Ash: "We are not that far away."

[RU31trap]

I don't think we're that far away, to be honest, but we're also not what I'd call "close".... most of the distance needs to be reached with recruiting, and that's going to take some time. (Meaning, I don't see it happening next year, either).

Even if we get some of our top remaining targets to commit (Bell, Martin, Bolds, Hand, etc) and finish with a Top 30 recruiting class, we're still going to be thin next year at a lot of positions (notably the defensive front seven and offensive line). Need back-to-back Top 30 classes to really start righting this ship.

If we're going to have a breakthrough year, it'll be 2018, and the schedule sets up for it. We'll have two full Ash recruiting classes, and the OOC and west division schedule will be: Texas State, @Kansas, Buffalo, Illinois, Northwestern, @Wisconsin.

I see 3 automatic wins on that schedule and if you throw in Illinois it could be 4 W's. Remember much will depend on how much Illinois and Kansas improves. However, I agree with you, if the recruiting, player development and the implementation of a new offense is on schedule our 2018 opponents set us up for an 8 win season. but one never knows which is why we play the game.

 

[RUChoppin]

I see 3 automatic wins on that schedule and if you throw in Illinois it could be 4 W's. Remember much will depend on how much Illinois and Kansas improves. However, I agree with you, if the recruiting, player development and the implementation of a new offense is on schedule our 2018 opponents set us up for an 8 win season. but one never knows which is why we play the game.

Not penciling in any wins yet, but the strength of schedule looks to drop off a bit in 2018... which aligns nicely with Ash's 3rd year and two full recruiting classes.

Next year's going to be another struggle. The offense will very likely be ahead of the defense, but we're going to feel the loss of a bunch of 5th year seniors from the 2012 class... and the schedule isn't much easier than this year.