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If you think morale is low now…

Yeah, the other thread asked how hot is Gus' seat after this year, and I say not at all right now, but that could change if serious changes and improvements aren't made in the offseason. I truly believe this 9-4 team we have this year would've been in the realm of 4-8 or 5-7 if we had played in the Big 12 this year. I think if we're slow to find success in the Big 12 it won't take long for us to start looking elsewhere.
 
Wait until we lose the majority of our games next year. Outside of Kent State and Villanova next year, there aren’t anymore cupcakes in the schedule.

Baylor, Ok State, and TCU will beat us into submission.
I don't think morale is low. These boards invite more complaints than compliments. However we do have good reason to remain positive. In two years Gus has won at least nine or more games per season despite massive changes in personnel and still not having a roster full of his own guys.

Our roster at this point has loads more talent than we had two years ago and is still improving in the level of talent as we speak.

Next year, we will win at least two out of conference games and possibly three (Boise is also a winnable game).

Although there are no cupcakes in the Big 12, we are no cupcake either. We should win approximately 4 or 5 of our conference games.

Thus, we should win 6-8 games in our inaugural season in the Big 12. That is sufficient to build on, go to a bowl game, and continue to improve the roster and program from there.

.
 
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yeah the AAC always has a Temple on the schedule which is easier than the 1AA game . That is gone in the Big 12. Kansas is the bottom feeder and they started good enough to host a Gameday
 
I don't think morale is low. These boards invite more complaints than compliments. However we do have good reason to remain positive. In two years Gus has won at least nine or more games per season despite massive changes in personnel and still not having a roster full of his own guys.

Our roster at this point has loads more talent than we had two years ago and is still improving in the level of talent as we speak.

Next year, we will win at least two out of conference games and possibly three (Boise is also a winnable game).

Although there are no cupcakes in the Big 12, we are no cupcake either. We should win approximately 4 or 5 of our conference games.

Thus, we should win 6-8 games in our inaugural season in the Big 12. That is sufficient to build on, go to a bowl game, and continue to improve the roster and program from there.

.
What are the 4-5 wins in the Big 12 you see? I’ll give you maybe wins over Iowa State or Kansas, but everyone else has as much talent or more than we do.

WVU was pretty bad and I don’t think we could even beat them as things stand. Gus had better live up to his recruiting prowess or next year will be a long year.
 
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What are the 4-5 wins in the Big 12 you see? I’ll give you maybe wins over Iowa State or Kansas, but everyone else has as much talent or more than we do.

WVU was pretty bad and I don’t think we could even beat them as things stand. Gus had better live up to his recruiting prowess or next year will be a long year.
We are competitive with almost all of the teams in the XII. It's not about who has the better 85. The guys sitting on the bench don't make tackles or score points for either team.

It's about the best 22 plus about 20 quality reserves, especially later in the season. There is no defense in the country that can stop JRP when he is on. Did you see what he did to LSU in LSUs heyday? TC is an awesome qb talent as well. We have P5 starting level talent at RB and WR.

Admittedly we need to continue to upgrade but all teams across the country are in a constant state of change in this era. Our incoming recruits along with upcoming portal activity should enhance our roster even more.

That being said, our top 22 and rotational guys will be competitive with approximately 9 or 10 of our potential 13 XII opponents. Of those we will win some and we will lose some. That is where I am projecting we will win 4-5 of our conference games. Of course, this cannot be validly supported or disputed until we know which 9 conference opponents we will face.

Who are we competitive with?
Definitely Competitive with (meaning for this discussion that we could win or lose against them): Kansas, Iowa State, WVU, Cincy, Houston, Texas Tech, BYU, Kansas State (loss in 22 to Tulane who we beat once in 22, and their All-world rusher Deuce Vaughn probably leaves this year). That's 8 teams.

Possibly Competitive with: (meaning possible win but it would be an upset) Ok. St. (down year in 22. Let's see how they rebound); Oklahoma (they looked bad in 22, 6-6, and their best skilled players are jumping ship. If we can keep it close against their flawed defense for one half DG can get rattled, especially if we get 1-2 good hits on him. He gets soft and jumpy after taking hits); Baylor ( they are good but not infallible world beaters). That's 3 teams.

Not competitive with (Highly unlikely we beat them in year one): Texas and TCU. 2 teams
 
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We are competitive with almost all of the teams in the XII. It's not about who has the better 85. The guys sitting on the bench don't make tackles or score points for either team.

It's about the best 22 plus about 20 quality reserves, especially later in the season. There is no defense in the country that can stop JRP when he is on. Did you see what he did to LSU in LSUs heyday? TC is an awesome qb talent as well. We have P5 starting level talent at RB and WR.

Admittedly we need to continue to upgrade but all teams across the country are in a constant state of change in this era. Our incoming recruits along with upcoming portal activity should enhance our roster even more.

