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Fulfilling Season?

Grizzly Oredigger

Grizzly Oredigger

Well-known member
I, for one, have found that this season was more fulfilling than last season. Even with the extra loss on the schedule this year and no post-season seed. Obviously, I'm always a little bummed when we don't get back to the chipper though...

I also feel like we lost to a better team to end our season than last year. Last thing, I have a general sense of hope that I didn't have at the end of last season. It was a wild ride this year.

Thoughts?
 
Still have that empty, nagging sensation in pit of stomach.

We did lose to a better team, at least on last Saturday.

Don't want to get used to seasons like this one, no fault of our players who gave it their all. Our coaching staff never seemed to put a cohesive game plan or a consistent plan. Defense was our strength and offense struggled to find its identity.

My hunch is that we will be a force to be feared next year with a better O line and re tooled offensive attack.
 
For me personally, I feel like I can't complain. The day the schedule was released I posted 8-4 with losses to Wyo, NDSU, Poly and EWU. The Griz didn't lose a game I picked them to win. And on top of that, the Griz played a hell of a lot better at the end of the season than they did the beginning, and not every team can say that. I'm always disappointed when the season is over, because only twice in my lifetime has the season not ended in a loss. And of course there's 20/20 hindsight too. If the Griz run the ZR from day one, do they muster enough points to beat a pretty bad Wyoming team? Quite possibly. Or, JJ might have gotten rocked even worse in that game keeping the ball. Same with NDSU. Honestly, I still think they would have lost to Poly no matter what offense they were running. That night wasn't meant to be for the Griz' defense.

But at the end of the day, I got 14 more Griz games, this senior class was incredible to watch, Wash-Griz hosted another playoff game and the Brawl was a lot of fun. All-in-all, it's a season I'll always remember. That's for sure.
 
Grizzly Oredigger said:
I, for one, have found that this season was more fulfilling than last season. Even with the extra loss on the schedule this year and no post-season seed. Obviously, I'm always a little bummed when we don't get back to the chipper though...

I also feel like we lost to a better team to end our season than last year. Last thing, I have a general sense of hope that I didn't have at the end of last season. It was a wild ride this year.

Thoughts?
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I'm thinkin I agree with you on this season being better than last, but I don't think I will be truly "fulfilled" till we get back to the NC game. I disagree that we lost to a better team this year than last. CC pretty much took it to us last year. We were with Eagles for the better part of the games this year. (Both of them) I'm also feeling that general sense of hope going into next year as well. Hope springs eternal when approaching a new season, with a new coach and a clear slate. Corny I know, but true, at least for me.
 
Looking back on this season I honestly feel that the Griz went as far as I thought they could when the season began. Sure, my hopes were raised at certain points and lowered at others, but things turned out as I had expected at the start. Even my most optimistic self figured a quarterfinals game would be the most that I could realistically expect. That being said, I always have a bit of remorse when the season ends short of a national championship. Looking forward I have even more excitement for the upcoming season than the last. A new direction with a new coaching staff is always exciting, plus the addition of the new academic center and the soon-to-be-built Champions Center all make for an exciting future for the program. I will be there every step of the way supporting the program. GO GRIZ!
 
Not sure about “fulfilling,” but this season was not nearly so frustrating as last.

I put this on another thread, but that was right after the game and no one had much to say. Suppose your boss gave you an Annual Review saying you “Met Expectations.” You’d know (1) there is no raise in your immediate future, and (2) you’d better step it up. Well, that pretty much described the year for the Griz. And, of course, Delaney is retiring, so he won’t be the one who needs to step it up.

Before I picked a thread from last August to bump, I looked over quite a few where we discussed our expectations for the season. I focused on posts made after we knew that something like eight (or so) expected starters had been lost to injury or whatever. We also knew that something was going on with Henderson, although we weren’t sure what.

Except for some rare “outliers,” the spread among those opinions was actually fairly consistent. First, I did not see anyone who thought the team/coaches had a National Championship in them. (There might have been some I missed, of course.) Also, there were not many who thought they could make a deep run in the playoffs. Many more were on the other end ... those who thought the Griz would do no better than breakeven, or maybe win only four games.

