After watching us the last couple of weeks and others I really wouldn't be surprised with anyone other than Georgia state winning conference. I know ULM this year is not nearly playing on the same level as last years team. [/i]

I'm liking the idea that South has a good a chance as anyone at taking the conference.

GO JAGS!!!

I was just in the middle of posting this thread:

This is incredibly hard. Just when you think you have a handle on some teams craziness happens. How would you rank the teams 1-8 so far this year?

Arkansas State (2-2)
Georgia State (0-4)
Louisiana (2-2)
Louisiana Monroe (2-2)
South Alabama (2-1)
Texas State (2-1)
Troy (2-2)
Western Kentucky (2-2)

(Note: This isn't my rank, this is alphabetical order with records for your consideration)

Here is my list:

Texas St
UL
South
WKU
state
Troy
ULM
my grandmother
My 11 year old's team
Goergia St

OK, I made up two of those teams, but you get the idea.

Some of them are ranked that way due to some embarrassing losses.

(09-21-2013 10:17 PM)Usajags Wrote:  Here is my list:

Texas St
South Alabama
WKU
UL
state
Troy
ULM
my grandmother
My 11 year old's team
Goergia St

OK, I made up two of those teams, but you get the idea.

Some of them are ranked that way due to some embarrassing losses.

That's about how I was going to rank them but felt strange doing it. 1-7 is really wide open right now. All teams have had some bad losses except for maybe Texas State.

I actually did a little tweaking on it after I posted it, but only UL and USA were effected. Next week we get Texas St-UL, that could should be the game of the week for the conference.

(09-21-2013 10:25 PM)Usajags Wrote:  I actually did a little tweaking on it after I posted it, but only UL and USA were effected. Next week we get Texas St-UL, that could should be the game of the week for the conference.

Actually we play Wyoming first.

we have wyoming next week, but no not far off now.

I don't think I'd rank TXST at the top of the conference just yet. But today's game was not an embarrasing loss by any stretch. We only allowed two offensive TD's against a ranked Big 12 team. I was pretty impressed with our D today. I think they showed that they are for real.

offensively we've got some work to do, but I really wouldn't crucify TXST for scoring 7 against a defense that has only given up 23, 13 and 10 in the previous 3 games.

I have a bad feeling that we are all going to beat the crap out of each other.

Anybody remember this garbage?

2005 Sun Belt football standings
Arkansas State 5–2/6-6
Louisiana–Lafayette 5–2/6–5
Louisiana–Monroe 5–2/5–6
FIU 3–4/5–6
Middle Tennessee 3–4/4–7
Troy 3–4/4–7
Florida Atlantic 2–5/2–9
North Texas 2–5/2–9

(09-21-2013 10:35 PM)bokobobcat1919 Wrote:  offensively we've got some work to do, but I really wouldn't crucify TXST for scoring 7 against a defense that has only given up 23, 13 and 10 in the previous 3 games.

That's a point that has kind of gotten lost on our fan base a bit. Tech has a REALLY good defense this year. They will handle UT easily this year, I bet.

It was a loss in a way I wasn't ready for, but there are actually plenty of positives to take from it as well.

(09-21-2013 10:57 PM)ark30inf Wrote:  I have a bad feeling that we are all going to beat the crap out of each other.

Anybody remember this garbage?

2005 Sun Belt football standings
Arkansas State 5–2/6-6
Louisiana–Lafayette 5–2/6–5
Louisiana–Monroe 5–2/5–6
Troy 3–4/4–7
FIU 3–4/5–6
Middle Tennessee 3–4/4–7
Florida Atlantic 2–5/2–9
North Texas 2–5/2–9

If you move Troy up visually (same conference record) then the bottom 4 teams are now in C-USA. I'm just saying lol...

(09-21-2013 10:27 PM)Godzilla Wrote:  

(09-21-2013 10:25 PM)Usajags Wrote:  I actually did a little tweaking on it after I posted it, but only UL and USA were effected. Next week we get Texas St-UL, that could should be the game of the week for the conference.

Actually we play Wyoming first.

Missed that, that will be a good win for Texas St and the SBC if you can get win. Wyoming isn't the same old Wyoming, they are playing pretty decent ball right now.

Here is the basics of what we've seen out of each team so far:

Troy: 2-2, but they beat UAB and Savannah State and have a league loss already.

ASU: 2-2 We have a league win over Troy, but also have an embarrassing loss to a Memphis team that's decent, but far from great.

ULM: 2-2 Yes the Warhawks beat Wake...but they did everything in their power to try to not win that one. Scoring 7 points on Baylor is very concerning.

ULL: 2-2 They are about where you would expect, but have yet to look impressive in getting there. the Losses to Arkansas and K-State were not pretty, and they let Akron hang around way too long today.

Texas State: 2-1 the results have been decent, but they beat 0-16 Southern Miss and Prarie View for petes sake...they have yet to play a team that is close to their level.

WKU: 2-2 Once again, a win over a bad Kentucky school followed by eleventy billion turnovers vs Tennessee and a loss in Mobile. Many thought they might be 4-0 right now

USA: 2-1 They lost to Southern Freaking Utah...but are sitting in first place in league. I just don't know what to think about them.

Georgia State: 0-4 Just wait till they play Alabama.

No one has looked impressive, and since we all had high expectations, no one has really reached their expectations outside of maybe Texas State.

