Season 121 - A Look Ahead
California State
Key Games: Any Sim. Beat any sim on the schedule to improve vision for the Hornets.
Objectives: Roster turnover. 10 scholarships to fill in season 121. Needs at OL primarily but upgrades all over.
Reason For Hope: The roster will only improve from here for the Hornets under lgftw. California State-Sacramento was a powerhouse in the Big Sky and is a decent location for the West Coast with Northern California available to find talent to rebuild the roster.
Northern Arizona
Key Losses: QB Donald Soto, RB Timothy Hagan, RB William Bradley.
Key Games: at Drake and at Duquesne in OOC, at Sam Houston State and at Texas State and Montana State intradivision play.
Objectives: Roster talent elevation from last season’s SimAI recruiting. 15 scholarships to fill. Challenge for the south division and get NAU back to the playoffs.
Reason For Hope: The Lumberjacks are one season removed from back to back conference championships and a final four appearance 3 seasons ago. An accomplished coach is in the fold, so the sky is the limit for the Lumberjacks moving forward.
Montana State
Key Losses: QB Ralph Wynn, OL Barry Davis, LB Steven Conolly
Key Games: at Yale, San Diego, UMass and at Maine in OOC. Sam Houston State, Texas State and Northern Arizona
Objectives: Get qualified for the playoffs. Kdawg0612 will have to successfully navigate his OOC schedule, gaining a few quality wins. The opponents are on the schedule to boost his WIS ranking.
Reason For Hope: kdawg’s gameplay is strong, despite recruiting challenges in the wasteland of Montana. Close losses to St. Mary’s, Portland State. If those losses can be converted to wins, the Bobcats could be in the round of 32.
St. Mary’s
Key Losses: QB Bradley Weaver, RB Leslie Baxter, WR Keith Howard
Key Games: Yale and at Harvard in OOC, Portland State and Cal Poly at home.
Objectives: Get back into the playoffs. Avoid the early season landmines in OOC and get to conference play 5-0.
Reason For Hope: Losing 11 seniors but the losses are well distributed across the positions and talent is ready to step in. spcbuzzard already demonstrated his ability in the playoffs, upsetting a one seed and onto the second round in season 118.
Texas State
Key Losses: QB Douglas Hines, 4 OL, RB James Black
Key Games: Sacred Heart and at Jacksonville in OOC, at Sam Houston State and at Montana State
Objectives: Continue on last season’s playoff momentum. While a win over Sacred Heart is unlikely, a new coach and maybe a new system gives the Bobcats a shot. Keeping the score close would be a moral victory.
Reason For Hope: Handing the reins behind center to redshirt So QB Jerry Gardner will lessen the loss of Douglas Hines. Hines has already thrown for over 4500 yards in his career in San Marcos. Coaching changes in the Texas area should relieve some pressure and allow phimutau to land a strong class.
Cal Poly
Key Losses: RB Victor Cline, WR Robert Crosby, RB Robert Colbert
Key Games: at Eastern Illinois and at Yale in OOC, at Portland State and St. Mary’s at home.
Objectives: Division and Conference titles for the Mustangs. A win over Eastern Illinois could significantly boost their seeding come playoff time.
Reason For Hope: One of the few teams in the Big Sky not losing a starting QB gives coach justaguy an edge. A second season in the Big Sky with the benefit of playoff money will help on the recruiting trail. Coach justaguy has already demonstrated a strong coaching ability with wins over Columbia, Portland State and Jacksonville State last season. If Cal Poly is not the stepping stone destination for coaches with D-1 aspirations, the Mustangs should be able to reclaim its dominance in the North division.
Sam Houston State
Key Losses: QB William Richard, RB Ramon Cobb, DB John Chambers
Key Games: at San Diego, Maine and Drake in OOC, Texas State, Northern Arizona and at Montana State.
Objectives: Maintain the Big Sky South division and a conference championship. Position the Bearkats for a deep playoff run.
Reason For Hope: Coach truedevil33 has landed strong recruiting classes on the heels of an already well built roster. So QB Bobby Robinson is the top quarterback in his class. A tight loss in the playoffs to a final four team tells me they aren’t far off and they have a chance at redemption on Week 5.
Portland State
Key Losses: QB Theodore Rosales, DL Joshua Brown, WR Brian Chandler
Key Games: Tennessee Tech, at Harvard and at Coastal Carolina in OOC. Cal Poly and at St. Mary’s.
Objectives: Return to the playoffs and advance beyond the first round. Prove season 120 was not a fluke. Coach lyonzfan37 must get the monkey of losing to Cal Poly of his back.
Reason For Hope: A conference championship for the first time in 79 seasons and back to back playoff appearances.
