Grade the Season

[Yellow Snow]

I voted B.

Sure that UNI game was a train wreck, but keep in mind we had the lead in the 4th quarter. Then we went pick, fumble, pick on our last three possessions, all in our territory. It is what it is. I'm sure the coaches didn't want that to happen.

Fact of the matter is (as I see it) that we did pretty well considering the talent gap we had between us and pretty much every opponent. We played good football against good teams. That wasn't the case last year.

 

[spitfyr36]

I'll admit that I was chugging the Kool-Aid before the season and saw a Bowl game this year. After the first 2 games I realized what we were actually working with. I still voted 'D', regardless of new regime we should have won at UNI, and should have added one more of the closer games along the way.

 

[Dopey]

I gave a "C" for in-season results, which doesn't account for the great recruiting efforts.

Team was a disaster at the beginning of the year. Lots of penalties, losing to UNI, a blowout at Iowa, etc.

Still some questionable coaching decisions that I feel a casual fan could do better. 2 QB system was handled terribly in the beginning, in my opinion. Showed some promise these previous 2 games and then reverted to nonsense in this last game. A bit discouraging I felt. I don't really care if they were stacking the box... Lanning gets **** done. Give him a chance. Especially if we aren't catching balls. But I digress...

One way or another, we mishandled Mike Warren. Either we pumped his head too big in the off-season or we weren't fair to him during the season. Regardless of what caused what, some if it this on the coaches. I am glad, however, that they weren't afraid to play the younger player that they felt was better.

The above is my most negative viewpoint, so don't jump all over my nuts. We did show improvement. Our recruiting will be the best ever. I think this staff can get us over the hump and work themselves into a nice promotion to Ohio State....

I'm optimistically hoping for a bowl game next year.

 

[Yellow Snow]

I gave a "C" for in-season results, which doesn't account for the great recruiting efforts.

Team was a disaster at the beginning of the year. Lots of penalties, losing to UNI, a blowout at Iowa, etc.

Still some questionable coaching decisions that I feel a casual fan could do better. 2 QB system was handled terribly in the beginning, in my opinion. Showed some promise these previous 2 games and then reverted to nonsense in this last game. A bit discouraging I felt. I don't really care if they were stacking the box... Lanning gets **** done. Give him a chance. Especially if we aren't catching balls. But I digress...

One way or another, we mishandled Mike Warren. Either we pumped his head too big in the off-season or we weren't fair to him during the season. Regardless of what caused what, some if it this on the coaches. I am glad, however, that they weren't afraid to play the younger player that they felt was better.

The above is my most negative viewpoint, so don't jump all over my nuts. We did show improvement. Our recruiting will be the best ever. I think this staff can get us over the hump and work themselves into a nice promotion to Ohio State....

I'm optimistically hoping for a bowl game next year.

Mike Warren fumbles the ball. That is the only mishandling going on.

 

[jsb]

I voted B.

Sure that UNI game was a train wreck, but keep in mind we had the lead in the 4th quarter. Then we went pick, fumble, pick on our last three possessions, all in our territory. It is what it is. I'm sure the coaches didn't want that to happen.

Fact of the matter is (as I see it) that we did pretty well considering the talent gap we had between us and pretty much every opponent. We played good football against good teams. That wasn't the case last year.

Also keep in mind that the UNI team was garbage. That wasn't even close to a good team this year.

 

[CTTB78]

Saw some really good things this year, but I couldn't get past what I saw against UNI when placing my vote. New staff or not, that loss against a bad Panther team was really hard to watch.

 

[Yellow Snow]

Also keep in mind that the UNI team was garbage. That wasn't even close to a good team this year.

Pick, fumble, pick.

If we played UNI again tomorrow who do you think wins? Honest question.

 

[clonedude]

I'd like to say C+ or B- because although the win total was about exactly what I expected (I predicted 3 or 4 wins), I do think we improved a lot over the year and outside of the outlier Iowa game we were in every game, even yesterday until about midway through the 3rd quarter. We didn't have any of those 50 or 60+ pt losses like Rhoads always had a few of every year it seemed.

