Hypothetical:
If we win next week and win a bowl to go 7-6, do you consider it a successful season?
Discuss.
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Nope. Competing for conference title is success. Winning bowl games doesn’t matter.
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Any season that is capped with a bowl win for this program should be considered a successful season.
With that being said… I say no. Expectations were sky high, and we fell flat on our face early on. Now, am I proud of this team for fighting back to bowl contention? 100000%, but we also have to hold ourselves to higher standards if we are ever going to achieve higher standards.
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7-6 would be a great way to end the season considering the start.
I would not consider it a success by any means. Expectation every year should be to compete for a SBC title. Not even close to achieving that goal this year.
I would still be proud of the players the way they handled themselves and finished up the year. They could have easily just hung up the cleats and said F–k It! But they didnt.
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Nope.
To add to the hypothetical … would your answer change if our 7th win in the bowl game was against TSAB?
My opinion does not change. Still not a success. But I still like the way the team finished the year AND I absolutely love the bragging rights with the 7th win vs TSAB.
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If we make and win a bowl game, under the circumstances I would consider it a success. We have only had 1 OL start every game this year and he got hurt last night. South Alabama in week 9 is the only game this year we havent lost an OL. The only tackle left on week one 2 deep roster is Williams. It all starts up front and the OL has been decimated all year.
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Agreed. Just think where we would be if Dez put lunch in against rice.
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Measuring success is a sliding scale:
- Ending the season with a bowl win at 7-6 is a success
- This team fighting every week and rising to the challenge is a success
CMD cannot go into next season ceteris paribus and expect the same or better outcome.
So, from certain perspectives there were successes we should celebrate. But we should stop short of celebrating overcoming some of the self-inflicted adversity faced this season. Whether it be in-game decisions, personnel decisions, recruiting, staff, etc.
Hard decisions will need to be made, but the people in charge are compensated well enough to make them.
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Imagine a coach starting a QB who looked like the 3rd string in practice all spring and fall. The problem with “gamers” is you dont know until you know.
Even though we might salvage this season and finish on a great note, no. Don’t forget how you felt at 2-6….
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| Date | Opponent | Final Score | Opponent Record |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 30 | vs. Rice | L 12–14 | 5–5 |
| Sep 6 | vs. McNeese State | W 34–10 | 4–7 |
| Sep 13 | at Missouri | L 10–52 | 7–3 |
| Sep 20 | at Eastern Michigan | L 31–34 | 4–7 |
| Sep 27 | vs. Marshall | W 54–51 (2OT) | 5–5 |
| Oct 11 | at James Madison | L 14–24 | 9–1 |
| Oct 18 | vs. Southern Miss | L 10–22 | 7–3 |
| Oct 25 | at Troy | L 23–35 | 6–4 |
| Nov 1 | at South Alabama | W 31–22 | 3–7 |
| Nov 8 | vs. Texas State | W 42–39 | 4–6 |
| Nov 20 | at Arkansas State | W 34–30 | 5–6 |
| Nov 29 | vs. ULM (UL Monroe) | Scheduled | 3–7 |
No, not a successful year. While I appreciate our players still working to make a bowl game, this season is still incredibly frustrating. This team has talent, but coaches have to put the players in a position to win. As it stands today, we have not beaten a team with a winning record, not because we can’t, but because this coaching staff has struggled to step up when challenged. A bowl game is a consolation prize for what should have been a SBC Championship season.
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7-6 shouldn’t be the standard. Yes, it’s a winning season, but we should be winning more games than that and competing for a SBC championship and possibly more
Absolutely not.
Everybody needs to understand this. The SBC West has always been one of the weakest divisions in all of FBS. Even after our coming budget cut, UL will STILL have the largest athletic budget in the West. We have, BY FAR, the best facilities in the West.
The minimum for this university in football, every year, is 6 wins. It doesn’t mean the year was a success.
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The floor should be 8. We aren’t scheduling juggernauts in the OOC.
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No. The second half of the year could be considered a success. Looking at it as a whole absolutely not.
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I’ll feel better as a fan winning 5 straight. Beats the hell out of losing and looking bad like we were doing the first 2 months of the season.
Honestly, making a bowl game with this team after sitting 2-6 would be a great. Better than the other 6-6 teams Des has fielded.
Look at it this way too. Football is the only shot we have at a major sport making the post season. A low-level bowl game is not the NCAA tourney, but MBB, WBB, Baseball, Softball all missed. When’s the last time that happened? You’re talking decades.
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Hell no
No! Des’ winning percentage is right at .500 over 4 years. Not acceptable.