Honest question, would a win over either OU or UCF but ending up with only 6 or 7 wins be better for the program than losing those 2 games and winning another conference championship and bowl game with 10 or so wins?  I went to a small school (FCS), so beating an FBS opponent was going to be a bigger deal than anything other than probably an FCS national championship.  Only following the G5 conferences closely since last year, curious what you guys thought was a "bigger" deal???

Great question, I think beating either ranked team but then losing 4 or 5 others would just undo effect of the win and lead to FAU got lucky last year and was overrated talk.

I would rather lose both but finish 10-2 and possibly still be in the running for the Group of 5 New Years Bowl slot. It would then depend on HOW we did in the 2 loses to the ranked teams (have to be competitive close losses), and hope for some Group of 5 losses to help.

owlsdad said

Honest question, would a win over either OU or UCF but ending up with only 6 or 7 wins be better for the program than losing those 2 games and winning another conference championship and bowl game with 10 or so wins?  I went to a small school (FCS), so beating an FBS opponent was going to be a bigger deal than anything other than probably an FCS national championship.  Only following the G5 conferences closely since last year, curious what you guys thought was a "bigger" deal???

Posted On: Jul 16th 2018, 11:44 AM #379092

I believe, especially at the G5 level winning your conference has to come first and everything after that is gravy.

Island_Owl88 said

Just curious, am I the only one who got up and started jumping and clapping shortly after I hit play?

Posted On: Jul 16th 2018, 9:26 AM #379089

Ha! I was amazed when I saw it - when was the last time a hype video was done for one of our games?!

Really liked the way he started it off - last season was huge for all involved!

dusky256fc said

I believe, especially at the G5 level winning your conference has to come first and everything after that is gravy.

Posted On: Jul 16th 2018, 1:37 PM #379096

I gotta go with this as well.

Spurrier used to say this if I remember correctly.

Conference championship is always the first priority - everything after that should fall into place.

That being said, this doesn't feel like the typical body bag game. We're definitely due for a program defining win over the big boys.

Conference USA should be goal 1. Our big win will happen.

owlsdad said

Honest question, would a win over either OU or UCF but ending up with only 6 or 7 wins be better for the program than losing those 2 games and winning another conference championship and bowl game with 10 or so wins?

Winning the conference is most important because that's 8 games vs 4 non-conference games, so winning the conference means you're probably taking 7-8 of those games and that already puts you in bowl territory itself, so you're "gotten your respect for the year."

We want to continue the momentum we've built because interest in this program is at an all-time high. The Lane Train is a palpable thing.

Normally winning CUSA gets you a blip of respect nationally but we're in the headlines because not only did we win, but we did it with such high offensive output by a charismatic coach and one of the nation's top performing runningbacks. That gives something for the media to talk about. That gives the fans something to brag about which is huge because FAU fans have had so little to brag about over the years.

Furthermore, FAU wants to fill up the stadium it built. It needs to win 6+ games per year to move in that direction. 9-10 games per season gets you there faster.

When it comes to which one would you rather win, it's obviously Oklahoma, because they're Oklahoma. People would talk about that all year and then some. You can probably name a half dozen upsets in college football where, even if the team has underperformed since then, people still talk about that game. That's building a legacy for the program.

Which one do I think we have a better chance at, it's UCF, if for no other reason than by game 4 our new quarterback should have settled in or we're going to have a rough season.

I don't know if we'll get either but of all the coaches we've had, I would trust Kiffin to have the best gameplan going into them.

It's crazy to think for the first time we are at least expected to compete with a  Power 5 team like OU. In the past we got destroyed because it was our schedule, Angelos set us up to fail.  I have an old magnet schedule and at one point we started like 5 straight road games and only used to have 5 home games which is pitiful, but we needed the money.  That being said it hurt our trajectory to really make a splash with a signature win. I still think that USF game at Lockhart was ours and that would've been program defining and also the UF game, but we cant dwell on the past.  We had a streak of bad coaching hires, setbacks with the stadium and trying to rebrand our image from losers to winners.Now we are in a happy place and I think it continues.  Kiffin doesn't want to be a one hit wonder, so he will continue to load up on talent and hire coaches who will implement the same system and style of play. Oklahoma lost Baker Mayfield and I think Lincoln Riley is due for a rough year in the sense of 3 or maybe 4 losses if they don't prepare because the Big12 is unpredictable.  He's living off Stoops' last recruits and the great talent that's already on the team.  I think we put up a fight and the difference is defense.  We need the necessary amount of stops.  I think Pecoraro brings a new edge and aggressiveness that our unit has never seen.   Now that we have the speed and the athletes this can be very fun. Our goal is to win and to get ranked, retain the C-USA title and try and get into a New years Six.  The UCF game will be tough, but winnabale and if they are ranked even better.  the only other hard team is Marshall, Middle Tenn. and possibly North Texas. We need to settle the QB battle and work from there.  We are getting recognition, and now its our duty as fans to fill the stadium and enjoy.

OU and UCF are gonna be the toughest OOC game, and arguably the toughest on our schedule. We still have an uncertainty at QB, which i'm sure Kiffin and Weis will figure out shortly after beginning of camp.

I'm happy winning with a close loss to OU, a win vs UCF, and finish 11-1, or 10-2 w another loss to Air Force or 1 conference game.

With that said, if, and thats a big IF, we beat Oklahoma, it only makes sense to me that we're going undefeated this year.

Island_Owl88 said

OU and UCF are gonna be the toughest OOC game, and arguably the toughest on our schedule. We still have an uncertainty at QB, which i'm sure Kiffin and Weis will figure out shortly after beginning of camp.

I'm happy winning with a close loss to OU, a win vs UCF, and finish 11-1, or 10-2 w another loss to Air Force or 1 conference game.

With that said, if, and thats a big IF, we beat Oklahoma, it only makes sense to me that we're going undefeated this year.

Posted On: Jul 17th 2018, 1:31 PM #379110

If we go undefeated, I want OU and UCF to be 1 loss, conference champion teams.