Breaking Down the 2015 Schedule (Part 1)

Will you look at that — we’re just two weeks away from that Central Michigan-Oklahoma State opener on ESPNU. I figured it was about time to break down the schedule so let’s take a look at the first quarter this week.

Week 1 (Central Michigan): This sorcery that happened in the Popeye’s Bahamas Bowl (which is the greatest bowl name ever, by the way) is a bit concerning, but Central Michigan isn’t supposed to be all that good.

In fact, Kansas beat them by two TDs last season in Lawrence. A loss here, even thought it’s on the road, would be a borderline disaster for the Pokes (currently favored by 22, by the way).

And when I say on the road, I mean there might be more people at Union’s opener than at the CMU-OSU game.

2014 Points per Drive (offense): 2.52 (34th)
2014 Points per Drive (defense): 2.25 (80th)

Glenn Spencer anger level with a loss: Sky high

Week 2 (Central Arkansas): I can’t even bring myself to have a take on a non-FBS school other than “don’t schedule them again.” Central Arkansas went 6-6 against the likes of Lamar, Montana State and Abilene Christian last year. They did put a scare into Texas Tech in Lubbock, eventually losing by seven. But pretty much everybody put a scare into Texas Tech last season.

If you lose to them at home, you don’t really deserve to finish out the year.

Glenn Spencer anger level with a loss: Incalcuable

Week 3 (UTSA): Larry Coker is coming home … again. UTSA is a fascinating story. PFB reader Cody Cramer pointed me in the direction of this post about them rebooting the program and it has its merits.

“We moved up with guys that were recruited to play Division II and Division III,” senior UTSA cornerback Bennett Okotcha said. “They were great guys and they played well for us, but now we’re recruiting D-1 athletes to come play D-1 football and they’re doing a great job.

“Our talent keeps getting better. Sometimes it’s good especially for young guys to come in and play with no expectations. I feel like we’re really talented and we’re going to shock a lot of people.”

OSU won handily in 2014 and should again, but this is clearly the diciest of the non-conference games. In a lot of ways, it will actually tell us what this team is going into the Texas game. The game against UTSA last season was all right, but OSU scored 10 in the last 41 seconds so that 43-13 margin looks a lot more dominant than it was.

If you go out and just lay the hammer early, roll up 50, get Mason out at the end of the third, then we can talk about winning the Big 12. If not, then you still have a chance to be really good, but I’ll still be cautiously optimistic.

2014 Points per Drive (offense): 1.34 (117th)
2014 Points per Drive (defense): 1.84 (35th)

Glenn Spencer anger level with a loss: “Drinking coffee out of his fist for a week” high