Is 8-4 success? What about 7-5?

[Ext. 55]

Good question. I definitely understand the intent behind it. Shut up and be happy we made a bowl game. In a lot of ways you are not wrong.

I won’t go so far as to say shut up and be happy. I’m not happy. I’m not upset either. I do feel when he took over there was/is lots to do. The culture of this program has been toxic for a long time. A lot goes into that and it could be a thread all its own.

I do think many want to look back on past staffs and years with blurred vision. We haven’t had a real championship level staff and experience since Osborne. If we are honest with ourselves.

I think Bo had a shot at at, but let’s be honest that Bo was Bo’s biggest problem in so many ways.

Just want to know what posters think. Helps me with perspective I guess.

 

[HerbRedman]

I lost a lot of interest after Michigan sacked DR 8 times or whatever it was. It was obvious we weren’t near as good as we had been told. We’ve been getting manhandled regularly on both lines ever since. For me the season has been a failure for awhile. Nothing really to do with the record, but more the realization that our lines aren’t even remotely close to something an even semi serious football program should have.

Penn State’s d line looks almost alien compared to what we put on the field. Yet somehow they still managed to crumble and lose 6 games this year. You’d think they could sleepwalk through a lot of their games with those players. I’m rambling, but my point is we need some combination of elite players and good coaching, or very good players and elite coaching. We currently have shit coaching and players everywhere besides special teams.

So not only is this year a failure. Next year is already an even bigger failure. We may get some marginally better players to transfer. With what we currently have, a winter in the weight room isn’t going to transform our d line into what we watched kick our ass. The schedule sets up to where making a bowl is far from a guarantee. Why even get excited?

While we're going down this road -- dead ass serious, I knew we wouldn't be shit when we almost lost the Cincinnati game. And I thought UC was good at the time. But they honestly should have won if they would have kept calling run plays at the end.


I legit expected NU to announce to the world "we're back" in that game. I thought we'd score 42. I thought Dylan would be a new Dylan. I thought our WRs would be unbelievable.

When we kind of puttered around all night and almost lost, that was a huge huge red flag for me. And then vs Michigan in our first offensive drive (they hadn't had the ball yet!) it was clear to me that our talent level was just a full notch below theirs.


I don't consider this season a failure. It was just a reminder that we don't have the horses yet. Could have lost to MD & NW. And we got to skip the 3 best teams in the league: OSU, Indiana and Oregon! Progress was we at least started winning some close games. And the recruiting for 2027 is going well. But on the field not a lot of positives TBH.

 

[BorWhiskey]

The over/under was 7.5. Success is relative to each person, but success in the eyes of people handicapping all of CFB would be 8-4, and failure at 7-5. I know us fans hold the team to different standards.

This demarcation between success and failure based on record challenges the conversation. It’s probably the only way to gauge success but it removes the nuance that I think is important.

There has been a lot of good and a decent amount of bad. IMO the good this year has outweighed the bad (this is a team who found ways to win rather than to lose). And like has been pointed out, had DR not gotten hurt, we are 8-3 right now.

Not that SP+ is the end all, but I was curious so I checked it out. Last year, we were 47th (they were a 5.5 rating). Not really much of a change but about a field goal better this year. And last years team would rank 55th this year. It’s also interesting to see the group of teams we’re in.

* He’s got Cockeye at 21st and a 15.4 rating. That would be close to a 5.5 point dog given we have home field.

So, if we are trending in the right direction, and there is reason to believe next year is a continuation of that trend then to me it’s a good year.

But back to me staring at the SP+ stuff… I got to thinking about how a rank means less than the tier you’re in. There is 67 points separating Ohio State to UMass. Im going to make each tier separated by 7 points and then lump the rest together.

Elite: 4 teams - OSU, Indiana, ttu, and oregon (32.4-26.6)
CC: 9 teams (24.3-19.3)
Good: 15 teams (17.5-12.4) <PSU, Michigan, USC, and Cockeye all in this tier>
Average: 28 teams (where we are along with Cincinnati) (11.7-5.1)
Bad: 22 teams (4.6- -1.5) <Minnesota, Maryland, Northwestern
Putrid: 58 teams (-2.5- 34.9) there are clearly tiers to this bucket, too, but I don’t care to figure them out. <Akron, Michigan state, ucla)

We are an average team. We’re a middle of the pack, middle of the pack team (intended to say that twice).