Why does 9 wins even matter? We're not winning conference championships or playing in BCS games....so who cares? We haven't played in a BCS bowl since the 2001-2002 season. Since then, these teams have played in BCS bowls:
Washington State
Kansas State
Pitt
Utah
Virginia Tech
Penn State
West Virgina
Boise State
Louisville
Illinois
Hawai'i
Cincy
TCU
UConn
Clemson
Northern Illinois
Baylor
UCF
Those are teams that I feel like we should be a step above (based off of our 90s run, lol) but yet they've played in BCS bowls (some more than once) and we're stoked about Bo's 9 wins per season. I'd really like us to be in the top 15 annually and at least playing in the BCS bowls here and there. I don't put a lot of merit into 9 wins as we lose 3-4 against like competition or better competition and even then, we tend to stumble against lesser competition like Wyoming. After the Wyoming game this year where we gave up 600 yards and nearly lost, I thought, their QB is solid so I'm sure they'll have a good season behind that guy. Nope, they went 5-7 with crushing losses to Texas State, Colorado State, Fresno State, Boise State, Utah St etc. I guess Bo is the guy as long he wins 9 games. That said, I don't know if we will unless something changes. Here are my thoughts on the 2014 schedule:
FAU - W
McNeese State - W
Fresno State - should be a W
Miami - L
Illinois - W
Mich St - L
NW - L
Rutgers - W
Purdue - W
Wisconsin - L
Minnesota - W
Iowa - L
I'm guessing that we'll go 8-4/7-5 this season (like I guessed last season). Maybe 7 or 8 wins (depending on our bowl match up) will get us interested in trying to raise the bar and find another coach or unless Bo finally throat punches a ref (I kid, I kid).