OSU has got to hurt next year

[RU-Choppin-Ohio]

Tell my why you apparently think this is an east schedule. I think it's brutal and is NOT set up well at all. Been through it several times already just curious where you're coming from. Thanks.

All B1G East schedules are tough, but this is certainly easier than last year. We dropped Nebraska and Wisconsin....picked up Iowa and Minnesota. Iowa is solid, not great, maybe beatable at home. Minnesota is beatable.

PSU lost 3 starting DL, still a bad OL....beatable at home.
Michigan has problems with a spread, QB issues, We have a real DC.....beatable at home.

 

[AreYouNUTS]

All B1G East schedules are tough, but this is certainly easier than last year. We dropped Nebraska and Wisconsin....picked up Iowa and Minnesota. Iowa is solid, not great, maybe beatable at home. Minnesota is beatable.

PSU lost 3 starting DL, still a bad OL....beatable at home.
Michigan has problems with a spread, QB issues, We have a real DC.....beatable at home.

Lol okay! We'll be 17-point dogs to Iowa and Michigan. 8-10-point dogs to Minny on the road. We also added a B1G game while dropping Army and replaced a home game vs Wazzou with a road one at a much better Washington.

I love the optimism guys but, come on, we don't even have a quarterback who can run this offense properly at this point.

 

[RUSK97]

Lol okay! We'll be 17-point dogs to Iowa and Michigan. 8-10-point dogs to Minny on the road. We also added a B1G game while dropping Army and replaced a home game vs Wazzou with a road one at a much better Washington.

I love the optimism guys but, come on, we don't even have a quarterback who can run this offense properly at this point.

Gotta agree with Nuts here. I love the optimism, but Ash is a coach, not the Messiah who can perform miracles. You guys are underestimating the difficulty of the schedule I think. We're underdogs to Minny and Illinois and big time dogs to Iowa. Yeah, the first two teams may be easier than Nebby ad Wisky, but it really doesn't matter that much when you lose by 10 versus by 28.

 

[RU-Choppin-Ohio]

Lol okay! We'll be 17-point dogs to Iowa and Michigan. 8-10-point dogs to Minny on the road. We also added a B1G game while dropping Army and replaced a home game vs Wazzou with a road one at a much better Washington.

I love the optimism guys but, come on, we don't even have a quarterback who can run this offense properly at this point.

Do you mean the betting line when you talk of "dogs"?

I don't know what next year will bring, but, I'm not sure you are basing your opinions on what you saw on the field. If I had to guess, you probably saw 1 Iowa game and no Minnesota games. I'll also guess you don't know anything about players graduated or coming back.

With the exception of OSU (maybe a few others) and the obvious talent gap......a lot of the problems last year were based on poor coaching, schemes, game plans , etc.

 

[czxqa]

OK let's break it down into groups.
Games I expect to win: Howard, New Mexico, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland.
Games could go either way: Minny, PSU
Games I expect to lose: Washington, Iowa, Ohio State, Mich, Mich St.

So if we win the 5 expected, lose the 5 expected, 5-7 to 7-5 is the range. I think we definitely beat one of Minny and PSU. Heck, we have a decent shot at winning both and finishing 7-5.

Yes, I know, new defense, new offense, all new linebackers, same guys taking the snaps. Look at it this way, the team went 4-8 last year with a horrible HC, OC, and DC. They couldn't tackle and the coaches refused to change the defense from that lousy soft zone that got us chewed up 10-15 yards at a time except for the many times our guys missed tackles and the 15 turned to 35. The defense is simpler. The tackling will be at a high level- the guys have been told over and over, if you can't tackle, you don't play. I am confident we can expect a tremendously improved defense, even with three new linebackers.
Finally, the coaching staff is head and shoulders above what we had. That alone should be worth two more wins than last year.

 

[AreYouNUTS]

You "expect" to beat New Mexico, Maryland, Indiana AND Illinois? That's asking/expecting a lot. I have all 4 of those games as "toss-ups" right now and "expect" us to split them.

Apparently I must have missed how great we looked at the spring game and how happy Ash is about where this team is right now.

Way, way, WAY too many ????'s to"expect" more IMHO.

