In my lifetime the Aggies have two seasons where they won eight games or more; these were the past two seasons. With the reaction to yesterday's game, I can't help but feel USU fans are delusional about their Aggies. We went in with our backup QB. An OL that has four new starters and hasn't sorted things out yet. A D missing one of the best LBs in the country and three new starters in the secondary. A suspect place-kicking unit. In spite of all that we seem to be outraged that we would lose to a team that has lost only four home games in the past five years, and won 28 games over the last three seasons.

It seems to me we think we're something more than we are.

We have a good team that will beat most the teams on our schedule, but we're not dominant right now.

We'll likely reach the 8 win mark for just the third time in my life this year. But this isn't the team of the past two seasons. We should have known that going into it. Sure we hoped that our OL would show better and Chuckie would be Chuckie. If those things had happened we might be comparable to the teams of the past two years. But that was wishful thinking.

Don't forget that the "backup QB" is a former starter that led this program to one of the two 8 win seasons you're talking about. He was 6-1 as a starter last year.

BJ, you are right on the money...as usual. (Don't let that go to your head)
Talk about delusional. My freshman year at USU found the AGGIES ranked #7 preseason in one poll. We then went out and lost our first 6 games....won the last 4. We had no doubts as the season started that we would be undefeated. Oooops!

brownjeans wrote:In my lifetime the Aggies have two seasons where they won eight games or more; these were the past two seasons. With the reaction to yesterday's game, I can't help but feel USU fans are delusional about their Aggies. We went in with our backup QB. An OL that has four new starters and hasn't sorted things out yet. A D missing one of the best LBs in the country and three new starters in the secondary. A suspect place-kicking unit. In spite of all that we seem to be outraged that we would lose to a team that has lost only four home games in the past five years, and won 28 games over the last three seasons.

It seems to me we think we're something more than we are.

We have a good team that will beat most the teams on our schedule, but we're not dominant right now.

We'll likely reach the 8 win mark for just the third time in my life this year. But this isn't the team of the past two seasons. We should have known that going into it. Sure we hoped that our OL would show better and Chuckie would be Chuckie. If those things had happened we might be comparable to the teams of the past two years. But that was wishful thinking.

The frustration is real. Our talent this year is just as good if not better than the past two years. Injuries happen in football, they always will. Injuries can't be an excuse, because they'll always be there. The frustration is, the talent is there, but there is no confidence, no swag, no nastiness, and no team pride. That's on coaching.

Short answer: ABSOLUTELY!

aggiesare1 wrote:

brownjeans wrote:In my lifetime the Aggies have two seasons where they won eight games or more; these were the past two seasons. With the reaction to yesterday's game, I can't help but feel USU fans are delusional about their Aggies. We went in with our backup QB. An OL that has four new starters and hasn't sorted things out yet. A D missing one of the best LBs in the country and three new starters in the secondary. A suspect place-kicking unit. In spite of all that we seem to be outraged that we would lose to a team that has lost only four home games in the past five years, and won 28 games over the last three seasons.

It seems to me we think we're something more than we are.

We have a good team that will beat most the teams on our schedule, but we're not dominant right now.

We'll likely reach the 8 win mark for just the third time in my life this year. But this isn't the team of the past two seasons. We should have known that going into it. Sure we hoped that our OL would show better and Chuckie would be Chuckie. If those things had happened we might be comparable to the teams of the past two years. But that was wishful thinking.

The frustration is real. Our talent this year is just as good if not better than the past two years. Injuries happen in football, they always will. Injuries can't be an excuse, because they'll always be there. The frustration is, the talent is there, but there is no confidence, no swag, no nastiness, and no team pride. That's on coaching.

I too feel that this is a big difference in our teams from the past few years.

Convince me that this team has more talent and experience than the Turbin/Wagner team that couldn't win eight games with GA coaching it.

brownjeans wrote:Convince me that this team has more talent and experience than the Turbin/Wagner team that couldn't win eight games with GA coaching it.

I agree with you. That team had alot of talent, i guess i am more comparing this team to last years team, and I feel like we have more talent.

We were delusional. Now we're just disillusioned.

This place was getting cougar board status in the pre season. It was pretty sad.

Your mom was getting pretty sad. Also, she has cougarboard status.

