How many wins to we get next season?

[Yes13]

Come on, one of the better defenses in the league? An offense that can't get worse? I know you like to make outlandish comments around here, but how can you type some of the stuff you do? Can we have a solid defense? I hope so. Will the offense be better this year? Maybe, but unlikely. Do you follow football very closely?

Here's some help. We lost our best defensive player in Simms last year as well as our other starting safety. Along with that, we lost a kid that started basically four years at DE. We're still very suspect along the dline with little to no depth. Our lb's are tacklers but haven't proven to be playmakers at or behind the line of scrimmage. Then, we have two new starting safeties, one of which is a small lb the other of which hasn't played a significant amount of minutes. If that's the making of one of the better in the league, the Big 12's defenses are as bad as every other conference makes us sound. Additionally, we may not be +11 in comparable games we won last year this coming fall.

Offensively, we're replacing the two kids in our backfield that gave us chances to win for the last few years. AA was a leader and performed admirably with little talent in the WR corps. So far we have little to feel that anyone's even close to offering what Austen did. That slim talent at WR lost its two best options last year in Jake and Colin. Plus, you lost the leader of the OL with Ben leaving. So while I'm hopeful that we can perform better offensively this year, it's easy to see why that we may be happy to just get to last year's level of performance.

We lose two good players from our defense (O'connell, Sims). We are replacing them with a solid corner who can hit. I would say that's a wash with Sims. We are replacing OC with Washington, who Burnham has praised (something that guy doesn't do much). We are improved. You can blame the "one of the better defenses in the league" statement on Arnaud, because that is what he has said.

Arob himself has said we will be better at RB without him. Arnaud was better than Tiller, but is there much drop off from an improved Tiller and Arnaud? I don't think there is much. Lamaak's leadership will be missed, but he was probably our third best lineman last year.

It probably sounds like I'm degrading our losses, but I just don't think we lose much. The best players we lose: Sims-replaced by Benton, who is solid against the run (like Sims), and played corner (might be better than Sims in coverage), ARob- replaced by a guy a bit smaller, but quicker and faster, just as good at catching passes, likely worse in pass pro, more depth, Franklin- replaced by no one really, likely a mix of Bruns and Hammerschmidt, we will miss him, but we might move away from involving the TE so much in our offense, Lamaak- replaced as a leader by Osemele, replaced as a player by a young guy with promise, will probably be the biggest dropoff, Arnaud- replaced by either Jantz or Tiller, both are just as talented (if not more), both are lacking the leadership and handle on the playbook, but hopefully have better recievers, O'Connell- replaced by a guy who is said to be more talented, solid against the run (like OC), leadership OC and Sims provided will likely move up to Knott and Klein.

I said 7 wins- UNI, UConn, Texas, Missouri, Texas Tech, Kansas, Kansas State.

[VeloClone]

We lose two good players from our defense (O'connell, Sims). We are replacing them with a solid corner who can hit. I would say that's a wash with Sims. We are replacing OC with Washington, who Burnham has praised (something that guy doesn't do much). We are improved. You can blame the "one of the better defenses in the league" statement on Arnaud, because that is what he has said.

Arob himself has said we will be better at RB without him. Arnaud was better than Tiller, but is there much drop off from an improved Tiller and Arnaud? I don't think there is much. Lamaak's leadership will be missed, but he was probably our third best lineman last year.

It probably sounds like I'm degrading our losses, but I just don't think we lose much. The best players we lose: Sims-replaced by Benton, who is solid against the run (like Sims), and played corner (might be better than Sims in coverage), ARob- replaced by a guy a bit smaller, but quicker and faster, just as good at catching passes, likely worse in pass pro, more depth, Franklin- replaced by no one really, likely a mix of Bruns and Hammerschmidt, we will miss him, but we might move away from involving the TE so much in our offense, Lamaak- replaced as a leader by Osemele, replaced as a player by a young guy with promise, will probably be the biggest dropoff, Arnaud- replaced by either Jantz or Tiller, both are just as talented (if not more), both are lacking the leadership and handle on the playbook, but hopefully have better recievers, O'Connell- replaced by a guy who is said to be more talented, solid against the run (like OC), leadership OC and Sims provided will likely move up to Knott and Klein.

I said 7 wins- UNI, UConn, Texas, Missouri, Texas Tech, Kansas, Kansas State.

Yes, it does.

[huntt26]

Until I see ISU score with a new QB, I can't imagine winning more than 4 games with the brutal schedule.

I think 5 wins is a pretty safe bet for the over/under

[tm3308]

I could see as many as 8 wins (UNI, Iowa, UCONN, Baylor, Mizzou, TT, Kansas, KSU), but that would require ALL of the breaks to go ISU's way, and no team ever gets EVERY break. 6 wins is more likely, 7 depending on their bowl matchup.

