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Dear Military Bowl presented by Northrop Grumman,
The Bulls should be in Washington DC in late December. UB has delivered 150% Bowl Attendance bump (caution: low sample size) and is ready to help another struggling Bowl. Your BGSU/SJSU Military Bowl had an all-time low attendance of 17, 835, but don't let that sour you on the MAC. I for one blame the WAC for the low attendance. Now I know the Herbstreits of the world will tell you Buffalo isn't good enough to represent your bowl, but you're in Washington, you know politics, and he is just bought and sold to another cause.
So before we talk about the 40,000 fans we will undoubtably bring to your bowl and your city, let us tell you how we will get there.
We went 4-8 in 2012, but the schedule was really rough. I was previously outraged by how the 2012 schedule panned out. Which begs the question, do we want to be the best by beating the worst, or do you want the traditional measure of superiority, beating the best?
Wait, you're a bowl organization, a non-profit money machine I write articles making fun of 19 year olds, we have all already checked our honours at the door, goodbye NIU hello EMU, let's get some money!
2013 Prediction:
at Ohio State (12 wins): Braxton Miller and 8 other starters on offense return. Ohio State's offense will prevail. 0-1.
Stony Brook (10 wins): SB will test us more than two years ago when they had no answer for BO, but ultimately they will have no answer for BO. Stony has to replace a QB and all of their skill players on offense. UB should win. 1-1
at Kent State (11 wins): Kent only returns 7 starters, hopefully they don't return those jerseys. Unfortunately Trayion Durham, Dri Archer and Roosevelt Nix are amongst those 7. Buffalo wasn't that far off last year in the Kent game...remember it was an all time bad performance by Alex Zordich. Remember also UB is 3-3 at Dix Stadium, but has won 3 in a row, (10-6 in 2005, 30-23 in 2007 & 9-6 in 2009). UB wins. 2-1 (1-0)
Ohio (9 wins): Ohio returns a QB and 4 skill players on offense, but only 1 defensive linemen and 1 linebacker. An old fashioned Ohio-Buffalo shootout will take place. Buffalo pulls this one out as well because as I mentioned before, Ohio doesn't play well at UB Stadium. 3-1 (2-0)
Toledo (9 wins): Toledo loses 10 starters and only beat UB by 5 last year at home, in a game where Zordich was knocked out and Licata came in cold to finish the game. Logic says UB should win, but the game is at Toledo and Toledo returns Terrance Owens, 4 men on the offensive line, Bernard Ready and David Fluellen. I believe Toledo will once again be able to take over the game one run at a time. 3-2 (2-1)
Bowling Green (8 wins): After giving UB their first ever MAC win, BGSU has not lost at UB Stadium. The Falcons have won the last 5 in Buffalo. BGSU return a QB and all 5 skill players on offense while returning 9 on their amazing defense. BGSU wins again. 3-3 (2-2)
at Baylor (8 wins): The Bears lose a QB for the 2nd time in 2 years, return 12 starters, but one of them is self-proclaimed 2013 Heisman Winner Lache Seastrunk. He is really good. I think we lose in Waco. 3-4 (2-2)
UConn (5 wins): UConn outcoached the hell out of Quinn. I see no reason for that to change. UConn returns 12 starters, but their losses are well distributed. UConn wins. 3-5 (2-2).
WMU (4 wins): WMU returns their skill players, lose Alex Carder, but have experienced Tyler VanTubthumping at QB but only 2 offensive linemen on a team that struggled at the line of scrimmage. WMU also has a new coach for the first time since I was legally able to drink. UB will get the win. 4-5 (3-2)
Miami (4 wins): Miami loses Zac Dysert (FINALLY) Miami only returns 11 starters, mostly in a defensive backfield that was torched by Licata in his first career start. This will be fun to watch. UB wins. 5-5 (4-2)
EMU (2 wins): The Battle for the Ontario Sandwich is also the battle of the hot seat between Jeff Quinn and Ron English. EMU worries me, we have never beaten them, they return Coach English, a QB and 14 other starters. I think they are going to win in my heart, but my head says the 2 win team can't come into Buffalo and win. 6-5 (5-2)
UMass (1 win): It's UMass, with an inexperienced QB and only 11 returning starters. UB wins 7-5 (6-2)
7-5 seems ridiculous, the way this team has played, but anything less than 6-6 would be a failure in my eyes. We lose a ton of skill after this year (BO, Neutz, our OL, Way, Mack, Najja Johnson) this is our window.
Will 6-2 win the MAC East?
Kent will not repeat, they get Ball State, WMU, Ohio, NIU, BGSU.
Ohio can easily go 6-0 in conference, I think they lose to UB, and then they can either win the MAC with a win at BGSU or fall to 6-2 with a loss.
That leaves BGSU, they host Toledo, Akron, Ohio and UMass and play EMU, UB, Kent and Miami. With that schedule, I see them at 6-1, losing to Toledo before the Ohio game. With a win, BGSU wins the MAC East, with a loss, Ohio wins. I think Buffalo will finish tied for 2nd.
I think NIU Threepeats, BGSU finishes #2, Toledo #3, UB at #4 and Ohio #5. At 7-5, with stars at WR, RB and LB, we will be a great game for ESPN and the Military Bowl.
I look forward to hearing from Military Bowl Delegates in the coming months.
Sincerely,
bull_trojan, Optimistic Football Prognosticator.