Montana State is excited to play you!

[AustinPerson]

Will Kyle Padron be quarterbacking this team?

[bozely]

Will Kyle Padron be quarterbacking this team?

Nah, that was Eastern Washington, you've got the right conference though! From what I hear he went to the draft after his one year at EWU. He lost his starting position to a Freshman halfway through the season

[ALEX LIFESON]

Howdy bozely!

[PonySnob]

It's a "must win" game for sure!

[bozely]

Howdy bozely!

Hello from up North! Nice to see Texas still has its Southern hospitality intact! Anyway, is there any particular star you guys have that we should keep a lookout for?

[Mustangsabu]

Welcome to Ponyfans! I hope more of your brethren come and add some color to this place. Make yourselves at home....the summer is an interesting time for Ponyfans.

[bozely]

Welcome to Ponyfans! I hope more of your brethren come and add some color to this place. Make yourselves at home....the summer is an interesting time for Ponyfans.

Will do, same goes for all of you. We'd love to hear what you'd have to say over there!

http://bobcatnation.com/bobcatbb/index.php

[CalallenStang]

Howdy bozely!

Hello from up North! Nice to see Texas still has its Southern hospitality intact! Anyway, is there any particular star you guys have that we should keep a lookout for?

I think we have a ton of question marks:

1) Will Garrett Gilbert perform well this year? He cut down on the INTs late last year and added a QB run threat, but we didnt see many passing TDs.
2) Will the RBs be able to pick up where Zach Line left off? Line had three consecutive 1,000 yard seasons and is second all-time to Eric Dickerson in rushing yards (I believe), so that is a massive hole to fill.
3) Will the WRs actually catch the ball this year? We had an issue with drops last year. Part of it was GG rocketing-in every throw.
4) Can the young guys on defense step up? We lost a lot on D, with Margus Hunt, JG Davis, and Taylor Reed all graduating (among others). There is some young talent, like Stephon Sanders, but it is yet to be seen if the young guns can fill the shoes of the talents we lost.

[SMU2007]

I'm glad someone is excited about this game

[bozely]

Howdy bozely!

Hello from up North! Nice to see Texas still has its Southern hospitality intact! Anyway, is there any particular star you guys have that we should keep a lookout for?

I think we have a ton of question marks:

1) Will Garrett Gilbert perform well this year? He cut down on the INTs late last year and added a QB run threat, but we didnt see many passing TDs.
2) Will the RBs be able to pick up where Zach Line left off? Line had three consecutive 1,000 yard seasons and is second all-time to Eric Dickerson in rushing yards (I believe), so that is a massive hole to fill.
3) Will the WRs actually catch the ball this year? We had an issue with drops last year. Part of it was GG rocketing-in every throw.
4) Can the young guys on defense step up? We lost a lot on D, with Margus Hunt, JG Davis, and Taylor Reed all graduating (among others). There is some young talent, like Stephon Sanders, but it is yet to be seen if the young guns can fill the shoes of the talents we lost.

I can't say I'm not happy to hear that, but the extra depth on your team should help immensely. We will probably have the most potent offense we've had in decades, there are even rumors we might be using one or 2 of the backup QB's on Oregon style option plays. But our strengths would definitely QB, RB, WR, and (most recently) O-line.

QB- Denarius MchGee was a starting Freshman and has lead us to a 30-8 record for the past 3 years. Our #2 is Tanner Bleskin who is a similar style but maybe a little less mobile. The new excitement has come from the additions of 2 extremely fast QB's in Dakota Prukop and Mitch Griebel. Both have similar styles and showed a ton of good things during the spring practices.

RB- Cody Kirk has been our workhorse for 2 years, he has great vision and can get it done for us on almost any kind of play. I would say his weakness would be he's not quite fast enough to outrun some of the safeties. Shawn Johnson is our speedster and he showed a lot of improvement last year. If he finds space he's gone... Most recently we got a transfer that was to be the #1 RB at Nevada (Anthony Knight). If he turns out it will be a wonderful year for a hard-nosed running game.

WR-We are pretty much stacked across the board, every single guy on that squad can make a difference. I hope we utilize them to their full potential this year.

O-line-Our one huge problem last year was giving our QB and RB's room to make decisions. We played really well during the regular season but come the playoffs one could tell we were definitely getting worn down by better quality defensive lines. This year most of the guys will be sophomores with a LOT of experience, and we've also added a couple big transfers for depth. Should be able to get a push on anyone, but we need to practice being better against a blitzing attack.

Our biggest ? this year would be the defensive line, the starters should be great but the depth isn't what it was last year on the inside. On the other hand our DB's should be among the best in the league so I'm very interested how it'll turn out.

[bozely]

I'm glad someone is excited about this game

Well we as fans were extremely excited to play the 2-time defending champs North Dakota State! But being that we're trying to expand the stadium and Texas is one of our biggest recruiting areas the administration decided instead to have a Home game featuring Monmouth and a money game at SMU. It wasn't a very popular decision, but from a business standpoint it makes total sense.

[ponyboy]

which game did you catch?

Oh, it would have been about five or six years ago. Portland State, I believe. I still have the Bobcats cap I bought that day.

[ClickClack]

Howdy bozely!

Hello from up North! Nice to see Texas still has its Southern hospitality intact! Anyway, is there any particular star you guys have that we should keep a lookout for?

We have a lot of question marks going into this season. I would say the weakest part of our team is our DL as we will have 3 new starters along the front although Wright, Barnes and Wood all saw spot duty last season. I just don't think we have any real difference makers up front.

Our best player is Kenneth Acker. He is a very good cover corner with ball skills and if he makes an int is very dangerous returning the ball. In spring we have looked at him at WR because he is so dangerous with the ball in his hand and our returning WR production is very poor. We will see how much (if at all) he actually lines up at WR this fall.

Jeremy Johnson is our top receiver, he plays in the slot and I think he will be very productive this year. Our production from our outside receivers was almost non existent last year and we really need some one to step up there in order to be succesful.

Our QB, Garrett Gilbert was a transfer from UT, 5 star, All Everything out of HS. He had a problem with turnovers early in the year but cut down on those halfway through the season and added a running threat to his game that really kept defenses off balance. I think he will be much improved after having a full season and spring to mesh with his WR.

Our expected Starter at RB is Traylon Shead, another UT transfer. He looks to be an elite athelete. He is a big back at 6 2, 225 and not only powerful but has pretty good speed as well. I really think we wont miss a beat at RB.

We have 2 very good returning OL but 3 young players stepping in at both guard spots and RT. I really am not sure what to expect. We just got a UT transfer who is eligble this fall, so we will see how he fits in.

All and all, we have quite a few question marks and we will see how the new faces fill in. I would say our secondary, LB and RB are the strength of our team with DL and WR being weak links and QB and OL the wildcards.

[ponyboy]

I don't know that GG is a wild card any more. He'll be fine, maybe all conference. This staff did a great job of easing him in and helping him erase his confidence issues. You could see that process evolve through the season. He's quite a weapon now that he's freed to do what he does best.

OL and DL are true wild cards My gut says we'll be fine with the OL, maybe even pretty good. No idea what to expect on the DL. And WR? Who knows if we'll have a couple three guys step up. I hope so.

[SMU89]

We are going to rock