This week, we'll be recording the preseason predictions of the editorial staff here at BOTC. In the effort of being completely transparent (as is the theme of the university right now), we wanted to get these out as soon as fall camp starts before, presumably, players on our team and other teams are lost for the season for one reason or another. That way, we can always go back and say, "Uh yeah, I had no idea the third string gunner was going to get injured. Otherwise, my prediction would have been WAY different."
We end our week with TB's assessment.
Analysis:
I'm really splitting the difference on the overall record above. As Pan and I have discussed, the season hinges on a couple games, and could be a resounding success or a crushing failure based on the outcomes. First, we have the UCLA game. If we go out to Pasadena and bring home a win, it could turn into an interesting season, as we will almost certainly be undefeated as the calendar turns to October in that case. If we lose that game, we're just another 3-1 team in the non-conference.
A little later in the season, the Colorado game in Manhattan looms large in setting the tone for the season's stretch run. Under the best-case scenario, we could come into that game 6-1, with the sole loss coming in the game in Lubbock. Opinion on Colorado varies this season, but I'm still clinging to the opinion that they could compete in the North this year. If they do, this game could keep us in the hunt for the North title as November nears, and with it a difficult stretch run looms.
In lieu of breaking down each game, I'll just group them:
Likely Losses: @ Texas Tech, Oklahoma, @ Nebraska
Tossups: UCLA, Texas A&M, Colorado, KU, Missouri
Likely Wins: UMass, Louisiana, Tennessee Tech, Iowa State
On the individual team honors, I went conservative by choosing Banks on offense and Harold on defense. It's tempting to pick Daniel Thomas, but I can't do that until I actually see him play in purple. It was tempting to pick Joshua Moore on defense, but I went with Harold for no real reason other than I think he could have a helluva season in the trenches.
0 recs | 32 comments
It's apparent that our schedule only holds a couple of "maybe" games this year
and a lot of “sure bets”. At least, just looking back over our four predictions. I think we all put the UCLA game as a toss up, and then everything in the Big 12 is pretty much set, except for probably the Colorado game.
Of course, I’m a big believer that nothing is ever certain. I know teams lose games they should win, and win games they should lose. That’s what makes sports exciting to me. I hope we can pull out a couple big wins to get bowl eligible, yet I keep myself grounded with realistic expectations. But, I think the majority of K-State fans would take a 6-6 season if it meant a step forward from the wreckage that was the Prince Era.
I’ll still be pissed if we lose to KU, though.
EMAW - August 14, 2009
I think that will be the nature of college football as we go forward...
There will always be the ‘haves’ in the BCS conferences (those with ungodly amounts of money to spend) and the ‘have less’ group that still has much more than everyone else that isn’t in the BCS. As long as the current system is in place, there will be a widening gap where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
The elite BCS teams will rack up wins against the lesser teams, and those lesser BCS teams will rack up wins against mid-majors and FCS schools. There will only be a few games per year that are competitive, and that’s going to be when you face divisional opponents that may be in the same ‘class’ as you. Otherwise, you’re going to have write off games about 75% of the time because you stand little chance of winning or losing because you’re forced to play the elite teams and you voluntarily schedule wins in the non-conference.
Sure, there will be surprises every year, but for the most part, records aren’t that hard to predict +/- 1 game because of this. Last year, I said KSU would be 7-5 +/- 1, and even after a Chernobyl meltdown of a season, I was only off one game. Given how consistent Snyder’s teams seem to be, I think there’s a really, really strong chance that this team will fall into the 6-6 +/- 1 range. If things go really, really well, we’ll see seven wins and a bowl. If they go worse than expected, I don’t think they’ll see less than 5 wins. And that’s almost solely based on the high number of home games and low number of road games.
Panjandrum - August 14, 2009
Oh great
next thing I know you’re going to be calling on Beebe to appoint Death Panels.
rydonmf - August 14, 2009
I see where this is going, and I'm killing it right now.
No pun intended. Well, yes, pun intended.
There will be no politics on this board. All discussions are sports related. Any political gleanings anyone gets from my comments were not meant to be a metaphor or allegorical in any way.
Anyone that mentions politics in this thread henceforth will be officially warned and potentially banned. We don’t want this place to turn into a political cesspool like GoPowercat does half of the time.
Panjandrum - August 14, 2009
Oh God...
I shudder to think of GoPowercat discussions on here.
Catfan33 - August 14, 2009
It was a joke.