[isuno1fan]

Baylor is the best team we will play in the first 5 games (maybe a tie with Iowa).

Baylor sucks

[UNIGuy4Cy]

Come on, one of the better defenses in the league? An offense that can't get worse? I know you like to make outlandish comments around here, but how can you type some of the stuff you do? Can we have a solid defense? I hope so. Will the offense be better this year? Maybe, but unlikely. Do you follow football very closely?

Here's some help. We lost our best defensive player in Simms last year as well as our other starting safety. Along with that, we lost a kid that started basically four years at DE. We're still very suspect along the dline with little to no depth. Our lb's are tacklers but haven't proven to be playmakers at or behind the line of scrimmage. Then, we have two new starting safeties, one of which is a small lb the other of which hasn't played a significant amount of minutes. If that's the making of one of the better in the league, the Big 12's defenses are as bad as every other conference makes us sound. Additionally, we may not be +11 in comparable games we won last year this coming fall.

Offensively, we're replacing the two kids in our backfield that gave us chances to win for the last few years. AA was a leader and performed admirably with little talent in the WR corps. So far we have little to feel that anyone's even close to offering what Austen did. That slim talent at WR lost its two best options last year in Jake and Colin. Plus, you lost the leader of the OL with Ben leaving. So while I'm hopeful that we can perform better offensively this year, it's easy to see why that we may be happy to just get to last year's level of performance.

I'm hopeful that we can get to five wins. Six would be absolutely wonderful and a sure sign that Paul is taking us in the right direction. I can hope that we suddenly can pressure the qb. I can hope that our safeties will be able to support the run and not allow big plays in the passing game. I can hope that Tiller or Jantz gaps the competition this fall and proves to be improvement over AA. I can hope that we can get some push in the OL for SJ and big plays from our unproven WR's. That's all hope, but it sure isn't anything close to likely. Thus, I wonder about your comments sometimes.

5 wins.

Do me a favor check out this site for offensive stats: cfbstats.com - 2010 National Team Leaders. In case you can't comprehend here you go: 95/120 in passing offense in 2010, 72/120 in rushing offense, 97/120 in scoring offense, 99/120 in total offense. Now those are impressive stats. So how do we even win 5 games and are 2 passes away from winning 7? Our defense was decent in the redzone; 74/120 for scoring defense; other defensive stats include 64/120 in passing defense, 93/120 in rushing defense, and 87/120 in total defense. But if you paid any attention to Iowa State last season you knew the only returning starters on defense last season were Parker, Johnson, Sims, and Benton. ISU started 3 new LBs last season and 3 new guys on the DLine. They started slow and had their worse games against Iowa, Utah, and OU, but gained confidence and improved weekly after that, even shutting down the #10 pick in the this year's draft to his lowest output of the season. Move forward to this season, all three linebackers are back, both corners, Benton is back and has brought his experience to safety, and the dline (that vastly improved week to week) is back. Some will say the RB position is better this season than last, the TE position takes a hit with the loss of Franklin, but he was under-used to say the least anyway. As for the QB position, see the passing stats above, can that get worse? Maybe but I just can't see it. So yes this will be the best team by far Rhoads has put on the field.

[UNIGuy4Cy]

Come on, one of the better defenses in the league? An offense that can't get worse? I know you like to make outlandish comments around here, but how can you type some of the stuff you do? Can we have a solid defense? I hope so. Will the offense be better this year? Maybe, but unlikely. Do you follow football very closely?

Here's some help. We lost our best defensive player in Simms last year as well as our other starting safety. Along with that, we lost a kid that started basically four years at DE. We're still very suspect along the dline with little to no depth. Our lb's are tacklers but haven't proven to be playmakers at or behind the line of scrimmage. Then, we have two new starting safeties, one of which is a small lb the other of which hasn't played a significant amount of minutes. If that's the making of one of the better in the league, the Big 12's defenses are as bad as every other conference makes us sound. Additionally, we may not be +11 in comparable games we won last year this coming fall.

Offensively, we're replacing the two kids in our backfield that gave us chances to win for the last few years. AA was a leader and performed admirably with little talent in the WR corps. So far we have little to feel that anyone's even close to offering what Austen did. That slim talent at WR lost its two best options last year in Jake and Colin. Plus, you lost the leader of the OL with Ben leaving. So while I'm hopeful that we can perform better offensively this year, it's easy to see why that we may be happy to just get to last year's level of performance.

I'm hopeful that we can get to five wins. Six would be absolutely wonderful and a sure sign that Paul is taking us in the right direction. I can hope that we suddenly can pressure the qb. I can hope that our safeties will be able to support the run and not allow big plays in the passing game. I can hope that Tiller or Jantz gaps the competition this fall and proves to be improvement over AA. I can hope that we can get some push in the OL for SJ and big plays from our unproven WR's. That's all hope, but it sure isn't anything close to likely. Thus, I wonder about your comments sometimes.

