A new season...

[SicemDawgz]

I think a realistic goal for this season is to win out, win the conference championship and finish in the top 50.

[champion110]

I think a realistic goal for this season is to win out, win the conference championship and finish in the top 50.

I agree! I am putting yesterday out of my memory. Had to do that last year for a game or two, as well. On to the next game! Not going to dwell on the last....

[THEarmada]

Looking forward:

vs. MTSU
@ Rice
vs. UNT
BYE
@UTEP
vs. USM

For whatever reason after watching the WKU game I'm not too scared of MTSU. Anybody got insight on Rice? I have not watched Rice play this year. UNT and UTEP should be wins if we don't lay an egg either of those days. I'm concerned about USM, glad we have them at home.

[SicemDawgz]

As "The Administrator" has so eloquently put it, it's all about the QB. Lightning struck twice here and we managed to land good senior transfer QB's in consecutive years. The one we have now is NFL caliber. Take away either of them and our records would be a lot different. A LOT different. Like lucky to be 6-6 different. Holtz was responsible for getting them both. Is he the guy to make us the next Boise St? My opinion is no. I do think he's the guy that will give us stability and an upward momentum for the next guy. When's the last time that happened at Tech?

[cscollis]

We've never done this. I'd like to try it for three or four years before deciding against it.
Not sure what our goals should be, but I do know...
- We ain't Sunbelt.
- We are the 2nd best program in this state.
- We won't be getting in the Big12
- We are outrunning the guys who are about to be caught by the bear.

We are not the sunbelt but pretty damn close this year.
ULALA just realized that there 4 bowls in a row are a scam becuase they play in the belt and that's what most on this board want for Tech. Go to bowls every year and really don't care that we cannot beat teams in the P5. I hope that's not the mindset of most of our fans. We have the most talented and beat up team in Tech history and get embarrassed by MSU and need a field goal to beat a bad UTSA. We made UTSA look like a contender.

We are in CUSA for the long run which is fine and it's the best we can do right now. Our goal should be to win against good competition (K state and WKU) and get ranked every year we have great talent. If we win the west (which is will be hard under our current mentality) and go to a bowl I guess that's good enough but I want more.

[cscollis]

Looking forward:

vs. MTSU
@ Rice
vs. UNT
BYE
@UTEP
vs. USM

For whatever reason after watching the WKU game I'm not too scared of MTSU. Anybody got insight on Rice? I have not watched Rice play this year. UNT and UTEP should be wins if we don't lay an egg either of those days. I'm concerned about USM, glad we have them at home.

MTSU has a good offense but play bad away from TN. We will be favored and if Dixon plays we should win by 14.

Rice has not looked good this year. Their D is not near as good as the past couple of years and their O struggles when they can't run the ball. Playing in Houston, should be a close Holtz styled game.

UNT is terrible. Should win by 30 but we could lose this one also.

UTEP see UNT.

USM scares me. They got beat by MU because MU played good D. USM still turns the ball over a lot but they have better players all over the field this year. If this game matters to both teams, should be a hell of a game.

I can see us going anywhere from 2-3 to 5-0 to finish the regular season. If we win the west, we will play MU or WKU from the east and lose close. So We will finish as bad as 6-6 which would be a disaster or as well as 9-4. I would argue that even 9-4 would be a disaster considering how much talent we have.

[cscollis]

We've still got a good chance to win 11 games. I don't remember anybody picking Tech to win 14 games. Lighten up.

We also have a chance to go 6-6. Not to be a Debbie Downer but 6-6 is about the same possibility as 11-3. If our D doesn't change, I would say 6-6 is more probable.

[SicemDawgz]

We are not the sunbelt but pretty damn close this year.
ULALA just realized that there 4 bowls in a row are a scam becuase they play in the belt and that's what most on this board want for Tech. Go to bowls every year and really don't care that we cannot beat teams in the P5. I hope that's not the mindset of most of our fans. We have the most talented and beat up team in Tech history and get embarrassed by MSU and need a field goal to beat a bad UTSA. We made UTSA look like a contender.

We are in CUSA for the long run which is fine and it's the best we can do right now. Our goal should be to win against good competition (K state and WKU) and get ranked every year we have great talent. If we win the west (which is will be hard under our current mentality) and go to a bowl I guess that's good enough but I want more.

