ChristopherRyanWilkes

That is surprising and disappointing. Goes to show it's no one's decision but the people selling tickets & ESPN.

Everyone realizes that there's a very good chance several of our bowl-eligible conference mates don't get a bowl invite, right? No one is playing a P5. A few are maybe playing lower-level MWC & AAC teams. If anything, be mad at the commissioner. But really, this is just the reality of CFB and our conference's place in it. I've been saying for a while that it's time for a split and a separate G5 tournament to compete with Holiday bowls.

I don't think FAU would turn down playing Florida State, no matter the location. It will be P5 vs. P5.

Independence Bowl is Florida State, delay on second team I'm sure them doing everything in their power to keep a CUSA team out of it. Likely a trade.

Sorry, but I don't think that means anything. It's a formality if anything, with I'm sure plenty of work arounds. If anything, some of our bowl-eligible conference mates may be sitting at home.

If it's a fill-in, who says it has to be CUSA?

Who said any of our conference mates are getting a P5? Haven't seen any yet, and FAU was the best candidate to do so.

Again, like Wren said--teams have a lot less control over these things than we think. Out of their options, this must have been the most appealing. They have more say than anyone else. This reinforced what I thought--CUSA is not getting any P5s and likely will not get any bowls outside of our tie-ins. I don't think anyone in the conference is going to be super stoked about their match-up.

Like I predicted earlier, looks like no one in our conference is getting a P5. They are doing everything in their power to make sure only top MWC & AAC teams get P5s in bowl. With that being said, this match-up makes perfect sense. Two coaches on very similar trajectories. Almost exact same age and prior experience. Both coached Air Raid Spread Offenses at Texas Tech. Great destination city. Let's not forget Troy has 1 more win as 2 less losses than we do. Sun Belt or not. Quit your bitching and enjoy it. These don't come along too often 'round these parts.

Maybe this isn't a popular opinion, but even if we did get out coached today--so what? What did you expect? Their head coach was a successful P5 & (albeit unsuccessful) NFL coach as well. Their OC was just a P5 OC for one of the best teams in the nation. No shit we got out coached. Our head coach has just now 2 years of HC experience and ditto with our OC. Harrell was barely a position coach before this. They are up-and-comers--those other guys are already established. And they won't be around long. The only reason they are at FAU is because they're outcasts for one reason or the other. Maybe someday SL will be a better coach than Lane Kiffin, but who the hell would argue he is right now... He's still a damn good coach so far in my eyes.

I predicted 7-7 OOC to mark improvement. Need an upset to achieve that now with the loss to UTRGV. This was a good one to do it, next good opportunity is San Diego.

UTA wins. Last seconds of the game. Disappointing loss.

Tie game. 44 seconds left. Nail biter.

Both teams look not good.

Good post Brandon. You're right, one game doesn't taint an entire season of success to me.

Part of the problem with Texas players is we don't have the biggest high school line players--because it's not as important in the popular spread offense here. Florida has more of these type of players, even for the lower level D1 programs there to recruit. Look at the success of UCF, USF, FAU, and FIU these days. All have much bigger line players than we do. We have to figure out how to find the big boys somewhere in the state or elsewhere. A lot of the teams in Texas have had this problem lately. The skill players are definitely there.

Exactly. Not to mention how young this team is. You go 10-4 with a true Sophomore QB and your future is bright. Also by this same logic being used today- should TCU start evaluating their coaching staff? They compete for championships every year and so did we this year. That's where we want to be in our level of competition. Proud of this team.

Every set-back is a set-up for a come-back!

Calling for heads after a possibly 10-win season is fun.

You just have to accept they are the best team in the conference by a mile, and we are the 2nd best. Kiffin won't be there long. They are just way more talented. I don't think this team got to 9-3 by laying down in games. FAU is much better than even Iowa in my opinion.

Yeah, only us. They didn't beat win every conference game by 10-15+ except Marshall.

Don't think this has anything to do with coaching or lack of trying. FAU is just a lot better than us. You don't strategize getting plowed by a much bigger o-line and gashed for 30-40 yard runs by a future NFL running back.

Dot's is definitely your best bet.

Moral victory. Light the tower.

We have really cleaned up on turnovers and shooting has been fantastic so far. McCasland's strategy of slowing down the pace has seemed to really frustrate OU.