Bulls progression

[Bullrun75]

Some of the comments on this board about how the team is doing this year are just absurd. I see comments stating that there is no difference from this team and last years, or there is no real improvement unless you get a win. Both views are disillusion. The team is getting better every game and those that cant see it are either blind or closing their eyes. I was reading a book "Three and Out" about Rich Rodriguez's tenure at UM and they had a quote attributed to Bobby Bowden about a new coach and the teams expectations, he said " in the first year of a new coach you lose big, in the second year you lose the close games, in the third you win the close games , and in the forth you win big". Guess what, we are in the second year and guess again, we are losing the close ones. Next year we wins these games.

[bullsfan1983]

I'm sorry, but a 17 point loss to Wisconsin is a close loss? The Michigan State loss last year was a closer loss to a better team. The Maryland game mirrored the Cincinatti game last year where we played outstanding defense to keep us in the game. Only we lost to Maryland this year. Miami blew us out last year. NC State this year. 3 point win over UConn last year 3 point win over UConn this year. It remains to be seen how good ECU is this year now that North Carolina is exposed as a fraud, but we played 12-1 UCF better last year. On the road. The only difference I see is we actually beat the FCS team we played this year, and it was a big step down in quality from McNeese State to Western Carolina. To me a close game means a game we have a chance to win late. Wisconsin and ECU were not games we had a chance to win late.

[FatDaddyBull]

I'm not a moral victory guy but last year we were only competitive in 4-5 games all year.

We've been in 5 of 6 this year. And that in itself shows me something. We are much more talented than last year

[Rizman]

System is kicking in and we have to get players that are designed for it.  Need bigger front line

[usfgrad84]

Not sure we have lost any close games yet. To me a close game is coming down to a last minute drive on either side of the ball with a chance to win or lose. Like the UCF games vs PSU, Houston and BYU.

I guess we can count the WCU and UCONN almost coming back on us as close games.

No doubt the team has bounced from rock bottom last year. I was far from being even remotely a fan of Holtz, but my question is this team better or in better shape than 2 years ago? We made a change at head coach are we even as good as the way it was left? Jury is still out on that one. Different personnel, different coaches, but still same issues: poor game/clock management. Poor execution, dropped passes, tons of penalties. At least the Holtz teams scored.

Better than last year, but to this point, I am not sure the program is any better than what Holtz left us.

[BrowardBull17]

Need more talent on both sides of the ball.

[Rocky Style]

I agree with OP. Let's see what happens in conference play whatever this conference is.

[Bulls On Parade]

Ecu is most likely the conference champ lets see how we look the next few games.

[Triple B]

In the post game, Louk had a nice quote from our own Bobby Paschal about this. Paraphrasing, "the last place that progress shows is in the win/loss column" ...

[MechanicalBull]

Heard this too. Thought it was a great quote