What's Your "magic Number"?

[emmitt01]

nm

Edited December 31, 2007 by emmitt01

[woody82986]

I don't think it is out of the realm of possibilities for the football team to be a .500 team next season. After only 2 wins this past season, the goal should be improvement, and not perfection. 5 Wins would be an improvement.

[NT03]

ALL DEPENDS ON MENDOZA.

I think our offense is good enough to win 6 + games , but if our D does NOT make a dramatic change , I'm afraid we are looking at 4 wins max.

If maybe I wasn't on the naughty list this year , maybe Santa would of brought me DeRoach and moved Mendoza to LB coach ; then I would pick 7 WINs !!!!

[chrisfisher]

I say 6 wins... if we even have something that resembles a D1 defense, we'll win at least 6 (and should have this season). How many leads did we blow b/c of the defense factor?

Edited December 31, 2007 by chrisfisher

[0footballfan0]

ALL DEPENDS ON MENDOZA.

I think our offense is good enough to win 6 + games , but if our D does NOT make a dramatic change , I'm afraid we are looking at 4 wins max.

If maybe I wasn't on the naughty list this year , maybe Santa would of brought me DeRoach and moved Mendoza to LB coach ; then I would pick 7 WINs !!!!

2nd this, except I see 3 wins. I hope I am wrong (and good for UNT that I usually am), but if Mendoza stays I see a 3 wins. The O will be much improved due to maturity, but we lost some key defensive players, and I can actually see our D being worse next year.

I think Dodge is a very good coach that will not make it in D1 football if he insists on keeping Mendoza.

[Bryan316]

I'm hoping for 5 wins. Assuming the schedule rumors are correct, LSU and K-State are losses, Tulsa is a tossup, and hopefully the MGN travels to Houston for the Rice game and inspires a win. The Belt is always up for grabs, and even though we'll be penciled in as the second-to-last team by all of the magazines and polls we'll finish in the middle. We'll avenge the FIU loss, beat WKU at their place (and be classy about it), and at least one of the ULs will fall to us. Troy will still be ahead of us, and stAte, FAU, and the MUTS depend on when in the season we play them; disheartened after being drummed on by the SEC and Big 12 or after we've pulled ourselves back together and set our sights on the league championship?

[KingDL1]

I would feel very good about 6 wins, but that would but us just one win short of a possible bowl bid which would surely create sour grapes among some fans.

[GreenBat]

I hope we go winless, a perfect 0-12. There would be a mass suicide and get rid of the fans who want miracles. Let's hear it Dallas Green.

0-12, 0-12, 0-12, 0-12, 0-12, 0-12

[emmitt01]

I would feel very good about 6 wins, but that would but us just one win short of a possible bowl bid which would surely create sour grapes among some fans.

I don't see how 6 wins could possibly create sour grapes for ANY fan. If Ron Mendoza is still on this staff and we win six I think you'll hear the hallelujah chorus instead of the fight song late in the season.

[MeanGreenEagle]

I voted 9-11 wins. I WANT SOME LSU TIGER STEW!

[NT03]

I voted 9-11 wins. I WANT SOME LSU TIGER STEW!

A day early , but pass that GREEN KOOL AID u got!!

[FirefightnRick]

6 wins, with all the defensive talent and experience that we have lost.

Rick

[eulessismore]

I voted for 5 wins; that would give us something to build on; looking forward, I see some positives and some negatives:

Positives:

1. The offense showed major improvement after Vizza took over at QB, and the progress was steady, except for FIU.

2. Some of the new recruits should improve our defensive secondary, which was a problem from the first.

3. Some very good players were redshirted last year; as a homer, I'll mention Marcus King and Jordan Scoggins.

4. Returning upperclassmen will have actual experience in Dodge's system.

Negatives:

1. The offensive and defensive lines both lack depth; hopefully some of the remaining scholarships will go for the big guys.

2. Loss of good defensive players; as above, new secondary recruits look good on paper, but will we really have the cornerbacks, and in sufficient depth, that today's college game requires.

3. Need for infusion of defensive coaching, hammered away at by others, but again, need someone to work with cornerbacks and show results right away, due to LaCroix resignation.

4. Special teams were often a problem, any improvements seemed temporary, at best. The kicking game needs a lot of help.

One thought; hire someone who has experience coaching cornerbacks AND special teams.

[SHOSS]

5 wins

I believe we are 1 year into the 4 year Dodgeball plan. 5 wins is very optimistic for '08...and hopefully not the high water mark, but it will give us to be a bit more proud of... That offense, at times, was something to get really excited about. The other parts of the game will need to contribute a little bit more for this to happen. There is no doubt.

AND PLEASE!!!! All the fire Mendoza talk and Dodge will need to make a decision...blah blah blah... Come on... Yes, it was a bad bad bad season on defense... But, come on. The ENTIRE coaching staff deserves some time to get their feet wet. Seriously, enough already.

