Realistic goals for first season in Sun Belt

[appyirish]

App never boards a bus or step on a plane to lose a football game. Our goal are conference championships, plain and simple.

[WataugaMan]

App never boards a bus or step on a plane to lose a football game. Our goal are conference championships, plain and simple.

Yes, we never board a bus without breaking out a window with a goal post.

[kgblade]

I absolutely expect to compete for the title. Give us 22 more schollys and one year of getting better recruits to add to the talent we have and this new staff that I have tremendous confidence in and I wouldn't expect anything other than to be in contention for the title.

[3rd]

Our record will depend on how we break in a brand new QB we should have the talent around him, but how he preforms will make or break our first season

[Black Saturday]

QB no doubt is significant piece to the success puzzle as will our LB corp which we enter the 2013 season as unknown as we have in a decade. LBs will have to step up, develop, and produce.

[asutrnr81]

Contend for a championship early and win one soon!

I do not expect to win them all but I do expect us to win!

We are recruiting a "bunch" of QB's and Lamb is supposed to be the real deal! He better be, because right now we are not very good at QB!

[AppState89]

8-0 why not??? I think we can go 5-3....If we can beat Troy, I think we can win our division....I have to think positive...

[mfrench]

Winning em all is the goal but .500 is imperative year one.

[Yosef84]

I would think anything close to .500 would be a success. Depends on the schedule but I don't believe it will be as easy as some think.

Never know how it will play out but I believe we have the potential to do much better than .500. New QB is the biggest concern for me but in terms of competition, I think we can play with most. It is actually good to have some games out there that aren't necessarily "should wins" for a change.

[Yosef]

I would think anything close to .500 would be a success. Depends on the schedule but I don't believe it will be as easy as some think.

Never know how it will play out but I believe we have the potential to do much better than .500. New QB is the biggest concern for me but in terms of competition, I think we can play with most. It is actually good to have some games out there that aren't necessarily "should wins" for a change.

Bobby Lambs kid is supposed to be the real deal. We will find out soon enough.

[Yosef84]

I would think anything close to .500 would be a success. Depends on the schedule but I don't believe it will be as easy as some think.

Never know how it will play out but I believe we have the potential to do much better than .500. New QB is the biggest concern for me but in terms of competition, I think we can play with most. It is actually good to have some games out there that aren't necessarily "should wins" for a change.

Bobby Lambs kid is supposed to be the real deal. We will find out soon enough.

I think we have more depth than most people think, but with injuries and other issues, we haven't been able to develop it too much. I would love to see Lamb's kid step up and become the man!

[bcoach]

I would think anything close to .500 would be a success. Depends on the schedule but I don't believe it will be as easy as some think.

Never know how it will play out but I believe we have the potential to do much better than .500. New QB is the biggest concern for me but in terms of competition, I think we can play with most. It is actually good to have some games out there that aren't necessarily "should wins" for a change.

Bobby Lambs kid is supposed to be the real deal. We will find out soon enough.

I think we have more depth than most people think, but with injuries and other issues, we haven't been able to develop it too much. I would love to see Lamb's kid step up and become the man!

If we have depth at QB they must have been on vacation during the spring practice in Charlotte and the spring game in Boone.

[AppGrad78]

I wouldn't be too critical of our backup quarterbacks. I didn't see our scrimmage at Ardrey Kell, but the rules in place for the scrimmage in Boone weren't designed to showcase a quarterback's skills, particularly a quarterback operating the spread-option. When the quarterback a) can't run, and b) knows the play is dead if he is touched by a defender, then it's bound to impact the other parts of his game.

[firemoose]

I wouldn't be too critical of our backup quarterbacks. I didn't see our scrimmage at Ardrey Kell, but the rules in place for the scrimmage in Boone weren't designed to showcase a quarterback's skills, particularly a quarterback operating the spread-option. When the quarterback a) can't run, and b) knows the play is dead if he is touched by a defender, then it's bound to impact the other parts of his game.

