2023 Season

[Bulldog Tom]

The first college football magazine (Athlon Sports) hit newsstands last week. In today’s environment of roster flexibility, it is much harder to predict how a team’s season is going to play out. And, Athlon Sports is not Phil Steele, but nonetheless here is synopsis of their Tech/CUSA breakdown.

CUSA predicted order of finish:
Western Kentucky 6-2 9-4 72 (National ranking)
Liberty 5-3 8-5 83
Middle Tennessee 5-3 7-5 98
New Mexico State 5-3 7-6 104
Tech 4-4 5-7 112
UTEP 4-5 5-7 115
FIU 3-5 4-8 125
Jacksonville State 2-6 4-8 129
Sam Houston State 2-6 3-8 130

Here are the rankings of each team on our schedule:

FIU 125
@ SMU 62
NW State N/R
@Nebraska 55
@ UTEP 115
Western Kentucky 92
@ Middle Tennessee 98
New Mexico State 104
@ Liberty 83
Sam Houston State 130
@ Jacksonville State 129

Here are Bulldogs on their Pre-Season All-Conference team:

First Team
RB Marquis Crosby
WR Smoke Harris
AP Cyrus Allen
DL Kelvie Rose
KR Smoke Harris
PR Smoke Harris

Second Team
QB Hank Bachmeier
OL Abraham Delfin
LB Hugh Davis
CB Willie Roberts
S Cecil Singleton Jr.
K Jacob Barnes

Third Team
OL Bert Hale
DL Deshon Hall Jr.

Here are how other Louisiana teams are ranked:

LSU 6
Tulane 22
ULL 93
ULM 131

None of this really means much, as the only thing that matters is what happens on the field. But it’s still football and it gives me something to read while waiting for the season to start.

[Dixonfor6]

I wonder who the first team conference QB was?

Also, Rose just entered the portal and is headed to the Arkansas Razorbacks. Best of luck to him! I don’t blame him one bit.

[glm47]

I wonder who the first team conference QB was?

Also, Rose just entered the portal and is headed to the Arkansas Razorbacks. Best of luck to him! I don’t blame him one bit.

I hope he never plays a down. And screw the razorbacks. I had heard on local talk radio up here they had someone coming from Tech, but I missed who it was.

[Dixonfor6]

I hope he never plays a down. And screw the razorbacks. I had heard on local talk radio up here they had someone coming from Tech, but I missed who it was.

Why do you wish he never plays??

[Bulldog Tom]

I wonder who the first team conference QB was?

Also, Rose just entered the portal and is headed to the Arkansas Razorbacks. Best of luck to him! I don’t blame him one bit.

1st team QB is Austin Reed, who lead the nation last season with 4744 yards. He also completed 64.6% of his passes with 40 TD’s and 8 rushing TD’s.

Thanks for the news on Rose. I haven’t been watching the portal lately. I checked and we lost four other guys since the spring game. Keveionta Spears who would have been a big help with Rose gone is at Western Kentucky. Joriell Washington, back-up safety, also is in the portal. Erron Bean and Eric Randall are also in the portal.

[PawDawg]

They should change the portal so that a player can move to another team during the season. That makes as much sense as the crap they are doing now.

[Bulldog Tom]

BTW our Vegas win over/under this year is 6.5.

[Bone_afide_Dawg]

I’m surprised and disappointed to see Tech predicted to be bad again. Although I guess being Tech it’s no surprise. We pretty much suck at everything these days.

[SicemDawgz]

We’ve never had a schedule this easy, which means we win 5-6 games. If we have a D1 level defense, I could see us maybe winning 7 if all the stars align.

[techman05]

Watch us win 8-9 games, sell a bunch of tickets for 2024 and proceed to go 3-9 that year.

[techman05]

I’ll kick in the optimism in August

[Bulldog Tom]

Lindy’s came out with their college football annual on May 30th.

CUSA predicted order of finish (national ranking).
Western Kentucky (60)
Liberty (84)
MTSU (97)
Tech (107)
UTEP (111)
NM State (116)
FIU (127)
Jax State (129)
Sam Houston State (133)

Rankings of others on our schedule:
SMU (7)
North Texas (100)
Nebraska (52)
NW State (NR)

First team all conference players:
RB Marquis Crosby
OL Dakota White
DB Willie Roberts
AP Smoke Harris

Second Team
WR Cyrus Allen
OL Burt Hale
K Jacob Barnes
DE Deshon Hall Jr.
LB Hugh Davis

Other Louisiana team rankings:
LSU 5
Tulane 25
ULL 102
ULM 122

Offensive player of the year - Marquis Crosby
Newcomer of the year - Hank Bachmeier
Toughest guy to bring down - Marquis Crosby
Most dangerous deep threat - Cyrus Allen
Special teams demon - Smoke Harris

Top 10 NFL talent:
9. Smoke Harris

[dawg80]

Phil Steele's preseason Top 25 includes Toledo and UTSA. I know it's just one person's opinion and it's a frickin' preseason poll which historically prove to be inaccurate. But, regardless, the fact UTSA is in anyone's Top 25 is just another reminder how programs, start-ups, have passed us by. UTSA is now in the AAC while we got left behind in crappy CUSA 4.0. [heavy sigh...]

[dawg80]

Could be worse, we could be in ESPN's list of the worst 5 teams:

ESPN's computer model, the Football Power Index, has predicted the country's five worst teams as we head into the 2023 regular season.
Here they are, in order from worst to least worst:

1. UMass
2. New Mexico State
3. Florida International
4. Akron
5. UL Monroe

[PawDawg]

Actually San Antonio the city moved up. So did all the other “large DMA” teams in CUSA. The only one that didn’t make sense was UNT. Looks like the DMA pickers learned their lesson on ElPaso years ago. IMO that’s a Mountain Time issue