I didn't realize we'd already hit the acceptance stage of the grief cycle. But in answer to the OP, yes we out-zoobed the zoo's this off season.

We out zoobed the zoobs and I was guilty, and it hurts pretty bad. Didn't help that espy and major analysts were zoobin us too.

We had high expectations for the FB team but that isn't zoobish. Zoobish is proclaiming a national championship every year. I have no shame in admitting I had blue goggles on and don't call me a zoob for it. It's pathetic to hammer on optimistic Aggie fans for being optimistic fans. It also smacks of zoobishness to be trying to put all those optimistic Aggie fans in their places.

I think a poor showing this season has put our optimism in its place. We had folks talking undefeated and Heisman on here. Those who tried to discuss the youth of our team were struck down.

NVAggie wrote:I think a poor showing this season has put our optimism in its place. We had folks talking undefeated and Heisman on here. Those who tried to discuss the youth of our team were struck down.

No doubt much optimism has been driven from the fan base due to poor and/or under performance so far this season. Judging by board convo over the last 24 hours USU fans may as well hang it up along with the team until next season. That's not zoobish it's typical Aggie pessimism and I'm not passing judgement on that. Just pointing out the difference.
As far as the rest, few people thought the Aggies chances of going undefeated were probable but most folks thought every game was winnable. Nothing wrong with that kind of optimism and that isn't zoobish.
Re the Heisman conversation there was a lot of discussion about what would it take to get Chucky to NY but again, most fans knew that he had no chance to win it and few thought he'd even legitimately get the NY invite anyway. Again, nothing wrong with that kind of discussion. Neither of those topics are/were zoobish.
Zoobish is predicting undefeated seasons every year. Zoobish is believing Hill is good enough to win the Heisman. Zoobish is telling Aggies how sucky, insignificant and irrelevant they really are. Zoobish is thinking BYU is relevant. Zoobish is having no sports knowledge to back up your point but adamantly sticking to it anyway. Zoobish is regulating what is and isn't classy.
I remain optimistic that the season isn't and won't be a complete waste. I feel zero remorse for believing every game was winnable. I have no regrets from enjoying a conversation about hypothetical requirements needed for Chucky to win a Heisman or for having appreciated all the pre season Chucky is awesome attention. None of that meets the definition of zoobish in my book. That's just being a fan. My only regret is that some fans feel guilt for having shared the same enthusiasm. Hopefully this will help to alleviate that misguided feeling a bit.

WAaggieFan wrote:

NVAggie wrote:I think a poor showing this season has put our optimism in its place. We had folks talking undefeated and Heisman on here. Those who tried to discuss the youth of our team were struck down.

No doubt much optimism has been driven from the fan base due to poor and/or under performance so far this season. Judging by board convo over the last 24 hours USU fans may as well hang it up along with the team until next season. That's not zoobish it's typical Aggie pessimism and I'm not passing judgement on that. Just pointing out the difference.
As far as the rest, few people thought the Aggies chances of going undefeated were probable but most folks thought every game was winnable. Nothing wrong with that kind of optimism and that isn't zoobish.
Re the Heisman conversation there was a lot of discussion about what would it take to get Chucky to NY but again, most fans knew that he had no chance to win it and few thought he'd even legitimately get the NY invite anyway. Again, nothing wrong with that kind of discussion. Neither of those topics are/were zoobish.
Zoobish is predicting undefeated seasons every year. Zoobish is believing Hill is good enough to win the Heisman. Zoobish is telling Aggies how sucky, insignificant and irrelevant they really are. Zoobish is thinking BYU is relevant. Zoobish is having no sports knowledge to back up your point but adamantly sticking to it anyway. Zoobish is regulating what is and isn't classy.
I remain optimistic that the season isn't and won't be a complete waste. I feel zero remorse for believing every game was winnable. I have no regrets from enjoying a conversation about hypothetical requirements needed for Chucky to win a Heisman or for having appreciated all the pre season Chucky is awesome attention. None of that meets the definition of zoobish in my book. That's just being a fan. My only regret is that some fans feel guilt for having shared the same enthusiasm. Hopefully this will help to alleviate that misguided feeling a bit.

Agreed. Very well stated.

