i really think this line of reasoning is a little disingenuous. we had every reason to be excited for last season. we had a lackluster defense the year before and it was being replaced with, what we were lead to believe, a bunch of young, but extremely talented, players. and the offense was supposed to be explosive with senior talent that was pretty good the year before.
i got to say that is some serious revisionist history to say we should not have had such high expectations for last year.
I think we should have had high expectations pre-season, mostly because of the defensive fluff, but in hindsight, the Wyoming game should have been a reality check. Most of the time, expectations are based on everything going right (ala injuries). Losing TM was a gigantic blow, and losing Spencer Long 1/3 through the season was pretty big too.
Pre-season expectations for this year should be higher than last year's final result.