Football is about talent, system, coaching, luck

right now ASU's talent is not mashing with a new coach and his system

right now what was suppose to be a major plus for Western, our defensive backfield, is not mashing with the new coaches system

add to that new QBs for both schools and that in a nutshell is both schools problems right now. I fully expect both to look a lot different in week 6 than now.

Luck played against Western by playing a USA school that while young and building, is playing the same system for 3 years now..early in the season. Not to take anything away from the USA win I think the out come is different if played two weeks later. But it wasn't.

ULL and ULM both are bigger disappointments to me (personally as a fan of course it's WKU) than ASU and Western because both are playing the same system and both are starting the same QB and both have all conference QBs so I expected them to be more competitive OOC

Growth wise I think Western and ASU have more room to grow and more likely to see that growth than the other teams in the conference. It doesn't mean either or both will...but the room and talent is there for it. Unless Western sees the growth on defense it will be a long year. I can't speak for ASU because all I've seen is the Troy game but that was also some poor defense and a game I believe Troy gave away.

What does all of this mean? Hell if I know :)

(09-22-2013 12:00 AM)WKUYG Wrote:  Football is about talent, system, coaching, luck

right now ASU's talent is not mashing with a new coach and his system

right now what was suppose to be a major plus for Western, our defensive backfield, is not mashing with the new coaches system

add to that new QBs for both schools and that in a nutshell is both schools problems right now. I fully expect both to look a lot different in week 6 than now.

Luck played against Western by playing a USA school that while young and building, is playing the same system for 3 years now..early in the season. Not to take anything away from the USA win I think the out come is different if played two weeks later. But it wasn't.

ULL and ULM both are bigger disappointments to me (personally as a fan of course it's WKU) than ASU and Western because both are playing the same system and both are starting the same QB and both have all conference QBs so I expected them to be more competitive OOC

Growth wise I think Western and ASU have more room to grow and more likely to see that growth than the other teams in the conference. It doesn't mean either or both will...but the room and talent is there for it. Unless Western sees the growth on defense it will be a long year. I can't speak for ASU because all I've seen is the Troy game but that was also some poor defense and a game I believe Troy gave away.

What does all of this mean? Hell if I know :)

The only advantage ASU has is that we won our early league game, and we don't play another league game for over a month. That gives this offense a month to try and figure things out before ULL comes to town. If we played a league game next week, I'd mark it as an almost certain loss.

(09-22-2013 12:00 AM)WKUYG Wrote:  Luck played against Western by playing a USA school that while young and building, is playing the same system for 3 years now..early in the season. Not to take anything away from the USA win I think the out come is different if played two weeks later. But it wasn't.

Stuff your sorries in a sack, mister. USA has new defense this year and made quite a few changes to the offense over the offseason. Offensive Coordinator Robert Matthews in his second season, BTW.

(09-22-2013 12:00 AM)WKUYG Wrote:  Luck played against Western by playing a USA school that while young and building, is playing the same system for 3 years now..early in the season. Not to take anything away from the USA win I think the out come is different if played two weeks later. But it wasn't.

USA is only in year 2 of the spread offensively. We were a pro-style team before that.

We run the same defense as last year (the multiple 3-4), but we have a new defensive coordinator this season.

(09-22-2013 12:15 AM)USACoN2012 Wrote:  

(09-22-2013 12:00 AM)WKUYG Wrote:  Luck played against Western by playing a USA school that while young and building, is playing the same system for 3 years now..early in the season. Not to take anything away from the USA win I think the out come is different if played two weeks later. But it wasn't.

Stuff your sorries in a sack, mister. USA has new defense this year and made quite a few changes to the offense over the offseason. Offensive Coordinator Robert Matthews in his second season, BTW.

I was replying too but got sidetracked. You beat me!

(09-22-2013 12:00 AM)WKUYG Wrote:  Football is about talent, system, coaching, luck

right now ASU's talent is not mashing with a new coach and his system

right now what was suppose to be a major plus for Western, our defensive backfield, is not mashing with the new coaches system

add to that new QBs for both schools and that in a nutshell is both schools problems right now. I fully expect both to look a lot different in week 6 than now.

Luck played against Western by playing a USA school that while young and building, is playing the same system for 3 years now..early in the season. Not to take anything away from the USA win I think the out come is different if played two weeks later. But it wasn't.

ULL and ULM both are bigger disappointments to me (personally as a fan of course it's WKU) than ASU and Western because both are playing the same system and both are starting the same QB and both have all conference QBs so I expected them to be more competitive OOC

Growth wise I think Western and ASU have more room to grow and more likely to see that growth than the other teams in the conference. It doesn't mean either or both will...but the room and talent is there for it. Unless Western sees the growth on defense it will be a long year. I can't speak for ASU because all I've seen is the Troy game but that was also some poor defense and a game I believe Troy gave away.

What does all of this mean? Hell if I know :)

Pretty good analysis I think. We had this same BS last year with Malzahn. System did not mesh with players. Malzahn was smart enough to feel the fear and come down off of his pedestal and figure out how to use what he had. I know Bobby Petrino has the experience and smarts to do that....the question remains for us.

Seems like the Sun Belt is a whole lot more evenly matched now that some schools are gone.
Guess Georgia State wishes FIU were still here with their 2 first downs and 30 total yards of offense today.