Hope Revisited

Only 361 days until the 2008 home opener against San Diego State! I have accepted that the rest of the season will serve mainly as an opportunity to develop our young talent in preparation for next year's campaign, which is not a bad thing. The number of freshmen and sophomores who are going to play this year along with the incoming class of 2008 means that there may be a good times ahead.
Beyond watching our players develop, I have re-evaluated what I think is possible to achieve in this down year.

1) Beat Michigan State. We need to end this home loss streak. Now. I actually like the Spartans and would like to see their program revive. Living in Michigan, I share their distaste for the Wolverines and have a good rapport with my Spartan friends. The early results look pretty good for MSU with D'Antonio; while the opposition has not been first rate, they have been physically dominant and the program has developed a blue collar attitude that is the antithesis of John L. Smith. This should help prevent the self-destructive tendencies and I am thinking they have a decent chance of competing for the Big Ten this year. Respect aside, I want to end their streak in our stadium.

2) Beat BC. Everyone remembers 1993 when the Eagles knocked off ND to deprive us of the national championship. The only two Div 1-A football catholic schools resume their rivalry which has generally been a bigger marquee game for BC who plays with passion against the Irish. This year, the table may be reversed in that the Eagles will be favored and the Irish will be playing for respect. Beating them at home would notch a respectable win and serve as a catharsis from 1993.

3) Beat Michigan. Until Saturday, I wouldn't have thought this possible. Even now, it is a tall order because if we can't move the ball we could get blown out and face the indignity of restoring some hope to our rival before they start the Big Televen season. Likewise, we have the ability to pound a nail into their coffin with a win. It will be weakness on weakness when our offense faces their defense - if we can win this battle, we have a chance because I am liking our defenses chances against UM offense more in their current doldrums and with a freshman QB. If Hart and Long have lingering bumps and bruises from Saturday, our defense might play well against UM if they can only get some rest between drives.

4) Win a bowl game. That's assuming we make one, which would require six wins. If we do it certainly won't be a top tier bowl so maybe we could actually break our string of losses. I would be quite happy with the Motor City Bowl against the MAC champ if it meant we could get that monkey off our backs as well. I'd say we should drop down to Div 1-AA this year, but I think we would get blitzed by App. State.

For the rest, I would hope to win the four November games, which would still gives us a shot at seven wins. With what I have seen, I will be happy if we win six games and make the bowl. I am less hopeful about Purdue, because we will have to score some points to beat that team and I haven't seen it yet. Purdue will also have the revenge factor, but it would now be in the category of 'Big Win' if we get it. Bleh! I am not even going to entertain hopes of beating USC or UCLA. Perhaps we should keep out our young players from those games to avoid injuries and let the seniors and walkons start.