What if?

[champion110]

Those are certainly 7 winnable games. For most coach's anyway. The question is, can HOLTZ do it?

Agree....... All we can do is hope. I would love nothing more than to be able to beat ULL next year, as well. It is horribly humbling to lose to them.

[PawDawg]

It is horribly humbling to lose to them.

...and horribly STUPID to even be playing them.

[Salvatore Assante]

What if?



We had a decent Head Coach.

[revf]

The first 4 games will set the tone for the season...

Go 2-2 and season outlook is decent.

1-3 and season is going to be rough.

0-4 and season is in the tank.

[T1]

Those are certainly 7 winnable games. For most coach's anyway. The question is, can HOLTZ do it?

He has a 34-17 lifetime record in CUSA with 2 conference championships, so yeah... he probably can.

[Hermandawg]

Would certainly be nice if this could happen. Besides Oklahoma/Auburn I feel like every other game could go either way.
We should make this season a bit more interesting. If we do pull out an amazing season, every Holtz basher/football pessimist on here should have to donate $500 or so to the athletic program

If we go 8-4 or better, I will gladly make a $500 donation!

[Champ967]

If we go 8-4 or better, I will gladly make a $500 donation!

I will match that.

And I'll raise it another $500 if he can win a bowl game.

[Woof!]

The first 4 games will set the tone for the season...

Go 2-2 and season outlook is decent.

1-3 and season is going to be rough.

0-4 and season is in the tank.

Not if the win is against OU. :icon_wink:

[johnnylightnin]

Our passing game sucked last year and it led to teams being able to pressure us with much more than the down four. Often times, our qb's would have enough times to make plays early in games and they simply couldn't make them. When it becomes apparent that a team can't make routine passes/receptions, opponents can pin there ears to blow up the run. In my opinion, our qb's (and our wr's to an extent) made it virtually impossible to run any kind of scheme with any significant degree of success. I'm not saying there weren't deficiencies in the OL but, like I said, our qb's proved they couldn't make plays even when they had the time to do so.

I think it's fair to assume that the OL will be better this year. I also contend that we have an upgraded receiving corps. Undoubtedly, Higgins can't be worse than he was last season, he's got to improve with the extra year of experience. However, he has such a long ways to go to be a reliable qb. I think Sokol will come in and win the job quite easily. And I think our coaching staff knows it too.

If our QB problems are worse than our OL problems, I may be optimistic in my 3-9 prediction.

[BlindDog]

Holtz has a stud RB and a weak QB and line. He's playing to the team's strength (which is actually good coaching). 50/50, depends on how the season goes. The schedule is certainly doing him no favors. But if Boxerdog's first post comes true, he may get hired away.... LOL.

And remember... our 2011 team (good defense, average offense) finished ranked higher than our 2012 team (great offense, no defense).

***
I caught that as well, our defence in 2012 was pretty much non existent, we just managed to score more points than the opposing team of course except for the final 2 games of the year!

That's when we ran acoss a couple of good defenses teams... now we should keep that in mind for this up-coming year ...
What if our defence can hold back our opposing teams and our offense manage to muttle a point or 2 more than the other teams??
Heck yea, sounds good anyway!

[boxerdog]

I meant to say 2011-12. Obviously.

[Beaver-Dog]

I think we wouldn't bump our butts so much.

[Bolter Blue]

Not if the win is against OU. :icon_wink:

Miracles do happen!!

8 - 4 and I will gladly donate the $500, will add another $200 for every additional win, plus $500 more for a bowl win!!

[SWarner63]

I just set forth a number of possibilities--each of which I think is reasonably defensible. I'm interested to know which ones you guys doubt most.

Sokol/Higgins looking like Colby is absurd. There's no way you can ask that of either one of those guys at this point. They don't have the same weapons, or the seasoned OL to produce those types of results. If they can give us 20-25 TD's and limit the INT's to 10-15, with a CONSISTENTLY strong defense and getting the running game back to consistent, we could win 7 games against the schedule.

BUT, without only ONE of those things, we're looking at 6 or less wins. The key word for this year should be consistency. We just need to be the same team week in and week out. Run the ball, and make play action passes down the field is how we'll be successful on offense. And defense is going to HAVE TO GET TURNOVERS. There's no way our offense will be able to win in a shootout, so the defense has to slow the game down, get takeaways, and force teams to become one dimensional running the ball. If we can lock up their best receiver and play tight coverage on the others, we should be able to win games.

But these are all big if's. As they always are going into a season. But I think these guys can win 7-8 games if things go right. If Holtz stays out of the offensive gameplan and strategy and we can find an offensive identity, and our players make plays, we should be fine. GO DAWGS!

[T1]

Sokol/Higgins looking like Colby is absurd. There's no way you can ask that of either one of those guys at this point. They don't have the same weapons, or the seasoned OL to produce those types of results. If they can give us 20-25 TD's and limit the INT's to 10-15, with a CONSISTENTLY strong defense and getting the running game back to consistent, we could win 7 games against the schedule.

BUT, without only ONE of those things, we're looking at 6 or less wins. The key word for this year should be consistency. We just need to be the same team week in and week out. Run the ball, and make play action passes down the field is how we'll be successful on offense. And defense is going to HAVE TO GET TURNOVERS. There's no way our offense will be able to win in a shootout, so the defense has to slow the game down, get takeaways, and force teams to become one dimensional running the ball. If we can lock up their best receiver and play tight coverage on the others, we should be able to win games.

But these are all big if's. As they always are going into a season. But I think these guys can win 7-8 games if things go right. If Holtz stays out of the offensive gameplan and strategy and we can find an offensive identity, and our players make plays, we should be fine. GO DAWGS!

SW, what's your thoughts on tempo? Does uptempo make a bad player play better, or does it take a good player to run uptempo effectively? You are a guy who experienced a slowish tempo with Franklin and then a superfast tempo with Franklin. Why did he go faster in his 3rd year than in the 1st and 2nd years?