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Next year will be the year we were looking for.......

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Re: Next year will be the year we were looking for.......

Next year will be the year we were looking for.......

I think the offense will be fine, but I don't have a lot of hope for the defense.  They were not very good this year, and it's not looking any better next year, and dare I say it, it may be worse.  Rusty's going to have to throw for 400 every night just to keep up.  That said, I hope they prove me wrong.
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Re: Next year will be the year we were looking for.......

I disagree but not totally Big Dog, the unknown factor going into a season is injuriers and we had a slew. Defense had guys player dinged up and not 100% that hurt. The good that came from that was the fact that a bunch of kids played that may have just been breather guys and not had the chance to get real playing time. This will be a work in progress but I think the reload factor not rebuild plays into to this and preseason training will be the fine tuning needed to compete defensively. The big disappointment this year was special teams and that is going to be needed in a big way to keep us from digging out of the whole along with catching the ball on offense. Hopefully the DB's will wake up as well.
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Re: Next year will be the year we were looking for.......

run a double tight package with Harmon and Grant
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Re: Next year will be the year we were looking for.......

Here's my take on next season

@ Nebraska L
@ UAB W
@ South CarolinaL
vs Louisiana-MonroeW
@ TroyL
vs Western kentuckyW
@ Louisiana-LafeyetteW
vs Middle TennesseeW
@ North TexasW
vs Arkansas StateL
@ Florida InternationalW

That gives us 7 wins and I know we still have 1 more OOC game we haven't scheduled yet. If we can finish with 7 wins I think that's a successful season and should get us back into a bowl game even with 2 L's in the belt to Troy and Ark State meaning that the Shula Bowl can be VERY important again next season.

We always have trouble with Troy and I believe Ark State has a young team and we couldn't do much against them this season. ULL is losing Desmereaux and their # 1 RB, ULM doesn't scare me, WKU will still be getting adjusted to the Belt, MTSU sucks and North Texas should be a D-II school
My two favorite teams are FAU, and who ever is beating FIU!
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Re: Next year will be the year we were looking for.......

Jab979 said

Here's my take on next season

@ Nebraska L
@ UAB W
@ South CarolinaL
vs Louisiana-MonroeW
@ TroyL
vs Western kentuckyW
@ Louisiana-LafeyetteW
vs Middle TennesseeW
@ North TexasW
vs Arkansas StateL
@ Florida InternationalW

That gives us 7 wins and I know we still have 1 more OOC game we haven't scheduled yet. If we can finish with 7 wins I think that's a successful season and should get us back into a bowl game even with 2 L's in the belt to Troy and Ark State meaning that the Shula Bowl can be VERY important again next season.

We always have trouble with Troy and I believe Ark State has a young team and we couldn't do much against them this season. ULL is losing Desmereaux and their # 1 RB, ULM doesn't scare me, WKU will still be getting adjusted to the Belt, MTSU sucks and North Texas should be a D-II school

come on, dirty j… you're not being creative or thoughtful or enough… you're picking us to lose the same games as this year… troy and arkansas state? it could happen, but i think we'll be better than both those teams next year with howard KICKING the receiver's asses this offseason for dropped passes and a senior rusty

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Re: Next year will be the year we were looking for.......

There are 2 seasons the football team didn't improve drastically. 2005 and this year.

2005 is explainable. This year is not.

2002 we had a worse record than 2001 but the schedule was much stronger. The team was improved.

2003 we went from 2-9 in 2002 to 11-3. Ranked fourth in the country D1AA

2004 was 9-3 and several impressive D1A victories including Hawaii @ Hawaii and 2004 SBC champ UNT, while still in the ranks of D1AA

This year is an anomaly. It has to be. Based on our history of improvement from one season to the next and returning 18/22 of the team, we should have had a really good season. It doesn't really make any sense to me unless it is because FAU surprised everyone last year and those teams were ready this year. But that doesn't explain kickoffs bouncing off helmets, dropped passes, personal fouls, grabbing face masks and leading the nation in penalties. I have confidence the coaches will figure out what went wrong and fix it for next season and beyond.

Recruiting has been improving steadily every year. We have some good talent coming up, so look forward to some exciting seasons in the future. I will be there for the inaugural game in the new stadium in 2025. ;)



FAU - THE REAL SLEEPING GIANT
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Re: Next year will be the year we were looking for.......

owl09 said

Jab979 said

Here's my take on next season

@ Nebraska L
@ UAB W
@ South CarolinaL
vs Louisiana-MonroeW
@ TroyL
vs Western kentuckyW
@ Louisiana-LafeyetteW
vs Middle TennesseeW
@ North TexasW
vs Arkansas StateL
@ Florida InternationalW

That gives us 7 wins and I know we still have 1 more OOC game we haven't scheduled yet. If we can finish with 7 wins I think that's a successful season and should get us back into a bowl game even with 2 L's in the belt to Troy and Ark State meaning that the Shula Bowl can be VERY important again next season.

