With most SBC teams done for the year, in hindsight how did everything shake out?

I thought Idaho would win 2 games with a shot of 5-6 if absolutely everything gelled and went right to us, and well, that didn't happen. A huge chunk of our JC guys and of top recruits didn't make it to campus or were hurt. We battled injuries and young mistakes at QB and the best QB for now (IMO our RS-Fr and maybe even Tr Fr have the higher ceiling and are the better long term option) just transferred, the loss of our top WR (Epps was kicked off the team over the summer) was compounded by the aforementioned recruiting problems disproportionally hammering the wideout position. We knew our defense would be bad, but hoped the front 4 would be dominant enough and LB's decent enough to help our DB's only have t cover for 3-4 seconds before pressure got to the QB, but the DB's were so horrid JJ Watt wouldn't be able to pressure the QB fast enough. Losing 2 players who quit midseason and another to injury didn't help either. The LB's struggled at tackling and taking the right angles which let short gains turn into 60+ yard TD's which cost us several games. The SBC was a little tougher than expected but we had about as many close games that I predicted which is close enough where I'm not too disappointed, but this team made as many dumb mistakes and was as inconsistent in game 1 as we were in game 12.

Unfortunately I thought this experience would set us up to win 5-6 games next year but with a ton of the JC guys either not making it to campus, starting slowly or missing the year due to injury I think we are looking more like a 4 win team next year and a shot at bowl eligibility after that, but we will see what surprises this recruiting class will bring. Hopefully we can get a new DC and OL coach as well.

Terrible. Only one one game, but at the same time that is one more than last year. But I fully expected up to win four or five games. And if we knew how to finish we would be a 4-7 team. Or whatever the record would be with four wins.

I think TXST ended up as expected. Maybe one less win. Thought we'd get one from USA or GS. Stole one from stAte.

I think we ended up one or two games short. With our injuries I think we did quite well all things considered. It could have been much worse.

Our preseason prediction didn't account for half our 2 deep getting hurt. Given the difficulties he faced, and our inability to keep a healthy 2 deep together for the last few games, Anderson has done an admirable job with this bunch.

Most fans said 8-4 preseason with losses to ULL and Texas State. Really, we're talking about one game difference, and the Appalachians just out-played our injured team that day.

(12-08-2014 10:07 PM)chiefsfan Wrote:  Our preseason prediction didn't account for half our 2 deep getting hurt. Given the difficulties he faced, and our inability to keep a healthy 2 deep together for the last few games, Anderson has done an admirable job with this bunch.

I give Cauthen some credit too. Those crazy defensive schemes fooled some people until the Cajuns figured it out.

(12-08-2014 10:07 PM)chiefsfan Wrote:  Our preseason prediction didn't account for half our 2 deep getting hurt. Given the difficulties he faced, and our inability to keep a healthy 2 deep together for the last few games, Anderson has done an admirable job with this bunch.

Most fans said 8-4 preseason with losses to ULL and Texas State. Really, we're talking about one game difference, and the Appalachians just out-played our injured team that day.

I don't know, that App State offensive plan would have challenged us without the injuries.

(12-08-2014 10:09 PM)ark30inf Wrote:  

(12-08-2014 10:07 PM)chiefsfan Wrote:  Our preseason prediction didn't account for half our 2 deep getting hurt. Given the difficulties he faced, and our inability to keep a healthy 2 deep together for the last few games, Anderson has done an admirable job with this bunch.

I give Cauthen some credit too. Those crazy defensive schemes fooled some people until the Cajuns figured it out.

I also give Walt Bell a lot of credit for managing to run a top 25 offense despite being able to use a quarter of the actual playbook thanks to Fredi Knighten's weaknesses.

Naturally, some of our fans want Cauthen's and Bell's heads.

(12-08-2014 10:11 PM)ark30inf Wrote:  

(12-08-2014 10:07 PM)chiefsfan Wrote:  Our preseason prediction didn't account for half our 2 deep getting hurt. Given the difficulties he faced, and our inability to keep a healthy 2 deep together for the last few games, Anderson has done an admirable job with this bunch.

