Thoughts on 2018 Team Goal

BillySee58 · December 17, 2017

I always thought it was a little weird that our team goal was to win our bowl game. I found it weird that we would prioritize winning a bowl game against an opponent that could be a double digit win team or a 5-win G5 who got in on APR, or anywhere in between, over winning our division or conference. Also because winning our conference could mean a better bowl opponent thus making it harder to achieve our "goal" of winning our bowl game despite winning the conference.

All that to ask, what do you think our goal should be next year? Obviously winning the west is not aiming high enough, so do you guys think it should be winning CUSA or winning our bowl game? If I had to guess, it will be winning our bowl game again since it is "unfinished business" but I think winning the conference is more important and defined, personally.

outoftown · December 17, 2017

8 minutes ago, BillySee58 said:

I always thought it was a little weird that our team goal was to win our bowl game. I found it weird that we would prioritize winning a bowl game against an opponent that could be a double digit win team or a 5-win G5 who got in on APR, or anywhere in between, over winning our division or conference. Also because winning our conference could mean a better bowl opponent thus making it harder to achieve our "goal" of winning our bowl game despite winning the conference.

All that to ask, what do you think our goal should be next year? Obviously winning the west is not aiming high enough, so do you guys think it should be winning CUSA or winning our bowl game? If I had to guess, it will be winning our bowl game again since it is "unfinished business" but I think winning the conference is more important and defined, personally.

I get what you say, it makes plenty of sense from an AD or fan perspective. From a fan perspective or when the AD assess the coaches, I think winning a conference championship is likely more meaningful.

But SL is not concerned with that. I think when anouncing public goals his only thought is what it will do to his players focus. I think the bowl game is the goal because it keeps the players focused until the very last game of the season, while it would be very hard to resume focus if players feel they already achieved their goal. We would like them to be mature enough to always be focused, but the reality is 18-22 year olds cannot always manage that without help. Which is why SL likely gives that message out for the players and likely doesn't give two figs about your valid argument.

All that said, my personal expectations for next season are for this team to win the west and going 3-1 in OOC. I still don't see UNT winning the conference, but going 3-1 in OOC would mean there is either a win over Chad Morris' current team or one over his former team in the book.

Edited December 17, 2017 by outoftown

UNT86 · December 17, 2017

Win our bowl game.

Ten bowl games, 3 wins.

Win our bowl game.

BillySee58 · December 17, 2017

4 minutes ago, outoftown said:

I get what you say, it makes plenty of sense from an AD or fan perspective. From a fan perspective or when the AD assess the coaches, I think winning a conference championship is likely more meaningful.

But SL is not concerned with that. I think when anouncing public goals his only thought is what it will do to his players focus. I think the bowl game is the goal because it keeps the players focused until the very last game of the season, while it would be very hard to resume focus if players feel they already achieved their goal. We would like them to be mature enough to always be focused, but the reality is 18-22 year olds cannot always manage that without help. Which is why SL likely gives that message out for the players and likely doesn't give two figs about your valid argument.

Good post. Really well put. I don't entirely agree with the logic but it makes sense

BTG_Fan1 · December 17, 2017

1- Undefeated at home.

2- Sweep CUSA west

3- Win CUSA

4- Have a successful bowl season..

5- Turn these 1 score games into multiple score wins..

Edited December 17, 2017 by BTG_Fan1

GRN-WHT · December 17, 2017

I think the goal should be to end the season in the top 25.

That means winning both the conference and a bowl game.

Harry · December 17, 2017

I feel like our situation is eerily comparable to the Houston Oilers back in the "Luv you" Blue days. They would get better every year but they still had to play Pittsburgh in the AFC championship game. Yes it would be great to win the conference and get in the top 25 and those are good goals to have. But guess what, in C-USA you still have to beat Kiffin and FAU to do that my friend. And so far he is still there. Can we make that type of jump on one year? I think we can but we are going to have to kill it in recruiting and I don't mean high school guys you have to hit big on jucos as well. We also have to figure out why our preseason top ranked defensive secondary went down the commode. What the hell happened and how can we fix that? As painful as the FAU games and this Troy game were, we need to remind ourselves at how good they were against us and what we can do to get where they are. At this point in time, they are further along the path we need to take to reach our goals.

MrStrange18 · December 17, 2017

10 minutes ago, GRN-WHT said:

I think the goal should be to end the season in the top 25.

That means winning both the conference and a bowl game.

Even if we do that, I don't think we finish top 25. The CFB world has looked down on us for too long.

We do that in 2018 AND 2019... I say we finish top 25

KingDL1 · December 17, 2017

Beat SMU

Win Bowl game

Got5onIt · December 17, 2017

Goal every year:

1. Win CUSA West

2. Win CUSA

3. Win Bowl

greenminer · December 17, 2017

5 hours ago, MrStrange18 said:

Even if we do that, I don't think we finish top 25. The CFB world has looked down on us for too long.

We do that in 2018 AND 2019... I say we finish top 25

I think if we sweep conference and win a few games handily, we would get some votes. We could get in if we do that AND make some serious noise OOC.

UNT 90 Grad · December 17, 2017

Goals

2016: Win our bowl game

2017: Win our bowl game; go undefeated at home

2018 (predicted): Win our bowl game; go undefeated at home; Win our conference

SilverEagle · December 17, 2017

6 hours ago, KingDL1 said:

Beat SMU

Win Bowl game

..........AND Arkansas.

NorthTexan95 · December 17, 2017

Winning the bowl wasn't the only goal. The team had several goals including going undefeated at home. Winning the bowl game is a goal the team can keep to the end of the season. I think it's as simple as that.

UNTexas · December 17, 2017

Be better than this year. No one is really saying it but when this team faced good teams, they were blown out. SMU, FAU and Troy embarrassed us. Our defense is terrible. Our offense is sporadic. Special teams started terrible and finished strong.

As far as the AD, choosing Troy in NO was a disaster. If there was a chance to play anywhere else they should have taken it. The empty stadium was really sad looking. I had several people comment to me about us having no fan base. High schools have better turnout then we did yesterday. I can't blame anyone for not bothering to going there to watch us play the Sunbelt, who also blew us out.

It really makes me sad to think the best we'll ever hope for is pretty much what we have now. G5 teams essentially have no end game. UCF is undefeated and #12. We had 9 wins and got Troy in a terrible bowl. Oh well. It is what it is. At least Portland State didn't destroy us. Sorry to be a downer but its how i view it all now.

keith · December 17, 2017

For me, it’s conference championships first then bowl games . The bowl is the last game of the season. It’s obviously much better to end the season with a win and some hardware for the trophy case. I can see where winning a bowl game can make up for not reaching the conference championship goal.

Felozano · December 17, 2017

14 hours ago, MrStrange18 said:

Even if we do that, I don't think we finish top 25. The CFB world has looked down on us for too long.

We do that in 2018 AND 2019... I say we finish top 25

Maybe. It depends on the quality of our wins. How good is Arkansas, SMU, C-USA East Champ, and our bowl opponent? We’d have to be really good against them.

If we stay the course, I’d love to see a ranking next to our Mean Green! Exciting times to be an Eagle!

I realize I’m assuming a lot, but it’s fun to be a fan.

Wag Tag · December 17, 2017

Team goal? Number 1 keep Fine healthy!! A winning record and a bowl game. I hate we are playing SMU our first game instead of our second. A big difference with FAU in 2018 is playing them in Texas and not the HUMIDITY of Florida.