Last year I forgot to send my ballot in on time and other years I was not asked, but I did it this year. The overall media vote will be revealed July 25 at AAC Media Days, but here is my ballot.
1) Tulane
Comment: If the Wave handles the pressure of being a favorite and adjusts to a major change at defensive coordinator, Michael Pratt will lead it to second championship in a row. The receivers will be a whole lot better as a group than in the past.
2) UTSA
Comment: I'd be lying if I pretended to be an expert on UTSA, but the 24-4 record in CUSA the past three (including 2-1 in the championship game) speaks for itself. Tulane still owes this team payback for the excruciating way it lost the last time the teams played in 2013, possibly costing the Wave a CUSA title.
3) Memphis
Comment: Most seem to have SMU in this spot. I'll buy that, but Memphis usually has more overall talent than the Mustangs in my opinion. Ryan Silverfield needs to have a good year to keep his job.
4) SMU
Comment: I'm skeptical about this team, which never even won an AAC division when the league had divisions, but possibly the the long-awaited shellacking last November is clouding my judgment.
5) East Carolina
Comment: The Pirates have not made the breakthrough many have expected under Mike Houston, but I have a simple rule assessing the AAC this year. When in doubt, go with the holdover team rather than one from weak CUSA.
6) North Texas
Comment: The drop-off starts here, I believe. At this point, we're quibbling over also-rans. Seth Littrell, fired after seven years, did some good things with the program but was not the right guy for a tougher conference. New hire Eric Morris built Incarnate Word from nothing before leaving to become an asssistant at Washington State this past year. I have no idea if he can handle the upward transition, but he is an innovator.
7) FAU
Comment: Tom Herman was overrated at Houston, but he may have found the right fit at FAU. After initially buying in to Herman with the Cougars, I never got into his sideway running game and the inconsistent performances through the years. If he brings championships to Boca Raton, I'll have to admit I was wrong about him, but I'm not holding my breath.
8) Navy
Comment: I'm one of the only people in America who loves watching the triple option, particularly at a service academy, where running it makes sense. Army is abandoning the style, but new Navy coach Brian Newberry is keeping the system long-time predecessor Ken Niumatalolo and Paul Johnson used with some tweaks to emphasize the passing game more. Navy's defense has been pretty good under Newberry, but I question whether the passing game can be upgraded without messing up what works for the triple option. I could see Navy rising or falling flat on its face.
9) Tulsa
Comment: Yet another team that fired its coach, canning Philip Montgomery after eight years. It is probably a good move, but Tulsa, a tiny private school, will have a hard time living up to its success in the past. I have a feeling Kevin Wilson may turn into that program's Bob Toledo, but a change was needed. The outlier was Tulsa reaching the AAC title game in 2020. The program won nine games total from 2017-19 and went 3-5 in the AAC last season.
10) UAB
Comment: Trent Dilfer as a head coach. He has zero experience, and out-of-the-box hires based on name recognition usually do not go well. UAB slipped significantly last season.after Bill Clark retired for health reasons two months before the opener.
11) Rice
Comment: After winning the Conference USA championship game in 2013--Tulane's last year in the league--the Owls went 5-3 in the league in 2014 but have been under .500 every year since then. There was a slight uptick last year under fifth-year coach Mike Bloomgren, but now comes a significant upgrade in competition.
12) South Florida
Comment: You could make a case for the Bulls being even lower, but maybe Alex Golesh, a former offensive coordinator at Tennessee, will begin to reverse their incredible slide. This team is 3-21 in the AAC since the middle of 2018.
13) Temple
Comment: Temple supplied fired USF coach Jeff Scott his lone league win in three years, and the score was 43-7. The Owls are 3-20 over the last three years in AAC play. I covered second-year coach Stan Drayton when he coached the running backs at Florida under Urban Meyer and liked him, but I'm not sure why he is head coaching material.
