Most of you know Edge as the roving correspondent for our OTP Muncie bureau. He brings delight and joy to the masses with his Rock & Roll Report Cards after Ball State games which he decides to rock out at in person. In an effort to ensure your Awesome Quotient, or AQ as we like to call it, increases on a weekly basis, Edge offers insight into the Cards’ upcoming opponent as well. Our first 2009 edition? North Texas.
Life On The Edge:
North Texas Edition
Here we go. Tomorrow, the season officially begins. This offseason has been a tough one for us all, even our mighty Cardinals. We lost a talented chunk of our offense, we lost our head coach (who undoubtedly left at the perfect time), and we had to endure almost eight months of no college football.
But things are finally getting back in full swing, and the hibernation is just about over. Some things I’m looking forward to or am finding interesting at the moment in the college football world:
- Seeing Lee Corso back in action. He may annoy the hell out of you, but you know, Gameday wouldn’t be the same without him.
- Crazy Lou. No longer Dr. Lou, this man has gone batty. He predicts a Florida-ND championship, and he’s not joking. Maybe it’s time to switch to politics Lou.
- This new Michigan over-practicing scandal. Seriously? Find me a team that doesn’t practice/train their players 20 hours or less in a week, and I’ll find you a team that goes 0-12.
- This year’s Heisman race really will be one for the books. The QB trio of Tebow, Bradford, and McCoy will put on a show this year, that’s for certain. But don’t count out some others that may eke into the top three by season’s end.
- Lane Kiffin.
Among the things I’m looking forward to this season with Ball State? Well, the Cardinals defense by all reports appears to be solid, maybe one of the best in the MAC. If they play well as a unit and stay healthy, they can at least give the mostly inexperienced offense a chance to put points on the board and win some games. It’s also important to look upon our new coaching staff and realize with the talent they bring to the table, Ball State does have a chance to be a MAC West contender for a while.
In the past week, Alan and I took quite a beating in our North Texas season prediction. I had them at 1-11, and Alan predicted a 2-10 season. Unfortunately, since we can’t give every team a 9-3 record and be the happy strawberry-scented pastel-colored “everyone gets to go bowling” blog, we have to be realistic. A 2008 record of 1-11 doesn’t necessarily mean your team is bad, so lift up those heads. The offense showed a bit of promise last year, but that North Texas defense was just… not good. This should go to prove that defense is extremely important at this level. While the offense ranked in the middle of the entire FBS, the defense pretty much guaranteed that 2008 was a season worth improving into 2009.
While we haven’t seen either team perform yet, most of my expectations come from what was gained and what was lost for both teams and what happened in 2008. North Texas, don’t take offense, but I predict a Ball State victory on September 3, and we get back into a winning frame of mind… at least for awhile.
Ball State: 24
North Texas: 14
Filed under: Ball State, LifeOnTheEdge, Sun Belt |
Over The Pylon 
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