Expectations management

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What regular season win totals in 2015:
Expect
Make you happy
Make you angry
 



Expect 8, happy 9, annoyed 7, angry 6

I do expect a win against Wisconsin. Kill cannot go 0-5 against them, especially when we have them at home, coming off our best season in a long time, and they will have a new coach.
 

To early to think about, but if they stay on the same course and improve?

A lot can happen between now and the start of next season. Let's see how they finish out the recruiting class and if there is any further attrition than think about expectations for next year.
2014 is going to be a tough act to follow as the Gophers own all of the rivalry trophy's with the exception of the Axe.
Next seasons schedule starts off a lot tougher even if it is at home with TCU, that is going to be a
M-fer of a football game any way you look at it. I guess I would be happy if they can maintain a winning path and achieve at the same level or higher next year. Having a losing conference record would be a step back.
2015 schedule is not an easier than the 2014 schedule was and this was a pretty good season by any Gophers standards.
I have to come up with a plan to finance my season ticket donation, that is what my goal is for next year.

TCU will be the best team we have faced to start the season any year that I can remember, and probably better than anyone we will play with the exception of OSU.
Would be nice if the players could take things to the next level and contend like they did for the division championship and
maybe have a shot at Indy, the TCU game is a key game even to start a season. I think the players will be hungry to grab a championship. Anyone stepping forward as a big donor to help cement the facillities campaign would be a bonus. If anything last nights championship game can tell you, facillities and shiny new things the recruits and players like. Our dump of an indoor facillity was built in 1984, stinks like BO bad and has pieces of the roof falling out.
 



Expect 8 with no losses to teams we are clearly better than
Happy with 9
Upset with 7 or fewer or any bad losses (eg Illinois this year)-this is my big marker that we're truly improving. Have to have mental toughness to make sure you don't drop games you truly shouldn't

Note: these are all before our appearance on the B10 title game and our bowl victory :D
 

If your including a bowl game, 8 would be a disappointment. 9 or 10 is reasonable to achieve. 6 or 7 would be a step in the wrong direction and will signal that we have may have peaked this year. Since all of the experts are already picking bowls for next year, I will say our TCU game and the OSU game are games I will say would be very difficult to win. The others on the schedule are games we can and should win. If we can stay healthy and somebody steps up to run the ball, we have the ability to roll.
 




Expect - 9
Happy - 10
Angry - 7 or any bowl loss.
 

9 Bliss
8 Gassing
7 Indigestion
6 Inflammation
Lose to Wisky Full Roids
 

Expect: 8
Happy: Beat Wisconsin
Angry: Lose to Wisconsin
 




Expect: at least 9 (regular season)
Happy: at least 9 (and beat Wisconsin and win our bowl game for 10th win)
Angry: 7 or fewer
 



kellyleeks said:
If we start 8-0 and then drop 5 straight by 30 points per game, you'll agree that we've exceeded expectations?
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That's why I think it is hard to just give a specific number of wins. There are scenarios where I'd be happy with 8 wins, and others where I wouldn't be happy with 8 wins.
 

GophersInIowa said:
That's why I think it is hard to just give a specific number of wins. There are scenarios where I'd be happy with 8 wins, and others where I wouldn't be happy with 8 wins.
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Yeah...flip it, say that we started 0-5, and finished 8-5, looking at the schedule, would be something completely different too.
 

Expect 8-9
Happy 10 (cloud 9 happy with 11 or more)
Angry 7 (mad as hell with 6 or less)
 

Expect 9 (loss to TCU, OSU, WISC)

Happy 10 (loss to TCU, OSU)

Angry 6 (loss to TCU, OSU, IOWA, WISC, MICH, NW)
 

kellyleeks said:
If we start 8-0 and then drop 5 straight by 30 points per game, you'll agree that we've exceeded expectations?
Click to expand...

The order matters less than the overall quality. Schedule is so unbalanced it seems like it doesn't matter what order they go WL in conference (to me)
I am just ball parking here. If we lost to Illinois by 30 it would be pretty hard for me to be happy even if the team was 11-1...Illinois is terrible.
 

GophersInIowa said:
That's why I think it is hard to just give a specific number of wins. There are scenarios where I'd be happy with 8 wins, and others where I wouldn't be happy with 8 wins.
Click to expand...

I agree with you on 8 wins but if we won 9 games, I wouldn't give a damn about how much we lost to certain teams by, if we lost to Wisconsin, if we lost a third straight bowl etc. I just want 9 wins next year.
 

