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Expecting 4-8 is competitive? How have our expectations have changed, my oh my.

(08-24-2014 10:21 PM)WheresWaldo42 Wrote:  I'm sticking with 4 wins.

Purdue - LOSS Hoping its a respectable game against a BAD Big 10 team. But I don't think they are ready to beat a team from a BCS conference yet.

Idaho - WIN However, I think this is going to be a fairly tough game. Long trip across the country and the Vandals gave NIU all they wanted last year.

Murray St - WIN Possibly the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT game of PJ Flecks tenure so far. After the embarrassing loss that was Nichols St last year. If this years home schedule starts the same way. Its going to be a long season with an empty Waldo Stadium.

VaTech - LOSS Not much needs to be said. This wont be close and the best to hope for is no injuries.

Toledo - LOSS I know its at home, but I just don't think they are ready to compete with the top of the conference yet. Toledo is head and shoulder ahead.

Ball St - LOSS Better chance in this one, but I don't like that this one is on the road. And Ball St is just a better team.

Bowling Green - LOSS This one on the road at the MAC favorite is going to be FUGLY.
Now looking at 2-5 with several convincing losses in a row. How does the team respond? Last year, things just kept unraveling. And who does PJ start placing the blame on?

Ohio - LOSS Its a home game, but by this point will that even matter? Bronco fans have proven year after year that they aren't going out to watch a losing team. Sitting at 2-5. Coming off 4 straight potential blowout losses. And if the weather starts to turn bad, Waldo might be nearly empty (as usual).

Miami (OH) - WIN I have to find another win to make my prediction fit. Miami is going to struggle this year as well. So I will give the Broncos a late season win here.

EMU - WIN This one is always a good game regardless of who SHOULD win. I'm going to give it to the BRONCOS, because its a home game. And much needed.

CMU - LOSS We can spin all we want about having a shot last year despite 5 turnovers. Problem, is WMU rarely wins in Mt P., like 2 times in the last 40 years rarely. Dan Enos might be fighting to get bowl eligible and save his job at this point. And I liken where CMU is right now much to where we think PJ might be in 4 years. Plenty of upperclassmen that have been getting playing time for 3 and 4 years. That experience, desperation and home field make it a loss for WMU.

NIU - LOSS Much like my thoughts on Toledo and BG, the Broncos are several steps behind this program as well.


4-8 (2-6) Not great, but is it a step in the right direction? Its all about being competitive for me.

Waldo, you're thinking like the average MAC Journalist or fan. You look at last year and rubber stamp it for this year. Stars graduate, players develop, coaches come and go. It's too easy to say BSU will be good because they were last year. Phil Steele picked us to win the MAC after our loss to Purdue at the LCPB. We lost White to graduation and Cader to injury, things changed big time, just as they will with the loss of Snead and Wenning.

Quote:Expecting 4-8 is competitive? How have our expectations have changed, my oh my.

Competitive to some teams @ 4-8, sure. As in more competitive than last year -- an improvement.

I think that's the realistic thing. And no, I don't believe WMU is going to be bad this year roughly as much as last year. But there was no excuse to be AS bad as we were last year. It was sickening, with signs of improvement in the later games -- but still, no excuse to lose to a bad D1AA and play how we did through-out the season -- even with injuries, changed system, etc considered.

So to ignore that would be silly, of course. It wasn't bad luck that left us at 1-11. 3-9? Sure, maybe. We were *this* close to going 0-12.

So 4-8 with a more improved & solid team, even with all the young-ins playing -- YEP. I will be pretty content!

(08-25-2014 12:05 AM)toddjnsn Wrote:  

Quote:Expecting 4-8 is competitive? How have our expectations have changed, my oh my.

Competitive to some teams @ 4-8, sure. As in more competitive than last year -- an improvement.

