Mr. Optimism

[PhirePhilBennett]

OOC:
2-2
W Ark State (trap game)
W UNT (revenge game - home)
L TCU
L Tech (home)

Conference:
2-1 vs. East
L S. Miss
W UCF
W Memphis

3-2 vs. West:
W Rice (home revenge game)

win 2 of 4
Houston (road game, no Kolb)
UTEP (home game, new QB no Palmer)
Tulsa (away game, but new QB)
Tulane (home but who knows)

[perunapower]

OOC:
2-2
W Ark State (trap game)
W UNT (revenge game - home)
L TCU
L Tech (home)

Conference:
2-1 vs. East
L S. Miss
W UCF
W Memphis

3-2 vs. West:
W Rice (home revenge game)

win 2 of 4
Houston (road game, no Kolb)
UTEP (home game, new QB no Palmer)
Tulsa (away game, but new QB)
Tulane (home but who knows)

Houston, UTEP, and Tulane will have new QBs. Tulsa's Smith is a junior and should be back for his senior year. UTEP also loses their favorite receiver Higgins.

[mustangfan01]

Seriously.

Here is how the west will look next year:


Tulsa
Offense: Loses 4 of 5 offensive line starters -- only returner is a FR this year. Lose their 2 standout WR's (Bugg and Moss). QB and RB will be seniors
Defense: Lose their 2 defensive studs LB Bunting and DL Latu. Lose both safeties and their best corner.

Houston
Offense: Lose all-star QB Kolb and big bruising RB Battle. Hopefully Alridge will go pro, but he will be a SR next year if not. They also lose their best WR in Vincent Marshall. Their OL next year will have 4 SRs, but they lose their best OL, C Doty.
Defense: In my opinion, their defense loses 3 of their best 4 players. Huge DT Love, LB Koehl and CB Gaston.

Tulane
Offense: Lose their solid QB in Ricard -- in my opinion, their backups suck...we shall see. RB stud Forte will be a SR. Will lose 1 or 2 WRs. Without Ricard, they will be a running offense -- especially with little backup QB Scelfo who is a runner.
Defense: Lose their best DB and good punter.
Tulane doesn't get hurt too bad overall, but without Ricard I don't expect much out of them.


UTEP
Offense: Lose Palmer and Higgins, replace them with Florida State transfers, 4 star Lorne Sam QB and 5 star WR Fred Rouse. Could see much heralded QB recruit Brandis Dew in there -- 6'5" like 250. WR corp takes a hit, 3 seniors out.
Defense: DL is gone. Even the DL backups and backups' backups are gone. I don't know if Jeremy Jones is getting another year but he will or wont be back depending on that. Other conference standout LB Collavo is gone. Will lose about half their secondary, with S Demps returning as a SR -- guy is an INT machine.
Both P and PK are gone.

Rice
Offense: Loses one of the greatest RBs to play at Rice, Smith. Dillard will be a JUNIOR. Solid WR Falco is out. Most returning on OL. Clement, Armstrong and Shepard all return at QB.
Defense: DL will take a little bit of a hit...losing half its personnel. Will lose good LB Rucker and solid S Downs.




SMU
Offense: Lose our 2 tall receivers in Chase and Pellerin...which means we will get to see Sledge, Sanders, Givens and hopefully Burley all the time. I think our team really lost out this year with Givens spending so much time on the sidelines. Lose TE Kennedy, and Vincent Chase will step into the #1 role with Jeff Brock taking his role over. OL only loses 1 starter who split time with Chase Smith all year long. Rest are back.
Defense: We lose 3 of our 4 DL, but Handy will fit in nicely as the DE opposite of Muse -- he won't be as much of a force as Rogers but Muse will only get better and Handy will be just as good as Muse was this year. Inside the DEs, we hope for Charlie Berry's return along side Dollens, Parham, Degroat and Thomas. All 3 LBs return as SRs. Lose 1 safety...expect to see Brandon Jones return as the new safety, or he moves back to CB and Lindley moves back to safety.
Of course all my speculation does not involve Juco signees.


I think the future is bright next year in the western division.

[expony18]

My prediciton we keep PB 11-1, we get rid of him 0-12