Predictions for next season...

[koleszar]

I think we win 6 games and here is my way too early reasoning. Note: upon further review I upped my prediction from 5 to 6.
Howard- we better beat them.
New Mexico- had a nice season but they're basically a run offense which we're good at stopping, they threw twice as many Int./TD and only passed for a little over 130 yds a game. Their D gave up 440 yds a game
Indiana- they lose Sudfeld who was probably 80% of their offense and they still have that defense which is as bad as ours was. Ours will improve theirs won't they lose a lot of their Dline.
Minnesota- is definitely a winnable game. Kill was the architect there and he's gone. Tracy Claeys is no genius did you see what he did in the Iowa game. He only beat Central Michigan by 7 in the bowl game and wound up 6-7.
Maryland- they still don't have a QB and our anemic offense from last year put up 41 pts. That was an epic meltdown on our part.
Illinois- is not a great team nor is Bill Cubit a great coach IMO and isn't his son Ryan a 1st year OC.

 

[Yeah Baby]

Agreed we can get there and if everything breaks right for us we can win 1-2 more. Last year everything worked against us on and off the field but that does not mean the cupboard is bare. Far from it.

 

[AreYouNUTS]

I think we win 6 games and here is my way too early reasoning. Note: upon further review I upped my prediction from 5 to 6.
Howard- we better beat them.
New Mexico- had a nice season but they're basically a run offense which we're good at stopping, they threw twice as many Int./TD and only passed for a little over 130 yds a game. Their D gave up 440 yds a game
Indiana- they lose Sudfeld who was probably 80% of their offense and they still have that defense which is as bad as ours was. Ours will improve theirs won't they lose a lot of their Dline.
Minnesota- is definitely a winnable game. Kill was the architect there and he's gone. Tracy Claeys is no genius did you see what he did in the Iowa game. He only beat Central Michigan by 7 in the bowl game and wound up 6-7.
Maryland- they still don't have a QB and our anemic offense from last year put up 41 pts. That was an epic meltdown on our part.
Illinois- is not a great team nor is Bill Cubit a great coach IMO and isn't his son Ryan a 1st year OC.

Couple of thoughts:

New Mexico - We lost all 3 starting LB's. We're going to throw 3 LB's "to the wolves,"pun intended, in their 3rd starts ever which could be a daunting task. I think we win this one, however, I think the game is a lot closer than some expect and most would like (see: Army 2015).

Minnesota - I think they bounce back this season. Believe they return a ton of starters and 2nd team guys so don't sell them short. Gonna be a very difficult game for us to win IMHO.

Indy/Illinois/Maryland - we can just as easily lose all 3 games as we can win them.

 

[koleszar]

Couple of thoughts:

New Mexico - We lost all 3 starting LB's. We're going to throw 3 LB's "to the wolves,"pun intended, in their 3rd starts ever which could be a daunting task. I think we win this one, however, I think the game is a lot closer than some expect and most would like (see: Army 2015).

Minnesota - I think they bounce back this season. Believe they return a ton of starters and 2nd team guys so don't sell them short. Gonna be a very difficult game for us to win IMHO.

Indy/Illinois/Maryland - we can just as easily lose all 3 games as we can win them.

Nuts I'm trying to be optimistic here dammit. And this is the best I could come up with.:)

 

[JPhoboken]

Prediction: 5-7

Hoping for: 6-6

 

[AreYouNUTS]

Nuts I'm trying to be optimistic here dammit. And this is the best I could come up with.:)

Hey I'm the beacon of optimism again, trust me, I just don't want to get ahead of myself just yet LOL! IMHO there things just as important as "W's" this coming season - adaptation to the new systems, excitement, progressing instead of regressing as the season rolls along, the kids "buying in" to everything, recruiting, etc - and those are the things I'm really looking forward to!

 

[mildone]

13-1. We lose in the B1G conference championship but win our bowl game. [banana]

Seriously, let's see. The eternal optimist in me sees the following wins/winnable:
Washington, New Mexico, Penn State, Maryland, Indiana, Minnesota, Howard, Illinois.
Losses/Losable: Michigan, tOSU, MSU, Iowa.

If all goes right, we go 8-4. Now a LOT would have to go right. The toughest in that winnable bunch are Washington, Penn State and Minnesota. If we go 1-2 in that group, we wind up 6-6. 6-6 is doable, and I would be happy. I would be fine if we wind up 5-7 but only got embarrassed once or twice.

Uh... no.

 

[mildone]

#Flight?

I said all would have to go right. Could it? Maybe. Will it? Not likely. I'm optimistic that we will go at least 6-6.

Nope, not even that. And you know I'm not a negative Nelly.

I totally dig your optimism and enthusiasm though. And I hope like hell that I'm absolutely incorrect in my thinking on this.

 

[mildone]

SCHEDULE:
Washington
Howard
New Mexico
Iowa
Ohio State
Michigan
Illinois
Minnesota
Indiana
Michigan State
Penn State
Maryland

Hmm..

I see 4 wins:

Wins (win 2): Howard, New Mexico
Toss ups (win 1): Indiana, Maryland,
Unlikely (win 1): Washington, Illinois, Minnesota, Penn State
No chance (win 0): Iowa, OSU, Michigan, MSU

If we can beat Howard, New Mexico, Maryland, and Penn State while keeping all the other games within 2 TDs, I think that would be a reasonably successful debut season for Ash.

Pretty much how I see it.

Only two gimme games. Everything else is a competitive game where we have no right to claim superior anything until we actually show it on the field.

I will be overjoyed to see us vastly improved during the off-season. But I'm not seeing how that happens this first off-season. All new offense to learn. Defense becoming highly reliant on shut-down corner play with no demonstrable shut-down corners yet (but I think there's raw talent that will get coached up during the season).

Having said all that, maybe the gap between the prior staff's position coaching and the new staff's position coaching has our current likely starters still low enough in the learning curve that they can quickly become significantly better. This is the unknown to me. Where were those players in their learning curve?

So there's a chance we improve so quickly (some in the off-season, mostly during the first six games) that we start to become seriously competitive in our final games. But it would have to mean that the players are more talented than has been demonstrated and that they still had so much to learn (where tons of learning happens quickly early on).

But until I see it, I'm going with 4 wins. Maybe 5.

In my heart, though, we're going undefeated.

 

[Hamilton's Cannon]

6-6 is my expectation for a good season. We bring back experience at almost every area except LB and PK. More than last year and we could have went 6-6 if not for all the distractions. The schedule can be debated but I believe there are more games we can be competitive in. I think we will probably go 5-7; Chris Ash is a first-time head coach and will likely make mistakes - that may cost us a game. If the learning curve is steep for this staff, we will go 4-8 or worse, which would be a disappointing season. 7-5 or 8-4 means we got our guy, there is a buzz around the program, and recruiting improves significantly.