How Great is 8?

So I have lived though so many terrible seasons (born 1966 and ISU graduate in 1988). My wife and I were chatting about how an 8-win season would have felt when we were seniors in 1987 (3-8 season for football). Yet we both feel excited and disappointed with this year's 8-4 team. Should we feel 8-4 is the floor or is 8-4 an acceptable season with a 10-2 season once every five years or so about all we can ever expect at ISU? By the way, I fully applaud this year's team on eight wins.

Just a touch older than you, 8 is a darn good season. I'm probably the exception on the board where I'm happy with good results in the major sports with out breaking the bank. ISU is really fortunate that we seem to do really well with less. As long as we are respectable in sports I'm happy. Someday I'd like to see us win a Natty personally I think that best chance at this moment is MBB. But I'm enjoying the high tide of Cyclone athletics.
 
This team had to scratch, bite, and survive in a lot of areas. A team that’s not unified does not win 7 games. TCU game was a very special game and that was a bunch of guys choosing not to lose.

Then we had games like Arkansas State and Colorado where it was hard to find a pulse. I’m glad they had enough of one today. But we saw what the offense can do so the inconsistencies are mind boggling.
 
Just a touch older than you, 8 is a darn good season. I'm probably the exception on the board where I'm happy with good results in the major sports with out breaking the bank. ISU is really fortunate that we seem to do really well with less. As long as we are respectable in sports I'm happy. Someday I'd like to see us win a Natty personally I think that best chance at this moment is MBB. But I'm enjoying the high tide of Cyclone athletics.

Coaching is a business and coaches have to make business decisions to possibly move on, so they don't owe us anything, BUT imo ISU has head coaches that take a strong 'grass roots/community' approach to their programs and seeing what can happen at places like WI in just three seasons where 'corporate' doesn't fit, we should appreciate it.
 
Just a touch older than you, 8 is a darn good season. I'm probably the exception on the board where I'm happy with good results in the major sports with out breaking the bank. ISU is really fortunate that we seem to do really well with less. As long as we are respectable in sports I'm happy. Someday I'd like to see us win a Natty personally I think that best chance at this moment is MBB. But I'm enjoying the high tide of Cyclone athletics.
Yea, it's all a matter of perspective. To those of us that saw ISU get steam rolled on a regular basis in the 80's and early 90's an 8 win season is great.
 
So I have lived though so many terrible seasons (born 1966 and ISU graduate in 1988). My wife and I were chatting about how an 8-win season would have felt when we were seniors in 1987 (3-8 season for football). Yet we both feel excited and disappointed with this year's 8-4 team. Should we feel 8-4 is the floor or is 8-4 an acceptable season with a 10-2 season once every five years or so about all we can ever expect at ISU? By the way, I fully applaud this year's team on eight wins.


Remember some of those lean years and..........so what. Does it make me appreciate what is happening now, yes. But not to the point that when the current team leaves a skid mark in their shorts I need to reminisce about the past to rationalize today's smell. The past needs to stop being looked at as a get out of jail free card for coaches and players today.
 
It's weird... 8 wins for any Iowa State team with all the limitations we have... should always be celebrated. We should all be happy to take that before the season starts and be satisfied with that.

With that being said though... I watch teams like ISU and Iowa that both won 8 games this year... and they aren't very impressive to watch in all honesty. It looks like you're watching a 6 win team maybe.

But I will stick with what I said initially... we should all be happy with any 8 win season IMO.
 
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All things considered, getting to 8 wins is pretty great...but that Colorado loss still is horrible.
8 wins is a good season.

Were there disappointments? Hell yeah. Losing to CU, barf. Special teams stupidity again. Injury bug AGAIN.

And the final record, after starting 5-0, is also a letdown. But otoh, we would all have been thrilled to start 4-1, much less 5-0.

So i think you have to say good season overall, but still have work to do.
 
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I refuse to be that fan who is disappointed about winning eight games. I lived through the Donnie Duncan, Jim Criner, Jim Walden, and Gene Cizek years. Twenty-two straight years WITHOUT going to a bowl game. Let me repeat, 22 straight years without going to a bowl game.

I understand that’s it’s easier to make a bowl game now than it was in the 1980s and 1990s. However, the above four coaches could not even win seven games.

I can understand how a fan can be disappointed with certain individual game results. However, I can’t understand how anyone is disappointed with the season as a whole.
 
So I have lived though so many terrible seasons (born 1966 and ISU graduate in 1988). My wife and I were chatting about how an 8-win season would have felt when we were seniors in 1987 (3-8 season for football). Yet we both feel excited and disappointed with this year's 8-4 team. Should we feel 8-4 is the floor or is 8-4 an acceptable season with a 10-2 season once every five years or so about all we can ever expect at ISU? By the way, I fully applaud this year's team on eight wins.
I have lived through the same Cyclone times as you. When Danny Mac took us to his first bowl I was in heaven. When CMC was hired I told my buddies that if we can just get bowl eligible 3 out of every 5 years I would be happy. If you have lived through the Crinner, Walden, and Cheese Stick years, 8-4 years are great. Anything above that is whip cream on top.