Season is almost here and no one has
- Thread starter theskibro
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I think ND goes 11-1 and gets to playoff. I think Hartman makes a huge difference.
9-3 won’t get get us into a meaningful bowl game. ND fans as a whole would be livid. If we still had Buchner then MF would get some slack for 9-3. Bringing in Hartman has led to some higher than usual expectations. Most ND fans expect 11-1 nowadays anyways bc BK had so much late success, with even lesser QB’s. Even with a harder than usual schedule, most fans and ND media expect 10-2 as a floor. You can lose close games to USC and OSU, but you better win the rest. 8-4 would be grounds for a total replacement of nearly all coaches besides 3-4 and freeman would be squarely in the hot seat (to fans and media at least). If Freeman doesn’t win 9 games, one of Bevacqua’s most difficult decisions will be his first as AD.
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The only meaningful bowl games are the playoff games. The rest are exhibitions in the current landscape of college football.
9 and 3 with a bowl win is a 10 win season. With our schedule that similar to the BK era the last 7 years
To say that a win over Oklahoma State would not have been meaningful for Marcus Freeman is simply wrong.
First, I agree with most of what you say.
Second, I don’t make predictions, but I will venture that for this year’s team to go 11-1, it will have to function nearly perfectly, including in a number of KEY QUESTION MARK AREAS.
I mean, as a team, it’s FAR FROM A LOCK at all positions.
Yet, it could still play at a reasonably high level – say, like Holtz’s 87 team with Tim Brown – and still lose the same number of games – FOUR.
And if any degree of misfortune occurs, it could even lose FIVE GAMES.
MY THIRD POINT is that regardless of WHATEVER happens, I don’t see Freeman as NOT BEING SAFE. One STUMBLE will not his swallow’s summer UNMAKE. Not after the brouhaha that arose after even the lukewarmly regarded Ty Willingham was so quickly dispensed with.
Especially given the times we live in where SOCIOLOGY – there’s a NEUTRAL WORD under the circumstances – has INFECTED everything.
