Tulsa at UAB

The Blazers offense was very inconsistent last year, and this season enter with a new, unproven QB. The good news is the defense, very inexperienced last year, returns nine starters. Tulsa had a new head coach last season. Rather than fold, they went on to win 10 games via a high-powered offense. Todd Graham worked with the players of his predecessor. But, this guy was a defensive coordinator and you can expect the Golden Hurricane to shift under him to more of a defensive-minded coach, starting this year. The high-scoring Hurricane offense returns eight starters, but they lost the most pivotal - QB Paul Smith (CUSA offensive player of the year). He threw for over 5,000 yards and  47 touchdowns and that will be very hard to replace. This total is set based on last year's Tulsa offense (which won't be as potent early this year) and their defense (which will be better in 2008). It's too high, given things have changed, and we will ride the UNDER here.