Reasonable expectations

[ZachTheZip]

So, I am struggling to come up with a minumum acceptable number of wins next year. We'll likely play an FCS team at home next season. Losing that game should be grounds for a forced resignation, regardless of the outcome of the rest of the season. Outside that, I think Ianello needs to show a clear improvement over this year. Is 3 FBS wins a reasonable expectation? That would put us at 4-8, which is vastly better than 1-11. Less than that and I think it's clear that he's not getting the job done. More than that and things would be looking up. So I'll put 3-9 and competitive in most games as the minimum needed to keep him around and even then it's 50-50 whether we should keep him. Less than that and he needs to go, period.

Remember that we'll be one of the youngest teams in the country next year by far and lose almost all our playmakers on both sides of the ball to graduation. No matter who is coach, it would be a tall order to have success under those circumstances.

[Wally B]

As i started to read your post, 4 immediately poped into my head. Still given the lack of experience, that will still be a reach. 2011 is when i will look to see sustained improvement. 2012 is when i want to see us compete week in and week out.....

[akzipper]

I know we had a terrible seasons, but our defense played well in some games. It's expected that they are going to get tired after an offense continually goes 3 and out. So I feel like our offense needs to be our focus. Two glaring needs I see are the O-Line and Receivers. Nicely is not a bad quarterback, he had a good freshman season so we know what he's capable of. He just NEEDS someone to throw to. He has to force throws or just throw the ball away because everyone is covered, if he waits more than a second he gets sacked. Don't get me wrong, he has made plenty of mistakes, but when your offense struggles you have to take risks and sadly for us there are rarely positive outcomes. It will be difficult to get kids to come to a 1-11 program, but please RI do your best!

[ZachTheZip]

Look at who we graduate. On offense, you lose your top two receivers (LaFrance, Carter), your top two RBs (Allen, Burney), and two O-linemen (Ward, Woods). Nicely will be surrounded by inexperienced players. On defense, you graduate your two best DL (Lemon, Sewell), an outstanding LB (Mike Thomas), and safeties (Davis, Richardson). Both kickers graduate (Iveljic, Rogovic).

Not much production coming back on either side of the ball. Ianello needs to have a stellar recruiting class with some 4 star guys if we want to be competitive against more than the absolute worst teams. Luckily, being in the MAC, we play a schedule chock full of those absolute worst teams.

[Zipmeister]

Look at who we graduate. On offense, you lose your top two receivers (LaFrance, Carter), your top two RBs (Allen, Burney), and two O-linemen (Ward, Woods). Nicely will be surrounded by inexperienced players. On defense, you graduate your two best DL (Lemon, Sewell), an outstanding LB (Mike Thomas), and safeties (Davis, Richardson). Both kickers graduate (Iveljic, Rogovic).

Not much production coming back on either side of the ball. Ianello needs to have a stellar recruiting class with some 4 star guys if we want to be competitive against more than the absolute worst teams. Luckily, being in the MAC, we play a schedule chock full of those absolute worst teams.

and losing both kickers is a problem because.....................

[ZachTheZip]

Look at who we graduate. On offense, you lose your top two receivers (LaFrance, Carter), your top two RBs (Allen, Burney), and two O-linemen (Ward, Woods). Nicely will be surrounded by inexperienced players. On defense, you graduate your two best DL (Lemon, Sewell), an outstanding LB (Mike Thomas), and safeties (Davis, Richardson). Both kickers graduate (Iveljic, Rogovic).

Not much production coming back on either side of the ball. Ianello needs to have a stellar recruiting class with some 4 star guys if we want to be competitive against more than the absolute worst teams. Luckily, being in the MAC, we play a schedule chock full of those absolute worst teams.

and losing both kickers is a problem because.....................

...because we have two other kickers on the roster, and neither of them could even beat out the seniors. One of those other two kickers will be starting next year.

[Dave in Green]

So far I think everyone has realistic expectations for next season. We know the Zips will have a much younger, less experienced team next season. If Coach Ianello delivers on his recruiting reputation, the caliber of players should be higher than in the past. Also, there should be no surprises next season for the players about how the team is run, and no more adjustments for the players to make after having played under a previous coaching staff that ran things much differently. This should all help the team play a little more cohesively next season, which should help overall team performance. So 3-4 wins is certainly a reasonable and realistic expectation.

[cornbread]

I didn't realize that we are losing so much.

