WKU Football: Bold Prediction Week — Sanford Will Win Fans Over in 2018
Welcome to The Towel Rack’s Bold Prediction Week as we officially kickoff our football coverage for 2018. Each week, there’ll be a…
Welcome to The Towel Rack’s Bold Prediction Week as we officially kickoff our football coverage for 2018. Each week, there’ll be a different theme pertaining to WKU football, with this week’s being a smattering of bold predictions our writting staff has about the upcoming season.
If you’ve spent any time around any of the virtual water coolers we call the internet since the Cure Bowl came to an end this past December, WKU fans have been displeased with the year one performance of new head coach Mike Sanford, and are ready to write his hire off as a bad one.
And, maybe I’m being too optimistic (which, if you know me, never happens when it comes to how I feel about one of my teams), but I think 2017 is going to be an anomaly of the Sanford Era, however long that becomes. My bold prediction for 2018 is that this year, Mike Sanford is going to win over the fans that have already written him off.
As has been chronicled on this very site, 2018 is going to be disappointing in terms of recent Hilltopper past, there’s no way around that. But, that doesn’t mean 2018 will go down as a complete dud, which is where Sanford comes in.
If he is able to put up strong showings in weeks one and three in Wisconsin and Louisville, and is able to win all of the toss up games (Ball State, ODU, Charlotte and FIU, specifically) and can steal a win against someone like Marshall or Louisiana Tech, that puts the Tops in the seven or eight win range, which essentially exceeds all expectations and guarantees a bowl bid.
But it’s more than the results. Towards the end of last season, it looked like the team was disinterested in playing (whether for Sanford, specifically, I cannot speak to). If Sanford’s talk from the spring is going to be backed up, the Tops are going to look like their having fun again on the field.
And we can’t talk about Sanford’s successes without looking at recruiting; while it remains to be seen who from the incoming class are going to get snaps, it’s hard to argue that Sanford isn’t getting the job done on the recruiting trail, and he continues to have success heading into his second class.
Even if it’s as simple as this; if the Tops turn in a three or four win season, everyone’s going to say that’s exactly what they thought happened based on their prejudices against Sanford. But, if the Tops exceed (or, I think in some people’s mind, meet) expectations, they’ll have to at least give him props for that.
I’m not saying everyone is going to be sold after this season. I’m not even really saying I expect people to be fully flipped on the guy. But, I do think he’ll have a far fewer amount of nay-sayers heading into 2019 than he currently has as 2018 is upon us.
What do you think about this bold prediction? What bold prediction do you, yourself, have for the upcoming year? Let us know in a comment below, on Twitter or on our Facebook page.