I guess it should be no surprise that our Apps are ranked first in the SunBelt for 2016. I happened to be in Ingles grocery today when the lady was changing the mags and the lady put out Athlon's and Sporting News's preseason magazines. Both had us winning the SunBelt. Athlon had Arky second followed by GASO. Sporting News had it reversed with GASO second and Arky third. So I think that makes it three with the Bleacher report ranking. I do believe that it is ours to win. It is a long season and injuries do play a big part. I must say it is really something to be in our second full season and we are projected to win our conference and ranked like 58 overall. That is so much better than like 125..... Scott and the staff have done a tremendous job.

Concur!

BIG target on our backs.......but we've been here before.

I'm eager to see how well Southern handles the change in coaching staff.

GS also has to play all the top teams this year, multiple Thrusday games, only five home games. They have a very tough schedule.

Good news for their young coaches their first four are some of the easiest.

It is nice to be listed as well as have been this preseason. We have two things working for us. Faith and Hope. Faith that we play well with the experience that returns and with the new team members play well, mature quickly. Hope that we will not see the injury bug hit in the waning final part of the season.

The fact that we finished 11-2 with all the injuries we had last year was nothing short of a miracle.

My vision for App as an FBS school was to reach a national status similar to Boise St. To do this I believed that our first step was to reach a consistent top tier level within the Sun Belt in the first few years as FBS. This would mean finishing 1 or 2 for 3-5 yrs without dropping to mid/lower level of conference. I truly believed that was achievable. In doing so, it would mean that we would then be recognized nationally as a consistent top G5 team (top 1-10 year over year). Again, in doing so, it would also mean that we would likely be considered a consistent top 15-35 FBS team nationally. Once we reached that level it would propel us into a consistent serious national discussion year over year. This would place App in the national discussion and make us a relevant national G5 powerhouse.

I believe we are on this track and it will prove that the move was justified and appropriate. We still have a lot of depth building along the way as that will provide the foundation for longevity and consistency at this level. That will also allow us to compete for an even higher level of recruit thus pushing us further up the pecking chain.

Not only are we on track but well ahead of schedule. My feelings during the transition was it may take years to get into the scheduling and potential top25 or even conference championships. But I am pleased with how things are going into this season. It will be the toughest season in history. Another 10 -11 win season would be huge beyond belief

Our schedule is tougher this year (especially OOC) but GaSo's is an absolute killer as far as travel and game days/times. App just can't afford the one "let down" conference game like ArkSt (or Troy) last year. Hopefully App will win at least 9 games and be in the top 2 in the conference again this year to establish consistency much like we saw from 2005-2010. A Sunbelt title and bowl win against a really good G5 would be huge step forward.

Good comments in the last couple posts. My hopes in moving up were in line with AtlAppMan's. In the shorter term, I just wanted us to show that we could beat enough bad FBS teams to make a bowl in 2015.

Obviously we're ahead of schedule in that regard. I think a lot of us - myself included - have had to quickly recalibrate our standards, and in the process maybe gotten a little spoiled. We've gone from hoping App could make a bowl to at least semi-seriously discussing goals like a top 25 ranking and even a NY6 bowl.

I think this year will tell us whether those latter goals are truly realistic at this stage or we need to set the bar at competing for the Sun Belt title and winning bowl games for a few years.

In understand people saying 9-3 would be a good year, and in a vacuum, it would be. But if those three losses were to Tennessee, Miami and Southern, what would be the highlight of the season? What would be the best win? The signature accomplishment? Hopefully a bowl win to top it off. Otherwise, we can get to 9-3 by beating the teams we're (mostly heavily) favored to beat. That's not a bad spot to be in, of course. But it wouldn't be a step forward, either.

After the first half of 2014, I was legitimately thrilled with ANY FBS win. Now I'm a little past that point, because I think our program has grown past that point. I want to see if we can make some more noise outside NC and the Sun Belt.

If we are fortunate enough to go 9-3 we will have beaten a minimum of two bowl teams.

9-3 and a another bowl win with this schedule would be the equivalent of last years success. 9-3 and a SBC title would be an improvement.

Saint3333 wrote:If we are fortunate enough to go 9-3 we will have beaten a minimum of two bowl teams.

9-3 and a another bowl win with this schedule would be the equivalent of last years success. 9-3 and a SBC title would be an improvement.

Agreed. If we can win 9 and get at least a share of the Sun Belt title I would view that as a slight improvement. Our OOC conference schedule is much better than last year with Akron and Miami being big upgrades over Wyoming and Howard, and the other two games being equal to last year. In conference will be slightly easier due to not playing stAte, but GS is on the road this year. Matching last years 10 win total would be a significant improvement as it would mean we either run the table in conference or beat a P5.

Saint3333 wrote:If we are fortunate enough to go 9-3 we will have beaten a minimum of two bowl teams.

9-3 and a another bowl win with this schedule would be the equivalent of last years success. 9-3 and a SBC title would be an improvement.

The only way 9-3 and a Sun Belt title would be an "improvement" (assuming one of the losses is in conference) would be that we got some help that we didn't get last year. We wouldn't have actually done anything better, and in fact 7-1 would arguably be less impressive this year since we don't play A-State.

As far as beating "bowl teams" - I assume you mean teams that made bowls last year. Who knows which teams on our schedule will be bowl teams *this* year (most project Akron to drop off from last season, for example). But nine of our opponents are ranked 95th or lower on ESPN's preseason FPI. Maybe someone will surprise; simple math makes it likely that one of the other Sun Belt teams will make a bowl. But if we're sitting here in December and our best win is over a 6-6 Georgia State or Troy team, it's going to be hard to spin that as progress IMO. Certainly not compared to blowing out Southern last year or ULL the year before.

Here's a question for everyone - if you could only do one, would you rather beat Miami or win the Sun Belt title?

Personally, I'd take the Miami win without a second thought.

No I mean bowl teams for 2016. The SBC puts 5 teams in bowls this year and ODU will likely make one as well.

Miami win or SBC title is a tough call, slight lean to Miami to build on the casual fan interest.

I'd take Miami as it is a huge headline grab if we pull it off. We obviously want to win the conference, but beating Miami in Boone would make a mark on recruiting and fan involvement quicker.

JTApps1 wrote:I'd take Miami as it is a huge headline grab if we pull it off. We obviously want to win the conference, but beating Miami in Boone would make a mark on recruiting and fan involvement quicker.

Agreed. A Miami win would go a lot further in terms of national attention. No one outside of the SBC will really remember who wins it.

EastHallApp wrote:Here's a question for everyone - if you could only do one, would you rather beat Miami or win the Sun Belt title?

Personally, I'd take the Miami win without a second thought.

I'll take both.

NewApp wrote:

EastHallApp wrote:Here's a question for everyone - if you could only do one, would you rather beat Miami or win the Sun Belt title?

Personally, I'd take the Miami win without a second thought.

I'll take both.

There's always one...