Preseason Favorites to win the Big Sky in 2015

[catatac]

I want to hear what you think the Coaches and Media will predict (They're usually very close to each other), not what you think. Of course you'll pick the CATS!

I think the top five, in order, will be:

EWU
MSU
Cal Poly
UM
ISU

[VimSince03]

If our defensive pass rush improves just a little bit, I believe we will win this conference. No doubt!

[91catAlum]

I want to hear what you think the Coaches and Media will predict (They're usually very close to each other), not what you think. Of course you'll pick the CATS!

I think the top five, in order, will be:

EWU
MSU
Cal Poly
UM
ISU

I think you're pretty close there... although it could be MSU on top simply because they're the only one of those teams returning a QB starter.

[tdub]

I think they'll go:

Cal Poly
EWU
ISU
MSU
UM

I think it'll be the same five teams, but I really don't have a good feel of the order. Every team has a big question mark somewhere. MSU's is defense. UM's is new system/d-line/RB. EWU's is QB, ISU's is QB, Cal Poly is Defense/RB.

Scheduling is interesting as MSU plays all four of the other teams I listed, but the home/away schedule very much works in favor of MSU in my opinion. I think it is better to have EWU and ISU on the road than UM and Cal Poly. Both ISU and EWU are easy road trips, unlike travelling to Cali 3 times last season. Cat/Griz recent history doesn't strongly favor either road/home but still I think better at home. Poly is simply a tough trip.

MSU doesn't play 3 of the bottom 4 teams from a year ago. UNC, Weber, Davis. So on paper the Cats play a tough Big Sky schedule.

[Hawks86]

1.EWU
2.MSU
3.um
4.ISU
5.CP

[catsrback76]

EWU, MSU, Poly, ISU are all top dogs in this league this year. MSU wins the conference because we actually have a bit of a defense this year!

[Cat Grad]

No love for North Dakota? They begin the year with Wyoming, Drake and NDSU. If they come out of that start 2-1, they coast the rest of the year in conference play. Their offense will be their strength this year. They are as good as gone.

[Cledus]

EWU, MSU, Poly, ISU are all top dogs in this league this year. MSU wins the conference because we actually have a bit of a defense this year!

If our defense can get the occasional stop on 4th and 10, it will be a pretty good year.

[91catAlum]

No love for North Dakota? They begin the year with Wyoming, Drake and NDSU. If they come out of that start 2-1, they coast the rest of the year in conference play. Their offense will be their strength this year. They are as good as gone.

If UND's offense is a strength this year and their defense is anything like last year's, they will be a factor in the conference.

But they aren't going to beat ndsu or Wyoming. They'll start 1-2.

[Bobcat Sig]

EWU, MSU, Poly, ISU are all top dogs in this league this year. MSU wins the conference because we actually have a bit of a defense this year!

If our defense can get the occasional stop on 4th and 10, it will be a pretty good year.

Heh, yup. The other big issue is replacing all the starters we lost. It's a lot more than I thought.

The upside is that the defense can only improve.

[catsrback76]

EWU, MSU, Poly, ISU are all top dogs in this league this year. MSU wins the conference because we actually have a bit of a defense this year!

If our defense can get the occasional stop on 4th and 10, it will be a pretty good year.

Heh, yup. The other big issue is replacing all the starters we lost. It's a lot more than I thought.

The upside is that the defense can only improve.

Said a lot there! Only improve is our goal...and should we, we will be on top. IMO

[mflats]

Cat grad--

what does "as good as gone mean'
thanks

[aucat]

Just curious, I really don't follow UM at all, but since they beat the @#$%^& out of us last year,
why are we magically ahead of them? Did they lose 90% of their starting lineup??

[VimSince03]

Just curious, I really don't follow UM at all, but since they beat the @#$%^& out of us last year,
why are we magically ahead of them? Did they lose 90% of their starting lineup??

1) They are breaking in a new starting quarterback
2) We didn't have our starter last year in that game
3) They lost premier starters on defense
4) They will be working on a new system
5) Too many question marks with them

[Hawks86]

Just curious, I really don't follow UM at all, but since they beat the @#$%^& out of us last year,
why are we magically ahead of them? Did they lose 90% of their starting lineup??

Because this is not egriz. I think the coaches and media will look at them having a new coach, with a new offense, and needing to find a new starting QB as reasons to put them third. Just my completely unbiased opinion.

[catatac]

Just curious, I really don't follow UM at all, but since they beat the @#$%^& out of us last year,
why are we magically ahead of them? Did they lose 90% of their starting lineup??