We always have trouble with Troy and I believe Ark State has a young team and we couldn't do much against them this season. ULL is losing Desmereaux and their # 1 RB, ULM doesn't scare me, WKU will still be getting adjusted to the Belt, MTSU sucks and North Texas should be a D-II school

come on, dirty j… you're not being creative or thoughtful or enough… you're picking us to lose the same games as this year… troy and arkansas state? it could happen, but i think we'll be better than both those teams next year with howard KICKING the receiver's asses this offseason for dropped passes and a senior rusty

We also lost to MTSU this season, I don't see that happening next year. Granted I obviously could be wrong. I'd love to think we're better than Troy but being realistic we're not. Troy is a good team, yes so are we but we've beaten them 1x over the past how many seasons? Ark State, FIU and Troy may be the favorites next year to win the conference. In fact I prefer if we weren't even mentioned, all the hype about how well FAU will do this season got to their heads.

With Rusty in his senior year and Harmon back I expect less dropped passes but I just don't see us beating Troy. Maybe ASU, I do think we'll finish with 2 losses in the belt next season. Just my predicion
My two favorite teams are FAU, and who ever is beating FIU!
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Re: Next year will be the year we were looking for.......

Lago said

Silver_Bullet32 said

Just having some fun taking a peek at the future…..

QB- I think Rusty will have a bounce back year. A big one. I also think David Kooi will move up to the #2 ahead of Van Camp

RB- Blanchard will be penciled in at the #1, but we'll after the spring if Stinton or Barach will be a threat to him when training camp comes around. Willie Rose will definitely be getting more carries next season and will end up being our 3rd down back for protection and good hands out of the backfield

WR- I know we have 2 incumbents here, but HS might shake things up. Gent is the lock, but Bonner might be the odd man out and drop to the #3. Jean will be pushing him for the #2 and I think he gets it. I would like to see a Med redshirted Harmon come in and make a move to WR. Conshario Johnson and A. Holley will give us good depth and provide competition for the #4.

TE- Jamari Grant will be hard to keep on the sidelines next year, which is why I said Harmon should make the move (or vice versa). Houlser had a better 2nd half of the season and should be a good #2.

OL- I think David Matlock will take over for Paris in the middle. Miller will move to RT with Spitale next to him at RG. Lavoris Williams will take over at all important LT next to Ryan Wischnefski at LG. Lots of young talent could blow this whole projection up.

DL- Jamere Johnson and Council at the ends with Cox and Mertilius in the middle looks good. We still have Savidge who could take a spot as well.

LB- "Big Pads" Lockley should be in the middle with Bradwell on one side. I would figure on Pattee or YHN Morgan fighting it out for the other side.

DB- Hill and Polo look to be the starting CBs. I'd like to see McIntosh move to strong safety, but he might be a bit small, so he'll be the nickel. I think wicked fast Curt Cross is the dime. At safety, were probably looking at Ed Alexander at FS and SS is up for grabs.

K/P- Peterson should get better, and Paros is next in line for K

PR- Polo will be here

KR- Holley and maybe Bonner…

Feel free to critique and disagree/agree. All just for fun. Got to start building momentum for next year now by beating FIU and then beat up a established program like Rutgers or Kansas in a bowl game…..



While I like your enthusiasm, THIS year was supposed to be the year we were looking for. We returned basically everybody, and look where we are. Next year is going to be rough.

I think if we learned one thing this season is that just looking at the number of people returning and saying we should improve doesn't work.  There are always injuries and things you can't predict.  So it is WAAAY too early to proclaim next year will be rough.  Troy lost a bunch of talent this season and still managed to fill holes and win the conference.  We lose a bunch of seniors, mostly on defense, but is it not entirely possible the players coming in could be better then those leaving?  Afterall, this graduating class were recruited during our transition years.  Those who have been recruited since should all be as talented if not more talented. 
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Re: Next year will be the year we were looking for.......

illinoisowl said

There are 2 seasons the football team didn't improve drastically. 2005 and this year.

2005 is explainable. This year is not.

This year is absolutely explainable.  In no particular order:

Injuries - Losing Harmon, St. Clair, and Paris early on were killers.  We never did have a fully healthy D-line the entire season.  The O-line was a revolving door.

Dropped passes - No need to go into detail, we all know the ugly truth.  The drops were there in every game, but none moreso then the ASU game.  I think we dropped 10 passes.

Bad Luck -  Sometimes you just need luck on your side, and at the start of the season, we didn't have any.  Facing Texas, Minnesota, and Michigan State 3 out of the 1st 4 weeks is tough any year, but this year, UT happens to be championship caliber, and Minnesota and MSU were on fire when we played them, not to mention having to play MSU in a hurricane.  Balls bouncing off players helmets on special teams.  And the dagger…that friggin' Hail Mary pass at MTSU.  That is a play that works 1 out of 100 times and it will likely keep us out of a bowl game.

Penalties - WAAAY too many.

Still, given all the bad things that took place, we still finished 6-6, 5-1 in our last 6 games, and bowl eligible.  Not bad for a team written off and left for dead after the Troy game.  So it wasn't the season we all thought we'd get…oh well.  I'm still proud of the way this team battled back through all the crap thrown at them(and they created for themselves) this season and finished the season strong.  It showed the character of this program.  We probably don't get to a bowl, but maybe the team learned a valuable lesson about offseason preparation and what it takes to compete at a high level year in and year out.  It'll be tough watching other SBC teams play in bowls if we have to stay home, but hopefully the team uses that feeling as motivation to never have a repeat of that 1-5 start.
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Re: Next year will be the year we were looking for.......

We'll be lucky to be .500 next year, i'm sorry but the defense is god awful and i can't see it getting any better next year.  Not to mention what little run game we had is leaving us with Edgecomb and Pierre.
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