This is a little difficult to judge since we don't play every year and really don't know much about each other. But most publications I've seen have made BG either 1st or 2nd in their division of the MAC.

A little about the MAC is this IMO - they are about as strong as the "new" CUSA and have probably earned the distinction of being a bit better league than the nations writers have granted them. Northern Illinios was in a BCS bowl last year and they have knocked off a few good wins against BCS schools, so this is not a game we should overlook by any stretch.

BG was 8-5 last year and played #23 Florida tough (14-27). They returned 19 starters before a couple of personell problems developed, notably their leading rusher (1,064 yds) Anthon Samuel quit. So their running game is somewhat questionable at the RB position even since our perceived weakness is the DL. The QB is statisitically similar to Cody (55.2% and 2585 yds) and like TU all starting WRs are back. So I think the offense is a bit of an advantage for TU because of the questions at RB. The OL returns 4 of 5, so they have experience.

Defensively, BG was one of the MACs best and was very stingy in the second half of the season, so that may test whether our offense is game ready. They return 3 of the four down DL, 2 of three LBers and the secondary is intact. So they may have a slight statistical/numerical advantage there.

The game will be in Ohio, so I figure hot weather shouldn't be a major concern. Most of BG's attendence figures show they draw less than 20,000, so the stadium shouldn't be anything like what an OU, ISU, OSU home advantage is. They lost one game at home last year (#25 Kent).

This will be an extremely interesting game between two similar teams. One having to slightly rebuild after 11 wins and the other having most of their players back from winning 8.

My heart says TU by 7, my head says BG by 3. So its TU by 4.

Opening game on the road - hard to predict a score. BUT if we lose this game - it'll mean bad news for the season. If we want to be a big boy in the world of college football, we cant go lose to a MAC team.

Should be something similar to the last time we played them (33-20 us) - I'm going to say 31 - 17 Tulsa.

The question might be who wants it more.......we need it more......hard to get on the right track with a loss to a MAC team. Bowling Green will be better than most CUSA teams but they are still in the MAC and that's what outsiders see in the paper Sunday morning!!!!! Our defense will have to be better than I think it will be to start the season if we are going to win. I know the reports are that Green is better than last year, but I didn't see anything last year that resembled a QB.....so even a big improvement doesn't mean much to me......he just isn't a natural QB. I'm going to hope some how we end up with a winning season......and in CUSA that should be possible, just by having better athletes overall. I don't see a win against a pretty good defensive team like Bowling Green but I hope it is semi respectable.......30-21 Bowling Green!!!!

Tougher game than many TU fans expect. If we do not turn the ball over I like our chances, if not we can be in trouble. Ball security and execution on offense are likely key to a win. Scoring 24 plus points should be enough unless we have 2 or more T/O's .

Obviously I think it's going to be a tough game!!! I do think we will have better athletes but so many of them with little to no experience. I thought I was a pretty good basketball player and then I walked on the court at TU for the first practice.......Holy cow, the player aren't a 100% better than high school......they are 500% better.....and that's what some of the guys are going to find out in there first game. At 18, I had little to no maturity, body wise.......but 2 years later it was a totally different game.....so much easier, because I felt 10 times stronger!!!!. Unfortunately, it's going to take a few games just to realize what's going on out there on the field. I hope we beat the sh.. out of Bowling Green and I will be yelling as loud as anybody at the TV.......and maybe saying a little prayer.....it would be a good win for the young team!!!!

I'm having a hard time agreeing with a lot of posters on our rivals site who seem to think this will be a blowout win for Tulsa. I really hope they are right, but I think they are under-rating Bowling Green & over-rating TU.

One good thing about this smaller site is that we can be diverse in our opinions wo having to defend every single word or thought we have. I hope some of those posters on rivals are correct, but BG is an eight win team from a similar conference as CUSA, is at home in an opener and has a slight revenge factor because of the embarrassment we put on them a few years back in that GMAC bowl.

I hope that Cody Green will truly be improved from last season, because we won't have Alex Singleton & our defense to bail us out this year.

I think with our very young & very thin D-line & DBs, we will have to have good luck with injuries (lack of injuries), to be more efficient on offense, have less turnovers on offense & score more points to win games in 2013.

In this first game, I am going to predict that Green & company will find a way to get it done. If I wasn't a Tulsa fan (homer), I would predict a Bowling Green win.

Tulsa 38 Bowling Green 34

Bonus guesses : Shawn Jackson causes a fumble that we recover. Walker has at least one pick. Douglas breaks a long run for a TD. Lucas catches every pass within reach.