That being said, our top 22 and rotational guys will be competitive with approximately 9 or 10 of our potential 13 XII opponents. Of those we will win some and we will lose some. That is where I am projecting we will will 4-5 of our conference games. Of course, this cannot be validly supported or disputed until we know which 9 conference opponents we will face.

Who are we competitive with?
Definitely Competitive with (meaning for this discussion that we could win or lose against them): Kansas, Iowa State, WVU, Cincy, Houston, Texas Tech, BYU, Kansas State (loss in 22 to Tulane who we beat once in 22, and their All-world rusher Deuce Vaughn probably leaves this year). That's 8 teams.

Possibly Competitive with: (meaning possible win but it would be an upset) Ok. St. (down year in 22. Let's see how they rebound); Oklahoma (they looked bad in 22, 6-6, and their best skilled players are jumping ship. If we can keep it close against their flawed defense for one half DG can get rattled, especially if we get 1-2 good hits on him. He gets soft and jumpy after taking hits); Baylor ( they are good but not infallible world beaters). That's 3 teams.

Not competitive with (Highly unlikely we beat them in year one): Texas and TCU. 2 teams
Agree with this take. The first group you listed we would have a 40-80% fpi against. 2nd group would be like a 25-55% chance. Texas and tcu we would have about a 10-15% chance of winning
 
Wait until we lose the majority of our games next year. Outside of Kent State and Villanova next year, there aren’t anymore cupcakes in the schedule.

Baylor, Ok State, and TCU will beat us into submission.
We may end up missing 2 of the 3 you mentioned, or all of them. Only 9 conference games means there will be 4 teams we don't play. Should know by mid December what our schedule will be.
 
We are competitive with almost all of the teams in the XII. It's not about who has the better 85. The guys sitting on the bench don't make tackles or score points for either team.

It's about the best 22 plus about 20 quality reserves, especially later in the season. There is no defense in the country that can stop JRP when he is on. Did you see what he did to LSU in LSUs heyday? TC is an awesome qb talent as well. We have P5 starting level talent at RB and WR.

Admittedly we need to continue to upgrade but all teams across the country are in a constant state of change in this era. Our incoming recruits along with upcoming portal activity should enhance our roster even more.

That being said, our top 22 and rotational guys will be competitive with approximately 9 or 10 of our potential 13 XII opponents. Of those we will win some and we will lose some. That is where I am projecting we will will 4-5 of our conference games. Of course, this cannot be validly supported or disputed until we know which 9 conference opponents we will face.

Who are we competitive with?
Definitely Competitive with (meaning for this discussion that we could win or lose against them): Kansas, Iowa State, WVU, Cincy, Houston, Texas Tech, BYU, Kansas State (loss in 22 to Tulane who we beat once in 22, and their All-world rusher Deuce Vaughn probably leaves this year). That's 8 teams.

Possibly Competitive with: (meaning possible win but it would be an upset) Ok. St. (down year in 22. Let's see how they rebound); Oklahoma (they looked bad in 22, 6-6, and their best skilled players are jumping ship. If we can keep it close against their flawed defense for one half DG can get rattled, especially if we get 1-2 good hits on him. He gets soft and jumpy after taking hits); Baylor ( they are good but not infallible world beaters). That's 3 teams.

Not competitive with (Highly unlikely we beat them in year one): Texas and TCU. 2 teams
How dare you have a rational perspective on this board.
 
"Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark, who succeeded Bob Bowlsby in August and visited BYU on Sept. 10, confirmed last month that the schedule would be released in December."
 
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We are competitive with almost all of the teams in the XII. It's not about who has the better 85. The guys sitting on the bench don't make tackles or score points for either team.

It's about the best 22 plus about 20 quality reserves, especially later in the season. There is no defense in the country that can stop JRP when he is on. Did you see what he did to LSU in LSUs heyday? TC is an awesome qb talent as well. We have P5 starting level talent at RB and WR.

Admittedly we need to continue to upgrade but all teams across the country are in a constant state of change in this era. Our incoming recruits along with upcoming portal activity should enhance our roster even more.

That being said, our top 22 and rotational guys will be competitive with approximately 9 or 10 of our potential 13 XII opponents. Of those we will win some and we will lose some. That is where I am projecting we will win 4-5 of our conference games. Of course, this cannot be validly supported or disputed until we know which 9 conference opponents we will face.

Who are we competitive with?
Definitely Competitive with (meaning for this discussion that we could win or lose against them): Kansas, Iowa State, WVU, Cincy, Houston, Texas Tech, BYU, Kansas State (loss in 22 to Tulane who we beat once in 22, and their All-world rusher Deuce Vaughn probably leaves this year). That's 8 teams.

