I'mma quote Monroe from another thread, because it needs to be restated and not lost in the Terdite gloating:

(A) After 3 games, we're 1-2. This is where most of us predicted we would be.
(B) With the possible exception of NIU, there isn't a game left on the schedule that we will look as bad as we have the last 2 weeks...and we get NIU at home so don't write that one off either. BG will be tough, but who knows which BG team shows up, and I like our chances in that one now after seeing them a couple of times.
(C) 7 wins gets us a bowl bid. Hell, 6 wins may. Only the most unrealistic Kool-Aid drinkers expected more than 7 or 8 wins this season.
(D) The offense has issues. Some of these were expected--youth and inexperience, but I thought the offense looked much improved yesterday. It's going to get better.
(E) Play-calling is a problem. I think we only have 10 plays we run, and it is not too difficult to predict what play is coming. Having QBs that are more dynamic than what we have seen in recent years is helping, but even in 2011, we had much more creativity in play design.
(F) Maybe (E) gets better as (D) gets better. I hope so, because there is a lot to like about this set of players moving forward, and I would hate to see that wasted by coaches refusing to utilize the players.
(G) The world is not ending because Marshall finally beat us. The world is not ending because of how Marshall beat us. They were due. Congratulations to them. It's time to move on.
(H) Idaho is not good. We win the next 2, by a lot, and the green Kool-Aid will be flowing again as we go into October.
(I) MAC East.
(J) MAC Championship.

I know it's still early and we can't tell much about how teams are doing. But here's the rest of our schedule:

Idaho 0-2
EIU 0-3
at CMU 2-1
BG 2-1
Akron 1-1
at WMU 1-1
Buffalo 1-2
NIU 3-0
at Fiami 0-3

Six of nine at home. Only three of the nine have winning records, and only one of those is on the road. There's plenty of opportunity there.

i gotta say i'm with c money on this. i was thinking we needed to get counselors on the site yesterday for all the doomsday talk. now, in two weeks if we are not 3-2, then i'd say the wheels have fallen off.

the MAC east is still possible. So is a MAC Championship. I don't expect either, but it's still possible. we ARE 1-0 in the conference.

i'd say kentucky and marshall are both pretty good football teams. we played three games on the road and we were huge underdogs in two of them. vegas thought we would be 0-3 i think at this point. they do it for a living. the rest of us just think our lives depend on the Bobcats.

are we a great football team? certainly not at this point. will we get better as the season progresses? i certainly hope so.

so relax and realize these are growing pains. let's get a win saturday. then another one the following week and then evaluate.

Rather than give a facile answer, I thought about your question, and decided it needs to be answered on multiple levels. There are goals related to the players, to the team, and to the University. In fact, there are a lot of goals.
1. To coach the players to each improve their individual skills
2. To encourage the players to have academic success
3. To teach the players good work and play habits, and leadership skills
4. To enhance the college experience for all students
5. To increase the University's awareness across the country
6. To increase ties to alumni across the country, and to increase their connectedness to campus
7. To increase giving to the University
8. To attract more and better students to the University
9. To promote ties to the local community, closing the town-gown gap
10. To attract people to Athens, and promote growth in SE Ohio
11. To win games without compromising integrity
12. To go to bowl games
13. To win championships

No doubt each of us has individual goals for what they would like to see happen, and each of us would rank my 13 goals that I listed above in a different order in terms of importance, or they might have additional goals that I haven't thought of. How we each rank these goals no doubt affects our perception of the level of "success" or "failure" of each individual team, and of the coaching staff in general.

As for this year's team, they are exactly where I predicted before the season that they would be. They have done some thing better than I expected, and some things worse. I'm still behind them 100%, and I still expect 7-8 wins this year.

People, we're in FIRST place in the MAC right now! There isn't a team in the conference that wouldn't trade us places in the MAC standings. We lost to an SEC team on the road and to CUSA's best team on the road as well. Some of you need to get a damn grip already and stop your damn complaining.

And, L.C. this is major college football. Reverse the order of your goals and you are right. But, it ALL starts with winning championships. That will bring those other things. If the other things are coming now it is NOT because of football.

I find most of this thread amusing. For a significant part of Ohio's gridiron history, Ohio has been just awful in football. Up until Coach Solich came, with the rare exception of a year here or there, Ohio has just plain sucked in football for two generations, literally. Now, because OUr coach can't beat an SEC team on the road nor does he beat a potentially Top 25 team on the road he's "not getting it done"? And all this while the team sits atop the MAC East! When did we as a fan base become so demanding?