 

[RU-Choppin-Ohio]

You "expect" to beat New Mexico, Maryland, Indiana AND Illinois? That's asking/expecting a lot. I have all 4 of those games as "toss-ups" right now and "expect" us to split them.

Apparently I must have missed how great we looked at the spring game and how happy Ash is about where this team is right now.

Way, way, WAY too many ????'s to"expect" more IMHO.

About Ash's comments....that's coach talk. What do you expect, " We are great " ?

About the spring game offense....it was vanilla. A new OC does not tip his hand in a televised spring game.

Spring game defense looked good, especially DL.

You have New Mexico as a tossup ? New Mexico coming to Jersey and it's a Tossup ?? What do you know about that football team ?

 

[mildone]

A problem w/these sorts of threads is that people wind up inexorably pushed to overstate their cases and then they devolve into positoid/negatoid battles.

Seems to me that @AreYouNUTS and I are on the same page insofar as predictions for 2016 season go. We both want to win all the games and we both realize that anything could happen. But we tend to look at the facts in hand and think through what we think will probably happen, despite our wishes.

So we list what we think is likely given an even spread of good/bad luck while maybe others list what they think could happen, if everything goes right. A lot has to come together very quickly for us to win a lot of games in the fall. I think we'd need more than our share of good luck for us to get to six wins and a bowl.

But it could happen.

 

[AreYouNUTS]

About Ash's comments....that's coach talk. What do you expect, " We are great " ?

About the spring game offense....it was vanilla. A new OC does not tip his hand in a televised spring game.

Spring game defense looked good, especially DL.

You have New Mexico as a tossup ? New Mexico coming to Jersey and it's a Tossup ?? What do you know about that football team ?

Spring game D "looked good"? No, it looked okay, that's all. It was also playing against a brand-new offense that doesn't have a quarterback to run it and has to replace it's best offensive lineman and by far it's best offensive weapon, but I guess we keep forgetting about that. Need I remind you that we have absolutely no experience in the middle of the defense and that coaches we face, the first few games of the season, are going to totally try to take advantage of that? Sure the DL should be good but we are in a world of trouble at LB and the secondary remains a big question mark whether some here want to think so or not.

Yes, New Mexico is a "toss up" for now and others here agreed when we had a thread discussion about the schedule just 2-3 weeks ago. We finished all of 9 spots higher than them in Sagarin and run an O that, with 3 brand bew LB's, COULD give us fits. We'll be a 3-5 point favorite at best which, at home, I call a "toss up."

 

[RU#1fan]

Lol okay! We'll be 17-point dogs to Iowa and Michigan. 8-10-point dogs to Minny on the road. We also added a B1G game while dropping Army and replaced a home game vs Wazzou with a road one at a much better Washington.

I love the optimism guys but, come on, we don't even have a quarterback who can run this offense properly at this point.

We are beating Washington ......mark it down.
We will not be 17 point dogs to Iowa at home.

 

[lighty]

Yes, I know, new defense, new offense, all new linebackers, same guys taking the snaps. Look at it this way, the team went 4-8 last year with a horrible HC, OC, and DC.

You forgot new coach -- a new FIRST TIME head coach. While I love what Ash has done so far, some people are seamless at making the jump to head coach and others are not. He's worked under some great coaches so it's easy to hope for the best, but...

we lost our best offensive weapon, still don't know who the QB will be -- under a new offensive system -- and some of our best guys on defense are coming off injuries or surgeries.

Personally, I'd take 5-6 wins in a heartbeat.

 

[AreYouNUTS]

We are beating Washington ......mark it down.
We will not be 17 point dogs to Iowa at home.

Okie-dokie. 2 thoughts:

1) I hope you don't gamble
2) yes, they will be, 14-17 point favorites most likely.

 

[RU#1fan]

Okie-dokie. 2 thoughts:

1) I hope you don't gamble
2) yes, they will be, 14-17 point favorites most likely.

Don't gamble unless I like our chances... And I would take a 17 point dog at home vs. Iowa under Ash any day.
Sure Iowa had an excellent year last season but they are as good as their QB CJ stays healthy, he had Hip injury last year and has not fully recovered yet. Plus Iowa losses their Stud RB, two starting WRs , and two OL. They beat Pitt in Iowa on a last second FG and only beat Indiana by 7 points ( sound familiar). 17 point sounds much at this point.
Let's see how RU looks out of the gates. I am looking forward to being in Section 101 in Husky Stadium watching RU surprise many folks over the Labor Day weekend.

