"Lowering Expectations"

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Duluthguy

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Whenever Kill talks about how this team needs to get stronger, faster and tougher, many in the media and on this board say that he is attempting to lower the public's expectations. However, I think the people who make this claim are viewing the situation through the prism of the past instead of the future.

Most on this board feel that for a team that was 3-9 last year with a new coaching staff and new schemes, 6-6 for this year would be very respectable. However, while Kill might be thrilled with that record for his first year, I don't think he's saying that the team needs great improvement to get to 6-6. Kill would never set his sights on being 6-6, regardless of the team's past record. To me, what Kill is saying is that this team needs great improvement to win a Big Ten title - or even to just be the very best it can be - regardless of the final record for the year.

Yes, 6-6 would probably be a pretty good year considering all that this team has been through, but I don't think Kill sees the team's history as a reason to aim for mediocrity this year or in the future. People who claim Kill is trying to lower expectations assume Kill shares their definition of success.
 

I don't think Kill has his sights set on any number of wins this season. His sights seem to be set on making the team better. You can't meaningfully look at the future without looking at the past. This team won three games last year. Maybe there is more talent on the team than the record would indicate, maybe not - it's hard to tell how much was the result of lack of talent, and how much was the result of coaching. Generally, you can't expect a big first year turnaround, it usually takes time. If we get a big turnaround right away, that would be fantastic. But expectations too high too fast tends often come with an implied "... or else" added.
 

He's going into this with a well thought out strategy, he understands the team lacks depth and has been oversold in the past, he knows A)underselling the media helps him focus on the team getting better and B)it may in fact allow for sneaking up on early opponents.
He's been quoted as not really knowing whether his year 1 NIU team would win A game, they won 6.

I think he sees several standout individuals and solid performers in some key spots, and knows how his staff will try to compensate for a lack of depth and talent at other positions. They have a plan for the coming season, probably depending heavily on the running game with Gray and using several runningbacks/TE's at a time, and on D using linebackers to generate pressure and hoping that the secondary can be opportunistic enough to overcome the plays they'll give up.

Wild card positive IMO: Stoudemire is going to be a kick returning machine, special teams simply cannot be worse than last season, we can pick up 1 or 2 wins if that improves.

Wild card negative IMO: Injuries pretty much anywhere hurt our chances. Mcknight, Gray, or Lair going down neuters our O, and any injuries to the RB's exposes our WR issues. OL is right now 5 1/2 deep, Tommy O would make it 6 1/2. Think about how many Olinemen played last season.

On D, injuries anywhere negate the experience gained from last season, alot of contributors were simply too green last season, now they're a browner shade of green, but if they go down there's more fresh meat for opposing teams to expose behind them. Images of Manuel/C. Lewis biting on a Yote play action and Henderson getting pancaked by wisky's pulling guard still haunt my dreams.

Kill knows he's "lowering expectations" but it's not to give HIM a year pass, it's to keep the spotlight on the team's gradual improvement to hopefully culminate in some unforeseen win next season, we have plenty of opportunities(USC, wisky, iowee 2x, @meechigan, Nebraska)
Think Rhoads of ISU year 1 winning @ Nebraska and what that did for that program's confidence and perception of an improving program.
 

Maybe I should have simplified my post and simply said: I don't think Kill is attempting to lower expectations. He is a perfectionist, and if we win the Big Ten title five years from now, he will probably still be talking about where the team needs to improve.
 

Duluthguy said:
Maybe I should have simplified my post and simply said: I don't think Kill is attempting to lower expectations. He is a perfectionist, and if we win the Big Ten title five years from now, he will probably still be talking about where the team needs to improve.
Click to expand...

Makes sense to me.
 


After watching the spring game, I really don't think he's trying to lower expectations. I think he is being brutally honest about where the team is right now with the players that are here and healthy. The assessment will certainly change come Fall (hopefully for the better).

The reality is next year is probably going to be tough. New QB, new coach, new coordinators, new system, thin at several positions, undertalented at some positions, overall slower than desired. I really think last year's team wasn't a lot better than the three wins they pulled out. And one injury to a thin position could be devastating.

Kill isn't aiming for 3 wins or 5 or 7 or 14. He's aiming for one against USC. AFTER that game, he'll aim for one against NMSU... Meanwhile he will be continuing to improve this team so that each game he has a better chance of winning than the previous game.
 

the greatest trick the devil ever played was making the world believe he didnt exist
 

Duluthguy said:
Maybe I should have simplified my post and simply said: I don't think Kill is attempting to lower expectations. He is a perfectionist, and if we win the Big Ten title five years from now, he will probably still be talking about where the team needs to improve.
Click to expand...

Makes sense to me too. Our HOF HS coach was often the same way so I grew up loving this kind of "coach speak."
 

