Honestly, I'm taking a look at the schedule and I can't see any reason why we would have 4 losses or more.

Worse case scenario: losses @ Colorado, @ Tech, and @ Oklahoma

Anything else is unacceptable IMO.

The scariest game is at Clemson.

That being said, anything less than 8-3 regular season IS a disappointment. AND we have to win one of these two:

@Tech
Texas

preferably Texas, because I don't see us doing it next year in Austin.

I think eight wins is a must. That being said, 7 wins could happen and I hope that it doesn't.

disappointment? Yes, yes indeed. Put up or shut up time. I have my money on put up.

Everything in this room is edible. Even I am edible. But that dear children is what we call cannibalism and that is frowned upon in most societies.
--Willy Wonka

yes. 9 wins or bust.

yes

ABSOLUTELY.

We are Texas A&M and I fully expect to beat teams like Clemson, KSU, Colorado, Texas Tech, Iowa State, and Oklahoma St. None of those teams are elite teams like Texas and Oklahoma -- there really is no excuse for not taking care of business against all of those guys. Sure it's tougher to play teams on the road, but we have better athletes. No excuses -- we need to have that swagger that says we're here to take care of business. My over/under on regurlar season is 9-2...less, and I'll be very disappointed and will feel like we under-achieved.

Not per se. It's a factor, but not a dispositive one.

yes...im on the fence with the feeling that even an 8 win season would be a disappointment.

I agree. Anything less then 8-3 is a large disappointment. However if we go 8-3 AND win our bowl game then i would consider that a sucusseful season but marginally disappointing.

I think 9 wins should be our goal to shoot for and a birth in a big time bowl. I think its very attainable and i think it will happen this year.

Let's see. One of the highest paid coaches in college football who just got a big raise. 3 years with a stable coaching staff. 3 years under new strength and conditioning program. 3 solid recruitng years. Great fan support. A team with a senior QB who is being hailed as a potential Heisman winner. Hell yes I'll be disappointed with less than 8 wins.

Yes. i understand we have a tough schedule, but that's how it works in this conference......you're paid to win. recruiting is nice, facilities are nice, sell-out crowds are nice (threw that in for fun), but ultimately you are paid to win. when you accept a coaching position in the big xii you are aware of what you have to produce against. though i see us w/ between 7-9 wins, it's time to produce.

If we finish at 8-3 next year, I will be extremely disappointed. If we had beat Baylor last year as we should have, we would be 8-3 right now. 8-3 is not an improvement.

From what I have heard and seen from Fran and from what he is getting paid, I expect the team to be getting better, not leveling off. IMO we have been closing the talent gap on the Big 12 South Superpowers and we are in the third year of a new system. We should be expecting great things.

If we go ____ I will be ____:
8-3 or worse / extremely disappointed
9-2 / content
10-1 / very happy
11-0 / ecstatic

I hope we aren't setting ourselves up for a major disapointment.

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I hope we aren't setting ourselves up for a major disapointment.

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Stupidest post ever, what are we supposed to hope for 7 wins every year, we need to start competing for National Titles. We should expect to win every game, anything less should be disappointing.

What is this I'm reading here? 7 is ok but but 8 would be better and 9 would be great??


This is a ATM forum right??

I haven't posted on alot of forums that I've been known to lurk in. In fact, I can't say that I've posted on this one w/o looking.

I do know that you guys have one of the most tradition filled program in the NCAA. I can't believe you guys don't think that (given a few breaks) you can beat EVERYONE on your schedule.
Know matter how good your opponents are on any given saturday they are beatable. I just have to look at my Wolverines record every year to know that. But every year we sit around and talk about what it would take to win them all. Not how many we might lose.


Optimism is always better. Now I'm climbing down off my soapbox and going to read the next thread. And hope you guys do better that you think you will.....at least til you play Michigan in The Rose Bowl



BHD

thanks for un-lurking bhd....always welcom outsiders (especially from outside the conference).

If you think the worst case scenario involves losses only at CU, @ tech and @ OU then you might be setting up yourself for disappointment. I think realistically you could go 10-2 to 7-5 (I'm counting bowl games). Realistically, most of your road games are setting up to be difficult. I think many of you are chalking up an automatic W in Clemson simply based on last year. That game, @ KSU, @ Tech and may CU are likely to be tossups at best. I think what you have to look for is continued improvement against the top teams.

Hookem

I would be disappointed in 8-3 simply because as a poster earlier put if we had taken care of business with Baylor last year then we would have been 8-3. It is time for Fran to start earning his money. I plan on being at every home game, the Clemson and the Colorado games. I'm hoping those are 8 wins alone.

Games 1-8 A&M is clearly the better team and should be favored.

1)SMU, 2)Texas state and 3)baylor should be pretty automatic. Spare me the upset last year upsets and flukes happen.

4)Clemson, 5)colorado, and 6)kstate are all very tough road games but we have more depth, have out recruited, and are are better teams then theses schools.

7)Iowa state and 8) Oklahoma state are in the same boat as the teams above but they are playing at kyle feild. Frankly i think the 3 teams above are better then both iowa state and oklahoma state.

