"Week-to-week grind" in a BCS football conference

[Limp Lizard]

I think that having a football conference with few really weak teams may be in the Frogs' advantage. Every since '99, TCU seems to go through a stretch or stretches where they are, for lack of a better word, bored. How do you get up for New Mexico, UNLV, Colorado State, especially well into the season? And that shows on the field. At least this year, I can't see the Frogs not being up for any conference foes, even the ones we are supposed to be much better than. In fact, the only thing we have to guard against is injuries, and mental/physical fatigue.
Kansas is supposed to be the weakest team in the B12, but that is our first B12 game...should have no problem being excited about that one. KSt, TT, OU at home, should be no problem. Maybe Iowa St. sandwiched between SMU and Baylor. But at least that is a home game. Baylor, Oky St., WVa, and Texas away, should be no problem. I like having a week off to heal before Texas.

Non-conference...Grambling is season opener and first game in renovated ACS, Virginia may be ranked, SMU will be a big redemption game and one of the few times the team is really up for them.

Still better than trying to get up for bad teams. Looking at the schedule, Iowa State is the only team I am concerned about not being up for. Hopefully they will have a good record going into the game.

 

[jake102]

Hopefully the days of shutting down the offense at halftime or mid 3rd quarter are over. I think we did that in every home game last year except SMU... where we didn't play offense in the first half.

 

[InterestedObserver]

From the standpoint of "getting up" for games, I think you're 100% correct. I can't imagine these kids not getting excited for each game. There will be a familiarity among almost every team that these kids have rarely gotten to experience (really only games against SMU and Baylor). In the Big 12, they'll know players on just about every other team.

I'm most interested in the week-to-week physical side as there is a definite step-up in physical talent among the opponents. 2012 is somewhat of a strange year as you'll likely hear lots of talk about how "down" the conference might be, but while that may be true at the top of the conference, there's probably more parity than there has been in quite some time.

Kansas is really the only truly weak team, but with a new coaching staff they have tons of unknowns. The next two "weakest" teams, Tech and ISU, had some big wins last year and suffered from injuries down the stretch (Tech only had 52 players left by the end of the season). The rest of the conference should be pretty strong with no real obvious top team, though the media will give that designation to OU.

Next fall is going to be alot of fun. I'm really excited about the games coming to ACS. Other than Grambling, every single one should be a good game.