I think we go bowling this year...

[IceCyIce]

We have to beat KSU. If not no bowl. KSU should not be able to hang with us. I want a Calvin wizing on the wild cat

 

[ISUAgronomist]

We have to beat KSU. If not no bowl. KSU should not be able to hang with us. I want a Calvin wizing on the wild cat

I am so sick of losing to that school.

 

[Drive4cy]

Between Iowa, UConn, Texas, Baylor and K-State we need to win 3/5 IMO.

I see them all as very winnable. Classic swing games and most of them are early.

The offense will be what makes or breaks us. I don't think our defense will be great by any means but I expect it to be a top 45-50 defense in the nation.

 

[clonestar12]

Have we ever won at OU?

Yes, we won in Norman in 1990. I had the pleasure of attending that game.

 

[Yes13]

I am sure it is not a popular opinion, but I actually think we should have gone bowling last year and the team slightly underperformed. We should have been able to find win #6 against KSU, NU or MU (neutral and two home games).

So I also think 6 wins is achievable next year. Wish we would have used the extra money from the two Arrowhead games to buy out of the UConn trip, but so be it. I think we need to get that one or Iowa at home to determine if we have a shot. Finishing 1-2 in non-conference will make 6 almost impossible.

But I think CPR and the boys are good for one road upset (NU in 2009, UT in 2010, ?? in 2011). Win our share of the tossup games and steal another home upset and we are good to go.

I think a lot of the players/coaches would agree. I think our fans need to realize we have a good team. We have one of the best lineman in KO, we have one of the best LB duos in the league, we have more speed than we've had since '05, and we also have some of the better RBs we've had.

 

[Yes13]

Between Iowa, UConn, Texas, Baylor and K-State we need to win 3/5 IMO.

I see them all as very winnable. Classic swing games and most of them are early.

The offense will be what makes or breaks us. I don't think our defense will be great by any means but I expect it to be a top 45-50 defense in the nation.

Add MU and Texas Tech to that list. They're nothing special. We have plenty of teams on our schedule that we can beat.

 

[CloneFan4]

Is this a joke? You THINK we'll be bowling?!?! I EXPECT us to be bowling and so should the rest of you!! It's year three in the Rhoads era, we have one of the best defenses in a long time playing this fall, and the offense can't get much worse than it already was when we won 5 games and were 2 PTs away from getting 6. It's time for us to start expecting these things to happen instead of just being pleasantly surprised. We all want to be an 8 or 9 win but still most of us are still content with just having a reason to leave Iowa in December. Guess what? I want to leave Iowa in January. It's time cyclone fans start setting the bar a bit higher. As they say,"Dress for the job you want not the job that you have!"

 

[FDCy83]

I would love a January bowl, but I would also love any bowl. I realize this is a work in progress and it may take a couple December bowls to continue to increase the talent level to get the January bowls in the future. Any bowl game give extra practice, extra exposure, and extra coin. All needed to improve.

 

[TheCaptain]

From what I've seen so far this spring....the QB position is to be the deciding factor
in how the W-L record plays out.
JMO.

 

[BugDoc]

I expect that CPR will have the boys bowling this winter.

 

[cycoOJfan89]

-Over the course of the last 2 seasons I have heard the coaches use the term 'guys we can win with' a number of times. Most of the time the number of guys we had in our weaker positions barely covered the starters (if they were even 1 deep at each position). Now Aside from maybe the Safety position, we have enough guys we can put on the field and 'win with' from what I've heard from the coaches. WR being the only position that jumps out that doesn't have enough players that if a starter drops we have someone who is serviceable that can come in. (Kicker also, but I'm choosing to ignore that)

Is that you Dan McCarney?

 

[vmbplayer]

Is that you Dan McCarney?

Nope I'm his brother. The one with the glasses.

 

[jtd9046]

I think the new video board and sound system is good for an additional 2 wins at least.

Not if the wind blows it over in the first game.

 

[CykoAGR]

Hope your right. I'm thinking 4-5 wins only. :sad: I think we'll see alot of posters on here complain about each qb. Once Tiller has bad game, they'll be calling for Steele. Once Steele, has a bad game then JB. Just gonna be a carousel all year long. I will say this, I think our D will keep us in some games this year.

I'm not trying to be a smart *** but the people on here do not have any control over who the starting QB is.

Last year when AA was struggling tons of people (myself included) were calling for Tiller to see if he could jumpstart the offense. Through an injury early in the year JT played and I for one decided that there is a reason that I am not the head coach of ISU and that CPR and his staff know what they are doing. AA was clearly the better QB last year which is why the staff stuck with him, he gave ISU the best chance to win.

The staff will do the same this year, they will play the person who they feel gives ISU the best chance to win.

 

[HandSanitizer]

Can't see more than 3-4 wins on that schedule...Sorry. Seems like most of our toss up games are on the road which doesn't work out so well.
CPR would get some serious coaching job offers with 6 or 7 wins IMO. Love to see us bowling though, but setting my expectations low with AROB and AA gone.

