2017 Season: 13-0 w/ CCG, NY6 Bowl, Game Projection

[USFBulls12]

Preseason Ranking: #28

		at San Jose State Spartans - Away	Easy Road Win 1-0 (Ranked: #27)
		Stony Brook Sea Wolves - Home	Easy Win at Home 2-0 (Ranked: #27)
		Illinois Fighting Illini - Home	Easy Win at Home 3-0 (Ranked: #24)
		BYE WEEK
		Cincinnati Bearcats - Home	Win at Home (4-0) (Ranked: #23)
		Houston Cougars - Home	Tough Win at Home (5-0) (Ranked: #19) *Only potential loss, but we are home
		UMass Minutemen - Home	Easy Win at Home (6-0) (Ranked: #18)
		Temple Owls - Home	Win at Home (7-0) (Ranked: #16)
		Tulsa Hurricane - Home	Win at Home (8-0) (Ranked: #13)
		UCF Knights - Away	Road Win (9-0) (Ranked: #11)
		UConn Huskies - Away	Road Win (10-0) (Ranked: #10)
		East Carolina - Away	Road Win (11-0) (Ranked: #8)
		Tulane Green Wave - Away	Easy Road Win (12-0) (Ranked: #7)
		The American Championship       vs. Navy or Houston	Win Conference Championship (Ranked: #5)
NY6 Bowl Game. Not sure if an undefeated record will even get us into the playoffs next season.

**I have placed rankings next to our wins to indicate where I believe we will be ranked as we progress through the season regardless of opponent (since I believe we finish undefeated). Although this is purely for entertainment value as the dates for the conference games have not yet been set. I put all of the home conference games in first and then finished with all of the road conference games. Wins over different opponents carry different weight but that has not been taken into consideration. This is simply how I believe the season plays out with our record and how that is reflected in the rankings. The way we finish off the 2016 season will carry tremendous weight going into how we are viewed at the beginning of next season. We must win our bowl game (hopefully against a strong opponent). 

NOTE: ONE loss derails the entire ranking projections as we are in the American Conference playing a cupcake schedule. We must be undefeated to advance.

[Ionbull]

[USFBulls12]

11 minutes ago, Ionbull said:

Do you find it too outlandish to agree? what's so hard to agree with? we are going to probably finish 11-2 this season. We have QF, Mack and most of our other talent back with a year to work on the defense. We don't play a FSU caliber team next season and our toughest games are at home. I marked the potential to lose to Houston at home but otherwise there really isn't a game that stands out as a likely loss. We are currently ranked #26-31 depending on who you ask with 2 more wins to go. As I said, we return our talent for the most part with a Heisman quality QB, which will be viewed favorably by voters as the season approaches. If the winning continues quickly out of the gate and we are, say 18-2, in our last 20 games, we will certainly garner attention. IT'S HAPPENING! Stop being a skeptic for a moment and enjoy it before QF and Mack graduate and the world at USF changes again. I don't believe Kean will be able to replicate the success of Flowers in this style of offense without QF's running ability. 

[TheUpperHand]

I dunno, man. It's going to depend on whether this defense gets fixed or not: I'd expect a few L's on that slate if we don't. Temple is going to play us tough again. Tulsa looks like they can hang with us in a shootout--they have two 1,000 yard rushers this year. Houston is still going to be very dangerous. I can see us dropping one or two of those. They'll be hard games that won't get us the respect we deserve if we win.

[charsibb]

We'll be favored in our first game, and as long as we avoid losing, we will continue to be favored in EVERY game after that

We get all the tough AAC teams at home except UCF. This is a dream schedule for an unbeaten season

Seems reasonable, except the #5 part. Make it #4 and I'm on board the crazy train witcha

 

[emrober5]

It is foolish to believe USF goes undefeated until we make some serious changes on the defense.

[bullsbucsfan426]

Well, if we hire a quality DC in the offseason-I would think that most teams in the league would not be able to hang with us. That's literally the only thing holding us back. If you get 6-7 stops a game, we're winning 59-17 instead of 45-35. 

[Sipher]

So I'm not gonna lie, that early bye week scares me. Hopefully our depth doesn't diminish and we can do a lot of rotating towards the end of the season.

[BucsandBulls]

 

22 minutes ago, Sipher said:

So I'm not gonna lie, that early bye week scares me. Hopefully our depth doesn't diminish and we can do a lot of rotating towards the end of the season.

I think you are missing a key point that we actually get 3 bye weeks next year because of moving our 1st game up. There will be one more bye week sometime in the middle of the conference schedule that is currently undetermined.

[Sipher]

25 minutes ago, BucsandBulls said:

 

I think you are missing a key point that we actually get 3 bye weeks next year because of moving our 1st game up. There will be one more bye week sometime in the middle of the conference schedule that is currently undetermined.

I did miss that, thanks! Consider me relieved.