This is going to sound like a joke but maybe iCoach, being a good recruiter, can use that to lure some guys that would end up sitting on a big ten's team bench until his jr or sr year. Be nice to get players who can contribute right away.

[Dr Z]

"Look who's graduating....this team is going to be worse next year....Ianello is no good"

Give it a rest for a week and let Zip fans enjoy a win Zach.

They finally show some improvement and your still beating your drum.

[Big Zip]

I'm hopeful iCoach brings in JUCO talent to bolster this team.

This team returns five on offense and seven on defense. With the top two running backs and top two receivers playing their last game....I certainly hope we can get some experience at those positions.

Please bring in competition for Nicely too.

[skip-zip]

Look at who we graduate. On offense, you lose your top two receivers (LaFrance, Carter), your top two RBs (Allen, Burney), and two O-linemen (Ward, Woods). Nicely will be surrounded by inexperienced players. On defense, you graduate your two best DL (Lemon, Sewell), an outstanding LB (Mike Thomas), and safeties (Davis, Richardson). Both kickers graduate (Iveljic, Rogovic).

Not much production coming back on either side of the ball. Ianello needs to have a stellar recruiting class with some 4 star guys if we want to be competitive against more than the absolute worst teams. Luckily, being in the MAC, we play a schedule chock full of those absolute worst teams.

This is pretty consistent with my thoughts. Unfortunately, this was a year where we could have won, and next year was going to be the "down" year, as far as personnel is concerned. Do we then consider that we're making progress if we win 2 games or more? I don't know. Consider that LO only won 8 games in his first 3 years combined, and he ended up staying here for several more seasons. I certainly don't want a repeat of that. If we recognize that this guy does not have what it takes to be successful, then I'd like to see him gone sooner rather than later. And I can't be impressed with what I've seen so far, on a number of different levels.

[Lee Adams]

So, I am struggling to come up with a minumum acceptable number of wins next year. We'll likely play an FCS team at home next season. Losing that game should be grounds for a forced resignation, regardless of the outcome of the rest of the season. Outside that, I think Ianello needs to show a clear improvement over this year. Is 3 FBS wins a reasonable expectation? That would put us at 4-8, which is vastly better than 1-11. Less than that and I think it's clear that he's not getting the job done. More than that and things would be looking up. So I'll put 3-9 and competitive in most games as the minimum needed to keep him around and even then it's 50-50 whether we should keep him. Less than that and he needs to go, period.

Remember that we'll be one of the youngest teams in the country next year by far and lose almost all our playmakers on both sides of the ball to graduation. No matter who is coach, it would be a tall order to have success under those circumstances.

Losing Allen and Burney the only 2 RB's who played any appreciable time,losing Lemon and Thomas from a defense that leaks in the secondary,questions at wide receiver,some key losses on the O line still a question at QB wow! How much improvement do you get just because its the 2nd year in the new system? Whats a 'reasonable' number of wins? The question is how many wins will it take to generate interest in the program and actually get butts back in the seats. 3-4 wins might indicate improvement on the field but given the long term apathy toward football I doubt that is going to generate a big jump in attendance. No attendance, no money going to the AD.

[Wally B]

THat's the thing about the MAC... Fortunes rise and fall...... FAST! Or in Kents case not at all

If you watch the conference, you'll see we are actually in a great position right now. Small roster, newish coach, and great facilities. This is the perfect recruiting tool to perspective players that want to play FULL careers instead of riding the bench. Ball St., Buffalo, CMU, Fiaimi, Temps, they've all followed this formula to a certain degree. The biggest challenge going forward is managing the rise in a way that you don't see a collapse once said coach or his recruits begin to leave. In that regard, OhioU is a huge dissapointment to me. If Solich was half the coach he's reputed to be they should be dominating the conference right now. Much like NIU is, but consistently, season after season. C'mon, this is the MAC after all. Compare to soccer... Porter talks not only of winning now, but building and maintaining the program itself.....

[GP1]

I don't think it us unreasonable to expect between 4-6 wins out of the team next season. It's the MAC for crying out loud. We should have won at least three this season.

[xu9697]

Tough to get into Ws & Ls withot knowing the schedule.

OOC= @ OSU, @ UC, probable FCS team and ? (I will guess Marshall or similar type program). OSU is a loss, FCS better be a win, UC is tough to figure but most likely a loss and if it is Marshall (or similar) a win is possible.