Realize that this a longer term plan. EVERYONE IS LEARNING HERE. Including our fanbase. Lets be a good supportive fanbase... It doesn't mean we can't be critical...but fanbases like the yankme's and ny giants fans have where they chant for firing coaches is disgusting... lets not be them... This board doesn't always have to be positive, but ...you get the picture.

GO MEAN GREEN!

[greenminer]

I don't see how 6 wins could possibly create sour grapes for ANY fan. If Ron Mendoza is still on this staff and we win six I think you'll hear the hallelujah chorus instead of the fight song late in the season.

I'm voting 3 until I see Mendoza prove he can learn/adapt.

If we win >5, I'll start writing a Green Brigade arrangement of Handel's Messiah.*

_{*Mr. Williams, don't hold me to it.}

Edited December 31, 2007 by greenminer

[MeanGreen61]

With Mendoza's defensive genius 0-12 is definately possible.

Until we get a defense, we will have little or limited success.

[Mean Green 93-98]

5. We had three additional wins easily within our grasp this year, and next year we will hopefully at least have learned how to finish out. I really think this is a good "magic number," as 6 wins would be a very pleasant surprise, and less than 5 wins would be a big disappointment.

[TheTastyGreek]

I stand by what I said a little over 6 months ago. 2008- Conference Championship. Nothing less is satisfactory. Whatever number of wins it takes to make that happen, that's my magic number.

Just thinking out loud here...

The collective wisdom of, if not the majority, then a loud and large group of this board is that Dickey had one good recruiting class (not that it had anything to do with him) and then put his feet up and cruised to 4 straight conference championships.

I've read, several times and from several people, that Dodge just delivered what may be the greatest recruiting class we've EVER had. So why is it that everyone keeps saying 2 or 3 years until we're winning the Belt again? Either the competition level in the Belt is stout, or it isn't.

This isn't me trying to turn this into a Dickey thread, I'm glad Dodge is here and the results so far are unbelievable. I'm just asking... Don't some of the people who were hyper-critical of Dickey need to be a little more consistent in their expectations of Dodge? I can't believe my eyes when I read "2, 3, 4 years" from people who I would expect to demand a conference title this year or next.

So there's my bold expectation. If we don't win the conference championship by 2008, then I don't think Dodge has lived up to the expectations of the fanbase, whether they'll admit it or not.

2007- Beat SMU. Dickey did it, I expect nothing less from Dodge. Beyond that, just get the system in place and lock down another year of desired recruits. One year, free pass (consequences, if not criticism), even if we're 1-11.

2008- Conference Championship. Nothing less is satisfactory.

Look at what Stockstill was able to do at MTSU in his first year, without a full load of scholarships. When the team roster completely turns over every 5 years, I don't think 2 seasons is unreasonable.

Again, this isn't a Dickey love-fest. I only brought him up to try and remind everyone of what everyone's expectations used to be. I'm happy to have Dodge. But let's be honest... if we're still not at the top of the Belt SOON... I'm honest enough to admit that I'll be very disappointed.

And I know that by speaking the name of the DickeyMonster that I just completely derailed this thread. Sorry, Emmitt.

[SilverEagle]

I say seven wins. Coach Dodge has proven that his offense can move the ball.....a lot. All he'll be doing about the offense is making a few adjustments during the off season. That will give him plenty of time to review what went wrong with the anticipated strength of last years team ......that turned out to be anything but....

[eppy4life]

I would love 5-6 wins. And I don't think that's asking a lot.

[emmitt01]

bump

[RETSO]

6-6 is realistic....I hope

[JesseMartin]

Ditto. I'm sticking with what I said THIS season should have been. 5-7 wins, right around .500. Emmitt's poll was perfectly phrased...with the supposedly awesome class coming in, 6 wins should be about right.

Edited December 31, 2007 by JesseMartin

[Monkeypox]

I stand by what I said a little over 6 months ago. 2008- Conference Championship. Nothing less is satisfactory. Whatever number of wins it takes to make that happen, that's my magic number.

And I know that by speaking the name of the DickeyMonster that I just completely derailed this thread. Sorry, Emmitt.

The problem with your Dickey/Dodge comparison is that the competition in the Sun Belt has gotten infinitely better since those days when we were winning it. We were not a very good team but were lucky to be in an even worse conference. Troy and FAU are way way way way way better than anything we had in the Belt back then. They beat name teams, something we never did when we were dominating the fledgling Belt.

Oh, and Dickey didn't get that conference championship in his 2nd year. He won a combined 8 games his first three years, so if we're ignoring differences in competition (which seems to be the case), we can say Dodge is getting significantly less leeway.

At this point, I'll say 5 wins.

Edited January 1, 2008 by Monkeypox

[GoMeanGreen1999]

I think we should get 5 wins next season.