Possibly Competitive with: (meaning possible win but it would be an upset) Ok. St. (down year in 22. Let's see how they rebound); Oklahoma (they looked bad in 22, 6-6, and their best skilled players are jumping ship. If we can keep it close against their flawed defense for one half DG can get rattled, especially if we get 1-2 good hits on him. He gets soft and jumpy after taking hits); Baylor ( they are good but not infallible world beaters). That's 3 teams.

Not competitive with (Highly unlikely we beat them in year one): Texas and TCU. 2 teams
The reality is we’ll probably win maybe 2 games in conference. EVERY Big XII team has a deeper bench than we do and our top players couldn’t get it done in a weaker conference. JRP is not a Big XII QB. Sorry, he’s not. We have zero depth at any position. Gus has to do a drastic overhaul of his offensive system and we have to find a defensive coordinator that has a clue how to make adjustments throughout the game. This team is not ready. Several of our best players are bailing and the backups either aren’t as talented or have no experience. Where’s this optimistic outlook of multiple victories coming from? Not trying to be a negative Nancy but we couldn’t win a very weak AAC. I love this team but we’re going through a hard time and talking positive isn’t going to help us. Action by Gus and Company is the only thing that can.
 
The reality is we’ll probably win maybe 2 games in conference. EVERY Big XII team has a deeper bench than we do and our top players couldn’t get it done in a weaker conference. JRP is not a Big XII QB. Sorry, he’s not. We have zero depth at any position. Gus has to do a drastic overhaul of his offensive system and we have to find a defensive coordinator that has a clue how to make adjustments throughout the game. This team is not ready. Several of our best players are bailing and the backups either aren’t as talented or have no experience. Where’s this optimistic outlook of multiple victories coming from? Not trying to be a negative Nancy but we couldn’t win a very weak AAC. I love this team but we’re going through a hard time and talking positive isn’t going to help us. Action by Gus and Company is the only thing that can.
Who are the two teams you feel we can beat in the XII? How did you quantify the depth of the bench in every Big12 team? Source please.
 
Who are the two teams you feel we can beat in the XII? How did you quantify the depth of the bench in every Big12 team? Source please.
Quit trying to be so “Oh yeah, prove it “. I don’t know the strengths or weaknesses of any of our opponents but I have to believe they all have a deeper bench than we do . Our lack of a bench showed this year. Could we win some games we’re not supposed to? Of course, it’s college football. But you’re fooling yourself if you believe we have the depth of most of the BXII teams. But, I could be wrong, so please state your source that proves my observations false.
 
Quit trying to be so “Oh yeah, prove it “. I don’t know the strengths or weaknesses of any of our opponents but I have to believe they all have a deeper bench than we do . Our lack of a bench showed this year. Could we win some games we’re not supposed to? Of course, it’s college football. But you’re fooling yourself if you believe we have the depth of most of the BXII teams. But, I could be wrong, so please state your source that proves my observations false.
Thanks for allowing that you "don’t know the strengths or weaknesses of any of our opponents.". I will leave you to think on that and maybe do your own research.
 
Regarding how well we'll do in the Big XII, I see a lot of opportunity. Even OKST who a lot of people believe will be at the top of the conference has significant flaws. Gundy is one of those coaches who doesn't like recruiting and in this transfer portal era I don't see him being able to replace athletes who transfer out. Plus he's an OKST grad who has deep connections with faculty and admin, and they have been relatively loyalty him so he might be around for a while. Some other programs would have fired him several years ago.
 
Regarding how well we'll do in the Big XII, I see a lot of opportunity. Even OKST who a lot of people believe will be at the top of the conference has significant flaws. Gundy is one of those coaches who doesn't like recruiting and in this transfer portal era I don't see him being able to replace athletes who transfer out. Plus he's an OKST grad who has deep connections with faculty and admin, and they have been relatively loyalty him so he might be around for a while. Some other programs would have fired him several years ago.
Didn’t Sanders leave them? He was good before he got hurt.
 
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Thanks for allowing that you "don’t know the strengths or weaknesses of any of our opponents.". I will leave you to think on that and maybe do your own research.
If I’d known you would take every word I wrote as gospel, I’d have said I don’t know what ALL of the strengths and weaknesses of each team are, but based on the BXII vs AAC recruiting over the last several years a logical fan would have to believe they have deeper benches.

But you of course have completed an intensive study of each and every team in the Big XII, allowing you to have insights that no one else has? By your response, you obviously have, so please enlighten us uneducated and share your deep knowledge of those teams, thereby proving my statement false. Otherwise, all you’re doing is saying you disagree but provide no alternative viewpoints or research to support your stance. I have no problem with people disagreeing with my observations; show me where I’m wrong. Smarmy statements don’t do that.
 
