Breaking down the Sun Belt's story lines.
Arkansas State Indians
Steve Roberts takes over as coach and brings a winning pedigree to Jonesboro: His last five years as a head coach (two at Northwestern State and three at Southern Arkansas) he went a combined 40-14. That included an upset of Texas Christian, exactly the kind of attention-grabbing win the Sun Belt in hungering for. Job One for Roberts will be untangling the mess at quarterback, where the Indians completed just 45.5 percent of their passes and had six more interceptions (15) than touchdowns (9). Sophomore Josh Driscoll (517 yards passing last year, before a midseason injury knocked him out) leads a cavalry charge of five QBs into fall drills. Eight starters return on defense, which could be a mixed blessing: A-State has only held three of its last 41 opponents to less than 20 points, dating back to early 1998.
Penal scheduling nugget: The Indians visit teams from the Big East (Virginia Tech), SEC (Mississippi) and Big Ten (Illinois).
Idaho Vandals
Job pressure comes with the I-A territory, be it Miami or Moscow. Vandals coach Tom Cable is probably feeling some this fall, given his two-year record of 6-16. First thing Cable might want to do is shore up the defense, which has surrendered a minimum of 33 points in 13 straight games -- including five of 50 or more. Idaho's 66 touchdowns allowed last year tied for the most in the nation, and go a long way to explaining a 1-10 record. (So does a horrific minus-16 turnover margin.) Junior pass rusher Brandon Kania (46 tackles, seven sacks) is a nice place to start the reformation, but he'll need help. Unless, of course, the Vandals just outscore everyone. Sophomore quarterback Brian Lindgren's first two collegiate starts last year produced an astronomical 1,064 passing yards (his 657 yards total offense against Middle Tennessee was an NCAA record for a sophomore). Now he just has to prove he can do it every Saturday.
Penal scheduling nugget: Idaho visits three Pac-10 teams in September.
Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin' Cajuns
After a few unsuccessful head-coaching candidacies, former Virginia Tech offensive coordinator Rickey Bustle finally gets his chance to be the boss. He inherits a program coming off six straight losing seasons but potentially poised to make a run in this year's Sun Belt. The offense returns its two leading rushers and two leading receivers, plus an experienced line and quarterback John Van Cleave, who threw for 2,500 yards last year. The defense will shift to an eight-man front and is led by linebacker Ross Brupbacher.
Penal scheduling nugget: Games at Texas A&M, LSU and Arkansas. (They somehow get Minnesota to visit Lafayette Sept. 7.)
Louisiana-Monroe Indians
The Indians were the only Sun Belt team to beat league champ North Texas last year -- and the only Sun Belt team to lose to 1-10 Idaho. After going 3-19 the past two seasons, coach Bobby Keasler should hope that this year's team has more of the high points and fewer of the low ones. Last year's offensive coordinator was former school hero and San Diego Charger Stan Humphries, but he resigned after the Indians rushed for just 810 yards and threw for only 1,882 last year -- in a horrible defensive league. Keasler now is on his third OC in three years (Tommy Condell), who figures to go with junior-college transfer Daniel DaPrato at quarterback. Change can only help a team that has only scored more than 20 points twice in the past two years.
Penal scheduling nugget: Hasn't held an SEC opponent to less than 52 since 1999 -- and plays two more (Mississippi and Auburn) this year.
Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders
What a bittersweet year 2001 was for the Blue Raiders: upset an SEC team (Vanderbilt) to open the season, go 8-3 ... and lose out on your first-ever bowl bid to a team with a losing record (5-6 North Texas). That's substantial motivation for this season, and coach Andy McCollum has the personnel to make this season a total success. The key offensively will be quarterback Andrico Hines, a junior-college transfer who redshirted last season behind all-league QB Wes Counts. Mostly he'll hand off to Dwone Hicks. Nine of Middle's top 13 tacklers return to a defense that surrendered too many passing yards (2,801) and too many completions (58.8 percent).
Penal scheduling nugget: Unofficial member of the SEC plays opens at Alabama, at Tennessee, at Kentucky, then visits Vanderbilt in October.
New Mexico State Aggies
You don't want to play the iffin' game with Tony Samuel, whose team was 5-7 last year but could easily dream of 9-3. The Aggies blew a 24-point lead against Middle Tennessee, lost in the final seconds to North Texas, lost by five to Oregon State and statistically dominated Louisville in a turnover-plagued loss. To make matters worse, New Mexico State lost a ton of great players from that team -- most prominently its top three rushers from a ground-based offense and eight of its top 11 tacklers. New QB Buck Pierce can run Samuel's option attack, but the big question could be finding someone to pitch to. The defense is inexperienced everywhere but up the middle, where both tackles and both safeties (led by senior Siddeeq Shabazz) return.
Penal scheduling nugget: The Aggies go from coast (at South Carolina) to coast (at California) in the first two weeks, then back again (at Georgia) at the end of September.
North Texas Eagles
If football's fairy godmother pays attention to the Sun Belt, she surely smiled upon the Mean Green last year. A couple of dramatic victories turned around an 0-5 start and produced a bowl bid, even at 5-6. If Dame Fate is in the Eagles' corner again this year, then quarterback Scott Hall will be A-OK after offseason knee surgery (he sat out spring drills as backup Andrew Smith took over). Whoever the QB is, the important task will be handing off. North Texas ran it more than throwing it every single game last year and finished with twice as many rushing attempts and passes. That could be because of splendid senior running back Kevin Galbreath, who ran for 1,225 yards last year -- but only four touchdowns. The league's best defense brings back nine starters from a unit that didn't allow more than 28 points in the last eight regular-season games.
Penal scheduling nugget: At Texas, Alabama, TCU and Arizona in the season's first month.
Pat Forde covers college football for the Louisville Courier-Journal.
