The Day After NSD

As I've said before, I'm been told by many I trust that 8.5 is the over/under line. 9 and he's safe, 8 and he's not.

Hart isn't Hamilton, nor is Dooley buddy-buddy with big time boosters. It's a different game now.

 

Word

and will palardy ever live up to the hype? God I never knew that having even a decent kicker would be so important, till the last few years.

 

I hate to sound like a jerk, but even nine wins might be kind of low. Dooley is about to field a very experienced team against the weakest conference schedule he's likely to ever get. 2012 is going to be about as good as it will ever get for Dooley.

 

I think that's quite reasonable kpt.

 

The truth of this information would make me feel very good about Hart. I know some people are advocating for an 8-win minimum, and maybe there's a possible 8-4 season that has me fine with another year, but as far as I can tell, that has us losing to every good team on our schedule and at least one mediocre team, and that doesn't give me warm fuzzies. Additionally, it doesn't slow the negative recruiting that Dooley obviously struggles with. And others want the 10-win minimum, but we do have three preseason top ten teams on the schedule (2 on the road), and a 4 game improvement over last year is enough progress to keep me onboard for year four.

 

That's where I am at.

 

You're right. Unfortunately, 9 wins is going to make it seem like he turned things around, even if he's just riding the passing game.

 

His seat will be on fire if we only win 8. I don't know if it guarantees his ouster, though. I do agree that if doesn't win 9 he really isn't worth much.

 

Jerk. You're costing us kroots.

 

If they only win 8 (not including a bowl win), they better look damn good in those losses. My bar is somewhere between 8-9. I'm closer to the 9-win minimum, but if there are justifiable circumstances that accompany 8 wins, I'm cool. If they only win 8 and Dooley gets canned, I'm cool with that too. 9 wins against that schedule should be easily attainable, and 10 wins wouldn't be out of the question.

 

I posted a poll on VN back in December asking whether 8 wins were enough. I asked them to pick 4 losses they could be satisfied with. And a whole lot of them could actually do it. I don't know if all of these guys turned 7 (that's how old I was when I really became a fan) after 2001, but this settling for mediocrity is really disturbing. Bunch of em chimed in saying I should stop pushing my agenda of trying to lay a groundwork for Dooley's firing (same group that thinks we control recruiting.)

 

If Dooley stays true to form, we'll be in the 7-8 win neighborhood with at least a couple of Dooley moments --- e.g. clock management, screaming at assistants on the sidelines, poor second half adjustments, etc.

 

How my rationale will probably go this fall -

Unless Bama has 5 turnovers, we have no shot at beating them. (The added plus of this actually happening is we would get to see Saban fall over dead with a heart attack in Neyland as well.) Even with that, we'd still have to play flawless. I'm just being honest.

As for Florida, Georgia, and Carolina, he must win one of these and probably needs to win two for me to be happy. The two that would make me happiest are Florida and Georgia. If he wins all three I will possibly change my tune about his long-term chances.

I could probably handle a loss against State OR Mizzou if he does win at least two of the three above listed games.

There is no excuse at all for losing to any OOC team, Vandy, or UK. Given the overall body of work, he's used up his only slip-up against this type of opponent. Lose to any of them, and IMO it's a fireable offense unless he manages to go 4 for 4 against Bama, Florida, Georgia, and Carolina.

Given the current set-up, I don't know if it's feasible to in any way hope for a BCS Bowl this year, but to me there is no excuse not to make the Capital One, Outback or Cotton Bowl. None.

That's pretty much how I look at it. This is about as good as it will get. He's got to take advantage of it.