I think that's the realistic thing. And no, I don't believe WMU is going to be bad this year roughly as much as last year. But there was no excuse to be AS bad as we were last year. It was sickening, with signs of improvement in the later games -- but still, no excuse to lose to a bad D1AA and play how we did through-out the season -- even with injuries, changed system, etc considered.

So to ignore that would be silly, of course. It wasn't bad luck that left us at 1-11. 3-9? Sure, maybe. We were *this* close to going 0-12.

So 4-8 with a more improved & solid team, even with all the young-ins playing -- YEP. I will be pretty content!

If PJ really starts that many true freshmen, then it will be tough to get wins. That said, as dismal as last year went for WMU, I personally was impressed with the way they competed in Dekalb at the end of the year last year. They didn't appear to be a team that was mailing it in (see EMU before they gassed English for what that looked like). I hope to see the arrow start to point up for you guys.

(08-25-2014 10:05 AM)cawoo22 Wrote:  I personally was impressed with the way they competed in Dekalb at the end of the year last year. They didn't appear to be a team that was mailing it in (see EMU before they gassed English for what that looked like)

Some of the peanut gallery here clearly didn't see that, but I agree seeing it in person myself. I thought we played about as well as we could've last year against a very good NIU team at home. I think this year's game could be very competitive.

(08-24-2014 10:33 PM)DesertBronco Wrote:  Expecting 4-8 is competitive? How have our expectations have changed, my oh my.

I wasn't saying that expecting 4-8 is competitive. What I was referring to is the fact that we weren't even close to competitive in more than 3 games last season. MSU was an aboration in week 1 that had us all excited. UMass was the 2 worst teams in the country. And CMU was 2 bad teams deciding which was worse. Other than that, the Broncos were never really in any of the games.

So what I was getting at is, even though I think 4-8 is topping out this season. If they are at least in a few games into the 4th quarter its at least a perceived improvement.

Waldo, you're thinking like the average MAC Journalist or fan. You look at last year and rubber stamp it for this year. Stars graduate, players develop, coaches come and go. It's too easy to say BSU will be good because they were last year. Phil Steele picked us to win the MAC after our loss to Purdue at the LCPB. We lost White to graduation and Cader to injury, things changed big time, just as they will with the loss of Snead and Wenning.
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OK. So give them a win vs BSU and take one of the other wins away and make it a loss. This team isn't going to win many games. And I had to scratch to come up with 4. Whats wrong with thinking like the average MAC Journalist or fan? My guess is that with what I am picking, we are all going to be in the correct ball park. If you think they are going to win more than 4 or 5 and be bowl eligible, yes you aren't thinking like the average fan.....but youre just not really thinking.

Awesome

Id say let me watch the Purdue game first and then I can make my honest assessment of how I think it will go... but I thought we looked pretty competitive last year against a supposedly good MSU squad... Then we came home and crapped the bed on our own field against Nichols....

I will say that we take some bruises this year... not as many as last year. We show some improvement overall, but we scratch out maybe 3 wins... and for me... as long as one of those is against CMU... I am a happy camper.

I'm thinking we see perhaps 3 wins. Murray St., Miami and EMU.

It's possible that we snag a win at Idaho but I wouldn't bet on it, no matter the quality of that team.

If we had CMU at our place, I'd give us a shot but we all know what happens often in dismal flats. I'm still not convinced that CMU is really very good - will have to see it in person.

Any more than 3 wins and I think the team will have done very well for a pack of young pups.

Murray State might be the most important game in PJ Flecks tenure at WMU. And that might be his entire tenure however long it ends up being.

If they go and lay another egg against a cupcake at Communiversity Night. PJ better just figure out how to invest in cardboard cut outs of fans and pump crowd noise through the sound system, because if they lose this one again, Waldo will be empty for the rest of the season and maybe beyond.

I bought my tickets for Communiversity Game. But beyond that its wait and see.

FWIW, Schiano also lost to FCS opponents twice before Rutgers won the Big East.

