The Mildcats have had their roar reduced to a soft meow lately, but Ron Prince is entering his third year as head coach and things should start to get better. Last year the kitties beat Texas, and kept it close with Mizzou.
This year, their O-line and linebackers look strong, while their D-line and secondary look green. Since this is such a mixed bag, they truly could chaos in the Big XII North. They get four biggies, all in a row: Oklahoma, Kansas, Mizzou and Nebraska. One of those teams will go down, along with its BCS hopes and dreams.
4. East Carolina
Ahoy, mateys, the Pirates will be coming soon to a stadium near you and you had better be prepared to walk the gangplank. The Pirates have a weak conference schedule, but have some interesting non-conference games to boost their exposure and recruiting.
Apparently, East Carolina has a thing for Virginian teams, scheduling Va. Tech, West Virginia and Virginia. After almost beating the Hokies last year, somewhere in there, someone's BCS booty will be stolen.
3. Nevada.
Don't laugh! The Wolfpack have two very good quarterbacks, Nick Graziano, and Colin Kaepernick to guide the pack to a winning season in the WAC. Kaepernick was the 6'6" QB whose pants were too short on him last year- he had to fill in for an injured Graziano and the equipment manager must have under-estimated his inseam.
All laughing aside, this team averaged over 200 yards rushing, and 250 yards passing, and they could upset some BCS-buster contenders. Texas Tech, Mizzou, Fresno State and Boise State all have to play the 'Pack. One of them could lose.
2. Stanford.
Already there is some partying in Palo Alto as the Cardinal beat the Oregon State Beavers (whose head coach, Mike Riley, was Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh's coach when he played QB for the San Diego Chargers) in their Thursday night conference opener. Now who's laughing?
Who would have thunk it? The USC Trojans? The Cardinal are picked to finish ninth in the Pac-10, and as of today, stand number one. Arizona State is next on their hit list, and they also get a shot at upsetting Notre Dame, Oregon and USC. Fasten your seat belts.
1. Vanderbilt.
If any SEC fan watched the Commies play Miami of Ohio on Thursday night, they have to be sweating a little bit. Vanderbilt just obliterated the Red Hawks, a team who was projected to have a winning season this year. So much for that pipe dream.
Vandy plays South Carolina on the 4th, and somehow, Spurrier has got to be a bit uneasy about that considering his Gamecocks offense was stymied in the first half against NC State. Throw in Auburn, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee and Wake Forest to the mix and somehow, the Commies will burst a team's "Miami '09" dream. I'm betting on Georgia, who last year won in a heart-breaker, and the year before, lost outright to the 'Dores.
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