The Redhawks will put to test the old adage that defense wins championships. This is one of the few MAC schools built on defense and should they have some stability offensively there is no reason to think they won’t be in, if not win, most of their conference games.
The stop unit led the MAC in total, rush and pass defense and held conference foes to a league low 18 ppg. Nine of the 11 starters are back including each of the most meaningful cogs in the front seven and secondary. LB Clayton Mullins was named MAC defensive player of the year and along with Joey Hudson and Caleb Bostic, anchors the best corps in the conference. Mullins was tabbed early on as the favorite to repeat as POY on the stop side and I have a hard time projecting otherwise. The Redhawks really allow the LBs to make plays because of their overwhelming use of man coverage in the secondary. Jeff Thompson leads the way as the best cover corner on the team after an ’07 that saw him finish with three INTs and three more pass break ups. Keep an eye on Joe Coniglio as a pass rushing end; he doesn’t get a lot of publicity and is rather undersized but I expect him to post career highs this year after showing great promise with 6.5 sacks last season. With that side set the Redhawks will look for the offense to produce.
Now, in fairness they were hit hard by injuries last season, but too often they struggled to get any type of point production despite outgaining foes by nearly 100 yards a game. They scored 20 or fewer in six MAC games including the Championship tilt against Central Michigan who allowed nearly 37 ppg last year. Daniel Raudabaugh is being pushed by redshirt freshman Clay Belton for the starting QB job and no decision will be made until after August camp. Shane Montgomery’s attack unit also has to deal with the loss of three year starters at LT and C, easily the most important positions along the line. The biggest question mark though is finding a reliable ball carrier. No player rushed for more than 500 yards a year ago thanks in large part to injuries. Andre Bratton is thought to be fully healthy and should see a lot of carries if that is the case. This squad won’t put up Roethlisberger numbers but if they can get to 24 ppg I think they will win plenty.
No doubt about it, Miami has a tougher path to the MAC Championship than their main Eastern rival BG. Not only do the Redhawks have to play the Falcons on the road, but they also have to travel to Buffalo and the Glass Bowl to face Toledo, with a sandwich game against Ball State in between. Those four games decide their MAC fate.