 

[AreYouNUTS]

Don't gamble unless I like our chances... And I would take a 17 point dog at home vs. Iowa under Ash any day.
.

I wasn't talking about the Iowa game. The "gambling" comment was in reference to your "we are beating Washington" one.

 

[AreYouNUTS]

Don't gamble unless I like our chances... And I would take a 17 point dog at home vs. Iowa under Ash any day.
Sure Iowa had an excellent year last season but they are as good as their QB CJ stays healthy, he had Hip injury last year and has not fully recovered yet. Plus Iowa losses their Stud RB, two starting WRs , and two OL. They beat Pitt in Iowa on a last second FG and only beat Indiana by 7 points ( sound familiar). 17 point sounds much at this point.
Let's see how RU looks out of the gates. I am looking forward to being in Section 101 in Husky Stadium watching RU surprise many folks over the Labor Day weekend.

We lost:

- all 3 starting LB's with no experience to replace them

- obe of best weapons our O has ever had

- our best OL by far

..and others. I guess none of that matters? Only Iowa's losses do? We have A LOT of work to do, but It have 100% faith in Ash getting it done, I just have a very realistic outlook aw well as expectations for this season.

 

[RU#1fan]

We lost:

- all 3 starting LB's with no experience to replace them

- obe of best weapons our O has ever had

- our best OL by far

..and others. I guess none of that matters? Only Iowa's losses do? We have A LOT of work to do, but It have 100% faith in Ash getting it done, I just have a very realistic outlook aw well as expectations for this season.

Agree on the LB concerns, however the DL and Secondary will be vastly improved .
Lumpkin is a lost but we have depth the OL and see Heeman, Cole, stepping up.
And we will have more game time experience at QB.....had to have a positive impact.
Let's see .

 

[AreYouNUTS]

Agree on the LB concerns, however the DL and Secondary will be vastly improved .
Lumpkin is a lost but we have depth the OL and see Heeman, Cole, stepping up.
And we will have more game time experience at QB.....had to have a positive impact.
Let's see .

The secondary will be better, no question, but you have to realize that we were one of the worst in the nation last year, and that they also will be dealing with a very young, incredibly inexperienced, threesome in front of them. This is going to be an issue, especially early on, and games against Washington, New Mexico, and Iowa.

"Depth on the OL? Uhm, SOMEONE has to play, right? We'll see if that's "depth" or "quality depth" come September.

Again, hoping by for the best, as always!

 

[czxqa]

You "expect" to beat New Mexico, Maryland, Indiana AND Illinois? That's asking/expecting a lot. I have all 4 of those games as "toss-ups" right now and "expect" us to split them.

Apparently I must have missed how great we looked at the spring game and how happy Ash is about where this team is right now.

Way, way, WAY too many ????'s to"expect" more IMHO.

I do expect that. New Mexico is a gimme not a tossup. Flood beat Indiana twice for crying out loud. Maryland and Illinois are both winnable.
My optimism comes from seeing the physical improvement of our players, the new enthusiasm in the program and mostly from a lot of the comments from staff and players about how the new schemes are all about giving the players the chance to just play and not have to worry about fifteen different zone coverages and assignments.

 

[RU#1fan]

The secondary will be better, no question, but you have to realize that we were one of the worst in the nation last year, and that they also will be dealing with a very young, incredibly inexperienced, threesome in front of them. This is going to be an issue, especially early on, and games against Washington, New Mexico, and Iowa.

"Depth on the OL? Uhm, SOMEONE has to play, right? We'll see if that's "depth" or "quality depth" come September.

Again, hoping by for the best, as always!

You severely underestimate our OL this coming season: Four returning Starters with a lot of Experience :
Sr. - Nelson 11 starts in '15, Miller (Jr.) with 10 starts, Sr- Mueller with 12 starts, and Soph- Heeman with 12 starts.

Guess we will agree to disagree.

 

[RUinOhio]

RU won 4 games with Flood, 6 wins without him is not out of the question.