When browsing through the so-called "experts" ranking of Heisman Trophy candidates for this season, this writer had a sudden realization.

Checking out the different rankings and seeing who has quarterback Case Keenum from Houston ahead of Oklahoma State quarterback Brandon Weeden, seeing where people rank Alabama running back Trent Richardson, Stanford signal-caller Andrew Luck and Wisconsin touchdown machine Montee Ball, it became clear that one name was missing. So I delved deeper into the 2011 Heisman rankings and the message board discussions that pitted fan against fan arguing for their favorite candidate.

"Denard Robinson is the most explosive player in college football," one Michigan fan said about the Wolverines' dual-threat quarterback. "Yes, but Kellen Moore is the winningest quarterback in college football history," countered a Boise State fan.

Read more...

Western Michigan Broncos (21-13 overall, 11-5 in MAC, 1st in MAC West last season)

Head coach Steve Hawkins and his Western Michigan Broncos, after winning the MAC West title during the 2010-11 campaign, had to deal with a bit of turmoil during the off-season, but their expectations are as high as ever.

Key reserve Juwan Howard Jr., who left Kalamazoo at the end of last season and headed to Detroit to be closer to his family, officially announced he was not coming back to the WMU program in early October. He will sit out a year before playing for Ray McCallum at Detroit Mercy.

Hawkins would have welcomed Howard back, but says his team has moved on.

"It's been so long ago that I don't think it's impacting anybody now," Hawkins said of Howard's leaving campus. "At the time it certainly was something we all had to deal with, but it seems like it was last year as in last season. The team has been all the way through conditioning together, and the way we put guys through conditioning is meant to really challenge them so that they get used to going through tough times together.

Read more...

Bowling Green State University (14-19 overall, 14-19 in MAC, 6th in MAC East last season)

Bowling Green coach Louis Orr has a new playground this season. Now he hopes his team can take over that playground and bully some people around.

BG opens the new Stroh Center this season and will have one of the deeper teams in the MAC to hopefully fill the new digs. Senior forward Scott Thomas is one of the most versatile players in the conference, stuffing the stat sheet night after night, and if he can get some help from the other three returning starters the Falcons could surprise a lot of people this season.

Some people might forget that at one point last season, Bowling Green was 6-2 in MAC play and stood alone in first place in the East. They ended up dropping six of their last eight games to finish in the East cellar, but a win here or there and things could have been quite different for Orr's Falcons.

Read more...

University of Buffalo (20-14 overall, 8-8 in MAC, 5th in the East last season

The media panel that covers the Mid-American Conference picked Buffalo to finish fifth in the MAC East this season. If they would have picked them to finish first it would have been equally as justified.

Bulls coach Reggie Witherspoon, who was given a multi-year contract extension during the off-season, returns as much, if not more, talent than any other team in the conference. Four senior starters are back, and conference Player of the Year candidate Javon McCrea, a sophomore, will be looking to build on a steller freshman campaign that saw him lead the conference in field goal percentage (63.1) while scoring 11.8 points and snaring 6.5 rebounds in just 21.6 minutes per game.

McCrea will be joined in the starting lineup by senior guard Zach Filzen (15.1 ppg, 110 3-pointers last season), senior combo guard Dave Barnett (6.6 ppg, 4.7 rpg), 6-10 senior forward Mitchell Watt (8.0 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 2.2 bpg) and senior forward Titus Robinson (4.9 ppg, 2.3 rpg).

Witherspoon also landed the top recruit in the conference, Parade All-American Xavier Ford, a 6-8 forward from Hamilton High School in Colorado Springs who averaged 27.4 points and 9.7 rebounds during his senior season in high school.

Read more...