Expect: 7 (before bowl)
Happy: 7+ (before bowl)
Sad: Less than 6

If we take even a small step back, it could be a very disappointing year with the schedule. Illinois, Nebraska, Wisconsin, and Harbaugh for the conference home schedule is tough...we need to go at least 2-2 (not too difficult, but we'll probably only be favored against Illinois) - and conference road games are always an uphill battle .
 

GopherHomer said:
Expect: 7 (before bowl)
Happy: 7+ (before bowl)
Sad: Less than 6

If we take even a small step back, it could be a very disappointing year with the schedule. Illinois, Nebraska, Wisconsin, and Harbaugh for the conference home schedule is tough...we need to go at least 2-2 (not too difficult, but we'll probably only be favored against Illinois) - and conference road games are always an uphill battle .
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Anything less then 8 regular season wins at this point is a disappointment. As for the home stretch next year we need to go at least 3-1 in those games. We beat both Michigan and Nebraska on the road last year and both teams have new coaching staffs. Wisconsin is another team going through a transition year and Illinois is getting better but is the kind of team we should expect to beat right now with where we are at as a program. Every game in the Big Ten is tough and those 4 will be no exception but it is time now for the fanbase to start expecting more out of this team. This is Kill's 5th year, if he is doing what we all hope he is doing then this is when things should start to kick into a higher gear. We have shown we can contend for the division, the next step now is to go win it. Winning the conference is going to be rough with Ohio State looming out there but there is nobody in the West who should scare us right now and that includes Wisconsin.
 

I guess I am concerned about next season because of the schedule and the players we are losing. The gophers will be extremely young and unproven at the skill positions on offense which should be a big concern. Young players even red shirted ones just don't step into most lineups and dominate. Who replaces Wilson at MLB? Who replaces the guys at safety? We are losing a good amount of the middle of the defense. I will be happy with 8 wins 9 with a bowl win.
 

I expect a very similar year to this year. Around 8 wins and compete for the B1G West title. There's enough talent to win next year, but it will also be a year for the young play makers to grow on offense. I think 2016 will be our real breakthrough year. I expect to win 10 games and the west in 2016, especially with our schedule.
 

WolfontheProwl said:
I guess I am concerned about next season because of the schedule and the players we are losing. The gophers will be extremely young and unproven at the skill positions on offense which should be a big concern. Young players even red shirted ones just don't step into most lineups and dominate. Who replaces Wilson at MLB? Who replaces the guys at safety? We are losing a good amount of the middle of the defense. I will be happy with 8 wins 9 with a bowl win.
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There are definitely some big shoes to fill and some guys that will be tough to replace. That being said a big part of what a college coach is paid for is to find the guys to replace departing playmakers and at this point the Brewster mess is in the rear view mirror so it is on Kill and his staff to have the replacements ready to go. We are counting on this staffs ability to recruit to their systems and to find guys that might not show up well on the recruiting sites but who turn out to be really good college players. To date the results have been encouraging, just have to hope this staff is bringing in the kind of talent that will keep the trend moving in the right direction.
 

One important brick I would like us to keep in place is this one: over the last two years, we have not lost to a team that was not bowl bound. As bad and disappointing as the Illinois loss was, it is definitely a step forward for this program from fairly recent history that our worst loss in the last two years was to a 6 win team.

We need another brick next year, the Axe is far and away the most important one. Bear in mind, as long as Wisconsin is the division favorite, that game is worth two B1G games even if we don't factor in the rivalry and emotional desire to beat them. This last year, if we would have beat Wisconsin we would have been in the championship game, but turning Illinois and OSU into wins would still not have gotten us there.
 

I broke it down a little further.

0 Postal
1 Disgusted
2 Angry
3 Worried
4 Confused
5 Disappointed
6 Hesitant
7 Accepting
8 Happy
9 Elated
10 Stoked
11 Jacked
12 Forgive everyone who's ever wronged me
13 Cancel Christmas travel plans - will be taking my dad to the playoff
14 Get my Wisconsin tattoo removed
15 All is right with the world like at the end of Back to the Future
 

I can live with an 8-win season if that includes winning a bowl game. I just think the bowl game is extremely important. AT this point, I would rather see the Gophers win a "lesser" bowl game instead of losing another January 1st game. This coaching staff still needs to prove that it can finish a season strong - I want to see the team trending up at the end of the season, not down.
 

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