(10-20-2015 12:24 AM)HogDawg Wrote:  I have to temper my disappointment over LA Tech's 4-3 record with the fact that we've played a tough, grinding schedule to date, and we've suffered some injuries for it. While some (certainly not all) CUSA team's have been playing "the little sisters of the blind" every week, it's been pretty bruising for LA Tech so far. And if LA Tech had managed to beat Kansas State in triple OT, I'd feel much better at 5-2, with losses only to an SEC team (MSU) and CUSA favorite WKU in week 1.

But here's where it gets weird. LA Tech's schedule gets exponentially softer for the rest of the season. The hardest part is now behind us. For the rest of the way, we can now play CUSA teams that we match up well against. The biggest remaining threats are MTSU at home (this week), at Rice and USM at home (the last week of the season). Win these, and we can still reach many of our season goals, including a 9-3 regular season record and another CUSA Championship game appearance. Win that and a bowl game, and LA Tech can still finish the year 11-3. So I'm still pumped.

Me too. Holtz basically forfeited last game when Mississippi State went up by two TD's. 11-3 is still a good possibility

Frankly, Rice is where I thought it would be. Going into the season, I expected to be 8-4, when taking into account pre-season rankings (losing to WKU, La Tech, Texas and Baylor). So, at face value, we are "on schedule". However, we played poorly against FAU (should have lost), okay against UNT, abysmal against Baylor and WKU and not very good against UT. Owls' fans felt we should have been competitive against WKU (as in not have the game effectively be over by the end of the first quarter) as well as against a crappy Texas squad (we were competitive for two and a half quarters, then scored touchdowns in garbage time to make it look close). Again, a decent portion of Owls' fans think Bailiff needs to deliver another conference championship in the next few years or he should be fired.

exceeding expectations due to reserved preseason prediction as the barometer (6-6)...but I gave hints along the way

we have a talented group of men in both players and coaches that want to fight, are unwilling to save a breath, and continue to give it their all.....as a fan, I couldn't ask for more....

.....and have said this to ad nauseam.....THANK YOU ZAC! WE ARE LUCKY TO HAVE YOU.....IF ONLY FOR A YEAR.

A+ regardless of the w/l.....just well done across the board....from big mac, to john carr, to monken, to the staff, to the players, to the fans....an amazing turnaround in the briefest of time imaginable....it's like making a million in a year when having nothing but pure determination, and the moxie to succeed with only the shirt on your back as the starting point....

by damn, now that's southern miss football!

(10-19-2015 09:59 PM)HerdZoned Wrote:  

(10-19-2015 09:12 PM)Dorrej Wrote:  Record wise Marshall is about where I expected. I was thinking 9-3 or 10-2( with the losses coming from purdue, ohio, mtsu, or wku) and 10-2 is looking very possible right now. The defense is a little bit better than I expected but the offense is a little bit worse. Luckily, marshall has been improving a little every week and has proven to be pretty deep by battling through injuries. The injuries have been brutal this season... Take a look at rb expected depth for example:
1. Devon Johnson - injured
2. Steward Butler - kicked off team
3. Remi Watson - injured
4. Tony Pittman - injured
5. Hyleck Foster - was a slot reciever 2 weeks ago
6. Keion Davis

CUSA as a conference is having a down year. No surprise contenders(except for maybe USM but many people predicted their improvement) and rice/mtsu aren't as good as expected. The bottom half of the conference is normally pretty bad but wow... It is ugly this year.

You forgot we lost Angelo Jean Louis because of ego and thinking he should have a bigger role before the season (Now at DII Shepard) and AJ Leggett for the same reason after 3 games this season.

We essentially lost 3 starters because of behavioral problems since last year and have had 4-6 be out most of the year due to injury. So setting at 6-1 I think is pretty good. We have also started a True Freshman the last 5 games at QB.

He said take a look at RB for example...Jean-Louis wasn't a running back. Just showing that we are now at 6th string RB. He didn't forget anything just wasn't relative to his example.

