Is this years' team better than we thought?

[mjhavlo76]

I know it's pretty early in the season, but that victory over the Hawks was massive man!

I may be drinking the Koolaide, but if we win against Houston on the road and then beat Baylor?

We may be in the discussion about title hopes and playoff discussion. Our schedule conference wise, is really favorable. Utah, maybe K-State huge roadblocks-- you could argue Baylor. It's attainable...

 

[JM4CY]

oh now you did, ass hole!

 

[Gunnerclone]

We haven’t played anyone yet.

 

[rosshm16]

Here is how I'm looking at things the rest of the way:

@Houston, Win
Baylor, Win
@WVU, Tossup
UCF, Tossup
Texas Tech, Win
"@"Kansas, Win
Cincinnati, Win
@utah, Loss
Mildcats, Tossup

Then take one of those wins and make it a tossup to be conservative. Floor of 7-5, ceiling of 11-1. Can't remember the last time I looked at our conference schedule and said there's only one game I think we probably lose. Probably never.

 

[NWICY]

Who hacked MJhavlo's account he is not this positive.

 

[Cyched]

We were, but now you've jinxed it.

 

[CascadeClone]

They might be. It will hinge on 3 things:

1. OL needs to become a top level unit, consistently. I think it might be there but I am not sure yet.
2. Special teams needs to improve, its been kind of hot and cold. Punting and kickoffs have been a little dicey. Feels like correctable stuff.
3. DL and LB need to stay strong and hang for the whole game, all year. Just healthy and great endurance.

The more of those that go ISUs way, the more special this season will be.

 

[CycloneSpinning]

I know it's pretty early in the season, but that victory over the Hawks was massive man!

I may be drinking the Koolaide, but if we win against Houston on the road and then beat Baylor?

We may be in the discussion about title hopes and playoff discussion. Our schedule conference wise, is really favorable. Utah, maybe K-State huge roadblocks-- you could argue Baylor. It's attainable...

I don’t have a problem with the hope/positive attitude, but we’re a missed 50 yarder away from many of those feeling excited being depressed and angry. Probably need to get through West Virginia undefeated before I’d be really excited…but I’m happy.

 

[cyfanatic]

Hard to say...but also hard to be critical of the start in comparison to the way we have often started seasons off...

 

[rosshm16]

OL definitely seems improved from last year. As Gunnerclone mentioned already though, we really haven't been tested yet. If I'm the other top Big 12 teams on our schedule, I'd look at us and say your vaunted offense scored 21 against an FCS team, you barely beat a bad Iowa team, and who cares what you do against Arkansas State.

 

[2speedy1]

I would say so far they are doing about as I expected.

A lot of games to be played yet.

We brought a lot of starters back, so there was some expectations to be decent, but its still really early, a lot can happen yet.

 

[snowcraig2.0]

I know it's pretty early in the season, but that victory over the Hawks was massive man!

I may be drinking the Koolaide, but if we win against Houston on the road and then beat Baylor?

We may be in the discussion about title hopes and playoff discussion. Our schedule conference wise, is really favorable. Utah, maybe K-State huge roadblocks-- you could argue Baylor. It's attainable...

 

[Die4Cy]

I predicted a 9-3 season, but we are are already +1 on that by beating Iowa in Iowa City.

 

[ARCYCLONE]

They might be. It will hinge on 3 things:

1. OL needs to become a top level unit, consistently. I think it might be there but I am not sure yet.
2. Special teams needs to improve, its been kind of hot and cold. Punting and kickoffs have been a little dicey. Feels like correctable stuff.
3. DL and LB need to stay strong and hang for the whole game, all year. Just healthy and great endurance.

The more of those that go ISUs way, the more special this season will be.

I agree with most of this.
1. The OL looks improved and the pieces and coaching are there.
2. Disagree here. Special teams is much improved from previous years in all phases and I think this has swung from a negative to a positive for us. Punting and kicking is strong both on return and coverage. I think we have the ability to make impact plays here. Specifically to your dicey comment, I think those are things they've been experimenting with or practicing for Big 12 play.
3. Our DL is solid and no concerns there but LB (due to injuries) could be our Achilles heal. In the end I trust Jon Heacock to make adjustments and this group will be solid.

 

[rosshm16]

If we want a big year by historical ISU standards, the critical stretches to me are the next two games, and then the three-game stretch of Tech/"@"KU/Cinci. That's five very winnable games and the other four are likely going to be considerably tougher. Get all five of those and pick up one more win anywhere and you're 9-3, that would be the school record ("modern era" at least) for regular-season wins, and even if 6-3 in the Big 12 doesn't get you to the championship game, should be good enough for a decent second-tier bowl game and a shot at our first 10-win season.

 

[RustShack]

10+ wins has always been the potential for this team/schedule. We are still on pace, nothing surprising. We knew we were better than Iowa, but they’ve also beat us in years we’ve out performed them so that was always a potential loss.

 

[FerShizzle]

I think the schedule is softer than we thought.

 

[FallOf81]

Until the freak Covid year ending is topped, I'll wait to believe it when I see it. We've more than **** all over ourselves so many times ... I hate to imagine what could happen. MAYBE it's different this time. Maybe. Enjoy the ride while it's on the rails.

 

[JEFF420]

you sob

 

[AppleCornCy]

All I know is we’re undefeated, we don’t have any glaring weaknesses, and the schedule is as manageable as it’s ever been. Sure, we have relative weaknesses, but it’s not like we don’t have talent at those spots.

Campbell teams tend to get on a roll, usually after a rough start. This year we didn’t have the rough start, and I think we’re too talented to have a 2022 situation.