A sarcastic yet playful poke at those who might argue against revenue sharing. But I do see your point of how things could start frothing. I appreciate the civil tone you find here more that anyone. Coincidentally, I just happened to be prowling Gopowercat last night, thinking about ponying up the membership fee, and you’re right the message boards can get just hateful. Not to mention the comments section of every Kansas.com or Kansascity.com article. So I will take into account your sensitivity and refrain from metaphor and allegory in any way. It’s all nuts and bolts from here on out.
rydonmf - August 14, 2009
Not to discourage you...
but in my opinion, it’s not worth the membership. The message board is filled with inane topics and ramblings and rarely do you get insightful commentary or “exclusive” news from the articles. I’ll stick with this board and writers like Austin Meek over at TCJ.
Catfan33 - August 14, 2009
Thanks. That's kinda what I was thinking.
rydonmf - August 14, 2009
OT: Anyone know where I can find a good barber in the Manhattan area?
I kid…I kid.
MadCat - August 14, 2009
That's deep. :)
Catfan33 - August 14, 2009
But you may...
completely disagree with me if you did. I like Fitzgerald and the staff, it’s just that I haven’t been impressed with the level of content expected from a pay site. But that’s just me. I don’t think that there is anything I can get from that site that I couldn’t get from free sites and newspapers. I hope that changes in the near future and from what I can see, the content is improving. So please, I’ll let you come to your own conclusions.
Catfan33 - August 14, 2009
There is one thing
Video. They are kicking everyone’s ass on the video front. Promoting Shane Howard was brilliant.
I will actually have a post coming soon on this subject, if I can ever find the damn time to finish it. Maybe this weekend…
BracketCat - August 15, 2009
If I may...
partially retract my earlier opinion. I had not had the opportunity to peruse the site in quite a while. After doing so over the weekend, I’ll have to say I’m impressed with the video content. That alone is worth the money. However, I’m still not impressed with the commentary or the article content. I don’t know, maybe I’m hard to please, but I guess I kind of expect some sort of exclusive content from a pay site that I can’t get anywhere else. It just seems like that isn’t the case. And I’m not even going to start on the message board over the there. Ugh.
Catfan33 - August 17, 2009
As a long time member of that site...
I will say that I enjoy the service. They have a lot of different content, and I really like Tim Fitzgerald. I haven’t met him personally, though someday I’d like to, and I feel that I get my money’s worth. There are also several people on that board that I enjoy talking with a great deal, so I stick around.
My sole complaint about GPC is that it’s so large you have a hard time policing the board, and because of that, you get a lot of seriously inappropriate threads with some really odd players in them. Fitz & Co. are in a tough spot because essentially banning a customer could probably cost you business, so they have to have to tiptoe on eggshells in that regard. So, a lot of guys that I’d ban still get to post. Serious offenders are dealt with, but they really have to cross the line. True ‘bannings’ are few and far between.
We’ve only banned solicitors on this site thus far, and one guy who was verbally abusive. Since this is a free site, I have no issues telling someone to take a hike if they try to poke a stick at the beehive. That’s one thing I wish GPC could do because I think it would make the overall experience much more enjoyable, but that’s my opinion as a customer. Otherwise, I like the site and have no intention of giving that up anytime soon.
Panjandrum - August 14, 2009
I enjoy the people who think they have a right
to post on message boards and say whatever they want without repurcussion. I call it the “This is America!” mind set. What those nimrods fail to realize is that Fitz (and Terry Pierce at KSUFans) are running a business, and they have the right to refuse service to anyone.
Anyways, it’s all comical to me, and most of the time I sit back with a bowl of popcorn and enjoy the show.
EMAW - August 14, 2009
It's cool. I'm not upset.
I like to swing the big stick every once in a while to remind everyone. It wasn’t personal.
The problem is that some people can’t joke about such things, and they take it all very, very seriously. I can respect that to a certain degree, but I don’t want to open those doors here. One of the things we’re proudest of on this site is the level of discourse that’s shared here and how civil it usually remains. We’d just like to keep it that way.
Carry on all.
Panjandrum - August 14, 2009
"There will be no politics on this board. All discussions are sports related. Any political gleanings anyone gets from my comments were not meant to be a metaphor or allegorical in any way."
We should probably just copy-paste that into our signatures as a standing disclaimer. It’s only going to get worse, I suspect.
BracketCat - August 15, 2009
I love how
None of you think that ISU is a tossup. I predicted ISU will lose close in this, but I hope to God they win so I can see the fan reaction on this site.
