Are They Terrified? We look around SB Nation to other blogs and see what MAC's upcoming opponents' fans think about these plucky pugilists.
Crimson Quarry had it easy against UMass — almost too easy. They are now confident against Ball State, a team who beat them last year:
If Indiana can meet these expectations I would expect a 2 possession victory from the Hoosiers on Saturday. Truly if Indiana can limit the Cardinal run game then the rest should fall into place rather nicely.
Speaking of our new friends, UMass plays Michigan on Saturday. Our Wolverine friends Maize n Brew speculatewell yeah this is not going to end happily for everyone.
Michigan should be able to pull away from the Minutemen early. This is a team trying to claw its way up to be an FBS level team, but the transition is far from over. The Wolverines will have the game well in hand at halftime, UMass manages a couple inconsequential scores, and Michigan walks away with a 45-10 win.
Meanwhile, Hammer & Rails chatted with our own EMU expert on the upcoming Purdue game. He does not expect an upset but also isn't seeing a blowout. This, after Purdue's quarterback Robert Marve will likely be sidelined with a possible ACL tear:
The bright side of this is that Caleb TerBush, who is now the unquestioned starter, gets games against a very weak Eastern Michigan team and a Marshall team that gave up 69 points in its opener. TerBush will get the reps to get in sync with the offense over the next two games before facing Michigan.
In the context of "big wins," Minnesota hasn't had many but they did get the job done against New Hampshire last week. The Daily Gopher says, that's the first step, now it's up to prove it again against WMU:
I'm not willing to look at this win as a statement that the program is "back". This was a nice win, we did what we should have done and we need to continue to get better. Western Michigan will be a much bigger test.
They're not a major conference, but Boise State might as well be counted. One Bronco Nation Under God has an excellent look (and graphics!) of Miami's impact players:
In the secondary, Miami's Dayonne Nunley could make Southwick's life difficult. Nunley is Miami's best defensive player and has the ability to wreak havoc on our passing game plan. Watching who he matches up against will be fun to track. Seeing how well we do against Nunley will be even more interesting.