2023 could be the 7th best season of last 3 decades

[wpgrad]

I was bored at work, so with all the whining we see on this board, I was curious where it would be ranked if we beat Navy.

As I've posted before, I don't think we will beat coastal but I do think we will beat Navy. And we will end up 5-7 with the CiC.

And if we end up with the CiC and finish 5-7 the 2023 season will be the....probably 7/8th th best season we've had in the last 30 years.

Best seasons of the last 30 years were obviously 1996, 2016-18 and very likely 2020 and 2021. Thats 6 in some order (I'd start with the 2018 year first but thats me).

But if we win the CiC and finish 5-7, this season is right up there as fighting for the 7th spot. The next 2 seasons in the argument are probably 2010 and 1995---2010 was the ellerson bowl, but they lost to Navy by 2 TDs and AF by 3 TDs. 1995 was 5-5-1 but 3 of those 5 wins were FCS teams and they lost to Air Force by 3 touchdown. They only legit win in 1995 was the blowout of Boston College (and lets keep in mind BC was 4-8 that year). Even last year was 6-6, but no win over AF.

One could easily make the argument, especially if you give importance to the CiC trophy, that if we finish 5-7 with a win over Navy, this is our 7th best season in 30 years. And if we somehow beat Coastal as well, it's a pretty solid argument that this 6-6 season is 7th best season of last 3 decades after all of our complaining about the new offense.

[Oliphant]

2010 Navy went 9-4 with a 18 point win over ND and Air Force had eight wins as well. Of course, AFA this year has been solid.

That says more about how pitiful the program has been. At this point, what happened in 2002 shouldn't be used to defend the utterly wasted opportunities of 2023. The program was in rough shape. But that era is long gone. It shouldn't be conjured up every time to whitewash losses to 2-8 ULM and UMASS.

[ColdWarYushok87]

2010 Navy went 9-4 with a 18 point win over ND and Air Force had eight wins as well. Of course, AFA this year has been solid.

That says more about how pitiful the program has been. At this point, what happened in 2002 shouldn't be used to defend the utterly wasted opportunities of 2023. The program was in rough shape. But that era is long gone. It shouldn't be conjured up every time to whitewash losses to 2-8 ULM and UMASS.

Agree. Apart from the big win against AF, this season has objectively sucked. Beating Navy will definitely make it suck less but framing it as a top 10 season (which it may actually be) of the last 30 years speaks to just how pathetic this program has been. Especially so before Coach Monken arrived.

[ArmorDude]

2010 Navy went 9-4 with a 18 point win over ND and Air Force had eight wins as well. Of course, AFA this year has been solid.

That says more about how pitiful the program has been. At this point, what happened in 2002 shouldn't be used to defend the utterly wasted opportunities of 2023. The program was in rough shape. But that era is long gone. It shouldn't be conjured up every time to whitewash losses to 2-8 ULM and UMASS.

Agree. Apart from the big win against AF, this season has objectively sucked. Beating Navy will definitely make it suck less but framing it as a top 10 season (which it may actually be) of the last 30 years speaks to just how pathetic this program has been. Especially so before Coach Monken arrived.

People need to lay off of the crackpipe here. Yes, I'm happy that we beat AF, but AF really beat themselves. 9 turnovers (when you count the turnovers on downs) and we only score 23 points? Even if you're just trying to play conservative football and run out the clock starting in the second quarter, you should put up at least 35 points with all of those extra possessions.

I hope that beating AF isn't used as a reason to justify this horrible "offense" (I don't even know if we should call it that). We need a grind it out offense, not something where we go drop, drop, run, punt.

JM needs to get back to his roots and focus on what he does best. Hire Ken N to be the OC!

Or if he sticks with this offense, maybe we should try to get JImbo? I hear he has quite a bit of money coming to him with no offset !

Beat 'em!

[Dong Fong '09]

I was bored at work, so with all the whining we see on this board, I was curious where it would be ranked if we beat Navy.

As I've posted before, I don't think we will beat coastal but I do think we will beat Navy. And we will end up 5-7 with the CiC.

And if we end up with the CiC and finish 5-7 the 2023 season will be the....probably 7/8th th best season we've had in the last 30 years.

Best seasons of the last 30 years were obviously 1996, 2016-18 and very likely 2020 and 2021. Thats 6 in some order (I'd start with the 2018 year first but thats me).

But if we win the CiC and finish 5-7, this season is right up there as fighting for the 7th spot. The next 2 seasons in the argument are probably 2010 and 1995---2010 was the ellerson bowl, but they lost to Navy by 2 TDs and AF by 3 TDs. 1995 was 5-5-1 but 3 of those 5 wins were FCS teams and they lost to Air Force by 3 touchdown. They only legit win in 1995 was the blowout of Boston College (and lets keep in mind BC was 4-8 that year). Even last year was 6-6, but no win over AF.

One could easily make the argument, especially if you give importance to the CiC trophy, that if we finish 5-7 with a win over Navy, this is our 7th best season in 30 years. And if we somehow beat Coastal as well, it's a pretty solid argument that this 6-6 season is 7th best season of last 3 decades after all of our complaining about the new offense.

if we beat navy this year and win the CIC i will be happier than I was in 2021, when we played like dog crap and lost to a terrible navy team but had 9 wins. doesn't mean there isn't a huge room for improvement, but beating Navy and and air force should be our #1 goal every year.

[USMAPAFAN]

JM knows exactly what the AF win was: A gift. He would not frame it any other way.

[kfan12]

JM knows exactly what the AF win was: A gift. He would not frame it any other way.

I think he would frame it this way: We got some breaks, we created some of those breaks and we also had some not go our way. I don't recall him framing the game as a gift, probably because he knows two of the three fumbles were caused by direct hits on the ball; the interceptions happened because the defense actually caught them and were in a reasonably good position to do so; and those two fourth down stops weren't AFA players falling down in the back field all on their own.

But then what does he know about how he would frame it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmTG-YRDDJk