Southland Off-Season News

**Catatonic** · June 18th, 2019, 04:53 AM

Originally Posted by BEAR

ACU is going to have it tough this year. What games do you think they will win?

We could lose 8 conference games (I don’t see a loss to HBU this year). We could win 9 conference games. We have the talent and depth to be competitive in every game. So do a lot of other teams.

**BEAR** · June 18th, 2019, 07:35 AM

Originally Posted by Catatonic

We could lose 8 conference games (I don’t see a loss to HBU this year). We could win 9 conference games. We have the talent and depth to be competitive in every game. So do a lot of other teams.

Don't you hate not knowing.

As fans we want some confidence in matchups during the year. In the SLC if you lose your FBS and two SLC games, you're pretty much out of the playoff picture...usually. Two SLC losses and you usually don't win the conference either. After that its just usually playing for pride. Been there. Done that.

**Catatonic** · June 18th, 2019, 08:38 AM

Originally Posted by BEAR

Don't you hate not knowing.

As fans we want some confidence in matchups during the year. In the SLC if you lose your FBS and two SLC games, you're pretty much out of the playoff picture...usually. Two SLC losses and you usually don't win the conference either. After that its just usually playing for pride. Been there. Done that.

This is the best ACU team of the D1 era. Yet The NAIA team we face and Houston Baptist games are the only contests I have much confidence in going into the season.

Take Nicholls, for example. We beat Nicholls at home, sacking Fourcade five times and ripping off several long runs against their D. They lost four starters off their O Line and most of their D line. We return virtually everyone who was instrumental in beating them. Am I confident we will beat them again this year? Not at all. I don’t know who they have recruited for the trench positions. I do know we face them on the road this year and they will be looking for payback.

SFA beat us by three on the road last year. We improved as the year went on. They didn’t. We get them at home this year and we will be looking to avenge the loss. BUT, they have a bright young new coach and a ton of incoming talent. I’d like to be confident here, but I have an uneasy feeling they are going to exceed expectations and sneak up on a couple of front runners.

I could go down our entire schedule and lay out a similar scenario of pluses and minuses or unknowns.

**BEAR** · June 18th, 2019, 08:58 AM

Originally Posted by Catatonic

This is the best ACU team of the D1 era. Yet The NAIA and Houston Baptist games are the only contests I have much confidence in going into the season.

Take Nicholls, for example. We beat Nicholls at home, sacking Fourcade five times and ripping off several long runs against their D. They lost four starters off their O Line and most of their D line. We return virtually everyone who was instrumental in beating them. Am I confident we will beat them again this year? Not at all. I don’t know who they have recruited for the trench positions. I do know we face them on the road this year and they will be looking for payback.

SFA beat us by three on the road last year. We improved as the year went on. They didn’t. We get them at home this year and we will be looking to avenge the loss. BUT, they have a bright young new coach and a ton of incoming talent. I’d like to be confident here, but I have an uneasy feeling they are going to exceed expectations and sneak up on a couple of front runners.

I could go down our entire schedule and lay out a similar scenario of pluses and minuses or unknowns.

I was really surprised ACU lost to UCA at your place last year. We were injury riddled and really had very little chance IMO. But when your Oline only got 6 yards net rushing I was like...what?! You got over 200 against Baylor, IUW, SLU, and almost SAM ( a team we lost 2 QBs and a game to ...but a team you beat! ) It appears the types of defenses your team does not do well against have the same philosophies. McNeese allowed the Cats 1 yard rushing all game. UCA allowed the Cats 6 yards rushing all game. Both of those teams usually have fast lines that play quick to the ball and take angles that cut off RBs. But that also lends to either good passing games by their opponents or the defenses have field days and tee up their opponents. Sort out that line play and ACU will be a player soon enough.

**Catatonic** · June 19th, 2019, 07:30 AM

Originally Posted by BEAR

I was really surprised ACU lost to UCA at your place last year. We were injury riddled and really had very little chance IMO. But when your Oline only got 6 yards net rushing I was like...what?! You got over 200 against Baylor, IUW, SLU, and almost SAM ( a team we lost 2 QBs and a game to ...but a team you beat! ) It appears the types of defenses your team does not do well against have the same philosophies. McNeese allowed the Cats 1 yard rushing all game. UCA allowed the Cats 6 yards rushing all game. Both of those teams usually have fast lines that play quick to the ball and take angles that cut off RBs. But that also lends to either good passing games by their opponents or the defenses have field days and tee up their opponents. Sort out that line play and ACU will be a player soon enough.

Interesting point about which teams we do and don’t match up well against. The two games that surprised me the.most last year were UCA and Nicholls. I was surprised by how dominant we were in the trenches v Nicholls and how we were dominated by UCA’s D line.