There were a couple of games last year when it seemed like Douglas only ran the ball 3 or 4 times and had very few yards.......that has to change this year......Douglas is explosive and if you can get him passed the line of scrimmage, watch out!!!! Watts is a great runner but he just doesn't have the speed and elusiveness of Douglas in the open field. I wouldn't mind Watts running 20 times a game but Douglas needs 10+ because he's almost bound to break one. Douglas might run for, 2, 1, 2, 4, 4, 1 and some fans think he's not doing very good........then a 50+ if you let him keep running. Watts and Douglas make a great pair of backs......Watts is sneaky fast and very determined......Douglas is a race horse!!!! Now, will the offensive line be able to open holes for those two, that's the question.......probably the difference between a 6-6 and a 9-3!!!

I think "predicting" is one of the most overrated things people do, and should only be reserved for the fun things in life like predicting sports events. Fact is noone knows what will happen because there are an infinite number of intangibles involved -everything from gameday weather/wind, to what kind of pregame meal, to the number of scoring opportunities, to field position, to injuries, to who wins the coin toss etc.

I think we will have better athletes and a speed advantage, but I'm just not sure if we can keep from making a few bonehead mistakes with such a young team on the road. When everything is said and done, we will have a lot of kids putting on their game pants for the first time and that is a little scary.

It is very, very important that our seniors show leadership, keep from making mistakes themselves and knowing the gameplan and sticking to what the coaches want to happen. I know that we were sitting pretty good in Ames last year until one of our leaders - Burnham got hurt and that really negated our pass game and Cody's confidence. That can't happen this year in our opening game IMO.

We cannot turn over the ball on our side of the field early in the game or we will put our young defenders in a bad position - something they may not recover from. It is very important to get some immediate 3 and outs in that first quarter because those kids will be playing on p### and vinegar as we used to say. If we are leading at the half IMO we win. If we are down by more than 7, I think we are in trouble because then our youngsters will be pressing - something they haven't had to probably do.

IMO, if we win the first half, we have a 65% chance to win the game. If not, that falls to maybe 40%.

Tulsa 38- 24 BG

What I'd like to see in our first game is a win since BB has lost the openers to OU and Iowa St the last two years. Usually, if you win your first and last game (bowl), you've had a successful season.

I'll project the score to be

TU - 28
BG - 24

I had it : Tulsa 38 BG 34. If I had known Demarco Nelson is ineligible, I would've picked BG to win.

Our starters in the secondary are a JR. , SOPH, & RS-Freshman all starting for the 1st time. They would've been led by a Sr., who has started 39 straight games. Instead our 4th starter will apparently be a former walk-on !

Very bad news for Tulsa.

If the outcome changes based on one player (sans a qb) - we don't deserve to win anyway. Especially against a MAC team.

Further - wasn't our starting RB a walk-on at one point???? Yes he was.

If we lose this game - we will be in for a 5 win season.

Its scary to me that we keep losing players just before the season starts. The staff wasted weeks of preparation to get a certain group ready to play and this occurs. I'd like to know how this really came about - not some "spin". If there was an employee or employees of TU who made a mistake, they/that individual should be held accountable.

Its my understanding that Marco can apply for another year since he's not been redshirted, but why should he have to if it wasn't his fault? It just seems that our athletic administration at TU has been a mess at times since Judy M left. I wasn't a huge fan of hers, but compared to what we have now, I'd take it in a NY minute.

Now my prediction may change. That official 3.5 pt spread may also. Say, you don't think the bookies knew about this before us do you?

(08-20-2013 08:59 PM)jfisher Wrote:  The question might be who wants it more.......we need it more......hard to get on the right track with a loss to a MAC team. Bowling Green will be better than most CUSA teams but they are still in the MAC and that's what outsiders see in the paper Sunday morning!!!!! Our defense will have to be better than I think it will be to start the season if we are going to win. I know the reports are that Green is better than last year, but I didn't see anything last year that resembled a QB.....so even a big improvement doesn't mean much to me......he just isn't a natural QB. I'm going to hope some how we end up with a winning season......and in CUSA that should be possible, just by having better athletes overall. I don't see a win against a pretty good defensive team like Bowling Green but I hope it is semi respectable.......30-21 Bowling Green!!!!

I hate to say it, so I won't but we didn't make it to semi respectable!!! I think we can still have a winning season but it's going to be tough unless there is a change at QB........and I think there will be and it could be next week.........if Green looks like he did last night and most of last year, I think BB will make the change. Personally, I don't think Green could look good enough to keep his job no matter what. Let Dane take his lumps this year and be ready for our entrance into the AAC next year. It would be nice to at least have a winning record this year!!!!!

I agree - if our next game looks anything like that. But what I can't understand is that CG looks worse now than he did at the end of last season. All his mechanics should have been corrected and improved since then. But there was a warning sign to me when it was reported that he missed some preseason work this year. It seems that happens a little too much IMO. I think its imperative that no player feels comfortable in their starting role. That may be BB's achilles heel.