I firmly believe after watching the Michigan, Houston, North Carolina, and Florida turnarounds that poor coaching was our single biggest issue this year, followed very closely by injuries and arrests. Rutgers with good to great coaching (which is what we are getting) will make for a different team next year. We may not beat the top B1G teams in 2016, but I have a sense that we are not going to be pushed around and will win our toss-ups. I think 6-7 wins is the goal with the possibility of 8.
Is 2016 a discard season?
- Thread starter RUSK97
- Start date
At least want us to win the games we are favored and be competitive in games we've been blown out under Flood. Please no more blow outs! Every now and then I realize there will be......... as well as an occasional WTF game but please let them be far and few between.
Question--does anyone think that Northwestern or Minnesota have significantly more talent on the roster than we do? Again we aren't winning the NC but there is no reason why we can't at least be GOOD.
Changing schemes only matters if the team was actually effective in running the previous scheme. Given that we were fairly inept running whatever system was in place last year on both sides of the ball, the worst case scenario is that they are also inept running this year's scheme. Defensively it is almost impossible for us to get worse since statistically we were in the bottom 5th percentile in every meaningful category. I would hope that hiring what is viewed by many to be one of the top DCs in the nation should Help to improve things on defense.
Offensively, we have never had the same coordinator 2 years in a row since I can't remember when, so pretty much every year we are implementing a new scheme. Some years we improved other we got worse. It really comes down to who we hire. But let's not pretend that we were burning it up offensively, so more room for improvement than regression.
Personnel wise, the only players that we lose that will be difficult to replace are Lumpkin and Carroo on offense and Gause on defense. The schedule is fairly comparable. A marginal improvement in defense with no improvement on offense should get us 6-7 wins.
I luv' you like a brother, Patrick, but man I gotta do this:
QB - we really don't know what we have after #1 and that's not saying much. HOPEFULLY either Rettig, or Russo, is the answer.
RB - we're good
WR - sorry, but aside from Grant, we've got very little talent here; the B1G guy who said "we have no playmakers" wasn't far off
OL - seriously lacking quality depth
DL - we're good here
LB - seriously lacking quality depth
DB - beyond seriously lacking quality depth
P - ???
K - ???
PR/KR - no worries here
Spot on, I am not sure what games people were watching this season.
Hopefully, this will be a moot point in a few years.
No one here is suggesting that we are going to light the B1G on fire, simply that:
- All of the weaknesses being pointed for next year (lack of depth on OL, LB, no offensive playmakers, etc.) existed this year.
- Our losses to graduation are minimal. We lose 3 key contributors and 19 other starters will be a year older, stronger and hopefully benefiting from better coaching plus we get back our best defensive player.
- Statistically and schematically we had one of the worst defenses in the entire country. Does anyone honestly believe that Ash will not make it his mission to clean this up? I will bet my mortgage that the defense will improve in every measurable way.
- The schedule is not meaningfully more difficult next year.
- Offense is an unknown but hard to imagine it being significantly worse even without Carroo. Not sure how much of the lack of playmaking was due to talent, scheme or not being properly motivated.
Quite a difference between that and bone dry. I want to win them all, but for next year, I want to be the team that other teams don't want to play. I want to see organization, discipline, playing through the down completely, mistakes minimized, etc.
If we don't have a strong LB corps, then I want to see what Ash does about that. How does he handle that adversity? A couple of seasons ago, zap said he'd take 4-8 if we kept games close and didn't get blown out by anybody. I won't be happy with 4-8 as I think 6-6 is possible, but more than that, I want each opponent to leave the field thinking, "I'm glad we're done with them."
I don't believe one can say that poor coaching is the sole problem. It's not, I would say 75% is coaching (at every level) the other 25% is a variety of recruiting the right kids for the right position, strength and conditioning and experience.
We will win some games in 2016! We will win some more in 2017! We will win a bunch of games in 2018!
Hang on tight, this is gonna be great!
Hang on tight, this is gonna be great!
I did not see anyone say it was entirely coaching, still should expect some improvement on the field based on better coaching. Overall, the team will be more experienced next year. Our four CB's were all freshman, three true freshman.
While I agree with all of this, it is damn hard to know from the outside whether talent or coaching makes the team look so bad. Or, more likely, a combination.
So, if the coaching was just awful, then maybe we can expect a pretty decent uptick based on being competent.
Either way, I'm not going into the year expecting much more than a fight to get to .500
Ahhh, but it IS "more" difficult so, as I've been saying, tempe expectations. Just look for signs of improvement across the board and be happy. Anything above and beyond that is icing on the cake!
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Cmon man, you are splitting hairs. Basically you are swapping NM for Army and IL for KU, both slightly more difficult but should be winnable. We lost to NE & WI so swapping out for Iowa & Minnny makes no difference, though I think we match up better vs. Minny than WI or NE. UW for WSU is a wash.
- Washington (Sag 28) ON THE ROAD, opening game, is far from a "wash" vs Wazzou (Sag 48) at home, IMHO.
- Iowa/Minny next year may very well be better than Nebraska/Wisconsin this year. Iowa is freakin' loaded again.
- Illinois (Sag 72) for Kansas (Sag 148)???
- New Mexico is MUCH better than Army. Current Sagarin ratings are 105 vs 150 and NM came on very, very strong winning 6 of 9 including Air Force and Boise State. There is NO question in my mind that a Flood coached team would have lost this game.
Sorry, but it's a tougher schedule, period. Listen, I"m "all in" right now - trust me - but I'm just going to keep my expectations tempered year 1 due to the lack of quality depth, at some many positions, and this schedule.
We have a lot of talent in key positions. Although I was never one to complain, I did not love ALWAYS running out of tight formations and passing out of 5 wide. The guys we have in the secondary can play ball they just needed to get reps. Some of them may have not seen the field this year if not for the you know what issue. We also had guys playing hurt most of the year back there due to our lack of depth. The good news is we now are returning 2 corners and a handful of safeties that can play. Hopefully others will step up. Rene will help. I would like a big, fast bruiser back at Safety as we have a handful of guys that are really tweeners but good players. The schemes will also help IMO. Being aggressive on D is not a bad thing. If we give up big plays so be it.
RU wasn't that far off from 6-6 this year, with a competent coach and a comparable schedule they reasonable could hit that
New Mexico, Indiana, Maryland, Howard, Ilinois, Minnesota, Penn State are shots at wins, Washington, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Iowa are losses. I think the first 4 are doable, can this team win 2 of 3 vs Ill/PSU/Minny....gun to my head I think they go 5-7
New Mexico, Indiana, Maryland, Howard, Ilinois, Minnesota, Penn State are shots at wins, Washington, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Iowa are losses. I think the first 4 are doable, can this team win 2 of 3 vs Ill/PSU/Minny....gun to my head I think they go 5-7
