Random thoughts: does a 5-7 season have us think that Albin may still be the answer? If he goes 0-12, does he return next year?

Also, what would it take to get CJ Harris under center? Is that a reasonable hope for this year?

I'd be shocked if they became bowl eligible. Success to me would just be showing some type of proof of concept that this staff knows what the hell they're doing. It really doesn't even have to be a win-loss record necessarily. Just show me SOMETHING.

If there's any hope to be had, both Grobe and Knorr lost to fcs/1aa teams. Both those teams picked themselves up pretty well and finished "ok". Yes even the knorr team.

Given what we've seen so far, a winning season is probably out of the question. We have four to six more teams on the schedule that are probably better than the two we've played so far -- Louisiana, NWern, CMU, Toledo and maybe Buffalo and Kent. Doesn't bode well for avoiding a losing season.

So for "success" we need:

A coaching staff that understands that in order to win against mediocre to good teams you can't just sit in a formation and run unimaginative plays. You need some motion from the backs and receivers, some misdirection plays, and to get wideouts involved in the running game. So far, they've had one such play out of the 100+ they've run.

A quarterback who understands the read option and can execute it.

A defense that can stop the run, even if that means putting eight or nine in the box.

Getting the d-backs to stop playing eight or ten yds off receivers. A lot of what Duquesne did was completing quick passes for five yds or so because our d-backs were playing too soft. Plus there isn't a lot you can do to disrupt a route when you're playing that far back.

It would be good if we could have this by the end of September.

I know that a ranked Washington team and Florida State both lost to FCS schools. But let's not get confused. Montana would probably beat JSU and JSU would be a big favorite over Duquesne. To me it isn't so much that we lost to Duquesne. The difference between winning or losing by 2 isn't so meaningful in projecting the rest of the season. We beat Hampton 59-0 a few years ago. If we had a upper tier MAC team we should have, in all probability, done something close to that to Duquesne. I hope the Dukes are better than expected but this is much more discouraging than Knorr losing to Northeastern. After the absurdity that was 2001 I don't think many of us were surprised by Ohio losing to team that finished #11 in 1AA. Grobe's loss to NIU was more disappointing but that team also finished #15 in the FCS. Duquesne might not be top 70.

I think by one measure BGSU and Akron were the two youngest teams in the FBS last season. There are no highly probable wins as of now.

Masseyratings.com and teamrankings.com say that 3-8 is the most likely record.

FPI Says:
Louisiana 9%
Northwestern 7%
Akron 70%
CMU 16%
Buffalo 8%
Kent St. 22%
Miami 31%
EMU 16%
Toledo 10%
BGSU 56%

By FPI 2 or 3 wins is the the most probable. I'd take a 4 win season right now in a heartbeat. I'd be pretty surprised if we can get there. I hope we do but I can't reasonably expect 4 wins.

I'm going to wait until after the Louisiana game to decide what my expectations are for the rest of the season. Albin is really got the spotlight on him now. Let's see how he performs. They say that a team improves the most between its first and second game. I'm still holding out hope that in OHIO's case it'll be between the second and third game. I really think we have some talented players on this team. If Frank was still at the helm, I don't think we'd be 0-2 right now. This start, IMHO, is on the head coach. Let's see if he can dig his way out of the hole. I'm not ready to bet against it.

Have you taken some sort of offense to this? I don't understand why.

Could you drive your car 100MPH in the wrong lane and get where you are going faster? Is it possible? Yes. Do people do it? No, because the odds of it turning out well are not in your favor.

FPI gives New Mexico St. a 0.1% chance to beat Alabama. Are they going to play the game? Is it possible for NMSU to win? Yes and Yes. Are they going to offer a straight up even money bet on who will win this game? No, because no reasonable person would bet on NMSU. Not even the most rose colored glasses NMSU fan would take that bet. Everyone would bet on Alabama and if they offered bets like that I hope we all agree the casino would lose its shirt and go out of business.

Vegas lines need to represent the most reasonable outcome given the evidence at hand. If they didn't they couldn't exist. Those probabilities can easily be translated into Vegas style odds if you prefer that. If they weren't close to correct in that regard most of the time they also probably wouldn't exist. I actually like the Odds represented in Percent chance of winning better than the expected Spread BECAUSE it shows that there is doubt. It always shows that there is a chance the underdog could win and there is still a reason to play.

Now given that, is there a chance that Ohio could have a winning season? Yes. Should we be thinking that it is reasonably likely? Of course not! Is it as crazy as a NMSU fan expecting to beat Alabama? No, it isn't that far out there but it should still be considered pretty unlikely.

The program probably just had its worst result in more than 3 decades. Arguably, the Northeastern loss was worst because Ohio got shutout but Northeastern was probably a much, much, much better team than Duquesne is. Some of those Ohio teams were pretty darn bad. Some of them were even the very worst team in the FBS/1A. This team just outperformed all of them in ineptitude. If that doesn't tell you something about resetting what is most realistically likely range of wins this team might have then I don't knw what will.

According to this in the Duquesne game thread, yes it is correct.

http://www.bobcatattack.com/messageboard/topic.asp?FromPa...

Git aht!

At this point, a successful season would be if the coaching staff gets abducted by aliens forever.

So - The Basketball school vs Football school debate heats up once again....

The cheerleaders don't throw out those little white footballs anymore, do they? I remember many games in the early 2000's when a friend and I sat in the vacated-after-halftime student section hoping to see one of the cheerleaders succeed at firing one of those little white footballs out of the stadium over the bleachers. Does that date myself? Could we bring those back?

The couple we got 8-10 years ago had a sponsor on them. Did the ADept lose the sponsor and not get a replacement, or just decide not to bother with them anymore?