Grade the 2013 football season

[FlabLoser]

An Egg Bowl win and a bowl game win make this season a B.

I hoped for more. And it was frustrating to watch us be good enough to win some games that we lost like OSU and Auburn. I think for much of the season our offense lacked direction due to the mixed identities of Russell & Prescott. And our already young secondary was plagued with injuries.

But at mid season we started playing a lot better. We gave Alabama and LSU some solid competition, which is something we all wanted to see happen in the Mullen era. We held Auburn & Alabama to their lowest offensive output of the season. Nickoe Whitley went out with a bang in willing us to victory in the final moments of the Arkansas and Ole Miss games. And in the bowl game, we finally put together a complete game and dominated the CUSA champion.

It would have been nice for the team to have put it all together earlier in the season to get us to 8-10 wins. But at least we put it together down the stretch to finish strong and that was good to see.

Even better, we carry a lot of momentum and almost all of the 2-deep into 2014. The future is bright.

Hail State.

[CJDAWG85]

B+

The way we finished changed from a C to B+.

Kinda crazy we played six 10 win teams and got 7 wins.

[Political Hack]

C+

Without Ok St. in the schedule, we win 9 games. Huge error on AD's part that cost us at least one win, maybe two. A nine win team coming back next year with what we've got would be top 15. Now we have to hope for a top 25 ranking.

[Eric Nies Grind Time]

An Egg Bowl win and a bowl game win make this season a B.

I hoped for more. And it was frustrating to watch us be good enough to win some games that we lost like OSU and Auburn. I think for much of the season our offense lacked direction due to the mixed identities of Russell & Prescott. And our already young secondary was plagued with injuries.

But at mid season we started playing a lot better. We gave Alabama and LSU some solid competition, which is something we all wanted to see happen in the Mullen era. We held Auburn & Alabama to their lowest offensive output of the season. Nickoe Whitley went out with a bang in willing us to victory in the final moments of the Arkansas and Ole Miss games. And in the bowl game, we finally put together a complete game and dominated the CUSA champion.

It would have been nice for the team to have put it all together earlier in the season to get us to 8-10 wins. But at least we put it together down the stretch to finish strong and that was good to see.

Even better, we carry a lot of momentum and almost all of the 2-deep into 2014. The future is bright.

Hail State.


C+...B+ if we win the Auburn game and beat a cupcake instead of playing OK State.

[Goat Holder]

B. Can't get an A or better without winning big IMO, but we overcame a young team with countless injuries to win the Egg and make a bowl game with a horrendously difficult schedule. Questionable coaching decisions at times and a terrible kicking game prevent it from being an A- or B+.

[MetEdDawg]

I go B+ as well and I base this off of expectations we made before the season. Most of us said 7 or 8 wins was the best we could do. We got to 7 wins AND we won the Egg Bowl and won our bowl game in very dominating fashion against a conference champion, even if it was only the CUSA champion.

I think the talent we have is out of this world and this team has a ton of potential and you could see that potential the last half of the season. But this team gets docked points for improper personnel usage on offense, stretches of very poor play calling on offense, and the obvious elephant in the room, special teams. Those 3 things hurt us at various points throughout the season, especially the special teams. The missed FGs that changed momentum, like the LSU game, were critical errors that just demoralized the hell out of this team. We have to address this.

I know it wasn't as flashy as most wanted, but if you look at what we had to deal with, I think we came through alright. Lost our starting RG and SS game 1. Lost our starting QB game 1 and regardless of who the better QB is now, Russell was number 1 and we had to change our offense to fit Dak's style. Lose a senior in Skinner for a couple games, Perkins was banged up and missed time, Redmond was gone 5 games, Nickoe played 3/4 the season on a sprained ACL, Autry apparently was hurt the whole year, Dak went down once we finally had the offense under him, Fred Ross went down with a collarbone at the end of the year, no Quay Evans or Nick James, Love missed a game, tons of freshman that got significant playing time. Mullen said this was the most injuries he'd ever seen on a team and we still managed to get to 7 wins. I would say that's a lot of progress and that through all of that, we were still able to be competitive with the best teams in the conference. We are going in the right direction and the fact that all of this happened and we still aren't happy with 7 wins tells me there could be some very good times in our future.

[FISHDAWG]

C+ ..... what I like is this year ending strong with a promising defense returning and an offense next year better suited to our style of play ....... vs .... last years collapse and subsequent off season funk

[Coach34]

We returned only 12 starters- and two of those were lost in the 1st half of the 1st game.
Our Sr QB got a concussion also in Game 1 and we had to go to the back-up- who just happened to have missed Spring Practice due to injury
We played the 4th toughest schedule in the nation.
We still won 3 SEC games
We beat our rival who returned 20 starters to start the season and had all the hype
We went bowling and won in a blowout

B+ for me

[codeDawg]

C+. We didn't lose anything we were favored in, but the Auburn game is the difference between a team that can take opportunities and one that can't.

Honestly, going into 'Bama, I would have said D. The team, the coaches, the fan base, and the administration were lifeless. Some time in mid-November we got our coach and the team back. I don't know who was responsible, but it worked and we finished a disappointing season strong.

No excuses next year. If we are trying to build a team that is capable of stepping up and making noise when conditions are favorable, next year is the test of getting the mixture right.

[BulldogBear]

C+

Without Ok St. in the schedule, we win 9 games. Huge error on AD's part that cost us at least one win, maybe two. A nine win team coming back next year with what we've got would be top 15. Now we have to hope for a top 25 ranking.

Personally, I'd rather start unranked and be under the radar till midseason

[Barking 13]

C+

Without Ok St. in the schedule, we win 9 games. Huge error on AD's part that cost us at least one win, maybe two. A nine win team coming back next year with what we've got would be top 15. Now we have to hope for a top 25 ranking.

Play that game tomorrow and we smoke that ass... which was the reasoning behind it.. they knew what we had, but the dead indians took it away...

[gravedigger]

C+

We made a bowl and that gets an average grade. What prevents it from making a B for me is the poor use of good running backs and kicking and punting. To get to an A we would have had to beat auburn, been better prepared offensively for Osu, not missed critical field goals, had no punts blocked in our end zone, and stayed within one score of lsu. I can see past the turnovers vs USC because dak was really just getting used to being the man. Uk and bowling green shouldn't have been nearly as close.

This was a transition year and I've learned to accept that but spring practice had better be about "sharpening the saw". We made great strides starting with the aggie game.

We cannot afford to step backward. I know the luster of a season can be ruined on egg bowl night, but we must shoot higher than the gator bowl and the egg bowl next year.