Next year's schedule and returning starters

Cougar Football
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The AAC West is the toughest G5 division per Sagarin rankings.

Tulane and SMU will improve. Tulsa might be stagnant. Memphis will always be tough and they are recruiting at a high level.

The West will run through NAVY as long as Niumatalolo is the head man. Navy has lost 3 conference games in 2 years. 2 of those losses were to the AAC Champ. Stability at the top and a great triple option attack has proven to be lethal.

It will be tough to dominate the conference with constant turnover at the top. Coaching changes hurts recruiting, and the schemes and philosophies of the new coach may not fit with some of the current players.

If we can maintain the average of the past 10 years of UH football (8.8-4.2), considering the challenges we face as a Gof5 school, I would be okay with that.

Ideally, the next decade of UH football has a max of 2 head coaches, averages 9 wins a year, and receives an invite to a P5 conference.

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I have been bouncing all this information around in my head for a couple of days since I posted it. It is so hard to get an idea of what we will look like after the staff change. The West Division in our conference is stacked next year, and I think the East Division takes a step back with the exception of UCF.

All of Navy’s losses with the exception of one have been on the road or neutral sites, and even thought their offense is difficult to deal with, their defense is what determines how good they will be. They lose some talent on the defense this year.

In addition, Phillip Montgomery is the longest standing coach in the AAC outside of Niumatalolo. Let that sink in. This conference has been absolutely raided of coaching talent, and I think rumors start to swirl regarding Montgomery leaving. Let’s see how Tulsa deals with that issue.

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It’s in their DNA.

2 Likes
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Probably should have taken this question out with the edit. :stuck_out_tongue: Also, short of someone being a total homer, the teams in the East division have a bit more success the last 10 years than the ones in the West.

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https://twitter.com/max_olson/status/822162407938260999