Think we could be favored at FSU...?

[lotsofbull99]

Are you guys so sure that we will beat Western Kentucky?  I'm not so confident with us perhaps looking ahead to Florida State.

If we lost to WKU we should fire all the coaches on the spot and replace every scolarship player. Start all over and cut our losses. WKU was like 3-9 last year in the Sun Belt.

Western Kentucky could be a Hornet's Nest.  We will be the first BCS program to play in Bowling Green and also their first home game of the season.  WKU will throw everything they have at us, and with our past track record of playing down to competition it could be a very close game.

[Carolina_Bull]

The opening line will be closer than many casual fans nationwide think it should be (my guess is FSU -2.5 or -3).  Casual betters (suckers) will spend the week betting on FSU.  The line will push it out to FSU -5 or -6 and the "professional" betters will load up on USF on Saturday morning.

[Carolina_Bull]

Are you guys so sure that we will beat Western Kentucky?  I'm not so confident with us perhaps looking ahead to Florida State.

If we lost to WKU we should fire all the coaches on the spot and replace every scolarship player. Start all over and cut our losses. WKU was like 3-9 last year in the Sun Belt.

Western Kentucky could be a Hornet's Nest.  We will be the first BCS program to play in Bowling Green and also their first home game of the season.  WKU will throw everything they have at us, and with our past track record of playing down to competition it could be a very close game.

We entered last year with our team talking about "improving" their standing and "taking the next step" to win the BE. . . . . . . basically living off of the cup of coffee we had at the #2 in the nation.  We overlooked teams and took plays, quarters and halfs off).

If i am right to believe this year's team is more focused on making people respect us again, we will have a chip on our shoulder and destroy bad teams. . . . . . . including WKU.

Last year, the national vibe on our team was that we were "up and coming". . . . . . and we believed it (as evidenced by our inability to put UCF and FIU away after we got up early).  This year the national vibe on our team is that we are talented choke artists.  I'd be shocked if we do not play a little more "hungry" than we did last year.  A hungry USF team bombs WKU, Charleston Southern and Wofford.

The most overlooked thing about our team last year was how much better we were playing (especially on D and ST) at the end of the season (solid D against and ST against UConn, WVU, Memphis).  Watching our team play against a motivated Memphis team was like watching a cat play with a mouse.  We were looking for respect. . . . . . . and we still didn't get it (from the nation anyway). . . . . that bodes well for us going into 2010.

[Guest]

USF will not destroy anyone... CJL will take his foot off the gas... the playbook will be a little vanilla, with one or two things thrown in (probably the same plays we saw during the Spring game).

Don't expect us to win by more than 30 points against the FCS teams, and more like 14-17 against WKU.

[gibbsak]

We will not be ranked after our cream puff games. 

FSU will probably 3 - 0 at that time.

Even if they are not, they will be favored over us.  Coaches and Media love Bobby.

I am glad.  We play better as underdogs, than we do as the favored team.  Need proof, review 2008 and 2007 for details. 

+1

[slick1ru2]

Phil Steele has us ranked higher then FSU, GO PHIL!

[Bullpride08]

This site often amazes me with some of the fan's opinions.  You'd think we were an awful team susceptible to losing to a 1-AA team on any given day.  Nevermind the fact we're 21-0 since the end of 1999 against 1-AA teams.  Last year we beat UT-Martin (a fairly talented 1-AA team that was ranked most of last year and finished 8-4, with two BCS losses), but we beat them 56-7.  The year before we played a tight one against Elon, but it ws 28-6 to start the 4th quarter, that same Elon team went 9-3 and made the playoffs advancing to the quarterfinals.  Then it was 41-10 to McNeese, and 37-3 to FAMU...

We rarely get style points when we play 1-AA teams because we're typically holding back and Leavitt likes to get lots of bench playing time...but if anyone thinks we're losing to Wofford or CSU.  My goodness that's negative.  Tied for 5th in the BE doesn't mean you're bad enough to lose to 1-AA teams.  Also, Western Kentucky is the worst team in 1-A, they went 2-10 last year, but they do have some fight in them.  They only lost 24-13 against Vtech last year, and 41-7 against Bama.  Don't expect us to walk-up there and beat them by 60.  Last year Indiana beat them 37-13, and I suspect our score could be similar.

I think USF will be at a distinct disadvantage come FSU.  FSU will be severely battle tested, and USF will not.  The physicality will effect us significantly early on and the key will be not to fall behind before our team gets comfortable with the higher competition level.  With that being said, what I love about our schedule is we get the probable first thee wins, we play a mighty test against FSU...if they beat us, but we stay competitive the good part is our players will not face another team nearly as athletically gifted in the BE.  You face that type of test, and win or keep it close, that should help for the remainder of the season.