Returning Starters
Offense: 10
Defense: 7

Key Player
Offense: Ryan Mathews (RB)
Defense: Ben Jacobs (LB)

Key Losses
Marcus Riley (LB)

2007 Key Stats
9-4 (6-2)
Rushing Offense: 210 Yd/Game (14)
Passing Offense: 208 Yd/Game (71)
Scoring Offense : 32 Pt/Game (32)
Rushing Defense 181 Yd/Game (85)
Passing Defense: 226 Yd/Game (56)
Scoring Defense: 27 Pts/Game (60)
Sacks Allowed: 1.38/Game (22)

For those new to the statistical side of things, anything in parenthesis is the respective teams official NCAA Ranking in that specific category.

Schedule/Early Prediction
Sept. 1: @ Rutgers
Sept. 13: Wisconsin
Sept. 20: @ Toledo
Sept. 27: @ UCLA
Oct. 4: Hawaii
Oct. 11: Idaho
Oct. 25: @ Utah State
Nov. 1: @ Louisiana Tech
Nov. 7: Nevada
Nov. 15: New Mexico State
Nov. 21: @ San Jose State
Nov. 28: @ Boise State

Italics: Loss- I’m convinced. E-Mail me your hate.

Continue after the jump….

Summary
I start off my top 25 with Fresno State. The wonderful thing about these preseason top 25 polls is that there is correct way to do it. Add me to the list of bloggers and so called “expert analysts” who will pump out their own Top 25 in hopes that we can stroke our internet ego in a few months when the official AP and USA Today Polls are released. There are a few teams you will NOT see in this top 25 that other writers will have; Oregon, California, Pittsburgh, and Alabama. Let me clarify that for you before I begin now.

Fresno State comes into the season returning 10 off an offense that caught fire the last month putting up 38, 30, 45, and 30 in the month of November and topping it off with a 40 point performance against Georgia Tech.

Ryan Mathews leads an offense that has moved into a more run oriented offense from the days we all remember when David Carr (who?) ran the offense as he pumped out 866 yards and 14 TDs. QB Tom Brandstater isn’t exactly a chip off the old block, he ranked 23^rd in passing efficiency as a junior and with 9 other starters back I fully expect him to improve on his numbers.

The defense is going to need to step up in order to hit the 11-1 mark I’m going on an unsteady limb of putting the Bulldogs on. This is a team that only picked off a rather pathetic 5 passes last year, but luckily ranked 25^th in the country in sacks per game. This is a defense that, after all the number crunching, was young last year. Of the top 10 tacklers on the team in 2007, 3 were seniors, 0 juniors, 5 sophomores, and 2 freshmen, all led by Sophomore Ben Curtis who racked up 81 tackles and 2 sacks in his debut season.

As long as this young defense continues to gel and improve on some rather unimpressing numbers from last year, I don’t see any one in the WAC who will beat them with Hawaii in a major rebuilding year and Boise State breaking in 6 new starters on offense, QB being one of them.

Best Case: 11-1
Worst Case: 10-2