Let's say...
- Thread starter clone4life82
- Start date
I thought this team would win 3 games. North Dakota State, Toledo, and Kansas were the three I thought they would win. They have since only beaten Iowa and Toledo and got blown out by a FCS school. I think most of us realistically knew this team would not be good, but I think why a lot of people are so disappointed is the fact that in some of these losses, the team is not even close to being competitive. We are in year 6 of Paul Rhoads and there has been no signs of improvement. In fact his best year as head coach came in year #1 with Chizik and McCarney recruits.
I would only consider the season a success if we have a winning record. Anything less is a disappointment.
I think that's the scariest part about Rhoads' record at ISU. His best year was year one with all of someone else's recruits.... and it's gone steadily downhill since then. That is not a good sign at all. He has given no indication that he will be able to turn this ship around.
Anything less than .500 in conference play is unacceptable to me.
Yeah yeah, bowl games this and that are fun, but I want to be reliant in the conference. So for me this season is already sunk.
Yeah yeah, bowl games this and that are fun, but I want to be reliant in the conference. So for me this season is already sunk.
It's a push with last year then. I had still thought there was a good chance for this team to be clearly better, and at times it has been on offense. But there's just no way we've improved as a whole after the way OU ran for 10 yards a pop at will on us yesterday in our house.
If we're good enough to o 5-4 in conference, it means our typical non conf record would be 3-0 since we rarely play teams that would finish in the upper half of the Big 12 in non conf. So you're saying you're not happy with anything less than 8-4, which means 9-4 or 8-5 after the bowl.
I think that's just a little too high of expectations for us right now, even some typical top 25 programs don't hit 8 or 9 wins every single year.
Have you seen anything from Kansas this year that would make you think they can beat us?
Bottom line is I think we all want to be better than we are this year and every year. We are ISU though, in general, this team has hovered around 500 or worse for the better part of a century. If you look at how we did last year and look at everything we lost, I think it's not out of the question to assume this team would only get 3-4 wins this year (and I think a lot of people were probably assuming that coming into this season). Yet we still rag on the team and coaching staff when they'll likely end up hitting that mark. We all want to be bowl eligible/undefeated/on our way to the tournament at the end of the year but for us to be calling for the coaching staff's heads is a little much if you ask me.
Before each ISU football season I expect to win at least 3 conference games so it would be disappointing, especially coupled with a bad non conference loss.
I am very disappointed in 3 games: NDSU, KSU and TX. NDSU because the team was absolutely not ready to play that game. The offense started great bet then the wheels fell off when TF went down with the injury. KSU and TX, as stated above: all you needed was 1 freaking first down to beat KSU, and at TX Sam had Bibbs wide open in the endzone and threw the ball way out of bounds. The way that game ended was inexcusable. OSU was disappointing in the fact that ISU simply gave that game away in the span on 2 minutes, but that game was not just one play like the others. The coaches need to take all the blame for NDSU, but the players were the ones that failed against KSU and TX. If ISU win those two games, than they are looking a lot better than everyone predicted.
Now, with all the injuries ISU will be lucky to beat KU and TT. That is the real disappointment.
Now, with all the injuries ISU will be lucky to beat KU and TT. That is the real disappointment.
4-8 would've been fine with me at the beginning of this year. I knew this team didn't have the talent for this schedule.
That being said, the reason I will be disappointed with 4-8 now is:
Lost to a non-FBS school by 20, and it could've been more
Lost to Baylor by 21, and it should've been much more but we were lucky
Lost to a bad Oklahoma State team by 17
Embarrassing defensive management in the Texas game
Lost to a non-top 10 team by 45
More?
Averaging 25.75 ppg, but only put up 14 against a non-FBS school, so that shows our motivation
Only had 1 game the entire season where we gave up less than 30 points.
That being said, the reason I will be disappointed with 4-8 now is:
Lost to a non-FBS school by 20, and it could've been more
Lost to Baylor by 21, and it should've been much more but we were lucky
Lost to a bad Oklahoma State team by 17
Embarrassing defensive management in the Texas game
Lost to a non-top 10 team by 45
More?
Averaging 25.75 ppg, but only put up 14 against a non-FBS school, so that shows our motivation
Only had 1 game the entire season where we gave up less than 30 points.
I'm going to be honest, and the pants whizzers will probably flame me for it, I don't care at this point.
At the beginning of the season, I was asked by hawk fan co-workers what I was expecting for this season. I predicted another 3-9 season, but there was a lot higher ceiling than that.