I had us at 5 and 2 right now...So about where I thought we would be.....Now though wish we had that Indiana game back, just got mauled on the road by a BIG TEN OL....

(10-20-2015 01:04 AM)westsidewolf1989 Wrote:  Frankly, Rice is where I thought it would be. Going into the season, I expected to be 8-4, when taking into account pre-season rankings (losing to WKU, La Tech, Texas and Baylor). So, at face value, we are "on schedule". However, we played poorly against FAU (should have lost), okay against UNT, abysmal against Baylor and WKU and not very good against UT. Owls' fans felt we should have been competitive against WKU (as in not have the game effectively be over by the end of the first quarter) as well as against a crappy Texas squad (we were competitive for two and a half quarters, then scored touchdowns in garbage time to make it look close). Again, a decent portion of Owls' fans think Bailiff needs to deliver another conference championship in the next few years or he should be fired.

Came in to say pretty much the same thing. We have the record I expected yet look disappointing.

Teams who are doing better than what I expected. Charlotte is more competitive than I thought they would be. FIU is still tough on defense, but offensively is improved and McGough is developing. USM is clearly on their way back. They could win their division.

Teams who are doing worse that I expected. ODU, FAU, North Texas, Rice, UTEP

Teams who are doing about what I expected; Western Kentucky...it's their's until someone stops them. Middle Tennessee. Marshall (but against the easier part of our schedule. Some tough games ahead. Still see 9-3.) UTSA. LaTech.

Tech is on schedule with most predictions. I would take a 9-3 Division Champ everytime. I hope we can get there. Still have some tough teams ahead and we are limping towards our bye.

I predicted we'd go undefeated.

I'm calling it now. We'll go undefeated next year, too.

(10-20-2015 08:20 AM)Smaug Wrote:  I predicted we'd go undefeated.

I'm calling it now. We'll go undefeated next year, too.

And I'd even say it's been a bit of a rebuilding year for you guys.

Very easy. We have not even come close to meeting expectations...again.

Pre-season losing to Vanderbilt I would have thought would be a failure if we didn't win the conference title and that's holding true.

I felt that Illinois (though they are better than expected) was a pick 'em.

We gave both of those games away in the final seconds after having both of them won. And then we were completely uninspired and not competitive against our main rival which is just unacceptable that you are not ready to play that game. We could be and probably should be 5-2 right now and that would have been ok.

All in all this season is a failure. We still have to play some of the tougher teams on our schedule and a winning season is already almost out of reach.

Bottom line is a lost season for us. We have our most experienced defense in years and they have underperformed on an order of magnitude that was unimaginable to me at the beginning of the season with all of the key players we had returning. It's difficult for me to imagine a winning season next year either as bad as we are going to be on defense going forward. If we can't win with this defensive unit we aren't going to win for another year or two.

(10-20-2015 08:40 AM)owl at the moon Wrote:  

(10-20-2015 08:20 AM)Smaug Wrote:  I predicted we'd go undefeated.

I'm calling it now. We'll go undefeated next year, too.

And I'd even say it's been a bit of a rebuilding year for you guys.

Indeed.

(10-20-2015 08:08 AM)loki_the_bubba Wrote:  

(10-20-2015 01:04 AM)westsidewolf1989 Wrote:  Frankly, Rice is where I thought it would be. Going into the season, I expected to be 8-4, when taking into account pre-season rankings (losing to WKU, La Tech, Texas and Baylor). So, at face value, we are "on schedule". However, we played poorly against FAU (should have lost), okay against UNT, abysmal against Baylor and WKU and not very good against UT. Owls' fans felt we should have been competitive against WKU (as in not have the game effectively be over by the end of the first quarter) as well as against a crappy Texas squad (we were competitive for two and a half quarters, then scored touchdowns in garbage time to make it look close). Again, a decent portion of Owls' fans think Bailiff needs to deliver another conference championship in the next few years or he should be fired.

Came in to say pretty much the same thing. We have the record I expected yet look disappointing.

Agree.