MAC= who knows? Can't will be @ home, so very winnable. I would love to play Ball State, Buffalo and EMU as they all are winnable.

Biggest thing for next year is finding WRs and Nicely improvement (or newfound QB). I think getting Alexander back at RB will help, and we have 3 starters on OL returning.

Wagner on D, some young DBs who just have to improve.

I watched my BC Eagles win 2, lose 5 and then win 5. They were led on offense in those last 5 games by a true frosh QB, two true frosh WRs, a true frosh RB who ran for 260 yards in final 2 games. On defense they had young DL, a true frosh and true soph at LB and patchwork DBs. My point: young guys CAN step up and make a difference.

[Wally B]

Two things to take with us from 2010

We're off the "Bottom10"

Although we finished ranked #119 in the Congrove Computer Rankings Top 120 Our bowl buddies from Memphis are below us at #120 and finished #1 on the Bottom 10!

Not much. but a little solace maybe

[MDZip]

Tough to get into Ws & Ls withot knowing the schedule.

OOC= @ OSU, @ UC, probable FCS team and ? (I will guess Marshall or similar type program). OSU is a loss, FCS better be a win, UC is tough to figure but most likely a loss and if it is Marshall (or similar) a win is possible.

MAC= who knows? Can't will be @ home, so very winnable. I would love to play Ball State, Buffalo and EMU as they all are winnable.

Biggest thing for next year is finding WRs and Nicely improvement (or newfound QB). I think getting Alexander back at RB will help, and we have 3 starters on OL returning.

Wagner on D, some young DBs who just have to improve.

I watched my BC Eagles win 2, lose 5 and then win 5. They were led on offense in those last 5 games by a true frosh QB, two true frosh WRs, a true frosh RB who ran for 260 yards in final 2 games. On defense they had young DL, a true frosh and true soph at LB and patchwork DBs. My point: young guys CAN step up and make a difference.

Geez, man, just how many colleges did you attend? I thought I had seen somewhere that we have a home and home with FIU starting next year? Terrific timing again for us, FIU has been a doormat like us for years. This year they won the Sun Belt.

[ZachTheZip]

After they released the full schedule, and looking at how our recruiting class is shaping up, I think we'll be lucky to get more than three wins.

OSU and Cinci are automatic losses. Even if we did have the talent on the field, we don't have the coaching to get us road wins against the BCS.

VMI should be a win, but so was Garder-Webb...

FIU went to Detroit and beat Toledo in a bowl game. I don't see us winning even at home.

In conference, we might beat EMU or Buffalo on the road. Doubt we'll see any home wins.

[72 Roo]

After they released the full schedule, and looking at how our recruiting class is shaping up, I think we'll be lucky to get more than three wins.

OSU and Cinci are automatic losses. Even if we did have the talent on the field, we don't have the coaching to get us road wins against the BCS.

VMI should be a win, but so was Garder-Webb...

FIU went to Detroit and beat Toledo in a bowl game. I don't see us winning even at home.

In conference, we might beat EMU or Buffalo on the road. Doubt we'll see any home wins.

Gotta agree Zach. Another long season ahead of us.

[Dr Z]

After they released the full schedule, and looking at how our recruiting class is shaping up, I think we'll be lucky to get more than three wins.

So all last season you post ad nauseam how 2011 was going to be worse than 2010, now your predicting we win 3 times as many games!?!

[K92]

In conference, we might beat EMU or Buffalo on the road. Doubt we'll see any home wins.

So you are already predicting a loss against Can't, then?

[ZachTheZip]

After they released the full schedule, and looking at how our recruiting class is shaping up, I think we'll be lucky to get more than three wins.

So all last season you post ad nauseam how 2011 was going to be worse than 2010, now your predicting we win 3 times as many games!?!

We were pretty unlucky last season losing two overtime games and one in the last few minutes. We were basically a better kicker away from being 3-9 or 4-8. But this year we don't have Igor to lose games for us. We can be worse but have a better record due to simply being a little less unlucky.

[ZachTheZip]

After the spring game, I'm altering my prediction to two wins.

[Hilltopper]

After the spring game, I'm altering my prediction to two wins.

Give it a rest. Find another hobby for the summer.

[GP1]

After the spring game, I'm altering my prediction to two wins.

It could be 2....or it could be 6. It's really up to the guys in uniform. Everyone in the mac has the potential to be good and we can be just as good as the next group.