Exactly. I said this in the Spring Game thread. There were several plays Barnes would have broke long runs and was only touched by a defender who was behind him. Hallock had a few also. Plus a lot of our playbook was shut down simply because the QB was taken out of the equation. A little hard to have a read option when one option isn't there. Main reason we showed so many sacks and TFL's. Plus we didn't throw it down the field much due to the winds that day and the QB's only had about 2 seconds to throw before someone was touching them and the play was dead. Not saying we have the next Armanti or Ritchie in any of them but I'm going to hold off judgement until fall camp, especially on the arms.

As a scout we never paid any attention to camps or scrimmages. The only film you watched was game footage. You can learn more from watching a kid in a high school game than you can from a college scrimmage. And as a player, while you might want to clean the snot out of a few of your teammates sinuses once in a while you really don't want anyone to get hurt. Game day is a different matter altogether.

[87ASUgrad]

I thought the QBs did pretty well at the spring game. They did not get killed while running for their freaking lives. I was hoping coach would give them some roller skates to help avoid the rush. They also completed some good passes and could have broken some runs open. First year in Sun Belt will be a success when we finish in upper part of conference...after we get everyone safely out of UM game.

[bcoach]

I wouldn't be too critical of our backup quarterbacks. I didn't see our scrimmage at Ardrey Kell, but the rules in place for the scrimmage in Boone weren't designed to showcase a quarterback's skills, particularly a quarterback operating the spread-option. When the quarterback a) can't run, and b) knows the play is dead if he is touched by a defender, then it's bound to impact the other parts of his game.

Which of those things was causing passes to be batted down at the line? I understand the scrimmage rules and all but they just didn't look very strong.

[GlassOnion]

I dont worry about Hallock or Barnes against average FCS competition, especially if theyre behind our starting 5 Olinemen. I would not, however, be comfortable with them going into the 2014 schedule.

One of the biggest questions I have going forward is on the OL. Again, FCS games, I think we're fine, but we've got very little depth on the OL compared to the depth of some of these SB teams on D. Its the hits on whoever is our starting QB that I worry about. It doesnt matter whether its Hallock, Barnes, Bryant or L-Jackson, if theyre going to get pounded every game like L-Jackson got in the ECU game, we arent going to have enough QBs to make it through the season.

[JCline0429]

...

The thing that 22 scholarships adds at the mid-major level is depth more than just better players per say. This is why we were beating ECU for 3 quarters and suddenly lost by double digits int he fourth quarter. We have one and two deep rosters that are just as good as any CUSA, AAC, SBC ect's one and two deep, but we then have a steep drop off of kids that do not belong on the field at that level of play.

I could see us doing as poorly as 3-5 and as well as 5-3...

I would agree about the 3-5 or 5-3 and would think that either would be a good start. Fans do have to be realistic.

Depth is a problem when we play up, but the first ECU game lost was due to not playing Cadet until it was too late and then he had a brain fart on the last TD play. The second lost was due to using their replacement referee's (sorry but this is one case I think that was true).

But depth has always been a problem playing up which should be handled by the extra players.

Cadet was relatively untested. In effect he was the 3rd team back up QB. What evidence from him previously that he could do what he did? There wasn't as I seem to recall. Too, he came in after the Pirates were sucking wind. He didn't have much success later on as back up to AE, I believe. He sings the praises of Jerry Moore for his time under JM thus it looks like we should definitely give JM a pass on this.

[MountaineerChemist10]

I'd say our top priority 2015 should be to have a better record than GSU, not to mention a .500 record

[asutrnr81]

Not based on anything scientific but I get the feeling the coaches feel like we have a bunch of holes. Just that old coaches look when you ask them about the move.

Now as for QB and making excuses for the spring came.....We are in a world of crap is JJ get banged up or if he can't come back at all. I am still not convinced he will be ok come August. Barnes is NOT a QB...IMO...we need to find a home for him at another position as soon as possible. I hope Lamb is as good as advertised. Hallock is a great kid and had a great game replacing JJ, but I can't see him throwing the ball well with his height disadvantage. Forget the running, did anyone see either one of these kids throw the ball it was awful.

In addition, I am not sold on starting a 5'6" running back that weighs 165 tops.

For the SoCon we will be OK but I do not know about 2014......I will wait to say but I would hope 5-3ish in the conference but we could be 3-5ish in the conference.