Over The Pylon

A day late, but still time to jump on board this week’s edition of the MAC Blogger Roundtable, where we ruminate on all things MAC. This week’s edition of the table is chaired by Toledo’s Let’s Go Rockets, who mercifully did not bring up the Toledo victory over the Cards last weekend. Off we go…

1.) What has been the biggest surprise in the MAC so far this season?  Can be good or bad, player or team?
OTP: I would say personally the biggest surprise has been our own team. The overly loud bravado and fandom led some of us to believe that we would be contenders for the MAC West, but in all reality, a .500 season would have been something we would have been moderately satisfied with. Anything above that was a bonus. Now, we sit at 2-6 with a need to win out to finish at .500. That’s shocking, but not nearly as shocking as how we got there. Games we’ve lost have been creative adventures into losing as the Cardinals have coughed up leads, kept teams around, came out flat, faltered late, and all manner of unsuccessful play. It’s been frustrating, demoralizing, and certainly surprising. We expected far better from this team and staff this season after the bumpy learning road of last season.

2.) Hypothetical: your team has been selected to play in a bowl game — from which MAC-tied bowl would you like to receive an invite ?
OTP: While I would love to say someplace south for good weather, the GMAC Bowl didn’t do well for us attendance-wise or financially, so that’s out. Selfishly, I’d love to see the Cardinals come to DC so I could take the Metro to go see them, get shitcanned, hit up some Ben’s Chili Bowl, and then come home. But for the betterment of the program, the majority of the fans, and the ability to perhaps win the easy choice is the Motor City Bowl. BSU fans in central Indiana, where the majority of the fans are, are far more likely to make the short jaunt to Detroit instead of somewhere else.

3.) In your bowl game answer from above — what opponent (any) would you like to face and why ?
OTP: We had the potential a couple years ago to play Notre Dame in the Motor City and that would have been very nice. Granted, we were undefeated and they sucked, but it would have been nice to put that feather in their cap. A win like that, against the “elite” program in the state would have been huge for the program no matter how bad the current Irish squad may be. So I’ll go with the Domers, but it’s a total moot point at this point in the season barring some sort of late-season miracle.

4.) Only a few weeks remain in this season, what has to happen in the remaining games for your team to finish on an upswing / maintain / save the season / etc. ?
OTP: The smarmy answer would be to win out, finish 6-6 and go to some Bowl however low class that Bowl may be. That would be ideal. Truthfully, if the Cards just show some level of play consistent with the CMU game several times, are in every game, and don’t cough up any sizable leads then that will be a good close to the season. Unfortunately, with the turmoil in the fanbase at this time, I fear there isn’t really anything that the team can do to silence the bitchers and moaners. And that’s a damn shame.

5.) Rank the teams in the order you expect to see them at the close of the season.
NIU
Temple
Toledo
Ohio
Miami
WMU
Kent
Buffalo
Ball State
Central Michigan
Bowling Green
Akron
Eastern Michigan

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