We competed in every Big 12 game. Lost to OU by 10. Outplayed Baylor and KSU IMO. Lost to a very good OSU team by 7. We aren't that far away. If we played UNI and Iowa now, I think we beat UNI fairly handily, and we at least give Iowa a run for their money.

 

[jsb]

Pick, fumble, pick.

If we played UNI again tomorrow who do you think wins? Honest question.

Who knows? We hired a guy who had been a head coach and brought in his entire staff for a reason. And I thought that reason was so they would appear to have a clue. Delay of game penalties, too many men in the field. That was in the coaches. That crap didn't happen last year, so I don't think we can blame it mostly in the players being losers or whatever everyone on here likes to say.

UNI was garbage that game. If they had been competent, it wouldn't have been as close as it was.

 

[Fitzy]

They failed to meet expectations for over 90% of you. So when they do worse than almost everyone expected, I would say that's an F.

http://cyclonefanatic.com/forum/threads/how-many-wins-next-year-in-football.212271/

Considering that thread was made prior to important transfers (Jordan Harris, etc.), departures (Daniel Burton), and injuries (Jake Campos), it's pretty unfair to treat that as what everyone expected from this season.

 

[NoCreativity]

I voted "C". I think they finished right about where I thought they would. I probably would have upgraded to a "B" had they not lost to UNI. Here's some of my thoughts:

Pros
-Our offense actually looks like a Big 12 offense this year. Park is the best pure passer weve had in years, Lanning is a force in the redzone.
-Lazard is a certifiable stud
-Alot of freshman played huge roles which shows Campbell can recruit talent
-Campos and Foster should be starting on the O-line next year which will be a huge upgrade
-The Texas Tech beatdown was alot of fun to watch
-They actually competed with teams like Oklahoma, OSU, Baylor for the first time in years instead of suffering beatdowns

Cons
-First game or not the loss to UNI was inexcusable. UNI had one of their worst teams in years and we still lost to them.
-Not competing with Texas was a little discouraging, I think that was a game alot of people had as a winnable game.
-Beating Kansas and San Jose St was nothing spectacular, it should be expected as those are 2 of the worst programs in Division 1.
-Not sure what happened to Mike Warren, you normally dont go from a freshman all-american to barely playing. Campbell needs to get that figured out whether it was an injury or he was in the dog house.
-Still can't figure out why Lanning wasnt used yesterday or why he refused to play him against Kansas St when we had 1st and goal inside the 5 and had to settle for a fg.


All in all I voted a "C". Had we beaten UNI and not blown the Baylor or OSU games I think the season would have been a huge success.

 

[jsb]

Saw some really good things this year, but I couldn't get past what I saw against UNI when placing my vote. New staff or not, that loss against a bad Panther team was really hard to watch.

The UNI game was really bad. They made a ton of improvement throughout the season (Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Baylor, and Tech) with some real stinkers thrown in (Kansas State, Texas, TCU, and West Virginia). I'll admit to being very disappointed in a regression yesterday. Not that we lost, but the 3 timeouts they were forced to take and the baffling and really insulting thing about not even giving Lanning a chance. My mom said she listened to Park being interviewed and he seemed baffled as to why Lanning wasn't in there at all.

 

[MeowingCows]

C+ to B- range, slightly exceeding my expectations.

I see rebuilding a program as a four step process: Step one is getting blown out often and having no momentum as a program. That was more or less us last year/year before. Next, in comes a new regime. This is the real beginning of the rebuilding process.

Step two is led into by the new regime generating hype around the program, and bringing in some good, new faces. That occurred this year with multiple good kids that we now have. Step two is characterized by still losing, but staying in some games and seeing changes/improvements on the field. After that season, more hype and good recruiting continues, along with your current kids buying in. Seats in the stadium become filled, if they weren't before.

Step three is finally turning some of those close losses and improvements into wins. May not be 6, 7, 8 wins, but around the .500 area is attainable. A bowl win marks a good season. Above .500 marks a great season. Development rolls on.

The final step is reaching the point where other teams are scared of you instead of viewing you as an easy W. The 7, 8, 9+ win area is not unheardof now. Your team goes into opposing stadiums and takes wins from them, or ruins homecoming/senior night, that sort of thing.

