us and Illinois had very similar seasons. We have to admit we got the easy conference draw last year and it played some part in our success. let's see if it can be sustained this year where it projects as a harder schedule (though you never know the true schedule difficulty until near season-end typically)
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This is, dare I say, respect being shown to the Iowa State football program as a whole. Wild times.
Schedule does look more challenging, on paper, overall, but last season's "on-paper" projection by most analysts unfolded almost completely different. So who knows.
ISU has to play BYU and Arizona State, but those are at home. KSU technically is away game that's "neutral" site. Iowa -- well, would be nice to win CyHawk at Ames for a change.
OSU has nowhere to go but up, and game is in Stillwater. At TCU and at Colorado - I'm not sure what to expect.
I hear you, but this feels like hindsight/speculation.
If you would have looked at the schedule in August, nobody would have believed 11 wins was even close to possible. It doesn't make ISU a fake ID because Utah, UCF, and KSU all underperformed
In fact, many posters on here predicted 6-6/7-5, especially coming off the Memphis loss
For reference ISU's 7 wins in conference came against teams with a combined 26-37 record, so the same number of losses but 9 more wins. Iowa State's schedule looked quite a bit tougher than it turned out to be with several of ISU's projected top opponents falling on their faces.
I think a lot of us had Utah (and Iowa) penciled as losses. KU underperformed, too, but briefly started to be "better" just in time for stretch when ISU played. Prior to season it was considered 50-50 type game.
Don't forget Kansas who was picked to contend for the title. They couldn't get out of their own way for the first 2/3 of the season. They were probably as good as advertised when they put it together (when ISU got to play them) but it was too little to late for the Jayhawks.
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Yes they won 11 games against a schedule that turned out to be not as strong as presumed. Again not 'fake ID' level but it's not like ISU was a juggernaut.
The difference between 11 wins and 7-8 (my prediction iirc) was a handful of plays here and there (made FG at Iowa, last minute drive vs. UCF, etc.) and I'd definitely not predict 10-11 even knowing what the Utahs would turn into.
I'll likely stick with a 7-8 win predictions for the the foreseeable future. Anything better is obviously great.
KU getting smoked by Baylor to end the season was really surprising.
They did their own version of what KSU basketball did this past season--for about a month they would be a tough out for most good teams and then they imploded.
Iowa State football is considerably more enjoyable when you have no expectations in your head.
This seems overly harsh. Did any teams ranked behind us do any better in the good/mot great contest?
KU football was contending in every game and giving their opponents all they could handle while often fumbling away (both figuratively and literally as the case may be) in so many games. Their level of play remained high and they limited mistakes during their end of season run. You are right, though, they totally fell apart against BU.
Their losses early were:
At Illinois by 6
To UNLV at Sporting KC's stadium by 3
At WVU by 4
To TCU by 11 at Arrowhead
At ASU by 4
At KSU by 2
We don't have to apologize for winning 11 games, and in the same vein, we don't have to act like we were an elite team.
It took some luck, some easy wins, and a lot of good football. That's the same recipe every 11-win team has.
It took some luck, some easy wins, and a lot of good football. That's the same recipe every 11-win team has.
The new 2 minute timeout was a blessing last season. I hated it to start but ended up loving it because it seemed our staff knew how to effectively use it.
My point is very few teams had better resumes than we did. There were some elite teams. But it’s not like there were many teams better than us.
Totally agree. We don’t have to apologize for the breaks we got and no other team should either.
A lot of people will like or agree with your post and immediately disparage a team like Illinois for winning 10 games.
Rinse and repeat with fandom.
Well then I don’t think anyone was acting like we were elite. Madguy said we weren’t fake ID but implied we were close to it. And that’s just false.
We were a legit top 15 team. Anyone in that range had them same pluses and minuses that we did.