Well it's not like he's saying they can't win any games or something. When you're used to a certain amount of winning, you're not sitting there thinking "Well, this team is good enough to win a couple games in conference, good enough for me!". He's thinking, "Man, we gotta get faster if we're gonna operate my system to its fullest. We gotta get deeper if we wanna compete in this high level conference". Plus, he's coming in after PHYSICALLY outmatching the team he's now taking over. Don't be mistaken, they won the line play that night and in general, seemed to be the team with more pop. Excuse him for not being convinced he's taking over a stronger and faster team here. There may be more potential here, but it's not gonna come out overnight.

It's really not about expectations, in a first year, I think it's virtually impossible to really have any, other than don't play like utter crap, and score a few wins. You can't just place numbers on it, 5 wins, 6 wins, etc., at this juncture, number of wins means little, just too much change to account for.
 



What is Success?

Duluthguy said:
Whenever Kill talks about how this team needs to get stronger, faster and tougher, many in the media and on this board say that he is attempting to lower the public's expectations. However, I think the people who make this claim are viewing the situation through the prism of the past instead of the future.

Yes, 6-6 would probably be a pretty good year considering all that this team has been through, but I don't think Kill sees the team's history as a reason to aim for mediocrity this year or in the future. People who claim Kill is trying to lower expectations assume Kill shares their definition of success.
Click to expand...

According to wren, success would be achieving Mason's losing Big Ten record. All other games don't count per wren. Perhaps wren counts Weber’s passes that bounce into the receiver’s hands as receptions though?

Yes, wren does march to a different drummer and I am also sure that Kill doesn't march to wren's drummer.
 

I get the sense that Kill is a lot more foxy than he lets on. This is just a hunch on my part, but I suspect that his "good old boy" routine is calculated to achieve a certain effect. I also think his harsh criticism of the team's shortcomings is also calculated to a degree. In part, I think it's aimed at his players as a motivational tool, but I think it's also aimed at the media and future opponents.

After all, we're talking about a guy who (I think) deliberately kept his spring game as vanilla as possible, to keep from giving anything away about his offensive and defensive schemes. He didn't even punt, for heaven's sakes. What vital secret would he have revealed by punting???????

Now, this is NOT meant to be critical of Kill. He's got every right to run the program the way he sees fit, and I hope it works.

I'm just saying that nobody knows what Kill really thinks. He might be sincerly honest, or he could be running some kind of mental shell game. We'll find out a lot more this fall.
 

He's not "lowering expectations," he's being "brutally honest."

Good coaching will make the existing roster better (and tougher). It can't make a 3-9 roster "New Year's Day Bowl Game" stronger & faster; there are limits.

Ultimately, every college coach has two jobs:

1) Make the kids I have better;
2) Get better kids.
 

I think he's trying to get the players and other coaches to never be satisfied, and no matter how good they are, they can always get better. Get better everyday.
 



GoAUpher said:
Makes sense to me too. Our HOF HS coach was often the same way so I grew up loving this kind of "coach speak."
Click to expand...

Yep, I went to Cretin during the end of the Saint Paul City Conference years for us and we constantly heard in the offseason and throughout the year that we needed to get so much bigger, stronger and faster. You would have thought we needed drastic improvements to even compete in the Saint Paul City Conference to a point where I remember literally thinking, "Are we going to be the first bad Cretin team in awhile?" And I remember being like embarrased and working my butt off as a result of it.

So yeah, in some sense it is definitely Coach speak.

I also remember hearing Saban's talk after their spring game (which drew 90,000 people by the way), and a lot of what he said was the same as Kill. They came along way through spring practice and how succesful they are this coming season will hinge on how hard they work from here until the fall (studying film and in the weight room).
 

I was going to put a +1 on one of the posts and then I read the next one and could see the poster's angle. After several of these, I think a lot of the ideas above are probably some degree of correct. But the last one about Saban really struck me. If we went undefeated, Coach Kill would say the same thing..we need to work harder, get faster, etc.

I posted once on another thread that he may have been reducing expectations on purpose. What I really meant was that the previous coach was really intelligence challenged to set expectations high before the start of a season. Even if you're really good, that's a stupid approach to coaching and to P.R. Guess it's one way to try to hang on to your job though.
 

I agree GR, I think a point can be made on both sides of the argument.

I do think it's Coach speak to a point, like I said about Saban's press conference after the spring game, but I also think Kill is being honest (I actually think Saban really believes they need to get bigger, faster, and stronger too). I don't think these guys are playing some game with the media, I literally think they are perfectionists.
 

GRGOPHER said:
I posted once on another thread that he may have been reducing expectations on purpose. What I really meant was that the previous coach was really intelligence challenged to set expectations high before the start of a season. Even if you're really good, that's a stupid approach to coaching and to P.R. Guess it's one way to try to hang on to your job though.
Click to expand...

I sometimes think that the previous football coach confused being a football coach with being a politician.
 

Regardless of what you thought of Brewster, he was a straight shooter. He thought the gophers could win a Rosebowl. What he didn't understand was the self loathing most ...no, that's the wrong word. Minnesotans don't like anything perceived as arrogance. Any new coach with half a brain would know to take the opposite approach.
 

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