5 wins.

Sims got his *** handed to him in the first half of the season. He was not even close to the same player in 2010 as in 2009, why do you think he didn't get drafted? Are you an ISU fan? The best player on defense is Knott and its not even close.

[Cy Hard]

I wouldn't worry too much about his ISU credentials, he didn't even spell a hard name like Sims right.

[jbindm]

I could see as many as 8 wins (UNI, Iowa, UCONN, Baylor, Mizzou, TT, Kansas, KSU), but that would require ALL of the breaks to go ISU's way, and no team ever gets EVERY break. 6 wins is more likely, 7 depending on their bowl matchup.

I was wondering when you'd chime in on this thread. I can't argue much with you. The luckiest team I can remember in recent memory was the 2009 Iowa team. They were definitely a talented group, but there seemed to be a ton of fluky plays that year that went their way. The Sash INT at Indiana stands out. Even that team eventually ran out of rabbits with the Stanzi ankle injury.

Of course I'm biased, but I do think that this will be the best overall team that CPR has put on the field so far. Whether or not that equates to a 7 or 8 win season remains to be seen. They'll have to be lucky and good, and that type of a season is rare.

[CyFan61]

Sims got his *** handed to him in the first half of the season. He was not even close to the same player in 2010 as in 2009, why do you think he didn't get drafted? Are you an ISU fan? The best player on defense is Knott and its not even close.

I would say Klein is pretty close but Knott is definitely top dog.

[heitclone]

[QUOTE=UNIGuy4Cy;2241397]Do me a favor check out this site for offensive stats: cfbstats.com - 2010 National Team Leaders. In case you can't comprehend here you go: 95/120 in passing offense in 2010, 72/120 in rushing offense, 97/120 in scoring offense, 99/120 in total offense. Now those are impressive stats. So how do we even win 5 games and are 2 passes away from winning 7? Our defense was decent in the redzone; 74/120 for scoring defense; other defensive stats include 64/120 in passing defense, 93/120 in rushing defense, and 87/120 in total defense. But if you paid any attention to Iowa State last season you knew the only returning starters on defense last season were Parker, Johnson, Sims, and Benton. ISU started 3 new LBs last season and 3 new guys on the DLine. They started slow and had their worse games against Iowa, Utah, and OU, but gained confidence and improved weekly after that, even shutting down the #10 pick in the this year's draft to his lowest output of the season. Move forward to this season, all three linebackers are back, both corners, Benton is back and has brought his experience to safety, and the dline (that vastly improved week to week) is back. Some will say the RB position is better this season than last, the TE position takes a hit with the loss of Franklin, but he was under-used to say the least anyway. As for the QB position, see the passing stats above, can that get worse? Maybe but I just can't see it. So yes this will be the best team by far Rhoads has put on the field.[/QUOTE]

Best defense...I agree but losing nearly every ounce of production on offense can't be looked at as a positive. We have a lot of potential there but you've got some serious blinders on to just assume we'll have a better offense than one who lost 3/4 year starters at RB and QB, and its only 2 consistent receiving threats. The only offensive group that doesn't have major question marks is the oline. All the skill positions are a mystery, Shontrelle has a lot of hype based on a very little sample size(basically off of 2 plays) and woody is a one trick pony, other than that everything at RB is speculation. The returning receiving corp has done nothing impressive, so again its speculation as to one of the new guys steps up. I agree with you that there is a lot of potential on the offense and it could potentially be the best in CPR's era if the new faces step up but theres a real possibilty that it could be the worst.

[rebecacy]

Come on, one of the better defenses in the league? An offense that can't get worse? I know you like to make outlandish comments around here, but how can you type some of the stuff you do? Can we have a solid defense? I hope so. Will the offense be better this year? Maybe, but unlikely. Do you follow football very closely?

Here's some help. We lost our best defensive player in Simms last year as well as our other starting safety. Along with that, we lost a kid that started basically four years at DE. We're still very suspect along the dline with little to no depth. Our lb's are tacklers but haven't proven to be playmakers at or behind the line of scrimmage. Then, we have two new starting safeties, one of which is a small lb the other of which hasn't played a significant amount of minutes. If that's the making of one of the better in the league, the Big 12's defenses are as bad as every other conference makes us sound. Additionally, we may not be +11 in comparable games we won last year this coming fall.

Offensively, we're replacing the two kids in our backfield that gave us chances to win for the last few years. AA was a leader and performed admirably with little talent in the WR corps. So far we have little to feel that anyone's even close to offering what Austen did. That slim talent at WR lost its two best options last year in Jake and Colin. Plus, you lost the leader of the OL with Ben leaving. So while I'm hopeful that we can perform better offensively this year, it's easy to see why that we may be happy to just get to last year's level of performance.

