How many wins do the Cats need for a successful ('16) season?
- Thread starter 12375CAT
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6 plus a bowl win are probably the minimum to keep the train moving in the right direction.
Agreed. Another 5-7 season just won't cut it. I think a 6 win (regular) season is definitely doable. I'm not going to let my expectations get any higher than that for now.
We need to be competitive. We can't collapse like we have the past two seasons.
6 wins and a bowl game. I hope we compete to win them all, but realistically it's a tough schedule and even getting six wins with an upgraded roster will be difficult. I think the 17 season could be special though. An easier schedule plus a roster full of talented upper classmen.
Going to a bowl. And hopefully not having this place talk SEC championship if we start 5-0 or 5-1 will be a success too. Perhaps that's another reason we get frustrated.
Right now, I'm hoping for a 1-0 start. I'm really worried that if we loss that opening game (which is very possible), it's going to be a long year.
6. Get to a bowl. Would have happened this year with Gran as our OC.
I see what you saying but maybe losing the first one will be a blessing in disguise. The past 2 years we started out fast and the fizzled. Perhaps an early "wake up" will install fire that will have them play urgently for the rest of the time rather than feeling "over confident" and getting complacent. Maybe?
The year we went to a bowl game and beat Clemson we lost the opener to a mid major.
Teams get blown out. Obviously you don't want to, but expecting a team not to is not realistic. Ole Miss was up on Bama 30-10 before letting off the gas....and Bama won the NC.
6 wins is a must. And depth isn't as much of an issue......so, we shouldn't slide so poorly the back half of the yr
School grade template:
-6 regular season (RS) wins in year four takes you from a F to a D (minimal passing grade).
-7 RS wins is a C/B- grade.
-8 RS wins is a B/A- grade
-9 RS wins A/A+ grade
-Add a bowl win to any of the RS win totals and it bumps you up a grade IMO.
In addition, I would like to see us prepared and competitive in our games. I recognize blowouts happen, but....I DO NOT WANT TO BE BLOWN OUT BY UNRANKED TEAMS.
Cluelessness and distraction on the sidelines has to end. No more "first-time-coach" excuses in year 4.
GBB!
-6 regular season (RS) wins in year four takes you from a F to a D (minimal passing grade).
-7 RS wins is a C/B- grade.
-8 RS wins is a B/A- grade
-9 RS wins A/A+ grade
-Add a bowl win to any of the RS win totals and it bumps you up a grade IMO.
In addition, I would like to see us prepared and competitive in our games. I recognize blowouts happen, but....I DO NOT WANT TO BE BLOWN OUT BY UNRANKED TEAMS.
Cluelessness and distraction on the sidelines has to end. No more "first-time-coach" excuses in year 4.
GBB!
So how about we go the opposite direction... Let's start 0-5..1-5 and see how that works:football::smiley::sunglasses:
I am not going into this season looking for a certain number of wins. Stoops has shown progress even if fans don't wanna see it. All I expect is to find a competent qb who can run gran and hinshaw offense effectively by seasons end. Plus I wanna see improvement from the oline. I think if we improve those two areas the wins will come.
we've been to 15 bowl games in school history and 6 wins only gets a D in your book? i'd hate to be in your math class. LOL
It is a much tougher schedule this year than last, but that's the SEC. Even so I'd also go with at least 6 and the resulting bowl however minor it is. I think anything less and a lot more natives are going to get restless. I could accept that though as long as we see better and more competitive play on the field. I think we get it. Heck we could has easily won as many as 3 more games last year with just a bit better play and coaching.
We need to win every winnable game on our schedule. Losing to Southern Miss on the first week of the season doesn't strike me as the key to a winning season.
I say we don't set limitations, line up and fight tooth and nail, cheer like hell and see where we stand at the end of the season!! If you win one keep your head down and move on to the next. Same with a loss. Just keep your head down and keep on chopp'n till the job is done!! GBB!
I could "settle" for six wins and a bowl, but not without a win over either UL or one of the regular SEC teams, not a down one. I think we will win 7, because I think we can upset at least one of the SEC teams, afraid to say which one yet. Of course any one of your predicted "wins" could "upset" us also.
