2017 was a disappointing year for many teams and several now have new coaches as a result of that 2017 campaign. We talked about which teams might have the biggest improvement in other threads, but why not use something that is measured like the Massey composite rankings to use as a basis for determination? In this thread you’re voting on which team you think improves their Massey composite ranking by the most positions.


39 Troy
54 Appalachian State
89 Arkansas State
98 Georgia State
110 ULM
115 South Alabama
117 Louisiana
120 Coastal Carolina
122 Georgia Southern
126 Texas State

As much as I’m a homer, we went 2-10 last year. This year we have a favorable schedule, experienced coaches, and we still have a young team but not as young as last year. One thing about hitting rock bottom is there is no where to go but up.

(03-03-2018 12:28 PM)TrueBlueDrew Wrote:  As much as I’m a homer, we went 2-10 last year. This year we have a favorable schedule, experienced coaches, and we still have a young team but not as young as last year. One thing about hitting rock bottom is there is no where to go but up.

Georgia Southern is certainly the easiest pick I think. I hope for the sake of the conference the bottom all get better collectively.

Going up this season (in order of how much they go up)
1. GS
2. South
3. State
4. UL
5. ULM
6. Coastal
7. Texas State

Down a little bit (but not much)
Troy
App State

I'm a fan of Steve Campbell and I think South has a good team for him to work with. ULM will get better but not convinced the defense will give them much more help.

Push
Arkansas State

(03-03-2018 01:07 PM)EigenEagle Wrote:  Going up this season (in order of how much they go up)
1. GS
2. South
3. State
4. UL
5. ULM
6. Coastal
7. Texas State

Down a little bit (but not much)
Troy
App State

I'm a fan of Steve Campbell and I think South has a good team for him to work with. ULM will get better but not convinced the defense will give them much more help.

Push
Arkansas State

I was thinking the top two would be GS or USA in some order and then ULM and Louisiana. It’ll be interesting to come back to this thread next December/January for sure.

Unless Troy beats Boise or Nebraska, they'll be in the 60's or 70's even if they go 10-2. That 39 ranking was hugely helped by the LSU win. We got pretty high in 2016 too, but we were able to go 8-1 from the start losing only to #2 Clemson by 6 points. This season could start 1-2 with losses to Boise and Nebraska, and that would doom Troy for the rest of the year.

I think it has to be narrowed down to ULM, USA, GS, and Coastal. The Top 4 aren't jumping that many teams. The Withers experiment at Texas State has failed in my opinion, and Louisiana's hires aren't as good as USA's or Georgia Southern's.

South Alabama - Best hires of the three new staffs. There is already a good amount of talent coming back, so I expect they will compete for a title very soon, even this year if they can find an offensive line. The defense has been pretty good at South most years, and I expect them to take a step forward from an already decent squad last season. I also think that the slew of injuries that seemed to amount every year before and during the season can be attributed to bad training. A new staff should rectify this and a fully stocked USA will be tough to beat.

ULM - The offensive potential in Viator's second year is incredible. With many guys back from injury, some real JUCO help, and talented freshmen, the defense should be much better, but will it be enough? I'm not sure, but I'd bet on the warhawks being a much improved team in 2018.

Georgia Southern - If the prophesy is true, the eagles will return to form, at least on offense. The "will they triple option, won't they triple option" sideshow was a failure. Anything other than a true return to form should be viewed as heresy. The defense may take longer to develop, so I would put them second behind South Alabama and ULM.

Coastal Carolina - This will be a deceptively good bunch in 2018. While I think Chadwell is a fine head coach and coordinator, I don't think he was prepared for this role. With Moglia back, I expect this bunch to be a lot better. This was Coastal's first year as a full FBS member with conference privileges and competed without their head coach. They also came in without most of the squad that went 10-2 as an FBS independent one season prior. If you look at their previous records for the last four years in FCS football, you know something went wrong. Moglia is the key to the whole deal with a squad that now has experience at the FBS level. I want to put them higher, and honestly, ULM, GS, and CCU all have tremendous ability to be better. It's tough to separate them.

These four teams, and Georgia State, will remind everyone that there are no gimmies in the Sun Belt. They will all be improved and the Top 3 will not go undefeated. Expect some shakeups at the top as this is going to be a wild year.

Also, FYI, most people will vote for their own team on a poll like this. It's more about what's being said in the thread.

I don’t know if ULM will have the biggest difference vs current Massey rating but I’ll bet money we’re higher than 110.

If USA can play even a little defense they should move up. Gotta think that GS has enough athletes to have a decent turnaround this year as well.

(03-05-2018 09:40 AM)SpeedkingATL Wrote:  If USA can play even a little defense they should move up. Gotta think that GS has enough athletes to have a decent turnaround this year as well.

USA’s defense was actually not bad. But we were 25 total yards from being the worst offense in the league. Even Texas State has a better offense. Our defense was good, but was on the field entirely too much.

(03-03-2018 12:28 PM)TrueBlueDrew Wrote:  As much as I’m a homer, we went 2-10 last year. This year we have a favorable schedule, experienced coaches, and we still have a young team but not as young as last year. One thing about hitting rock bottom is there is no where to go but up.

It is not even close to being homer to go with GS just common sense out of the group. Our problem was coaching nightmare we seem to be get every decade or so. We also very young last year with only 8 seniors most of which did not even start.

I don't think App or Troy fans are likely to vote for their home team in this one. The Troy situation has already been discussed. App has room to improve because of our mid-season slump due to some key injuries, but we are replacing too many pieces to start predicting big steps forward in 2018. It COULD happen, but it's not likely.

GS is going to take steps forward, and the improvement should be significant. The experience level of their new coach might be in question, but he seems to be making the right moves and has the team believing again.

Others have the potential to take huge steps. I'm not convinced that the Withers experiment at Texas State is a complete failure. 2017 was disappointing but a lot of young players got game experience. If the Bobcats get a couple of early wins (maybe even a win at Rutgers) could provide a spark that changes the season. This is obviously a make or break year for Withers, but I think we'll know early which way it's going to go.

Texas State when they win the SBC West next year. They've been tanking last few seasons for a big surprise? (sarcasm). Although..seriously, i think they've been rebuilding on talents and depth. Withers recruits really well. They weren't THAT bad honestly, at least offensively.

If not, GS. going from 2-10 to 6-6/7-5 should be huge and not totally unreasonable!

(03-03-2018 02:12 PM)TroyFootball05 Wrote:  I think it has to be narrowed down to ULM, USA, GS, and Coastal. The Top 4 aren't jumping that many teams. The Withers experiment at Texas State has failed in my opinion, and Louisiana's hires aren't as good as USA's or Georgia Southern's.
.............

ULM - The offensive potential in Viator's second year is incredible. With many guys back from injury, some real JUCO help, and talented freshmen, the defense should be much better, but will it be enough? I'm not sure, but I'd bet on the warhawks being a much improved team in 2018.

Well, Viator's THIRD year but who's counting? I think the ULM pass defense will be much improved if we don't have the injuries we had last year (we'll definitely have more game experience among all the DB's). I'm quite satisfied with the linebackers but the DL is where the tale will be told for 2018.

The question asks which will improve the most but do not think most see it that way. It will be very difficult for the best two or three to improve over the bottom teams if they have just fair improvement. For that reason, I didnt vote for State which starts at a much higher rating, but for Texas State which had a poor season and may see an improvement of two or three games this year.