This season has not been successful, at all. It's frustrating. Next year, as we always ALWAYS say, we should be better...

(10-19-2015 07:10 PM)HerdZoned Wrote:  

(10-19-2015 06:48 PM)FlyHawk98 Wrote:  Thats all you can really ask for in a rebuilding year.

We aren't in a rebuild. That is where we were from 2011-2013. We are in a refining year. We actually have the tools and players to win out. Do I think that happens, probably not but we are in better shape than 10-11 schools in CUSA.

I wouldn't define at as a rebuild but we have had massive injuries. Down to our 4th string RB and a converted WR to RB. Starting a true freshmen QB, injuries to our OL, one guy seems to be out for the year. On defense, losses from Leggett and some nicks and dings.
If we can finish the regular season 9-3 or 10-2, that would be damn good considering and then win the bowl game - damn nice year all things considered.
Looking at 2016 as possibly the year we are back on top. USM will be tough in 2016 no question.

Worse then what I thought.

I thought we would finally when the close games and we just cant seem to finish. Probably the most disheartened I have ever been as an FAU fan.

We have the amount of wins I expected, but are playing (with one notable exception) much better than I anticipated. It's funny, if you would have told me we'd have two wins at this point, take FAU and ODU to the wire, and battle Temple for a half, I would have been ecstatic. Now though, I want more wins because we should at least be 3-3 at this point. I guess it's human nature to get a little greedy.

I am excited with all the off the field stuff around the program (band, student attendance, tailgating events, and lights) things seem to be percolating and it's been a fun ride so far.

very pleased where we are.

i don't do predictions based on 18-22 year old men (boys) because they're too damn unpredictable. i know. i've raised 2 sons through that age gap.

outside of maybe the top 10 there's a ton of parity (NOT PARODY DUMMIES) in the college football game. every one of our schools are fighting for the same players. every one of our coaching staffs are working their butts off to win regardless of what fans say after a bad loss.

when i looked at this year's schedule i said outside of the lsu game we could win every game or lose every game. we didn't have an fcs gimme this year.

our biggest question mark was our dee. we knew with all the returnees on offense we'd be able to score. but we scored last year and many games were up in the air.

wkuyg (and others) posited that if we only saw a 10-15% increase on dee we'd be much better this year. it was based on picking up 2 very good uab players in our weak spots and having everyone else back that got tons of playing time last year.

they were right. halfway through the season this defense has been serviceable. actually better than serviceable if you measure by points allowed and not yards. and since the scoreboard usually has points on it and not yards i'll take that.

the la tech team we faced was a lot better than the la tech team that played miss. state saturday. and we 'handled' them. they can cough cough 3 point all they want. that game was never in danger because their dee couldn't stop our offense.

i was worried about middle. they could/should have beaten both illinois and vandy. they've been successful against us in the past. the humiliation we put on them by halftime was one of my most enjoyable sports experiences in years. seeing middle fans at halftime walking around in a walking deadlike zombie trance was worth the price of my season tickets.

now we face our 'house money' game. nobody expects us to do anything against lsu. i think we have a chance. but i thought we had a chance 2 years ago in knoxville when we set some kind of record for consecutive turnovers. if we can keep the turnovers down i still think we have a chance.

we'll see.

UTEP is not where I expected. I was hoping for an 8-4 season this year although another 7-5 season was more realistic. That was before they lost their starting QB and RB. Now I'll be happy if they end up 5-7.

If someone made me bet my house on it I would have went with 5-2
If it was something I could afford to lose even if it hurt a little 7-0

After seeing IU play the first 2 games of the season I thought they might be the worse team Western would face up to the UNT game. While others want that game back and play it today...just give me back BD's first INT and start it from there...

Western wins by 10+ points

I called the 2nd one before it happened on the way we lined up and the IU DB not taking his eyes off BD from the count and started inching up and over. He saw the same thing as I did. On that set and shift Western goes to a quick down and out. I told my son...I hope this wasn't a pick 6. Lucky the DB was still a step slow getting over.