Two factors (1) better depth in SEC quality players and continued impressive recruiting (2) Gran and Hinshaw.
if you look at the results compared to this years schedule it really isn't harder. we aren't gonna beat bama but we lost to a worse auburn team. ut is better but we lost to them last year. uf will probably regress a bit and we lost to them last year. ms st is probably a little worse with the loss of prescott but they really like their backup qb.
the big question is 4 games. missou, scar, vandy, and ul. those are the 4 that matter. doesn't matter about the rest of the schedule. we could play the patriots, seahawks and the panthers and it wouldn't matter we have to win 3 of those 4. im not putting ms st in there right now cause they have proven they are just better period. if we can win that we can lose one of the other ones. if not. the whole season rest's on those 4 games.
granted this year has the hardest "gimmee" games in recent memory. so miss aint bad and could ruin everything week 1.
the big question is 4 games. missou, scar, vandy, and ul. those are the 4 that matter. doesn't matter about the rest of the schedule. we could play the patriots, seahawks and the panthers and it wouldn't matter we have to win 3 of those 4. im not putting ms st in there right now cause they have proven they are just better period. if we can win that we can lose one of the other ones. if not. the whole season rest's on those 4 games.
granted this year has the hardest "gimmee" games in recent memory. so miss aint bad and could ruin everything week 1.
How I see the season as well. Toss out Bama, UT and probably UGA and UF. Probably out of reach or UK may steal one fo the last 2. BUt Mizzou, Vandy, USC, Miss St and UL are all the pivot games for UK. Have to win 3 of those 5 and beat the other 3 OOC at this stage of the program.
6 is the dividing line between acceptable and non acceptable season to me.....along with not getting crushed 3+ times a season again.
UK's first game isn't the normal season opener, they aren't just coming to get a check. I don't know if they are good enough to have a chance to win or not but they will be coming expecting to win. UK lost to both West opponents last year, they aren't getting a break with the rotating west foe, but MSST shouldn't be near as good after losing Dak. The SEC east will have 3 new coaching staffs this fall, so 3 teams will be breaking in new systems on both sides of the ball, UK won 2 of those games last year, can they win all 3 this year against the new coaches? UK lost close games to UF and Vandy, both games could easily have gone the other way last year. UT will be loaded this year, most likely picked to win the East. UK can split the west games, sorry don't see you beating Bama, the schools with the new staffs could all be wins, or all could be losses or it could be 2-1 or 1-2. Louisville will be a tough win, that qb makes their offense tough to defend and UK hasn't shown they can defend a running qb yet, could be a tough game. I don't know who the other 2 OOC games are, but assuming they are both Ws. So with the 9 games against teams we have an idea of what they will do I see 4 losses, Bama, UT, UF and UofL and 5 wins. So getting to a bowl comes down to beating at least 1 of the new coaching staffs and who knows how those teams will play, like UF did with a new coach last year and win 10 or like Texas did and win 4. No one would have thought those 2 1st year coaches would have that kind of seasons.
What unranked teams did we get blown out by?
And along those lines, everybody on this board will change their tune about "just being competitive and looking like a good team" if we need with a 5-7 record yet every game went down to the wire. People will again blame coaching for play calling and everything else they can think of.
6 - 6 is not a winning season. I want us to competitive in every game and have a winning season. Then we don't have to worry about bowl games. Go Cats!!
It is not a winning season but it gives us a chance for a winning season by winning a bowl game. People want a bowl....plain and simple. That is what UK needs to build for the future and for Stoops to keep most people on the wagon. It sucks that Gran and Hindshaw couldn't have came on last year because I believe they would have had a 2-3 win difference and everyone would be singing a different tune and we would be looking at a preseason top 25 ranking.
Get to a bowl...plain and simple. With this years schedule though....it could all come down to UL again and I think Bobby P is in Coach Stoops head already with the WKU disaster and his 2 UL games that kept us from a bowl both years.