I see our program as being in step 2 as of right now, which is much better than the previous slate of step 1. We've shown we can win games. We've shown we can sometimes have great offense/ball movement. We've shown we can sometimes be a tough defense to break. We've shown better game management and getting through tough situations. We've shown that we didn't back down and quit, we stepped up and got better as a team. Changes are obvious and evident on the field and in the statbook, even if they aren't visible in the W-L columns.

We are on the road to victory, it's easy to see that. Campbell and his staff now have arguably the toughest task there is: translate development into more wins. If I had to guess, the Big 12 is likely going to be a equal to, if not a tougher league next year than it was this year (assuming Texas arises back to powers and KState doesn't fall off a cliff -- these also could be balanced backwards by a terrible Baylor team showing up and TTech still not figuring out how defense works). Maybe hell will freeze over and Kansas will start to show some life. We've got the coaching, we've got the ability, we've got the kids both in our program now and hopefully coming in in the future. Now we just need the wins to show for all of the hard work... And to hope that it takes a few more years of success before Campbell likely is poached away.

 

[norcalcy]

I have been as complimentary of this staff as anyone, but I'm going to go C+ because of the way the season began and the way it ended. Should never lose to FCS, espeically a mediocre team you have weeks to prepare for. As for the end, I don't like the vibe coming off the Lanning situation yesterday. Park could have benefitted from sitting a couple of series. On attitude, effort and leadership displayed, Joel deserves playing time. There were situations where he could have sustained and extended drives and kept the ball away from WVU. We threw the ball 44 times and it felt like we were trying to outgun them. I don't see that as ISU's identity going forward.

On the positive side, I loved the improvement and development that I saw all season. This staff is willing to move players around and maximize the talent from a thin roster. We finally looked like a Big XII offense this year and I don't think that's been the case since Seneca. The defense showed flashes here and there. It was great to see them bring the pressure these last few games instead of just getting picked apart.

I see another challenging year next year unless some O line and D line prospects appear and really step up. Inability to sustain the rushing game and to stop the run killed us in several games. Next year could really be a challenge, because I think expectations will be high again. In my opinion, an optimistic O/U on win total next year is 5. This is a major re-build and it's going to take at least three years to see the results.

 

[Rabbuk]

I said C because that's what my gut says.

 

[MeanDean]

The poll is for this season. Saying we could beat UNI if we played them tomorrow is NOT this season. During THIS season we lost to UNI.

I am very optimistic about the future of the program under Matt, but to grade a season performance based on potential to win imaginary games after the season doesn't make sense to me.

/end rant/

 

[CyValley]

They failed to meet expectations for over 90% of you. So when they do worse than almost everyone expected, I would say that's an F.]

Eh? Did I read it wrong? It looks like, to me, that 85 percent voted that the season matched or exceeded their expectations.

 

[SerenityNow]

C- or D+ at best. Probably a grade higher if yesterday wasn't such a big step back. I know WVU is a good team, but there were a lot of early season issues that popped up again Saturday.

 

[CyValley]

On attitude, effort and leadership displayed, Joel deserves playing time.

He deserves playing time only if he can help the team win. Bottom line.

CMC explained why Joel did not see more action than he did. Makes sense to me. I guess it likely won't make sense to others.

 

[CyValley]

C- or D+ at best. Probably a grade higher if yesterday wasn't such a big step back. I know WVU is a good team, but there were a lot of early season issues that popped up again Saturday.

I sat with people who, in my opinion, are football knowledgeable. They believe WVU has the league's best defense. It can be argued that issues popping up yesterday were largely created by the WVU 'D'.

Personally, I saw a physically mature WVU program that put a number of seniors on the field (eight on defense alone, I recall someone said). When Scoggins went out briefly, on the O-Line we had two rFr (JG-J, Meeker), two walk-ons (Fett, Seda), and a fifth-year transfer (Bobek, thank the football gods he chose iSu).

When our program matures in a way similar to the mature programs we're playing in the Big 12 (WVU, OSU, OU, KSU, TCU . . .) I expect absolutely to witness a difference on the football field.

IMHO, we did a pretty fine job of making the game close for as long as we did, because we really were no match for this WVU team. But, we will be one day soon.