Who’s Got Us Circled?

In a perfect world, every team would be emotionally and mentally firing on all cylinders for every game. But in practice, you’re going to be more keyed up for your game against Alabama than your game against Kent State. Before the season, a few games will stand out to a team as key matchups. They’ll “circle” them on the calendar and they’ll pack a little more punch that week. If you’ve got a good head coach and team culture, you’ll be prepared for every game and it won’t make a huge difference, but it’s something.

Last year, I think nearly every opponent had Utah circled. We started ranked in the top 20, picked by many to win the Big 12, and I’m told our fans were snobs on Twitter (I’m not on Twitter, but I’ll trust the stereotype). I’m not making an excuse; we sucked anyway. But that didn’t help.

So, who has us circled this year? We’ll follow these rules:
-The season gets broken up into 3 segments: before the first bye, after the first bye, and after the second bye. You can circle one game per segment. So 3 circled games.
-You can circle one extra game to include a rivalry.

UCLA: YES. After us, they get two G5 games, then a bye before they start conference play. Plus, the world will be watching Nico Iamaleava’s Bruin debut.

Cal Poly: PROBABLY. They probably have us circled but I don’t care. I’m not checking their schedule.

Wyoming: NO. Tough one. They have us in Laramie, then they visit Colorado the next week. Even though they’ll care about defending their house, they’re gonna be more hyped up to go play Deion.

Texas Tech: YES. These guys are babies and scheduled the easiest non-conference schedule possible. We’ll be their first P4 team, their first conference game, and their first road trip. We’re their last game before their bye. Texas Tech will be ready to go. Can’t wait for this one.

West Virginia: NO. Despite this being their conference home opener, they will have already hosted their rivalry game two weeks before and will be gearing up for a trip to Provo the next week.

Arizona State: NO. Even though they’ll be coming out of a bye week, they’ll have their big matchup with Texas Tech looming the next week, plus a trip to Iowa State not long after.

BYU: YES. Rivalry.

Colorado: YES. This will be their first game of a 3-week stint between byes. The other two games are Arizona and West Virginia.

Cincinnati: NO. This will be the last of a 6-game stretch without byes. That stretch includes hosting Iowa State and Baylor.

Baylor: YES. They will be coming off a bye week and the other two games in this segment are Arizona and Houston.

Kansas State: YES. Although they will have some focus on hosting Colorado the following week, I think that they had such a bad time with their last Beehive State road trip that they will have respect for this one.

Kansas: NO. I think they will have more energy on visiting Iowa State the week before.

That makes 6. Obviously, this is an oversimplification, but it shows that our poor last season–plus hype around other teams (Texas Tech, Colorado, Iowa State)–will work in our favor a little bit this season.

As for who we have circled, I’d love to hear what you guys have got. If I was in the locker room, I would circle Texas Tech, ASU, BYU, and Baylor.