I'm Calling it Now!!

[Bearboy]

This football team will finish in the top 3 of the conference this year. Outside of the last 4 mins of the first half, we were right there in the the game Saturday. This is with a less than average performance from Kam. These guys will get this fixed! This season is going to be a sign of things to come!

[StorminASU]

I will be optimistic and agree. My wife and I were both pleased with how this very young team performed when Michigan was wanting nothing else but to break their will and pound points on the board. Heck, even Michigan's second team which we looked good against is better than a lot of Sun Belt teams. I'm excited about this year.

[EastHallApp]

Outside of the last 4 mins of the first half, we were right there in the the game Saturday.

"Other than that, how did you enjoy the play, Mrs. Lincoln?"

[Yosef84]

I will stop short of saying we finish in the top 3, but I am far from giving up on this team. The problems I saw in the Michigan game were related to youth and inexperience and are very coachable. I think we will continue to improve and this game served its purpose: To identify areas we need to improve.

I still feel good about our shot at a 6-6 season, and can see a little better if the stars align.

Disclaimer: I am a total "homer" and unapologetic optimist in matters where the Apps are concerned.

[AppState2014]

I will stop short of saying we finish in the top 3, but I am far from giving up on this team. The problems I saw in the Michigan game were related to youth and inexperience and are very coachable. I think we will continue to improve and this game served its purpose: To identify areas we need to improve.

I still feel good about our shot at a 6-6 season, and can see a little better if the stars align.

Disclaimer: I am a total "homer" and unapologetic optimist in matters where the Apps are concerned.

No way we finish in the top 3 but I am not so down on this team that we can't win. I think it's fair to hope for 5 or 6 wins. I don't see any better than 6-6 but I think we should still win 4-5, with a shot at 6. Usually that would not be great but with what we have coming back next year it puts us a team to watch for a 7 or 8 win season and top 3 finish in the Sun Belt.

Look at our schedule. Campbell and Liberty should be wins for sure. Georgia Southern, Georgia State, USM, Idaho, and Troy are all games we could possibly win.

I do expect us to get better and believe that if Kam Bryant improves just a little bit that we will be fine. This team indeed has talent.

[AppState2014]

This football team will finish in the top 3 of the conference this year. Outside of the last 4 mins of the first half, we were right there in the the game Saturday. This is with a less than average performance from Kam. These guys will get this fixed! This season is going to be a sign of things to come!

I think you are being a little too optimistic but I do think we can get better and that our coaches have enough talent to swing things in a positive way.

Serious question here. If we only win 3 games and get blown out in 4 or 5 games, do you think the new AD will or should make changes? I have my expectations around 4 or 5 games so if we do win 6 I will be ecstatic. If I expect 7 or 8 and we win 3 then I know I will feel like we need to make changes. I believe this staff should have 2014 and 2015 to put a winning team on the field, considering the raw talent we have. Just curious about those who think we can win a lot of games as to what your expectations are for the staff and if you believe we should be all in still if we only win say 4 games or less?

[IGgreer]

Outside of the last 4 mins of the first half, we were right there in the the game Saturday.

"Other than that, how did you enjoy the play, Mrs. Lincoln?"

Post of the year.

[T-Dog]

No way Satt isn't the coach next year unless he gets hired away. The new AD won't be hired until after the season and it would be foolish to overreact to this year unless there's serious off-field issues. He's been preaching 2015 as THE year ever since last year.

It's hard to predict conference finish with 11 teams and unbalanced schedules.

DG said this elsewhere but out of the 63 players who played at Michigan, 39 were freshmen or sophomores. 25 were playing in their first college game.

6-6 this year would be a thumbs up.

[AppSt94]

Looking at the schedule there are 9 "winnable" games left on the schedule. My definition of winnable being that we should either outright win the games or that it be a one possession game that can go either way. Of the remaining 11 games, only Louisiana and Ark St. seem like we will be over matched adding in the fact the games are back to back road games at the end of the year. Of course there are a multitude of unknowns that cannot be foreseen (i.e injuries, suspensions, internal strife). I am not calling for a 9-3 record but I think that with improvement and development of our team we can enter Saturday confident that we will be able to see competitive football.

[PhillyApp1]

I am also very positive the direction the team is moving.
6-6 with a surprise win somewhere during the season.
The next two seasons may be REAL fun.

[asutrnr81]

I love these guys.......but if we do not get better play out of the WR crew.....we are in trouble!

[EastHallApp]

This football team will finish in the top 3 of the conference this year. Outside of the last 4 mins of the first half, we were right there in the the game Saturday. This is with a less than average performance from Kam. These guys will get this fixed! This season is going to be a sign of things to come!

