conference play but at best 6-1 or even 5-2 which is still a very respectable record and an improvement on last year record.


Is there a chance at an upset in one of our OOC games this year:

• Florida, not a chance and this could be one of our ugliest lost in our young programs history
  
• Minnesota, even with a new coach & system (look at last year 's MTSU) and I don't think we will have enough to claw a W here, but we could possibly give them a bit of a scare if we minimize the mistakes - we are just not yet there yet
  
• Kentucky, an SEC team that could be a surprise this year, but could be one of those game if we put everything together could make this an interesting game, but fall a bit short
  
• Oklahoma State, a team not likely to overlook us and again will will have to contain our mistakes and could make this a close game, yet will it be enough for an upset
  
• USF, I am a bit concern about this game, their QB is a play-maker and will challenge this defense in stopping the run, yet can also burn you thru the air, this could be one of those games that could get away from us if we are not carefully. USF can bring-it and roll some points on the board. A very dangerous team and should be taken serious.
  

I need to see more of this team in order for me to predict a major upset this season, always hopeful, but I just do not think we are there yet, 2008 will be another story.

And that leaves us with our SBC record as the telling story, in defining our seasons a success. There is no 1-AA on the schedule this season and the possibility of going 5-7 should be considered a possibility and would make us 5-2 in conference play - one game better in conference play, yet finish with the same record as last year :o. Going 6-1 in conference moves us to .500 and could possibly be the best I see us finishing this year and would have to be deemed a major success story and also makes us bowl eligible

I think that the team will preform better in our OCC games this season, and earn some respect in the proccess.

That's a pretty brutal OOC schedule you guys have. I don't envy you. I like that our game with you is not televised. Maybe get a good crowd for my first trip to your house. When coming down, where is a good place to stay that is not too far from the stadium?

Who are your offensive playmakers? Defense? Do you guys run the spread?

Your analysis of USF looks pretty good. While we still rely heavily on Grothe, it seems we have developed more of a running back corp. Time will tell – we haven't had one since Hall left in 05. If Grothe gets taken out, all bets are off.

Good luck, good game, and no injuries.

Less than four months til we take on the blue smurfs. They have a smurf for qb (5' 11". 188lbs) and their rb that ran over us in the second half last year is gone. I is a home game and we need to run up the score.