 

[ruxCYtable]

It is not out of the realm of possibility, but I tried to take a very realistic look at our schedule and could not find more than three wins I was comfortable guaranteeing. If our defense is as improved as some seem to think, maybe 4-5 wins. With some luck, maybe more. But with this schedule it really is a monumental task. CPR should be coach of the year if he takes this team bowling.

 

[Al_4_State]

NEED to win at least one between Iowa and UConn. If not it will be tough to reach 6 wins. Here are my predicions
1.UNI
2.UCONN
3.Baylor
4.K State
5.Kansas
6.Okie St, or Mizzou,or T Tech

If we beat Iowa AND Uconn I really like our chances.

In all honesty, this pretty do-able.

I'd throw A&M into that last spot instead of Okie State. Don't know why, but I feel good about that game. Mike Sherman isn't a great game day coach, and its in Ames.

Also, I'm not afraid of Tech @ Lubbock. We made their defense look like swiss cheese last year, and they lose some talented offensive players.

 

[tazclone]

Am I crazy?

Admittedly this is very very very simple logic, but here's what I'm basing this on.

First what we've heard:
-Over the course of the last 2 seasons I have heard the coaches use the term 'guys we can win with' a number of times. Most of the time the number of guys we had in our weaker positions barely covered the starters (if they were even 1 deep at each position). Now Aside from maybe the Safety position, we have enough guys we can put on the field and 'win with' from what I've heard from the coaches. WR being the only position that jumps out that doesn't have enough players that if a starter drops we have someone who is serviceable that can come in. (Kicker also, but I'm choosing to ignore that)
-Josh Lenz during a spring interview said something along the lines of how the last scrimmage before the spring game they had had about 18 explosive plays. CPR if I remember this correctly defines an explosive play as 10+ yards running or 20+ passing. As has been pointed out this is against what we could consider our strongest defense in 10 years (highlighted by what some have described as potentially the best LB corps in the league), and against a defense who knows what plays are coming. As we have seen the last 2 years our Defense has been what has won us games, and if our Offense is finally clicking along with the best Defense we've had we are in excellent shape.
-We have what i think could shake out to be the best running back group since I have followed ISU. Obviously we don't have a Troy Davis or an A-Rob, but the depth is huge, and Herman has said he will get 3 of them on the field at once because they're our best players.

Who we play (this is where I oversimplify):
-We have 4 teams on our schedule who we notched a win against last year. Obviously history isn't going to just repeat, but for the sake of argument lets say it does. Basing this on the fact that i think our team will be significantly better than last year and I question that any teams could have improved much more than what ISU will have over the course of the last year.
-From there we need only 2 more wins to make a bowl. Those wins have to come from Baylor (winnable), Uconn (Winnable), Iowa (it's at jack trice stranger things have happened in this series), A&M (probably a loss), and OSU (probably a loss), Mizzou (probably a loss but they lose an NFL QB).

It's apparent that the schedule does us few favors by having the more manageable games on the road. Most will note that it's unlikely that we will beat the longhorns again. To that I say it's just as likely that we beat K-State so those two are a wash.

We will learn a lot in the non-conference season this year. But even with a tougher schedule I think Bowling is in the cards for the 2011 Cyclones. I'd put it at probably 50-60% chance, and if the results we've seen from Rhoads coached teams is an indicator the high end is usually the outcome.

I have a hard time believing this is the best defense we have had in 10 years. That is just crazy talk. I like our defense and I think they are much better but we have no experience at safety and our DL has yet to prove anything. Anything. I don't know if their success in the Spring game states that they got better or that our OL is not as good as touted. I tend to lean towards the latter since it seemed like a lot of the pressure came up the middle where we have new starters.

Our offense is the real reason why I have very little confidence in going bowling. We lost our biggest producers. Biggest producers. We don't know who our QB is so I have a hard time beleieving anyone is better than Arnaud right now. WE lose an NFL caliber OL and a three year starter. We lose the best TE ISU has seen in a long, long time. The best thing to come out of the spring game is Money and Horne made plays and caught the balls. Great to see receivers doing what they are supposed to do. BUT if our OL is a sieve, and our QBs are average, we will have a simialr passing game.

I am usualyl excited and drinking koolaid by the keg right now. Thsi year, I just can't get by the bad feeling I have about our offense

 

[BigLame]

I believe we will beat Texas again this year. 1st B12 game @ home, & they will be adjusting to a new coaching staff. Other times I'd really like to switch this game with the OSU game in mid-November - get Texas in JTS on a nice, sub-30 degree November day. But beings they've made quite a few changes, I think it sets up nicely having it early in the season.

If this happens, I believe Mack Brown's time would be up in Austin, too. ISU is not supposed to beat Texas, and I think we will do it again.

 

[tazclone]

We have to beat KSU. If not no bowl. KSU should not be able to hang with us. I want a Calvin wizing on the wild cat

IMO- KSU will define our season. Win and we go bowling. Lose and we stay home.