I think you are being a little too optimistic but I do think we can get better and that our coaches have enough talent to swing things in a positive way.

Serious question here. If we only win 3 games and get blown out in 4 or 5 games, do you think the new AD will or should make changes? I have my expectations around 4 or 5 games so if we do win 6 I will be ecstatic. If I expect 7 or 8 and we win 3 then I know I will feel like we need to make changes. I believe this staff should have 2014 and 2015 to put a winning team on the field, considering the raw talent we have. Just curious about those who think we can win a lot of games as to what your expectations are for the staff and if you believe we should be all in still if we only win say 4 games or less?

With all due respect, why do you feel compelled to continually steer threads in this direction? Couldn't you at least wait until after the season, and THEN if the team hasn't met your expectations, call for a coaching change? It's pretty clear that most here disagree with you, but at least you could then be talking about reality instead of hypotheticals.

I just don't get the obsession with wondering what it would take to fire the coach, when nobody else is really talking about him being on the hot seat.

[Goapps15]

It will be a very disappointing season if the Apps cannot win at least 5 games.

Winnable Games: Campbell, @ Southern Miss & Georgia Southern, Vs. Liberty, @ Troy, vs. GA State and Idaho.

Outside Chance/Possibility: South Alabama and UL Monroe.

Very unlikely: Arkansas State & UL Lafayette

App should realistically beat Campbell, Liberty, Georgia State and Idaho. You could even argue Liberty is the best of those four opponents. Georgia State gave up 450 yards in the air to Abilene Christian & Idaho won 1 game last year (vs. NMSU).

Southern Miss has won 1 of their last 25 games. They will be coming off of a drubbing vs Alabama the week prior. That is a very winnable game, if we play well.
Georgia Southern, while playing well Saturday, still showed they rely heavily on one player again this year. That player is QB Kevin Ellison, who got hurt at the end of last week and their backup could not complete simple passes to salt the game away.
The last of the winnable games is Troy. Troy last week got beat 48-10 by UAB....that is not very good. Troy has been in a similar program trajectory as us the past few years. This is definitely a game the Apps could pull off.

UL-Monroe and USA are tough opponents for us but if we play well we can definitely beat them, especially ULM.

ULL & Arkansas State are very unlikely but you never know on Any Given Saturday afternoon.

[Boone Goon]

I'm as excited as I've ever been about App State Football! I think we have a great staff who are gelling as a collective group. I think the talent they've recruited is going to be a force in the Sun Belt and the G5 for the next 4+ years.

My concern is, I think we have a lot of risk of losing some of our top recruiters to larger programs, but this is always and has always been a challenge for us and other "small" schools.

Time will tell if they're going to consistently make great in-game adjustments.

But the future is bright, and this team is ON THE RISE! (sorry had to do it!)

See you at THE ROCK on Saturday!

[Eagle22]

It will be a very disappointing season if the Apps cannot win at least 5 games.

Winnable Games: Campbell, @ Southern Miss & Georgia Southern, Vs. Liberty, @ Troy, vs. GA State and Idaho.

Outside Chance/Possibility: South Alabama and UL Monroe.

Very unlikely: Arkansas State & UL Lafayette

App should realistically beat Campbell, Liberty, Georgia State and Idaho. You could even argue Liberty is the best of those four opponents. Georgia State gave up 450 yards in the air to Abilene Christian & Idaho won 1 game last year (vs. NMSU).

Southern Miss has won 1 of their last 25 games. They will be coming off of a drubbing vs Alabama the week prior. That is a very winnable game, if we play well.
Georgia Southern, while playing well Saturday, still showed they rely heavily on one player again this year. That player is QB Kevin Ellison, who got hurt at the end of last week and their backup could not complete simple passes to salt the game away.
The last of the winnable games is Troy. Troy last week got beat 48-10 by UAB....that is not very good. Troy has been in a similar program trajectory as us the past few years. This is definitely a game the Apps could pull off.

UL-Monroe and USA are tough opponents for us but if we play well we can definitely beat them, especially ULM.

ULL & Arkansas State are very unlikely but you never know on Any Given Saturday afternoon.

Don't know which game you watched, but Ellison's backup ... Favian Upshaw, was 1 of 1 passing for 8 yards, and gained 8 yards rushing on one carry. The whole, sum, total of his offensive output as he only took 2 snaps.

I haven't seen enough of Upshaw yet to proclaim him as Kevin's equal, but it was late in fall camp before Fritz finally declared Ellison the starter. Upshaw is Jayson Foster quick, but unlike Foster also can throw the ball.

