The way you know is this is going to be the first season in the past 5 years where we haven't had to hear about how someone on our non-con schedule has their best team ever, returns 20 starters, has a first round QB, etc. etc. Rather we've got teams that lost a majority of their starters, have new head coaches, aren't expected to make bowl games and so on. Here's a look at some the non-P5 teams and their records that we've played over the past four seasons:
Rice:
Year - Wins
2009 - 2
2010 - 4
2011 - 4
2012 - 7 (year we played)
2013 - 10 (year we played)
Northern Illinois:
2008 - 6
2009 - 7
2010 - 11
2011 - 11 (year we played)
2012 - 12 (year we played
Duke:
2010 - 3
2011 - 3
2012 - 6
2013 - 10
2014 - 9 (year we played)
Central Michigan:
2010 - 3
2011 - 3
2012 - 7
2013 - 6
2014 - 7 (year we played)
Memphis:
2011 - 2
2012 - 4
2013 - 3
2014 - 10
2015 - 9 (year we played)
Rice:
Year - Wins
2009 - 2
2010 - 4
2011 - 4
2012 - 7 (year we played)
2013 - 10 (year we played)
Northern Illinois:
2008 - 6
2009 - 7
2010 - 11
2011 - 11 (year we played)
2012 - 12 (year we played
Duke:
2010 - 3
2011 - 3
2012 - 6
2013 - 10
2014 - 9 (year we played)
Central Michigan:
2010 - 3
2011 - 3
2012 - 7
2013 - 6
2014 - 7 (year we played)
Memphis:
2011 - 2
2012 - 4
2013 - 3
2014 - 10
2015 - 9 (year we played)