The only games on the schedule that we should not be favored by on paper is tech and oklahoma as well as texas. A&M is not going to swept in these last 3 games. We wont win all 3, but i gurantee you this A&M team is not going to drop all 3.

We "should" win games 1-8 and be 8-0 heading to tech. Lets say we do drop a game to clemson or colorado. So we are 7-1 heading to tech. Either way i think 7 wins is going to be fairly easy to attain but getting that extra 8th and 9th win might be more difficult.
Does being better then a team on paper equte wins? Of course not. What im saying is that its been a LONG time since we could honestly say that we were better or favored then 8 teams on our schedule. Also, Clemson is the most important game of the year imo.

[This message has been edited by bullard21k (edited 7/27/2005 9:10p).]

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The only games on the schedule that we should not be favored by on paper is tech and oklahoma as well as texas. A&M is not going to swept in these last 3 games. We wont win all 3, but i gurantee you this A&M team is not going to drop all 3.

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Saving the thread now!

Why, on paper, would we not be better than Tech too? Have not we "out-recruited them" as much as any of the other teams?

I think you know the answer to that.

I'm looking for 8 or more wins this year, but fully realizing that critical injuries to a few of our play makers could be a huge factor. There are a couple of positions with little depth or unproven back ups.

In addition to the 8 wins or more, to be improved, I don't want any blow out losses!
To me, anything more than 14 points is a blow out. Also depends on how close the game is played and how close the score is with say
5-8 min. remaining in the 4th quarter. You see a lot of games that are very even, with one team up one TD and the team that is behind driving to tie it up and a turnover causes the final score to be a 14 point loss.

It was nice going to the Cotton Bowl last year, but the blow outs by Utah and Tenn., along with not being competitive with t.u. in the second half and the loss to Baylor, plus last play wins at home with tech and colorado shows how much improvement is needed!

ATM football. to call our program not elite now, i fully agree with, but all time ATM and Clemson have comparable histories. All time wins, conference championships, national championships, bowl wins, and series histories. I think u guys do have about 30 more wins then us all time, but i think we have more conference titles and a better bowl winning %. I think our teams our really comparable on paper.

8 wins is the benchmark for me.

I will be very, very, very upset if we are not 7-1 or 8-0 headed to Lubbock. If we aren't, we have wasted a career of probably the best A&M football player ever, Reggie McNeal.

We will miss him oh so very much in 2006.

This is the year. If we are 8-0 headed to Lubbock, anything can happen. Momentum is an unusual thing.

Everything that has happened in Fran's career at A&M has built us for this run, this year.
- 77-0 taught how far we had to go.
- Baylor taught us that we can't overlook anyone.
- Colorado and Tech taught us how to win games at the end.
- KSU taught us that no matter how good we scheme for a top player, others can step up.
- OSU taught us how to dominate on the road.
- Tennessee showed us what we need to be.

I really feel that this is the year, and Fran knows it. I think we will see more true fish play in 2005 than Fran has ever done. Coffman, Gregg, Bennett, Lane, Richardson, all could and will likely play. If anyone can help us in 2005, Fran will let them.

joerains

I hope we stick to our guns and don't take / make excuses if our team doesn't measure up this year.

7-4 or less would be a FAILURE. I don't want to hear why that kind of record is acceptable come December.

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I think you know the answer to that.

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If you don't want to explain it to me, just say so.

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4)Clemson, 5)colorado, and 6)kstate are all very tough road games but we have more depth, have out recruited, and are are better teams then theses schools.

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Is the same not true for Tech? Tough road game? Yes. Out recruited? Yes-at least if you buy into all that stuff. Why doesn't the same logic apply for Tech?

[This message has been edited by _mpaul (edited 7/27/2005 11:22p).]

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probably the best A&M football player ever, Reggie McNeal.

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Ah, the melodrama of off-season.

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Baylor taught us that we can't overlook anyone.

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A lot of fans need to re-learn this lesson.


[This message has been edited by _mpaul (edited 7/27/2005 11:24p).]

talent wise what player can you say was? Reggie hasn't exactly been surrounded by All-American talent these past years. I know excuses, excuses but still, if he was at USC people would be talking about possibly one of the greatest college football players of all-time. Perspective, bias, and all of that take effect on me obviously and even I can tell I still have my maroon-painted shades on right now.

Yes, I would be unhappy with anything worse than 8-3 in the regular season.

I'm expecting 7 wins - 1 loss between Clemson/KSU/CU and losses to OU/UT/Tech. We will end the season on a crappy note like we did last year. OU and UT are simply at another level than we currently are. Tech will be extremely difficult and we haven't won on the road there in a very long time. This is realistic given our performance last year and the way we got outplayed against strong teams.

What's Vegas giving as the over/under on wins?

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If you don't want to explain it to me, just say so.

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If you want to stop playing stupid and asking questions you the answer to that would be great. Tech is always a wild card no matter who they are playing and that includes A&M. With the difficulty it is to scheme for such a unique offense tech can beat anybody on any given day. In the same way they can lose to anybody on a given day. Add to that they play on an extremely diffcult surface if you arent familiar with it and it plays very fast fitting right into their type of game. But you already knew all that.

I will be very disapointed if we have anything less than an 8 win season for the next 5 years.

yes