Dick Rosenthal {l Wrote}:I think Purdue is the hinge game for next year. Holy Cross and Ohio are gimmes. I am assuming that a reasonably competent coaching staff should beat Kansas, even if it is on the road. Purdue is a hard read. If they are like they were last year, then we should beat them solidly at home. If they are the Purdue of two years ago, they will gut our defense simply because of the lack of talent.
As for the ACC, Clemson is going to have their way with us, unless we are the game they go to sleep during the season (like UNC this year and Syracuse two years ago), in. which case we will lose a close game but one that won't really be indicative of anything other than Clemson took the week off. I would assume that UNC will continue to improve under Mac Brown and that Louisville will continue to improve under Satterfield but those are both winnable home games. My assumption is that the Cuse will continue to be a dumpster fire. Ditto NC State. Tech and Wake Forest are both winnable road games. Florida State is a mystery to me--my assumption is that Norvell will make them better out of the gate and they beat us the last two years, so even assuming, as I do, that Hafley will be a big upgrade over Daz, I still think that will probably be a road loss.
Considering how bad the back end of our defense is likely to be next year because it is bereft of talent, I would consider it a very good year if Hafley won the gimmes, beat Purdue and Kansas, beat the Cuse and NC State, and got a home split between Louisville/UNC and a road split with Tech/Wake. I have no expectations with respect to Clemson other than we show up and give a good effort and I'd like us to play FSU close in Tallahassee. That gets you to 8 wins and 4-4 in the ACC with a 1AA defensive backfield and a 1AA QB, with a chance to win 9 in whatever mid-tier bowl we'd end up in. If we can land a decent graduate QB from the transfer portal, then 9 wins are not out of the question as there is a lot of offensive talent around the current hole at QB. With that said, looking at the portal, outside of Feliepe Franks, I don't see much that would be better than AB (assuming you can talk him into coming back).
8-4 hardly constitutes being cum drunk--I'd reserve that for anyone thinking that there is any chance this team goes 10-2 or 9-3 without a major upgrade in talent from either of the current big weaknesses on the roster (DB and QB).
I'm not expecting very much of Hafley in his first year. Its still the same players (more significantly, the same defensive players.) It was obvious in the wins this year, the defense played best when they recovered turnovers or when they just didn't have to take the field. A great time-consuming offense vs Pitt, NCState, and Syracuse was the team's best defense. I'll be very interested to see what kind of players that Hafley recruits for the team, particularly on defense. We'll see if they are good enough to play, immediately.
I'd love it if the team could actually win 8 regular season games next year. But I have no expectations. Having said that, let me say this: I had HUGE expectations of Jagodzinski in his first year because I knew the national championship talent was on the team.
Feminism: Eve eats ALL the apples, gives God the middle finder when He confronts her, and has the serpent serve Adam with an injunction ordering him to stay away from her AND to provide her food and shelter because he dragged her out of the Garden.