With 5 or 6 games left, what do you need to view this season as a success?

[MaroonGopher]

Right now, this season is not considered a success in my opinion. Getting piss-pounded by your two arch rivals and winning one B1G game against a winless Purdue team doesn't exactly qualify as a good season. HOWEVER, I think there is still a great deal that can be salvaged. Winning two more conference games, even if one is against Illinois, would quantify as a step forward.

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

I think a lot of us need to take a look at where we were coming from....

First off, the non-conference season only is being dismissed because we went undefeated. A big part of the reason Brew was fired was his loss against South Dakota and last year's losses to NMSU and NDSU were absolute embarrasments for Coach Kill. So losing those games definitely matter. I agree that winning those games should be a given, but unfortunately, they haven't been givens over the last few years. So while I agree that the conference schedule is the real litmus test, the non-conference matters

Before the season started, a lot of us talked about how we wanted to see this team handle the teams when they are more talented. While this trait probably isn't as important as winning in the Big 10, it's a big step for a program. Avoiding a devastating loss against an inferior opponent cannot be dismissed as nothing.

Now, onto what I consider a success....
It's tough, if you would have told me that Eddie and Tommy Olson would miss half the season and that Gray would only be healthy enough to play in a handful of games....I would have guessed we would have won 3 games this year.

That said, injuries happen to everyone and my benchmark for us coming into the year was 5 wins. 5 wins and we are on track.

 

[MNVCGUY]

I still come back to us needing to duplicate last years conference win total for this season to be deemed as a success. Clearly it is an improvment record wise but if we take a step backwards in terms of conference wins then to me that is not successful. I will say with all the injuries and breaking in a new QB I have backed off the idea of needing to exceed last years BIG win total. 6-6 would be a successful year two. Next year the bar gets raised as 4 non-conf wins would be the expectation and 3 conference wins would seem like a fair minimum expectation. Still not asking the coach to get to .500 in the conference, but if we are to believe things are moving in the right direction we need to see conference wins becoming a more common occurrence.

 

[mnsportsgeek]

I still come back to us needing to duplicate last years conference win total for this season to be deemed as a success. Clearly it is an improvment record wise but if we take a step backwards in terms of conference wins then to me that is not successful. I will say with all the injuries and breaking in a new QB I have backed off the idea of needing to exceed last years BIG win total. 6-6 would be a successful year two. Next year the bar gets raised as 4 non-conf wins would be the expectation and 3 conference wins would seem like a fair minimum expectation. Still not asking the coach to get to .500 in the conference, but if we are to believe things are moving in the right direction we need to see conference wins becoming a more common occurrence.

Especially with Penn State & Indiana on the schedule with Iowa at home and no Ohio State. I would almost say 4-4 would be the expectation.

 

[bleedsmaroonandgold]

I think a lot of us need to take a look at where we were coming from....

First off, the non-conference season only is being dismissed because we went undefeated. A big part of the reason Brew was fired was his loss against South Dakota and last year's losses to NMSU and NDSU were absolute embarrasments for Coach Kill. So losing those games definitely matter. I agree that winning those games should be a given, but unfortunately, they haven't been givens over the last few years. So while I agree that the conference schedule is the real litmus test, the non-conference matters

Before the season started, a lot of us talked about how we wanted to see this team handle the teams when they are more talented. While this trait probably isn't as important as winning in the Big 10, it's a big step for a program. Avoiding a devastating loss against an inferior opponent cannot be dismissed as nothing.

Now, onto what I consider a success....
It's tough, if you would have told me that Eddie and Tommy Olson would miss half the season and that Gray would only be healthy enough to play in a handful of games....I would have guessed we would have won 3 games this year.

That said, injuries happen to everyone and my benchmark for us coming into the year was 5 wins. 5 wins and we are on track.

With any luck, we see a couple more wins this year, and the argument about how to weigh conference against non-conference wins becomes moot.