Most fans said 8-4 preseason with losses to ULL and Texas State. Really, we're talking about one game difference, and the Appalachians just out-played our injured team that day.

I don't know, that App State offensive plan would have challenged us without the injuries.

Full credit to Satterfield for that one. Much like the Cajuns finally figured our defense out, App State was the first to figure our offense out.

They game planned so well, they essentially handed the perfect strategy to John Thompson, who didn't need that much help to begin with for the next week.

App just flat out beat teams down the stretch.

App exceeded year 1 expectations. But did so in a strange fashion, well below expectations the first six games and above the last six. We were two < 35 yard FGs from being 9-3. I was expecting 5-7 wins vs Campbell, Liberty, GA St, Idaho, and either USM or GS.

Very disappointed. I never expected such poor play from Broadway or our secondary. We pissed away a chance at a special season by getting handled by La Tech and App St. I had us going 10-2 losing to Ole Miss and Boise.

I knew we were in trouble after I saw the opening game against Souther. Broadway had zero explosiveness and it really limited this offense throughout the year.

Underperformed. We had a tough OOC, but I was hoping for 7 wins, maybe eight. The defense slightly beat my expectation, but the offense never even came close to what I had hoped for. Maybe in a game or two, but extremely inconsistent. Bridge had all the potential in the world, but he never improved like you'd expect. The OOC got canned after the season; that should tell you that I'm not the only one disappointed in the offense.

Mildly disappointed. It wasn't so much our record, as I had us finishing around 7-5, but it was how inept we were on offense. Congrats to those who beat us, but our biggest opponent this year was frequently ourselves. The offense has been abysmal at times. Stupid mistakes. We flat out didn't show up for 3 games (Ark State, Miss State, and Georgia Southern). It really wasn't that we lost 6 games, but how we lost some of those games.

Not a disaster of a season, and we are bowling, but it certainly could have been better. Maybe a nice bowl win will make it a good year.

See my sigline.

(12-09-2014 07:18 AM)CajunFanatico Wrote:  See my sigline.

Well at least you tied with yourself

(12-08-2014 11:32 PM)geauxcajuns Wrote:  Very disappointed. I never expected such poor play from Broadway or our secondary. We pissed away a chance at a special season by getting handled by La Tech and App St. I had us going 10-2 losing to Ole Miss and Boise.

I knew we were in trouble after I saw the opening game against Souther. Broadway had zero explosiveness and it really limited this offense throughout the year.

I think we shouldn't be surprised that his broken throwing arm turned out to be a more serious injury than we hoped, though I do believe his performance generally improved as the year went along. The combo of the injury and losing Robinson sure didn't help matters.

(12-09-2014 07:21 AM)GATA Wrote:  

(12-09-2014 07:18 AM)CajunFanatico Wrote:  See my sigline.

Well at least you tied with yourself

No help from you guys.

App really surprised me, we really needed them to beat Liberty and USM, that would have been awesome for them and the conf.

(12-09-2014 07:37 AM)GaSouthern Wrote:  App really surprised me, we really needed them to beat Liberty and USM, that would have been awesome for them and the conf.

Someone stopped watching App in October. This statement would be like App fans saying we GS not to curb stomped by Navy.

(12-09-2014 08:04 AM)Saint3333 Wrote:  

(12-09-2014 07:37 AM)GaSouthern Wrote:  App really surprised me, we really needed them to beat Liberty and USM, that would have been awesome for them and the conf.

Someone stopped watching App in October. This statement would be like App fans saying we GS not to curb stomped by Navy.

I wouldn't take it as an insult. But rather dissapointment in App once again having a slow start and missing out on beating a couple key OOC opponents. You should've beat USM and Liberty, there is really no excuse. You have a good team and it showed later in the season. Unfortunately those losses and the beat downs you put on some SBC teams make the conference look weaker than it is. I really hope you win your OOC games and do well in conference. Just as long as you lose to GS.