Listen To The Players…

[appgrad95&97]

We're not close to winning the Sun Belt. WE ARE NOT CLOSE. 5th in the East last year? 3rd, at best, this year? WE ARE NOT CLOSE. Every single Clark year has made winning the conference further away. That's not a crazy statement. What will be different in '24? Like will we have as much skill position talent as we did in 2020? '17, '18, '19, we were ranked at some point in the season. But now? Support Clark all you want, I actually respect that. But if you ignore the drop off over the last Clark years, that I DO NOT GET.

How do you know that? We have ONE loss in the SBC. There is ONE team in the East who is undefeated and they are still on our schedule. I do understand the frustration. Anyone who isn't frustrated right not hasn't been watching, but why are you giving up already? It's half-way through the season and nobody has dominated App, including a 14th ranked UNC. For 6 to 8 more games (hopefully 8 and yes...I know that's a reach) Clark is our coach. I DO NOT GET what value people think is being added by repeating the same statements over and over.

To answer your question, I do think our skill positions for 24 project very well. Another year of experience and dept for the defensive secondary, QB and a very talented WR group. Yes, I think those guys collectively are comparable to 2020. I'm no expert though. For the record, I'm not saying "wait till next year." I think this year's team has the ability to turn this season around and I do think that's what needs to happen.

You're points are very fair. I think it is less that we disagree and more that we see things differently. I don't see improvement. Coming off the Wyoming game there was a lot of "our defense is getting better" talk. ULM showed me that isn’t the case. They seemed to expose our secondary. They jumped out to a 14 point lead. The very next game the same thing happened. I don't see improvement. JMU, Marshall and Ga St. "look" better to me. I think we could absolutely win out. I just see the week to week improvement to give me your confidence. I am also worried about Nole, if he gets hurt, that's a lot of production we don't seem able to replace (see the ground game v. Costal).

[Pikapp79]

I have been a Panthers fan since their inception (it's tough these days) and I discuss them a good bit with a friend of mine. I have actually raised this question-if you knew the Panthers would win the Super Bowl but absolutely stink for the next 5 years would you take that over being consistently good and making the playoffs most of the 5 years but not winning it all would you take it? We both agreed that we would take the first scenario all day long.

I would take either scenario over losing the Super Bowl and stinking the next 8 seasons.

If stinking for 8 years brings a SB then one is close to arriving.

[CornCobPipes]

I am being patient with the team and the coaching staff. We are younger across the board and I still have faith this bunch can turn some things around. Folks have to realize that the entire conference has gotten not only more competitive but better. ULM is not a terrible team albeit on paper they can be percieved as the bottom of the conference. Texas State is probably the biggest sleeper at this point. In the East ODU is no pushover. Folks need to realize the parity in the conference right now from head to toe.

[Yosef84]

We're not close to winning the Sun Belt. WE ARE NOT CLOSE. 5th in the East last year? 3rd, at best, this year? WE ARE NOT CLOSE. Every single Clark year has made winning the conference further away. That's not a crazy statement. What will be different in '24? Like will we have as much skill position talent as we did in 2020? '17, '18, '19, we were ranked at some point in the season. But now? Support Clark all you want, I actually respect that. But if you ignore the drop off over the last Clark years, that I DO NOT GET.

How do you know that? We have ONE loss in the SBC. There is ONE team in the East who is undefeated and they are still on our schedule. I do understand the frustration. Anyone who isn't frustrated right not hasn't been watching, but why are you giving up already? It's half-way through the season and nobody has dominated App, including a 14th ranked UNC. For 6 to 8 more games (hopefully 8 and yes...I know that's a reach) Clark is our coach. I DO NOT GET what value people think is being added by repeating the same statements over and over.

To answer your question, I do think our skill positions for 24 project very well. Another year of experience and dept for the defensive secondary, QB and a very talented WR group. Yes, I think those guys collectively are comparable to 2020. I'm no expert though. For the record, I'm not saying "wait till next year." I think this year's team has the ability to turn this season around and I do think that's what needs to happen.

You're points are very fair. I think it is less that we disagree and more that we see things differently. I don't see improvement. Coming off the Wyoming game there was a lot of "our defense is getting better" talk. ULM showed me that isn’t the case. They seemed to expose our secondary. They jumped out to a 14 point lead. The very next game the same thing happened. I don't see improvement. JMU, Marshall and Ga St. "look" better to me. I think we could absolutely win out. I just see the week to week improvement to give me your confidence. I am also worried about Nole, if he gets hurt, that's a lot of production we don't seem able to replace (see the ground game v. Costal).

You are probably right that we just see things differently. I think that's true of most of the posters on here. That's why some of the hyperbolic language is inappropriate (not pointing that comment at you specifically). All App fans want to see us winning. I do think the defense is improved over last year but also admit that the last two games have tempered my optimism...somewhat. It's getting harder to see that silver lining but it's there (in m opinion). The difference is that in both of the last two games, we have made adjustments to ultimately slow down the passing game. I do think those adjustments need to be made sooner...like hopefully in the game planning stage. I think moving forward, we have to assume that every team we play will plan to exploit the passing game. Our D needs to be aggressive and put pressure on the QB from the first down. Safeties need to stop cheating up and letting receivers get behind them. It doesn't take major adjustments to have a major impact. Sloan is a good coach and knows a heck of a lot more than I do, so that's my hope.

Joey is settling in and doing a good job. The play where the ball got deflected straight up and he jumped in there to deflect it and prevent the interception was impressive. Heads up play!

Bottom line is, there might be a decision to make by DG at some point. I hope not. My point is that the decision isn't on the table yet so conclusions are premature. I just think that Clark made some very good moves between the 22 and 23 seasons. I realize that some disagree and that's ok.

[Stonewall]

I watched "parity" stomp out Southern yesterday in a way that reminded me of our teams of the past. I don't know what we are doing wrong or right , or if our coaches are good , bad or average , at least no better than the rest of you . I can read a scoreboard , our record and the conference standings . At the end of the season our record , and to some degree , the standings will speak for itself.