In Reply to: I'm not setting the bar on anything. This is not a . . posted by BluBlood on May 18, 2026 at 15:07:18
And you think 5-7 out of the gate at UCLA is going to feel like anything less than a funeral on these boards? Foster did that, with only 6 home games and a new starting QB. And he faced LSU out of conference.
What would Chesney have to sell, then? What would happen to our current highly ranked class, which is unsigned until December?
No one, not one person, is advocating firing Chesney if we don't win 6 games. Most on here are big fans of BC and are thoroughly impressed by what he's doing. But winning five games would be an abomination, a momentum deflating catastrophe.
You say UCLA is a dumpster fire. Well, what is Nevada? What is Michigan St.? What is Wisconsin? What is Purdue? SDSU lost their whole defense, which carried that team last year. Is it unreasonable to expect a victory against them at home? Cal just fired their coach and hired a guy who has no experience as a head coach. Unreasonable to think we have a good shot at that one? Locksley at Maryland is lucky to have a job. We don't exist in a vacuum; all these programs have problems.
Is it unreasonable to think we could win one of Illinois/Minnesota? Is the rivalry game a foregone loss this year?
What's not reasonable is thinking that five wins against this schedule is any kind of success. There are no slow builds anymore. That's what NIL and the portal are for. And to succeed with NIL and the portal he needs to keep the good vibes going by winning 6-7 games this year, at a minimum.
Some people will ride the fence and just wish for intangibles like better fundamentals and playing hard, better scheming, etc., rather than wins and losses. But, if we coach better, play better, and look better, there's no way that isn't going to be reflected somehow in the W/L column. There's a reason they keep score instead of having the game judged by a panel like in figure skating.
I would say there could be a very narrow exception. If, for example, UCLA starts off poorly but then finishes hard to win 5 games. That's what happened in that first losing season at Holy Cross. And it's kind of what Foster did that first year that caused him to roll into the next recruiting cycle with some momentum. The problem is, the 2026 schedule is front-loaded with wins and gets tougher towards the end.