If I’d known you would take every word I wrote as gospel, I’d have said I don’t know what ALL of the strengths and weaknesses of each team are, but based on the BXII vs AAC recruiting over the last several years a logical fan would have to believe they have deeper benches.

But you of course have completed an intensive study of each and every team in the Big XII, allowing you to have insights that no one else has? By your response, you obviously have, so please enlighten us uneducated and share your deep knowledge of those teams, thereby proving my statement false. Otherwise, all you’re doing is saying you disagree but provide no alternative viewpoints or research to support your stance. I have no problem with people disagreeing with my observations; show me where I’m wrong. Smarmy statements don’t do that.
They all have better depth and deeper benches than we do. Even the middle of the pack teams like Texas Tech and WVU will have more depth than us. And they should they’ve all been recruiting with the P-5 label. We will get there, but it will take a few years with that P-5 tag. We’ll win some games for sure, but I don’t see us being better than 6-6 or 7-5 at best. We’re losing almost our entire O-line after all.
 
If I’d known you would take every word I wrote as gospel, I’d have said I don’t know what ALL of the strengths and weaknesses of each team are, but based on the BXII vs AAC recruiting over the last several years a logical fan would have to believe they have deeper benches.

But you of course have completed an intensive study of each and every team in the Big XII, allowing you to have insights that no one else has? By your response, you obviously have, so please enlighten us uneducated and share your deep knowledge of those teams, thereby proving my statement false. Otherwise, all you’re doing is saying you disagree but provide no alternative viewpoints or research to support your stance. I have no problem with people disagreeing with my observations; show me where I’m wrong. Smarmy statements don’t do that.
If you wanted to be educated you would have opened with questions. Instead you opened with an attack based on a hypothetical foundation for which you offer presumptive support. I can't educate those who create their own facts.

Try looking at the average recruit value for UCF over the last 3 cycles, including hs and transfer players. Then see how many Big 12 teams are behind us. Then we can chat.
 
The reality is we’ll probably win maybe 2 games in conference. EVERY Big XII team has a deeper bench than we do and our top players couldn’t get it done in a weaker conference. JRP is not a Big XII QB. Sorry, he’s not. We have zero depth at any position. Gus has to do a drastic overhaul of his offensive system and we have to find a defensive coordinator that has a clue how to make adjustments throughout the game. This team is not ready. Several of our best players are bailing and the backups either aren’t as talented or have no experience. Where’s this optimistic outlook of multiple victories coming from? Not trying to be a negative Nancy but we couldn’t win a very weak AAC. I love this team but we’re going through a hard time and talking positive isn’t going to help us. Action by Gus and Company is the only thing that can.

In 247, find the following list of total roster average player scoring. I tried to post a link but couldn't paste the entire list in here

2022 College Football Team Talent Composite Last updated on 12/04/22 at 4:31 PM CST​


See # 36 based on 77 players as of 12/4/22. Now find how many XII teams are below UCF. Let me know what you find. Hint, only OK, TX and TCU are ahead of UCF. (Obviously there will be some changes based on portal activity but this gives a good general/baseline synopsis).
 
While I believe we won't be competing for a championship, I don't think we're going to get steamrolled either. Our program has beaten this conference's champion in the past. Not exactly apples to apples but today's team is not a bad team by any stretch. We will compete. On our day we can play with anyone outside of maybe the very tippy top of the Top 25.
 
While I believe we won't be competing for a championship, I don't think we're going to get steamrolled either. Our program has beaten this conference's champion in the past. Not exactly apples to apples but today's team is not a bad team by any stretch. We will compete. On our day we can play with anyone outside of maybe the very tippy top of the Top 25.
Amen
 
Agreed. I don’t think we are going to be the conference punching bag, especially given the 3 incoming teams are, at worst, peer programs.

We have a tendency to play up/down depending on our opponents as well…though it might be more of the latter lately…
 
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Wait until we lose the majority of our games next year. Outside of Kent State and Villanova next year, there aren’t anymore cupcakes in the schedule.

Baylor, Ok State, and TCU will beat us into submission.
Go jump off a high bridge and let us know how the water feels.
 
Just because players decided to leave doesn't mean moral is low. Having players that want to move on stick it out the last few games can also cause low moral. I think Plumlee declaring as quick as he did boost moral being a leader. Also having starters post on social media saying they will be fine is good. If your a headache behind the scenes than that can bring everything down. Who knows just my guess.
 
When looking at our 2013 and 2017 championship teams as the measuring stick…

Those teams had the highest morale.
The team bond was extremely high.
I don’t recall any selfishness or perceived selfishness from any particular player.
The team chemistry appeared to be at the highest levels.

I think that type of team bond is a major part of winning and hopefully this team is moving towards it. I know NIL is a new variable that wasn’t available in the past, so attaining high level team morale/bond will probably be more difficult to attain.
 
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