PG asked, what is our goal, beating mediocre teams? No. Our goal at the very most is a MAC Championship, nothing more. A goal which ironically is still attainable for Ohio. Neither a national championship nor a BCS bowl has never ever been nor will it ever be attainable for Ohio. Ever. Ohio is not that kind of school that will support the effort to get to that level and it will never have the infrastructure to do so. So given that, Coach Solich has gotten Ohio almost as far as Ohio can get, IMHO.

Better facilities all the way around, for one. Their stadium's larger and nicer, thereby helping to attract better recruits. Ohio's just catching up now on an indoor practice facility. NIU's had one for awhile. NIU's devoted more resources and for a longer period of time. And I guess I would go so far as to say NIU's 2012 season was an outlier-as I recall several teams had to lose at the end of the season for them to make the Orange Bowl. And, NIU was able to recruit an absolute difference-maker at quarterback in Jordan Lynch. As good as Tettleton sometimes was in 2011 and 2012, Lynch was better.

Damn straight I hope Ohio plays in an Orange Bowl some day. I highly doubt it though, especially with the realignment of power that's occurred with the Big 5 conferences and everyone else.

The points of satisfaction and disappointment all have elements of truth. The reality is somewhere in the middle: much, much better than before, but stagnation lately.

For the umpteenth time, unless this offense shows some scheme/play-calling/playing-the-right-players imagination then there are going to be big, justifiable complaints.

When our offensive approach is such that the opposition's D-coordinator must love what we do, then there are problems.

See, this team has A LOT of potential** but I can't see it approaching it with the stale/stuck offense we have.




**As L.C. tells us, the 2010 recruiting class ended up kinda a black hole but the talent in the last two classes and the next one is notably better than Coach has brought in to date. Much better, deeper talent now.

CMU and BG will be tough both played extremely well in their recent games against their power five opponents granted both came from the Big 10 and Akron seems to look much improved from recent years and NIU looks strong again. Games are still very winnable just hope the Cats don't suffer another October slump like they've had the past couple years.

Mark you may in fact be right. But that begs the question: what are we doing here then? Schools aren't lowering to FCS because the onlt thing attainable is a conference title game. Schools are doing the opposite, because lucrative bowl games are attainable at the FBS level. So why can't people like myself have higher expectations?

Re NIU. Its interesting that their advantages haven't helped them in basketball.

What are we doing here-what's the purpose? To see the Marching 110 perform! Duh!

But seriously, I guess it's what it's always been-win the MACC and all that winning a MACC entails. What's the team's purpose? The same that it's been for the last umteen years really-provide an enjoyable Fall afternoon (I mean really, what's nicer than Athens in the Fall!? Well, Athens in the Spring but I digress) for it's fans, win the game that's on the schedule and act in a manner that reflects well on the school, its students and its fans. I admit, my answer is very "Polyannish". But for me, I've never had any delusions where Ohio stands within the grand Ponzi scheme known as NCAA Division 1 football.

And you can indeed have higher expectations but please realize the high cost associated with wanting to achieve more. Coach Solich makes a great deal of money but didn't I read somewhere that he's not even within the top 90 of college football coaches? And many people within the Ohio University community moaned and groaned when when he got the raise he did get. And in major college football what Solich is making is chump change! Ohio just now got an IPF and it's no-frills one at that (granted, I love the place). A lot of the MAC has had an IPF for years, so it's not like Ohio's racing ahead of anyone there. Quite frankly, where it not for the Walter faamily's financial contribution there'd be no IPF now. Ohio barely had the financial resources just to renovate the players' locker room. And what I'm about to say will be heresy to a lot of you but it is what it is-Peden Stadium's a dump. I mean really. The Tower has been renovated and from the outside looks OK, but look down in the concourse where refreshments are. It's like the Luray Caverns of Virginia down there for heavens' sake. I am being harsh, Peden's quaint and has its charm, at least to us. I like Peden. But as far as major college football stadiums go? I don't think so. And our ticket prices are much, much cheaper than at other large schools yet many people complain about how expensive our tickets already are. All this is why I say Ohio doesn't have the infrastructure nor the stomach to elevate itself into the big football conferences, and I for one am more than OK with that.