1) They are breaking in a new starting quarterback
2) We didn't have our starter last year in that game
3) They lost premier starters on defense
4) They will be working on a new system
5) Too many question marks with them

Correct. Most Griz fans won't admit it but last year's game was a fluke. Not only did we have to use our #2 QB but every possible thing that could have gone wrong in that game offensively, did. I think everyone knows that if we had a healthy Dakota Prukop and the Griz would have had to start their backup - that game turns out much, much differently. The year before... we know DM and others were playing hurt, but I think UM was flat out better than us. 2012 - we were the better team. 2011 UM was the better team. 2010 - we were the better team. Pretty even recently.

[catsrback76]

Just curious, I really don't follow UM at all, but since they beat the @#$%^& out of us last year,
why are we magically ahead of them? Did they lose 90% of their starting lineup??

1) They are breaking in a new starting quarterback
2) We didn't have our starter last year in that game
3) They lost premier starters on defense
4) They will be working on a new system
5) Too many question marks with them

Correct. Most Griz fans won't admit it but last year's game was a fluke. Not only did we have to use our #2 QB but every possible thing that could have gone wrong in that game offensively, did. I think everyone knows that if we had a healthy Dakota Prukop and the Griz would have had to start their backup - that game turns out much, much differently. The year before... we know DM and others were playing hurt, but I think UM was flat out better than us. 2012 - we were the better team. 2011 UM was the better team. 2010 - we were the better team. Pretty even recently.

Um won't contend this year for all those reasons and for the simple fact that everything is new from the HC to the QB and in between. Because they have a stiff defense they will do better than 500, how much remains to be seen. They can't be taken lightly, but too many variables to list them as contenders. IMO

[tdub]

Just curious, I really don't follow UM at all, but since they beat the @#$%^& out of us last year,
why are we magically ahead of them? Did they lose 90% of their starting lineup??

1) They are breaking in a new starting quarterback
2) We didn't have our starter last year in that game
3) They lost premier starters on defense
4) They will be working on a new system
5) Too many question marks with them

Correct. Most Griz fans won't admit it but last year's game was a fluke. Not only did we have to use our #2 QB but every possible thing that could have gone wrong in that game offensively, did. I think everyone knows that if we had a healthy Dakota Prukop and the Griz would have had to start their backup - that game turns out much, much differently. The year before... we know DM and others were playing hurt, but I think UM was flat out better than us. 2012 - we were the better team. 2011 UM was the better team. 2010 - we were the better team. Pretty even recently.

Um won't contend this year for all those reasons and for the simple fact that everything is new from the HC to the QB and in between. Because they have a stiff defense they will do better than 500, how much remains to be seen. They can't be taken lightly, but too many variables to list them as contenders. IMO

I wouldn't say that they won't be contenders. They'll be sniffing around at the end. Tough schedule and the variables above make me think they'll be in the mode of catch up at the end and not front-runner. The spread offense concept is becoming so common now that moving to it probably won't take as much transition time as they've seen it so many times with different teams that the concepts won't be as new. They'll still be good.

[St George]

EWU, MSU, Poly, ISU are all top dogs in this league this year. MSU wins the conference because we actually have a bit of a defense this year!

If our defense can get the occasional stop on 4th and 10, it will be a pretty good year.

Lets hope they get the stop on 2nd and 10 and 3r and 10 too.

[codecat]

Just curious, I really don't follow UM at all, but since they beat the @#$%^& out of us last year,
why are we magically ahead of them? Did they lose 90% of their starting lineup??

1) They are breaking in a new starting quarterback
2) We didn't have our starter last year in that game
3) They lost premier starters on defense
4) They will be working on a new system
5) Too many question marks with them

Correct. Most Griz fans won't admit it but last year's game was a fluke. Not only did we have to use our #2 QB but every possible thing that could have gone wrong in that game offensively, did. I think everyone knows that if we had a healthy Dakota Prukop and the Griz would have had to start their backup - that game turns out much, much differently. The year before... we know DM and others were playing hurt, but I think UM was flat out better than us. 2012 - we were the better team. 2011 UM was the better team. 2010 - we were the better team. Pretty even recently.

Do agree that the game turns out differently if Dakota would have started simply because he is mobile. To me the elephant in the living room is why did an offensive line, composed of 1 senior, 3 juniors, and 1 sophomore, that coach Mac had since their first year not provide our #2 QB with any pass protection whatsoever. Granted, the griz couldn't have sent the house if a more mobile QB had been back there, but I feel our O-line was sub-standard in that area for quite a few years now.