The Towel Rack Mailbag: Preseason Expectations and More Preseason Expectations
It’s almost the end of the silly season we call the “offseason,” and conference media days are in, or about to hit, full swing.
It’s almost the end of the silly season we call the “offseason,” and conference media days are in, or about to hit, full swing.
With each passing day comes the build up and anticipation for football.
Unless you’re like most Hilltopper fans, who are ready to count the season out before it even gets going. Which, is why we exist, to not necessarily sugar coat things for you, but to put things in a more tempered way — to try to see through a lot of the online chatter and bring you another perspective.
Anyway, that’s a long way of saying you have questions, and we have answers in our latest impromptu mailbag.
That really depends on who you ask.
If you ask those who are often in our mentions, the outlook for this season is a three-win slate, and then the program is folding.
A more realistic outlook is; the outlook entering the season isn’t nearly as good (for obvious reasons, with the Tops entering last year as the two-time defending champs and all) this year.
However, if you’re asking if the outlook for this year is better or worse than the results of last year, I’d say it’s pretty on-par. I think the consensus among those not in the “this is a three-win team camp,” has been this is a team that could luck their way into six, or hell even seven wins, to become bowl eligible.
Also, the outlook is a lot fuzzier than it has been in years past due to all of the question marks that we have coming into this season that haven’t been there in the past (just to name a few, we’re unsure of the state of the offensive line, what the quarterback play will look like, some holes on defense, and will the play calling be just as befuddling as last year).
The closer we get to the start of the season, the more I’m starting to drop any expectations I have, and just let things playout as they may.
To your second point, Timothy — those games you mentioned, which were all losses, were close, but so were the wins against ODU and UTEP (both on the road). Steven Moffett said on Twitter last night and it’s 100% true; the Tops were equal parts away from a nine-win season that they were a five-win one.
It honestly just kind of lucked out this way that the questions we got were so similar to one another. But, to answer your question Stephen, absolutely.
Let’s take the Wisconsin and UofL games off the table. Lets also take the FAU game off the table.
That leaves win opportunities against; Maine, Ball State, Marshall, Charlotte, ODU, FIU, MTSU, UTEP and Louisiana Tech.
The best estimate out of that group is seven wins. If things realllly go the Toppers’ way, we could be looking at an eight-win campaign (and I think the only way that happens is if the Tops head to Ruston with seven wins already).
Honestly, if the Tops get a bowl, it’ll be the best-case scenario. I’ve been saying for a couple of months, but I think the Tops will be a six-win, bowl eligible club this year, but’ll be one of the few teams on the outside looking in when it comes time to it.
I hope I’m wrong, and I obviously hope for those breaks to come to get the Tops to eight wins, but with the questions surrounding the team, and if they play anything like they did last year, that’ll be a tough, tough ask.