I'm hopeful that we can get to five wins. Six would be absolutely wonderful and a sure sign that Paul is taking us in the right direction. I can hope that we suddenly can pressure the qb. I can hope that our safeties will be able to support the run and not allow big plays in the passing game. I can hope that Tiller or Jantz gaps the competition this fall and proves to be improvement over AA. I can hope that we can get some push in the OL for SJ and big plays from our unproven WR's. That's all hope, but it sure isn't anything close to likely. Thus, I wonder about your comments sometimes.

5 wins.

Wally's pretty happy about his D this year -- likes the line and linebackers a lot. 6 wins and a bowl win = 7

[cyclones500]

I'm going with 4 wins right now (UNI, UConn, Baylor, KU), but there are at least five others that are probably winnable (Iowa, Texas, Missouri, Tech, KSU). I don't expect to win all 9 from those two batches ... 6-3 out of those two batches seems reasonable.

I'm sure I'll adjust my picks in August. At this point there are uncertainties:

1. Not sure what to expect from the offense. I hope the starting QB (whoever lands the spot) is the right choice, of course. Equally important is if enough players in the system are the right fit and/or have enough experience to make it work more consistently.

The defense seems to be a question mark each year under Rhoads, then holds its own better than expected (outside of 2 or 3 bad outings, partly influenced by offensive inconsistency or ineptness).

2. I haven't gotten in-depth with opponents' resumes & expectations.

[synapticwave]

I'm going with:

UNI: W
Iowa: W
@UConn: W
Texas: W
@Baylor: W
@Mizzu: L
aTm: L
@TT: L
KU: W
OSU: L
OU: L
KSU: W

Bowl: W

8 wins total

[CykoAGR]

Come on, one of the better defenses in the league? An offense that can't get worse? I know you like to make outlandish comments around here, but how can you type some of the stuff you do? Can we have a solid defense? I hope so. Will the offense be better this year? Maybe, but unlikely. Do you follow football very closely?

Here's some help. We lost our best defensive player in Simms last year as well as our other starting safety. Along with that, we lost a kid that started basically four years at DE. We're still very suspect along the dline with little to no depth. Our lb's are tacklers but haven't proven to be playmakers at or behind the line of scrimmage. Then, we have two new starting safeties, one of which is a small lb the other of which hasn't played a significant amount of minutes. If that's the making of one of the better in the league, the Big 12's defenses are as bad as every other conference makes us sound. Additionally, we may not be +11 in comparable games we won last year this coming fall.

Offensively, we're replacing the two kids in our backfield that gave us chances to win for the last few years. AA was a leader and performed admirably with little talent in the WR corps. So far we have little to feel that anyone's even close to offering what Austen did. That slim talent at WR lost its two best options last year in Jake and Colin. Plus, you lost the leader of the OL with Ben leaving. So while I'm hopeful that we can perform better offensively this year, it's easy to see why that we may be happy to just get to last year's level of performance.

I'm hopeful that we can get to five wins. Six would be absolutely wonderful and a sure sign that Paul is taking us in the right direction. I can hope that we suddenly can pressure the qb. I can hope that our safeties will be able to support the run and not allow big plays in the passing game. I can hope that Tiller or Jantz gaps the competition this fall and proves to be improvement over AA. I can hope that we can get some push in the OL for SJ and big plays from our unproven WR's. That's all hope, but it sure isn't anything close to likely. Thus, I wonder about your comments sometimes.

5 wins.

I dont agree with the bolded statement above at all. Was Sims good, sure. Will we miss his presence yes. But I would argue that we have two linebackers that are better players than he was. These two did not make plays at or behind the LOS because that is not the type of defense that ISU runs.

I would agree that we are suspect on the DL, but we were anything but great last year and our defense was decent. As far as depth CPR and staff say that we are as deep along the front four as we have been in his time here so I will probably go ahead and believe him over your assumption. I have reason to believe that we will be every bit as good on defense as last year if not better.

Offensively if JT is our QB we will continue to struggle and no matter what the D does we will be lucky to match last years level of success. Horne is the best WR that CPR has had on the field since he has been here. You are correct that we will miss Franklin at TE a lot, that is unless the other WR can step up their game to a B12 level. I feel pretty good about the depth that ISU has at RB. No single person offers the entire package that ARob did but the combination of the 4 should allow for shared carries and fresh legs. Woody has all of the power that we need and the other three are fast enough to make plays in our offense.


I actually agree that we might only get to five wins but a tougher schedule with only one non-BCS schoold and some of the tossup games on the road will be the reason, not a regression in performance.

Of course this is 119 days from kickoff and I am drinking a bit of the koolaid but I think we will be every good as we were last year if not better. Whether that translates to more wins is another story but I like where this team is headed.