My thoughts on the rest of the year:
For what its worth, I'm going to give my thoughts on what will be a great atmosphere this weekend and ask a couple of things from the Cajun faithful.
Please understand the circumstances that surround this game. There will be a lot of fans in the stadium this weekend deciding to show their support for a team that is obviously playing well right now and is on a roll offensively. However, here are a few points that need to be mentioned.
1. We may be starting a freshman QB = While I, like many here, believe that McGuire has really nice talent, he is not Desormeaux at this stage in his career. He may be a better pure passer but this offense requires more than just a strong arm. He will lack the poise of Des and he just hasn't had a lot of time under center running the offense full time. There is a big difference between coming in for a series and having to prepare to play an entire game and adjust as it goes and Defenses preparing for you rather than the other guy.
2. Our LB corp is decimated by injury. I know that everyone out there knows this but it is important to point out that we've lost 4 potential starters or actual starters at LB from spring until now for various reasons. Now, we are forced to play players that may not be ready or 3 weeks ago were assuming they'd redshirt. Our starters now weigh 210, 225, and 215 lbs respectively. I don't think this is what anybody envisioned as our LB corp 3 weeks ago and we have some very physical offenses to play in the upcoming weeks starting tonight.
3. This team is not the same team that played McNeese last year in that debacle. They are much more focused, have gone through a great offseason to prepare physically and Desormeaux has grown as a QB not to mention the insertion of some really nice freshman talent.
The reason for this post is hopefully, with everything that has happend the past couple of weeks to this team in regards to losing personnel, that we as fans can actually re-evaluate our expectations a bit. Before the injuries, I believed this team was playing well enough to get to 8 wins. Now, I'm not thinking that. I am hoping for it and everything that 8 wins would bring like a potential bowl game and boost in recruiting. However, I have to take a step back and examine my expectations and realize that if this year turns out to be another 6 win season, should I be extremely disappointed? I don't think so.
Coach Bustle and his staff has shown an ability to make adjustments at halftime which was one of my biggest complaints about him until this season. This team, before injuries, showed a marked improvement over last year and that this unit can be a fine unit for the next several years for sure. The playcalling and overall scheme on offense and defense seemed to be much better this year allowing us to get the ball into the hands of our playmakers on offense which seemed to be lacking at times in the past.
The fact is coach Bustle's contract runs through 2011 and if we seem to have a letdown from this point out, I hope that everyone looks at this season as a whole and realizes the level of play increased tremendously. I'm hoping the enthusiasm for which I can see around the program right now remains and the fans stick with the team. I'm not throwing in the towel by any means but rather, I just want to prepare people for the fact that maybe we don't win tonight, maybe we only win 1-2 games from here on forward. Is it going to go back to a Bustle bashing session? I hope not. This team and program have come a long way this year and deserve our support and respect.
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Originally Posted by zephyr