He never finished more than one season ranked and proved he was a fraud at Tampa Bay. He only had one winning season in the three years after Rice declared for the draft.

(08-25-2014 10:23 AM)Hoekjeness Wrote:  

(08-25-2014 10:05 AM)cawoo22 Wrote:  I personally was impressed with the way they competed in Dekalb at the end of the year last year. They didn't appear to be a team that was mailing it in (see EMU before they gassed English for what that looked like)

Some of the peanut gallery here clearly didn't see that, but I agree seeing it in person myself. I thought we played about as well as we could've last year against a very good NIU team at home. I think this year's game could be very competitive.

That would be the same EMU team.....

(08-26-2014 09:15 PM)DesertBronco Wrote:  He never finished more than one season ranked and proved he was a fraud at Tampa Bay. He only had one winning season in the three years after Rice declared for the draft.

BS

Yeah, all he did was take over a 3-8 program and in five years had them 11-2, ranked in the top 5, and named National Coach of the Year.

Not BS. He never finished more than one year ranked. The highest they finished was their only year at 12. After Rice left he had two more losing seasons before winning eight or nine in his last.

And....he got the ziggy from Tampa Bay as well.

Edit: Actually Rice left and he went 4-8, then won nine before departing to eff up Tampa Bay and get booed out of town. I wish Michigan had hired him. Honest.

I know you never get tired of being right, DB, but Ray Rice's last year was 2007 and the next two years Rutgers won 8 and 9.

What this has to do with Fleck is unclear, but I don't know why you need to tear down the job Schiano did turning around a Rutgers program that had been an unmitigated failure through the 1990s. He was a failure in his own right in the NFL, which is a different beast.

I think Schiano is kind of a d!ck, but his work at RU was impressive.

(08-26-2014 10:16 PM)DesertBronco Wrote:  Not BS. He never finished more than one year ranked. The highest they finished was their only year at 12. After Rice left he had two more losing seasons before winning eight or nine in his last.

And....he got the ziggy from Tampa Bay as well.

Edit: Actually Rice left and he went 4-8, then won nine before departing to eff up Tampa Bay and get booed out of town. I wish Michigan had hired him. Honest.

After going 11-2 and being ranked in the top 5, he had seasons of 8,8,9,4, and 9 wins.

If Fleck did that you'd probably become a Fleck apologist.

(08-26-2014 10:42 PM)wmubroncopilot Wrote:  I know you never get tired of being right, DB, but Ray Rice's last year was 2007 and the next two years Rutgers won 8 and 9.

What this has to do with Fleck is unclear, but I don't know why you need to tear down the job Schiano did turning around a Rutgers program that had been an unmitigated failure through the 1990s. He was a failure in his own right in the NFL, which is a different beast.

I think Schiano is kind of a d!ck, but his work at RU was impressive.

I didn't cite Schiano as the benchmark for Peej being successful, your boy HJ did. I was mistaken about when Rice left, I thought for some reason it was 2009, making him and me older.

But the fact remains, the only time Rutgers finished ranked was 2006 and that was 12th. He didn't light the world on fire there.

How he got hired to coach in the NFL is beyond me, but I think I would quit citing him as proof that Peej is going to be a world beater if I were you guys.

(08-26-2014 10:44 PM)Chipdip2 Wrote:  

(08-26-2014 10:16 PM)DesertBronco Wrote:  Not BS. He never finished more than one year ranked. The highest they finished was their only year at 12. After Rice left he had two more losing seasons before winning eight or nine in his last.

And....he got the ziggy from Tampa Bay as well.

Edit: Actually Rice left and he went 4-8, then won nine before departing to eff up Tampa Bay and get booed out of town. I wish Michigan had hired him. Honest.

After going 11-2 and being ranked in the top 5, he had seasons of 8,8,9,4, and 9 wins.

If Fleck did that you'd probably become a Fleck apologist.

The first time Fleck wins 9, and I'm hoping this year, he's gone.