And waiting in the wings, should he be needed, is Izzy Youyoute .. who started the 2012 season and would have remained the starter had a Monken had the patience to work through the early season jitters of playing a 1st year QB and breaking in some new lineman ... who are now all seniors.

None of that is to say the game is not winnable for App. Just saying our QB situation is actually better than it's been since probably 2007. Where we are lacking depth and experience is at RB.

[AppState2014]

No way Satt isn't the coach next year unless he gets hired away. The new AD won't be hired until after the season and it would be foolish to overreact to this year unless there's serious off-field issues. He's been preaching 2015 as THE year ever since last year.

It's hard to predict conference finish with 11 teams and unbalanced schedules.

DG said this elsewhere but out of the 63 players who played at Michigan, 39 were freshmen or sophomores. 25 were playing in their first college game.

6-6 this year would be a thumbs up.

I think 6-6 would be a very good year. I expect 4-5 wins with 7-9 in 2015. I agree with Scott that 2015 is the year. If Bryant were just a sophomore then I would say both 2015 and 2016 for sure. Although, after seeing Lamb I may feel really strongly about our 2016 team as well.

I was just asking. I think Scott will be back but I think the pressure is on. Have a winning season in 2015 or a change will be made. There is no excuse nor reason anyone can give to not win at least 7 games, if not 8 or 9 in 2015. We will have the talent.

I have said before, the only way I'm for Scott going this year is if he were to only win 1 or 2 games and get blown out completely in most of our losses. I don't see that happening. I don't think we will win 6 or 7 but I still think we should expect at least 4 or 5 with a slight shot at 6 wins this year. There are only 3 games on the schedule I don't think we have a shot at winning left (ASU, ULM, ULL).

[AppState2014]

This football team will finish in the top 3 of the conference this year. Outside of the last 4 mins of the first half, we were right there in the the game Saturday. This is with a less than average performance from Kam. These guys will get this fixed! This season is going to be a sign of things to come!

I think you are being a little too optimistic but I do think we can get better and that our coaches have enough talent to swing things in a positive way.

Serious question here. If we only win 3 games and get blown out in 4 or 5 games, do you think the new AD will or should make changes? I have my expectations around 4 or 5 games so if we do win 6 I will be ecstatic. If I expect 7 or 8 and we win 3 then I know I will feel like we need to make changes. I believe this staff should have 2014 and 2015 to put a winning team on the field, considering the raw talent we have. Just curious about those who think we can win a lot of games as to what your expectations are for the staff and if you believe we should be all in still if we only win say 4 games or less?

With all due respect, why do you feel compelled to continually steer threads in this direction? Couldn't you at least wait until after the season, and THEN if the team hasn't met your expectations, call for a coaching change? It's pretty clear that most here disagree with you, but at least you could then be talking about reality instead of hypotheticals.

I just don't get the obsession with wondering what it would take to fire the coach, when nobody else is really talking about him being on the hot seat.

Not calling for any change. Just asking because we have some folks here who are expecting WAY TOO much from this year. I think 2015 is going to be a good year and I believe we will get better as we go this year but if we finish in the top 3 in the Sun Belt that means we likely win 8 or 9 games. I expect to see steady improvement. If we won 7 or 8 games this year then I would be for giving Scott a huge salary adjustment because 7 or 8 wins in 2014 to me translates 10 in 2015, based on what we know about our schedule (unless someone really comes out of nowhere this year and is young in the SBC).

[APPSTATE-H3]

I don't understand everyone on this board! If we win 5-6 games it is a good season, if we win 8 next year it will be great. I hope these guys win every game! However, in reality I hope we win 7 this year and with experience 10 next year. I think it can be done. But, IMO, we have some wish washy fans. Two years ago we won 8 games and a share of the conference title, so we fired our coach. Now 6 wins is a good season. Sat is our coach and we should get behind him and our players, but expect the same or more than we did from the "Moore" teams.

What's better than football at the ROCK on Saturday?
- FOOTBALL AT THE ROCK ON SATURDAY NIGHT!!!!!

[Bearboy]

Lot of good input. I'm basing the top 3 finish on the fact that La-M will be coming to Boone. I think a win in that one puts us ahead of them with the head to head tie-breaker. I think we finish 8-4. Even if we go 7-5 it may be good enough to finish 3rd. I just don't see any of the other conference teams that are dominant, excluding La-La and ASt.

Go Apps!

[appbio91]

This is going to sound bad but if we waltz into the Sun Belt as FBS transition and finish in the top three then this is a pretty sorry conference. Surely there will be some period of adjustment, some getting up to speed. This is starting to sound like the 12-0 threads from last year.