Miami Ohio College Football Preview and Schedule 2011
What the Miami Ohio football team pulled off last season was nothing short of miraculous. After going 2-10 in 2008 and then 1-11 in 2009, the Redhawks went 10-4 last season and won the MAC. This year they return 9 starters on defense and 8 on offense, practically the entire team, so no shock that many are picking Miami Ohio to oNCe again win the MAC. But as Lee Corso says, “not so fast my friend”.
For starters, coach Mike Haywood is gone. In comes Don Treadwell, who helped fill in at Michigan State for Mark Dantonio last season when he was out with heart problems. Treadwell may or may not end up being a good coach, we shall see. But remember, with new coaches come growing pains.
Aside from the new coach growing pains, you’d have to consider the fact that this team overachieved big time last year. It’s not as if they dominated the MAC. They played some close Games with MAC teams, even the bad and mediocre ones. 28-21 over Eastern Michigan, 27-21 over Kent State, 27-20 over Central Michigan, 24-21 over Bowling Green and 19-14 over Akron. Not to mention a 34-13 loss to Ohio and an out of Conference blowout loss to Cincinnati 45-3. A play here and a play there and any one of at least 6 Games could have gone the other way. That’s the differeNCe between 10 wins and 4 or 5.
They aren’t favored to win the MAC but they are one of the top 3 choices at odds of 3 to 1 as posted by several online sportsbooks. Ahead of Miami Ohio as far as the odds go, is Northern Illinois and Temple. At 3-1 odds, we don’t see any value at all in Miami Ohio. We don’t think they’ll make it to the title Game. It looks to us like they’ll be in a battle every time they take the field and without the breaks and the balls bouNCing their way like last year, they’ll likely have to do all they can to just become bowl eligible. Remember, this is a team that averaged 21 points per Game last year on offense and GAve up 23.
2011 Miami Ohio Redhawks Football Schedule
9-3-11 at Missouri
9-17-11 at Minnesota
9-24-11 BOWLING GREEN
10-1-11 CinciNNATI
10-8-11 ARMY
10-15-11 at Kent State
10-22-11 at Toledo
10-29-11 BUFFALO
11-3-11 AKRON (Thur.)
11-9-11 at Temple (Wed.)
11-16-11 WESTERN Michigan (Wed.)
11-22-11 at Ohio (Tue.)