UMass - W - but not as impressive as we would like
NC State - L - Glennon should be one of the best QB's we see and this will be a big step up in competition level from UMass
@ Maryland - W - The Terps are in for another disastrous season in my opinion - maybe Year 3 is the charm?
@ W Michigan - L - Everyone seems to be chalking this up as a surefire win because they're a MAC team but I don't think we do well against pass first offenses let alone do we do well on the road
Buffalo - W - just an inferior opponent
@ Rutgers - L - I know they are experiencing a coaching transition but given it was from within, I don't see them experiencing the same "growing pains" we had last year. Their defense will be smothering and I'm still worried about occasional lapses in our secondary to give up a big play. This assumes they don't have a billion turnovers against us like they did last year.
Temple - W - the season see-saw (W, L, W, L, etc) continues - on paper this is a team we should beat by a healthy amount but I suspect it will be closer than we want
@ Syracuse - W - our first road win, sending the fruit off to the ACC without a win against UConn in the past six years
@ USF - W - getting on a roll - something about USF just doesn't impress me, their offense is completely anemic unless BJ is scrambling - I think we squeak by on the road
Pitt - W - Defense is really heating up now - we go from making Tino Sunseri look like a Heisman winner last year to turning over the ball at least three times
@ Louisville - L - This team has the potential to be pretty good this year - they have a pretty tough schedule early (NC State, FIU and USM all in a row is going to be a very rough stretch) but I think by the end of the year they will be playing their best and, once again, I have doubts about our ability to win on the road against good teams
Cincinnati - L - by this point I think we'll have lost our chance at the BCS due to head to head tiebreaker against Louisville - strong potential for a let down game
Overall record - 7-5 (4-3) - improvement is seen in our record over last year but there will still be a ton of "what if's" involved in each of the losses. HCPP goes on to the third year of his contract and to another incredibly long off-season for all of us.
By the way, I of course hope that the team will do better than this but this is my "realistic" view.