Realistically...

[bulloni]

I could see their stud receiver Tre'Quan Smith entering the draft a year early. Then they have 2 seniors on the oline and 4 of their front 7 are graduating. So if were getting more physical on offense next year that should help as I see there defense being weaker. The key will be our defense improving and if there new offensive scheme can replicate their success. Frost was an offensive game planning genius, even with the same players I see them having a small dip in production.

[MikeG]

We are losing a ton of talent after this bowl game.

The saving grace is that we will still have a weak conference schedule. I doubt we are favored to win our division but we will most likely go bowling. Plenty depends on how well we recruit and if we can pick up some impact true freshmen. The loss at QB might be the biggest problem but many areas including defense are going to be missing some key elements.

That's what is concerning about potential coaching shakeups-- the later we are impacted by that process (or if we are-- we might not be) the bigger the impact to who we sign. It might have been messing with even this year---  Think about this-- had Kelly signed with UCLA earlier in the week, Frost might have been in contact with UF before our game instead of the AACCG

[George_Bullnard_Shaw]

54 minutes ago, MikeG said:

We are losing a ton of talent after this bowl game.

The saving grace is that we will still have a weak conference schedule. I doubt we are favored to win our division but we will most likely go bowling. Plenty depends on how well we recruit and if we can pick up some impact true freshmen. The loss at QB might be the biggest problem but many areas including defense are going to be missing some key elements.

That's what is concerning about potential coaching shakeups-- the later we are impacted by that process (or if we are-- we might not be) the bigger the impact to who we sign. It might have been messing with even this year---  Think about this-- had Kelly signed with UCLA earlier in the week, Frost might have been in contact with UF before our game instead of the AACCG

Oh man, if we're gonna lose Strong I want it today. Given he's probably nobody's first choice I can see the apocalyptic scenario of him jumping late, losing early signers and the new coach having no time to get a recruiting class in.

[NewEnglandBull]

1 hour ago, George_Bullnard_Shaw said:

Oh man, if we're gonna lose Strong I want it today. Given he's probably nobody's first choice I can see the apocalyptic scenario of him jumping late, losing early signers and the new coach having no time to get a recruiting class in.

This is the primary reason I just hope he stays for another year. 

[SoFlo All Day]

12 hours ago, ArmyBull said:

I find it hard to believe that we will be favored with Q leaving and ucf returning just about everyone.  

I wouldnt be so quick to the jump there. As we all have painfully experienced throughout this season, preseason speculation doesnt mean ****, especially with a new coaching staff (which they will most likely have) regardless of who you're bringing back.

Also, I wouldnt automatically assume that we'll have a huge dropoff in QB play next year. Q will be missed no doubt, but I'm optimistic on Oladokun and Kean. If we can keep McCloud through NSD I would be interested to see how he performs as well - the guy got looks from a few P5 programs and looks to have the same mold as Q. Not to mention, we got an under the radar commit out of GA who is also dual threat. 

 

[Leviathan]

This season was a failure. I find it hard to believe that so many on here are happy with just playing a game that matter at the end of the year. We dominated them for a large portion of the game, and yet we couldn't do enough to put them away. When the game was on the line the defensive and special teams collapsed. 

We were heavy favorites to win the conference and we couldn't even make it to the conference championship. Three years in a row now where we have been arguably the best team in the East but always fall short of topping the division. Always the bridesmaid, never the bride.

Coming into the season we had one of the most exciting offenses in the country and a QB who was the AAC offensive player of the year (also a dark horse Heisman candidate). 

The schedule was the easiest we've ever had since joining the Big East. We didn't beat a single decent team all year. 

I hope Strong is a great recruiter because he is not a very good coach. There is going to be a huge drop off at QB next year without Flowers. Face it, we probably would have lost 4 or more games this year if we didn't have Flowers. 

[NewEnglandBull]

Failure...not a failure...happy about the season...not happy about the season. Really does not matter now, it over, gone, done with. Enjoy the bowl it’s all we got left. 

[bulloni]

Sure it sucks. This season was supposed to be the year we went undefeated, won the conference championship, and went to a NY6 bowl game. But we still finished 9-2 and are 27-6 in since the Syracuse game in 2015. Considering how bad of a state the program was in before that it's hard to feel too depressed right now. Even though next year should be a down season I could still see us winning 9 games (Elon, illinois, UMASS, UCONN, ECU, Tulane, Cincinnati, Temple, Tulsa). And Georgia Tech at home, UCF at home, and Houston at home aren't unwinnable games.

[JoeB]

Nobody beats mediocre and bad teams like we do!  Whats our best win this year, Temple or Stony Brook?  My vote is Stony Brook

[Rocky Style]

26 minutes ago, JoeB said:

Nobody beats mediocre and bad teams like we do!  Whats our best win this year, Temple or Stony Brook?  My vote is Stony Brook

Not sure we had one.