Pros: Some weaker teams on the schedule...I think at the beginning of the season, it was easier to pick 6 wins out of the schedule we were looking at.
Getting teams at good times (K State early, Texas after between Baylor and OK)
Some nice talent coming in (Lazard, D'Vario, Kamari, Campos, etc)
Experience in spots they were weak last year (OL, etc.)
But I wasn't sure the cons could capitalize on those opportunities:
Completely new offensive staff
No way the defense could carry a crappy offense again, the defense would be weaker than it had been under CPR. (I don't think anyone foresaw the improvement in Jehvon, but overall, that's exactly what we've seen)
The "Experience" we got last year was experience in losing.
The talent we had coming in would obviously be inexperienced.
Unless we could put a QB and WR's out there that have a legitimate deep threat, our short game can be shut down.
So I told my co-workers that I'd put us at 3 wins again, but I saw opportunity to make some hay...but, put a gun to my head, I said we wouldn't capitalize on it.
To the crowd hollering about how 3,4,5 wins is horrible, it's unacceptable, it's ****ing pathetic...am I satisfied with that many wins? No. But, looking at reality at the beginning of the season, I'm not going to freak the **** out over it. The offense has been completely overhauled (or is still being overhauled) and we're playing with primarily MAC/MWC talent, because for 2 years of the realignment crap, recruits would have to assume that's where we might end up. Those are the upperclassmen we have on the team now...and that's why the underclassmen are getting chances to play.
At the beginning of the season, I was asked by hawk fan co-workers what I was expecting for this season. I predicted another 3-9 season, but there was a lot higher ceiling than that.
Pros: Some weaker teams on the schedule...I think at the beginning of the season, it was easier to pick 6 wins out of the schedule we were looking at.
Getting teams at good times (K State early, Texas after between Baylor and OK)
Some nice talent coming in (Lazard, D'Vario, Kamari, Campos, etc)
Experience in spots they were weak last year (OL, etc.)
But I wasn't sure the cons could capitalize on those opportunities:
Completely new offensive staff
No way the defense could carry a crappy offense again, the defense would be weaker than it had been under CPR. (I don't think anyone foresaw the improvement in Jehvon, but overall, that's exactly what we've seen)
The "Experience" we got last year was experience in losing.
The talent we had coming in would obviously be inexperienced.
Unless we could put a QB and WR's out there that have a legitimate deep threat, our short game can be shut down.
So I told my co-workers that I'd put us at 3 wins again, but I saw opportunity to make some hay...but, put a gun to my head, I said we wouldn't capitalize on it.
To the crowd hollering about how 3,4,5 wins is horrible, it's unacceptable, it's ****ing pathetic...am I satisfied with that many wins? No. But, looking at reality at the beginning of the season, I'm not going to freak the **** out over it. The offense has been completely overhauled (or is still being overhauled) and we're playing with primarily MAC/MWC talent, because for 2 years of the realignment crap, recruits would have to assume that's where we might end up. Those are the upperclassmen we have on the team now...and that's why the underclassmen are getting chances to play.
Interesting take. I think that pre-season we had a fairly solid team that could have been in the 6-8 win range with the right bounces. Unfortunately we seem to have little depth. The losses of guys like Coe etc. are hard to overcome. They did exactly that and played very good games against KSU, Texas and Iowa. I still think that NDSU was crazy but looking back when you play a team that is loaded like Texas and almost pull off the win, there is a lot of heart left on the field. It is easy to forget all of that when OU pounds you like you are a high school squad. Closing out games is what winners do. We aren't there yet.
Interesting take. I think that pre-season we had a fairly solid team that could have been in the 6-8 win range with the right bounces. Unfortunately we seem to have little depth. The losses of guys like Coe etc. are hard to overcome. They did exactly that and played very good games against KSU, Texas and Iowa. I still think that NDSU was crazy but looking back when you play a team that is loaded like Texas and almost pull off the win, there is a lot of heart left on the field. It is easy to forget all of that when OU pounds you like you are Kim Kardashian at a rapper convention. Closing out games is what winners do. We aren't there yet.
Agree 100% with your post...that's why I started this thread. None of us want a 2-4 win season however going into it, it's tough to say we would've been any better than 5 wins.
CycloneErik
Well-Known Member
Tech plays good teams tougher than we do in general. I'm going with this weekend as our last shot at a win.