I think we all want more. I dream of the day when Tech is a household name, when I have as many friends that talk about Tech football as other schools that I wont name, and being ranked in the top 25 is common. To get there will not be easy nor will it be fast. It's a process.
As far as playing in the Belt.....no thank you. As far as going to bowls every year, that would be nice. That's something we've rarely done in consecutive years.

[faninmonroe]

...is upon us. If we go 5-0 or even 4-1 over the next 5 games, we are in good shape. It is possible.

we are in trouble unless these three things change very quickly:

1.) injuries
2.) new D coordinator
3.) new special team coach

special teams is going to burn us for at least one more L unless something major changes

pass defense is going to cost us at least one more L unless something major changes

[johnnylightnin]

Let's get to bab to back bowl games for the first time since 78-79

That's it. We aren't "special" this year, but we have a chance to do something we haven't done in my lifetime.

[DoubleDDawg]

We also have a chance to go 6-6. Not to be a Debbie Downer but 6-6 is about the same possibility as 11-3. If our D doesn't change, I would say 6-6 is more probable.

I ll take that bet Collis . Loser drops an extra 500 to LTAC. Anybody remember Miss.State against LSU ? If you did , you wouldn't be calling them a mediocre SEC team .

[dawg80]

USM is the best team left on our schedule. Will probably be for the West Division title. Last regular season game. Fortunately, it's in Ruston.

I like Skippy, but still not sold on his ability to be a head coach....the kind we need. He's "above average," kind of C+ using school grades as a measure.

My prediction (being optimistic):

Tech 34 MFSU 21
Tech 35 Rice 30
Tech 49 UNT 20
Tech 45 UTEP 31
Tech 27 USM 23

Tech 31 WKU 30

Yeah, baby!

[ChipDog]

Yep. When Marshall regained national attention in the 90's after not being good for a long time, they did it playing schedules that would make the sunbelt blush for the most part, but they were winning and had moss and pennington. At that same time we were playing a big boy schedule with Rattay and Edwards and both teams received almost the same amount of attention and national press. They got more press than us last year and played a crap schedule. They beat us as well, whether you think we beat ourselves etc. the score on the board is all that matters.

Lets go to three or four bowls and have better than 6 wins each year, and then bitch about not taking down P5 teams. Moo State may be bad but they are SEC bad and that is still usually 50-60 lbs heavier. 2-3" taller, and worth a little more athleticism at most positions and almost always more depth.

this team goes 4-1 from here on out and Moo State doesn't matter..... because even if we beat them and won out, the New Years Access spot wouldn't be ours without literally a miracle. I will take the same CUSA bowl (winning moo state or loss), win it, be happy for the next year or so, and bitch when I have a real problem.

DD has detailed several key facts some of which I needed to be reminded. The most obvious but possibly the most overlooked is the lingering size differential (Trent Taylor + a few inches and a few pounds would be a completely different class of weapon). One of the others is the importance of very consistent and planned scheduling. What is our perfect consistent recipe?

1 vs Southland (always at home).
1 vs Sunbelt (preferably never on the road).
1 Miss State or AR series 2 @ for every 1vs if that's the best deal we can get.
1 @ top SEC try for LSU-BR (use all political means) to make it happen as often as possible and push for Shreveport.
4 vs CUSA
4 @ CUSA

[cscollis]

I ll take that bet Collis . Loser drops an extra 500 to LTAC. Anybody remember Miss.State against LSU ? If you did , you wouldn't be calling them a mediocre SEC team .

I would take the bet but I am to competitive. I would rather tech win them all and be wrong then root against tech. Getting Dixon and Henderson back should help the O but if we don't get more agressive on D we can lose all our remaining games. If tech goes 11-3 I will donate 500 to LTAC hell if they win the conference and go 10-4 I will donate 500.

[SicemDawgz]

DD has detailed several key facts some of which I needed to be reminded. The most obvious but possibly the most overlooked is the lingering size differential (Trent Taylor + a few inches and a few pounds would be a completely different class of weapon). One of the others is the importance of very consistent and planned scheduling. What is our perfect consistent recipe?

1 vs Southland (always at home).
1 vs Sunbelt (preferably never on the road).
1 Miss State or AR series 2 @ for every 1vs if that's the best deal we can get.
1 @ top SEC try for LSU-BR (use all political means) to make it happen as often as possible and push for Shreveport.
4 vs CUSA
4 @ CUSA

I like the plan except for playing Lester's thugs. We can get much better deals than playing them.