14) Charlotte
Comment: Again, when in doubt, I put the former CUSA team with all kinds of issues below the AAC teams will all kinds of issues.
1) Tulane
Comment: If the Wave handles the pressure of being a favorite and adjusts to a major change at defensive coordinator, Michael Pratt will lead it to second championship in a row. The receivers will be a whole lot better as a group than in the past.
2) UTSA
Comment: I'd be lying if I pretended to be an expert on UTSA, but the 24-4 record in CUSA the past three (including 2-1 in the championship game) speaks for itself. Tulane still owes this team payback for the excruciating way it lost the last time the teams played in 2013, possibly costing the Wave a CUSA title.
3) Memphis
Comment: Most seem to have SMU in this spot. I'll buy that, but Memphis usually has more overall talent than the Mustangs in my opinion. Ryan Silverfield needs to have a good year to keep his job.
4) SMU
Comment: I'm skeptical about this team, which never even won an AAC division when the league had divisions, but possibly the the long-awaited shellacking last November is clouding my judgment.
5) East Carolina
Comment: The Pirates have not made the breakthrough many have expected under Mike Houston, but I have a simple rule assessing the AAC this year. When in doubt, go with the holdover team rather than one from weak CUSA.
6) North Texas
Comment: The drop-off starts here, I believe. At this point, we're quibbling over also-rans. Seth Littrell, fired after seven years, did some good things with the program but was not the right guy for a tougher conference. New hire Eric Morris built Incarnate Word from nothing before leaving to become an asssistant at Washington State this past year. I have no idea if he can handle the upward transition, but he is an innovator.
7) FAU
Comment: Tom Herman was overrated at Houston, but he may have found the right fit at FAU. After initially buying in to Herman with the Cougars, I never got into his sideway running game and the inconsistent performances through the years. If he brings championships to Boca Raton, I'll have to admit I was wrong about him, but I'm not holding my breath.
8) Navy
Comment: I'm one of the only people in America who loves watching the triple option, particularly at a service academy, where running it makes sense. Army is abandoning the style, but new Navy coach Brian Newberry is keeping the system long-time predecessor Ken Niumatalolo and Paul Johnson used with some tweaks to emphasize the passing game more. Navy's defense has been pretty good under Newberry, but I question whether the passing game can be upgraded without messing up what works for the triple option. I could see Navy rising or falling flat on its face.
9) Tulsa
Comment: Yet another team that fired its coach, canning Philip Montgomery after eight years. It is probably a good move, but Tulsa, a tiny private school, will have a hard time living up to its success in the past. I have a feeling Kevin Wilson may turn into that program's Bob Toledo, but a change was needed. The outlier was Tulsa reaching the AAC title game in 2020. The program won nine games total from 2017-19 and went 3-5 in the AAC last season.
10) UAB
Comment: Trent Dilfer as a head coach. He has zero experience, and out-of-the-box hires based on name recognition usually do not go well. UAB slipped significantly last season.after Bill Clark retired for health reasons two months before the opener.
11) Rice
Comment: After winning the Conference USA championship game in 2013--Tulane's last year in the league--the Owls went 5-3 in the league in 2014 but have been under .500 every year since then. There was a slight uptick last year under fifth-year coach Mike Bloomgren, but now comes a significant upgrade in competition.
12) South Florida
Comment: You could make a case for the Bulls being even lower, but maybe Alex Golesh, a former offensive coordinator at Tennessee, will begin to reverse their incredible slide. This team is 3-21 in the AAC since the middle of 2018.
13) Temple
Comment: Temple supplied fired USF coach Jeff Scott his lone league win in three years, and the score was 43-7. The Owls are 3-20 over the last three years in AAC play. I covered second-year coach Stan Drayton when he coached the running backs at Florida under Urban Meyer and liked him, but I'm not sure why he is head coaching material.
14) Charlotte
Comment: Again, when in doubt, I put the former CUSA team with all kinds of issues below the AAC teams will all kinds of issues.