Mark Kieffer - August 14, 2009
And it may be ....
a tossup, but based on last year’s results and the fact that an awful coached K-State team beat them without much trouble, I think most people are betting that Snyder can win this one.
Catfan33 - August 14, 2009
I'm not going to lie...
If Iowa State is not undefeated going into that game AND K-State loses to ISU, I will be disappointed.
MadCat - August 14, 2009
If KSU loses to ISU...
They won’t win another game all year.
We have to be that bad to lose to ISU on a neutral field.
Yes, I firmly believe that. Sorry, man. I’m not trying to be insulting, but that’s genuinely how I feel.
Panjandrum - August 14, 2009
Classic
This quote will definitley be part of my preview of the KSU game. Thanks for the material!
Mark Kieffer - August 16, 2009
I'm glad that we provided you with material...
Panjandrum - August 16, 2009
Also, I'm going to say this nicely..
as our glorious leader is on his honeymoon, I don’t want to say something out of line. However, I will fire a shot across the bow…
We are absolutely brutal to KU on this site. There isn’t a single person on this board who is probably less tasteful or immature than I am in that regard. However, Denver, rockchalk, and the rest of the RCT crew are amazingly civil and take everything with the appropriate grain of salt.
I would suggest you follow their lead.
Panjandrum - August 16, 2009
Last comment
Doesn’t suprise me about RCT. When you have a 3 game winning streak in Football and have a National Championship quality team in Basketball, it’s pretty easy to tune out.
I’ll move on and stop posting comments, as you suggest I should. If you guys want to slam other teams, that’s your perrogative as Bracketcat said, this is Bring on the Cats and it’s your guys’ deal.
Mark Kieffer - August 17, 2009
You are free to post comments here...
However, please understand that we will speak our minds. If you don’t want to listen, that’s up to you. However, please don’t get riled up about it. It’s all in good fun.
You’re a passionate fan, as are we. However, please realize that you don’t need to defend Cyclone turf here. If we came to your site and constantly defended KSU, it would get on your nerves as you are free to say what you wish.
If there’s one thing I’ve grown tired of, it’s message board bickering. We don’t want that here, and our discussions have sort of devolved to that level. If you choose to comment here, and I hope you do, please realize that we aren’t insulting you or ISU. We give everyone a hard time because it’s just who we are. We also give credit when and where it’s due. If ISU beats KSU this year, we will be the first to congratulate them. But don’t get so defensive in the meantime. We are just dorking around.
Panjandrum - August 17, 2009 via mobile
On a positive note...
I will be more excited about the ISU game this year than in years past thanks to the repartee I’ve witnessed. Now, I need to get fired up for the Family Reunion!
MadCat - August 17, 2009
I am excited regardless. It will be my first trip to Arrowhead!
Mark Kieffer - August 17, 2009
Ah. Hope you like it.
I’ve been there once before in a game against the Hawkeyes. It was so hot that my digital watch face went totally dark. I’m sure the game in October will be much nicer.
MadCat - August 17, 2009
"I hope to God they win so I can see the fan reaction on this site"
Yes, I can pretty well picture your behavior in the event of such a scenario.
It’s what I would call “Exhibit A” of the sort of uncivil fan behavior to which Panjandrum refers above.
An opinion is just an opinion, man. Not every prediction is a ruthless attack on your team. If you can’t stop chugging the Kool-Aid long enough to see that Iowa State is probably going to have another tough season, you’re probably going to object to a lot of comments on this blog.
And that’s your problem, not ours.
BracketCat - August 15, 2009
LOL
I predicted ISU losing to KSU on my site, so I’m not sure what kind of Kool-Aid I am drinking. I think ISU wins 2 conference games, and that’s drinking the Kool-Aid??
If you guys want to call UCLA (even a down UCLA) in Pasadena a tossup, but call a team that’s beat you 3 of the last 5 a sure fire win then cheers.
Mark Kieffer - August 16, 2009
I'll be honest, I haven't read your predictions
Based on your behavior over here of late, I would expect them to be more in the 4-4 range. I suppose one can be a realist on their own site but a gung-ho defender of the faith elsewhere, although I personally find it hard to reconcile two dissonant positions within myself.
As for UCLA, I’ve had that marked as a loss from the start. Watch what you cover with that blanket statement – it might catch on fire…
But I digress. The point is that you are not going to convince us that Iowa State is the better team at this particular time, and we apparently are not going to convince you that K-State is.
But guess what? It’s called Bring on the Cats, not Bring on the Clones, and over here, you play by our rules.
BracketCat - August 17, 2009
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