But, amazingly, most opinions centered right around an 8-4 regular season record. Back then, we all thought UM would really sweat a playoff bid with that record. Beyond that, most people thought the team would go one or two deep into the playoffs, but probably no further. (I’m not making this stuff up, you can go read the threads yourself.)

In the end, the season pretty much exactly “met expectations.” There was only one real difference I can see. By the time we knew the Griz need “only” beat the kitties, we were just sweating the game, not whether or not the resulting 8-4 record would be enough. Most of us felt sure UM would get a bid after a win, and be out with a loss.

While a “met expectations” rating is not particularly fulfilling, and cries out for improvement, it’s okay ... and it does “feel better” than last year.
 
I don't think too many folks would have predicted an 8-4 season record If they knew Schmaing, Poole and Henderson we're going to be out. Those were huge loses. This team played damn hard and was in every game except Cal Poly. I thought our defensive effort was outstanding. The talent is there to have a great season in 2015 if there is a smooth transition with the new coaching staff.
 
GrizFBDad said:
I don't think too many folks would have predicted an 8-4 season record If they knew Schmaing, Poole and Henderson we're going to be out. Those were huge loses. This team played damn hard and was in every game except Cal Poly. I thought our defensive effort was outstanding. The talent is there to have a great season in 2015 if there is a smooth transition with the new coaching staff.
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Agreed, I can't imagine anyone would've predicted 8-4 regular season and a playoff win if they were told this:

"Predict the Grizzlies record knowing that the only two experienced linemen, Poole and Schmaing, will not play, and instead a true freshman will start most of the season at LT. Additionally that Ellis Henderson will miss practically all but a few games, Jordan Johnson will be banged up all season and miss time, we'll be using our backup punter most of the season, and our kicking game will not find it's way until the last few games of the year."
 
I wasn't fulfilled, that'd take a national championship! But I wasn't entirely disappointed either. I think I guessed 8-4 or 7-5, can't recall. The playoff game against San Diego was a little anticlimactic. They just weren't a playoff caliber team. I hit a low after the Cal Poly loss but the trouncing of Cats had me pretty happy for two weeks. Now it's onto Spring ball and the 2015 season.
 
GrizFBDad said:
I don't think too many folks would have predicted an 8-4 season record If they knew Schmaing, Poole and Henderson we're going to be out. Those were huge loses. This team played damn hard and was in every game except Cal Poly. I thought our defensive effort was outstanding. The talent is there to have a great season in 2015 if there is a smooth transition with the new coaching staff.
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The (generally unexpected) total loss of Hendeson is a particularly good point. Most people thought he'd be out there after, maybe, a few games when they made their guess about the Griz season. It might have changed a lot of expectations, for the worse, had we known he would be gone for the season.
 
kurtismichael said:
I wasn't fulfilled, that'd take a national championship! But I wasn't entirely disappointed either. I think I guessed 8-4 or 7-5, can't recall. The playoff game against San Diego was a little anticlimactic. They just weren't a playoff caliber team. I hit a low after the Cal Poly loss but the trouncing of Cats had me pretty happy for two weeks. Now it's onto Spring ball and the 2015 season.
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No season is a total loss when the team wins more than they lose ... and they do a beat-down on the puddy-tats. :thumb:
 
IdaGriz01 said:
kurtismichael said:
I wasn't fulfilled, that'd take a national championship! But I wasn't entirely disappointed either. I think I guessed 8-4 or 7-5, can't recall. The playoff game against San Diego was a little anticlimactic. They just weren't a playoff caliber team. I hit a low after the Cal Poly loss but the trouncing of Cats had me pretty happy for two weeks. Now it's onto Spring ball and the 2015 season.
Click to expand...
No season is a total loss when the team wins more than they lose ... and they do a beat-down on the puddy-tats. :thumb:
Click to expand...


Right, I could be a Northern Colorado fan and be pointing at that quality loss to UNLV as the fulfilling part of the season.
 
Fulfilled...no. Not with so many injuries. But content, yes. This team wasn't championship caliber IMO , but I loved watching them work and get better throughout the season. The injuries will linger w me... What might have been w the offense we anticipated coupled with the consistent defense.
 
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