Mid-Major Game of the Week:

Football season is finally upon us and by the graces of the football gods, we are lucky enough to have what may be one of the best match ups of the season for our appetizer.... Boise State v. Oregon.

Arguably the single most important game of the year for the boys in blue, a win against Oregon tonight can put it in the lead or the coveted non-big six BCS spot and continue to cement the Broncos as one of the premiere Mid-Major programs in college football.  Boise won last year in Eugene against a good Oregon team and the Ducks will be looking for a little revenge.

Boise will have to contain the likes of  Heisman candidate running back LeGarrette Blount and QB Jerimah Masoli if they hope to come away with the win. Look for Chip Kelly, in his college coaching debut, to take it to the Boise defense with everything the Ducks can muster.

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After weeks of kicking and screaming, FIU head coach Isiah Thomas and Athletic Director Pete Garcia finally agreed to get their butts kicked by North Carolina instead of... getting their butts kicked by Ohio State in the opening round of the Coaches vs. Cancer Tournament this November.

Isiah  and Garcia, who somehow thought he had a better chance at beating a senior laden Buckeye team over the defending national championships (who lost their entire line-up to the NBA) cited that it was simply a conflict of contractual terms with organizer Gazelle Group in his defense. Luckily, both realized that all this bad publicity is probably not the best way to start off Zeke's illustrious tenure as head coach of the Golden Panthers.

Tune in next week, when Isiah tries to sues the Sun Belt for making him lose to Western Kentucky twice in the same season....

Coming off back-to-back bowl appearances for the first time since Troy Calhoun took over as head coach at Air Force, the Falcons look to the 2009 season as the year that they actually win a bowl game under Calhoun. The team ranked first in the conference in rushing offense and was fifth in total defense. This year the team should be even more productive as some of their young guys are more experienced and have an extra year under their belts.

Last season Tim Jefferson, a freshman at the time, played extremely well at quarterback. He threw for 655 yards, adding another 387 on the ground with a total of eight touchdowns. Although Jefferson has shown tremendous upside and talent, running back, Asher Clark will be competing for the starting quarterback position. He led the team in rushing last year with 588 yards and five touchdowns. He might not be the passer that Jefferson is, but he knows how to get it done on the ground. Regardless if Clark is under center, he will be touching the ball many times this season.

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Could this be the year where the Mustangs finally earn a postseason appearance in over 20 years? The Mustangs were competitive in a handful of their losses last season.  Four of their losses were by a touchdown or less. With one year under coach June Jones’s command, the Mustangs enter 2009 with hopes of a major improvement from last year’s 1-11 campaign.

Last year was the first year under the new offense, so expect some better production in their second season in the system. Bo Levi Mitchell returns at quarterback where he threw for 2,865 yards as a true freshman.  As to be expected when starting a true freshman Mitchell struggled at time, but also showed promise. He will need to improve his consistency, and cut down on interceptions. Good news for Mitchell is the return of Aldrick Robinson and Emmanuel Sanders at receiver. Both players are extremely talented and can make big plays. Robinson led the team with 1,047 receiving yards and added 59 catches.

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Henry White who recently transferred from Hill Junior College in Texas to Grambling State became sick after a pre season practice on August 14. He spent the past 12 days in Shreveport hospital where he officially passed away Wednesday morning.

The strange piece to the story is that the cause of death is unknown. White was 21 years old, healthy and in great shape. He also has passed all of the necessary physicals that he needed to pass to play. There is an investigation going on as to how such a healthy kid could fall ill during conditioning and why even after 12 days, people are still confused to what was actually wrong with White.

The Thundering Herd have not seen a bowl team since 2004 and coach Mark Snyder hopes to end that draught in 2009. Every part of the Marshall team needs improvement. The offense ranked 10^th in the conference with 330 yards per game and the defense was eighth in the conference giving up an average of 418 yards per game. Both units will need to get better if the Herd want to become bowl eligible in 2009.

The offense returns seven starters that only averaged 20 points a game. Mark Cann looks to be the starter at quarterback for now. Cann had a very back and forth season. He had 14 touchdowns, but also 13 interceptions. Cann will feel the pressure to do well because his backup, Brian Anderson, made some noise last season in the one game he started. Anderson threw for three touchdowns, 177 yards and completed 14-19 of his attempts. If Cann does not play well early on, look for Anderson to take over the starting role.

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Guest post by Kevan at One Bronco Nation Under God

For my 2009 SB Nation WAC preview, I sought the opinion of my fellow WAC bloggers (Pistol Whipping the WAC & Warriors Will Throw), which seemed like a good idea until I remembered that hardly anyone cares enough to blog about the WAC. And then I spent 15 minutes reevaluating the direction of my life.

The good news: My life has meaning. Even better news: The WAC could have its best season yet - both from a competitive standpoint and from an only-firing-one-coach-at-the-end-of-the-year standpoint. The WAC ... it's faaaaantastic!

My call to arms for fellow WAC bloggers did not completely fall on deaf ears. The wordsmiths at Pistol Whipping the WAC (Nevada) and Warriors Will Throw (Hawaii) gave me their two cents, and when I combined that with the nickel I borrowed from Peter Bean a few months back, I had enough to come up with a WAC preview. It's not much. But then again, I don't think you're expecting much.

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The Nevada Wolfpack basketball team has announced that two of their recruits will be academically ineligible for the first semester in 2009. Devante Elliot and Jerry Evans, two recruits for the Wolfpack, will not be able to enroll this fall semester. In order to improve their academics, they will both will stay at home in effort to improve their test scores. There is also a possibility, that both players might look to play somewhere else.

The Wolfpack had a solid 2009 season, making a deep run into the WAC tournament and lost in the first round of the CBI tournament.

Conference USA teams are synonymous with college football fans for their ability to put up ridiculous amounts of points and play zero defense. Not surprisingly, the same can be expected of CUSA teams in 2009 and the conference champion will most probably come down to the team that has the ball last.

The West division looks to be a two-team battle. Don't look for Rice to repeat their 10-win season of a year ago, as they lose their record setting quarterback/wide-receiver duo in Chase Clement and Jarett Dillard. Tulane has brought in another defensive coordinator to try and help a defense that ranked 119^th last season. The battle at the top looks like it will come down to Houston and Tulsa. Houston might have the better offense with Keenum at QB, but the experience of Tulsa and their defense should allow them to have a fighting chance in capturing a league title.

The East division, also a seemingly two team race, will be decided when Southern Mississippi travels to East Carolina late in the season.

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The Sun Belt has made significant strides over the past few years in terms of its competitiveness over other conferences, especially ones in the BCS. Last season FAU beat Central Michigan, Arkansas State was victorious over Texas A&M and MTSU beat Maryland. Troy also was very competitive against Ohio State and LSU, but was not able to close out.

The conference will get another opportunity this season to show that they can compete at a high level. Sun Belt teams face off against the likes of Nebraska, Alabama, Rutgers, Clemson, Florida and LSU in 09.  Tough out of conference schedules define the Sun Belt, but to gain some respect [and pay bills], you must play the best.

The 2009 Sun Belt conference can be summed up in one sentence: The Trojans of Troy and the 8 dwarfs.  No team in the league seems to have the capability of challenging Troy for its 4^th straight conference title, but that being said FAU and MTSU will have should have decent seasons and be bowl eligible.

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