WAaggieFan wrote:We had high expectations for the FB team but that isn't zoobish. Zoobish is proclaiming a national championship every year. I have no shame in admitting I had blue goggles on and don't call me a zoob for it. It's pathetic to hammer on optimistic Aggie fans for being optimistic fans. It also smacks of zoobishness to be trying to put all those optimistic Aggie fans in their places.

I'm all for optimism but we were extremely unrealistic. My focus was and will continue to be on the conference race which I still feel we have a shot at.

hipsterdoofus21 wrote:

WAaggieFan wrote:We had high expectations for the FB team but that isn't zoobish. Zoobish is proclaiming a national championship every year. I have no shame in admitting I had blue goggles on and don't call me a zoob for it. It's pathetic to hammer on optimistic Aggie fans for being optimistic fans. It also smacks of zoobishness to be trying to put all those optimistic Aggie fans in their places.

I'm all for optimism but we were extremely unrealistic. My focus was and will continue to be on the conference race which I still feel we have a shot at.

I hear what you're saying and now 4 games into the season it seems many of us (myself included) were unrealistic from the standpoint that our expectations were higher than reality has borne out. But where I can't fault myself or others (especially to the point of labeling it zoobish) is having those preseason expectations. They were based on the best information available that the team was more talented and deeper than previous teams have been and look at what the Aggies managed to accomplish under those conditions. Based on that I think it was reasonable to have those expectations.
I still believe this squad is more talented and deeper than any I can remember that has come before. Maybe that will prove to be untrue. I don't know. What I can't figure out is what is 'wrong.' Is it youth that still needs to develop? Is it play calling? Are there too many chiefs running the O? Does Weber really stink? Can it all be laid at the feet of the O line or is that a youth thing too? Is Wells still cutting his teeth? Is it a combination of all the above?
I too feel the Aggies have a legitimate shot at the conference. Personally I can't wait to get past the pointless BYU game and into conference play. My question, however, is if USU loses in either and or Laramie and Ft Collins will we both look back and say we held 'extremely unrealistic' expectations that USU could contend for a conference title?

As long as the preseason optimism doesn't make people throw out the season because their expectations weren't fulfilled. There are nine games left. I think we need to enjoy every one of them. Show up to the games if you can. Watch on TV. Keep the excitement. If that happens I won't be too frustrated with the expectations prior to the season.

WAaggieFan wrote:

hipsterdoofus21 wrote:

WAaggieFan wrote:We had high expectations for the FB team but that isn't zoobish. Zoobish is proclaiming a national championship every year. I have no shame in admitting I had blue goggles on and don't call me a zoob for it. It's pathetic to hammer on optimistic Aggie fans for being optimistic fans. It also smacks of zoobishness to be trying to put all those optimistic Aggie fans in their places.

I'm all for optimism but we were extremely unrealistic. My focus was and will continue to be on the conference race which I still feel we have a shot at.

I hear what you're saying and now 4 games into the season it seems many of us (myself included) were unrealistic from the standpoint that our expectations were higher than reality has borne out. But where I can't fault myself or others (especially to the point of labeling it zoobish) is having those preseason expectations. They were based on the best information available that the team was more talented and deeper than previous teams have been and look at what the Aggies managed to accomplish under those conditions. Based on that I think it was reasonable to have those expectations.
I still believe this squad is more talented and deeper than any I can remember that has come before. Maybe that will prove to be untrue. I don't know. What I can't figure out is what is 'wrong.' Is it youth that still needs to develop? Is it play calling? Are there too many chiefs running the O? Does Weber really stink? Can it all be laid at the feet of the O line or is that a youth thing too? Is Wells still cutting his teeth? Is it a combination of all the above?
I too feel the Aggies have a legitimate shot at the conference. Personally I can't wait to get past the pointless BYU game and into conference play. My question, however, is if USU loses in either and or Laramie and Ft Collins will we both look back and say we held 'extremely unrealistic' expectations that USU could contend for a conference title?

Agreed. I wish we were already done with OOC play and preparing for Air Force. The only teams on our conference schedule comparable in talent to ASU are Boise and maybe CSU. We showed that we can compete and should've beaten ASU on the road. We were out-executed when it mattered most, but not out-talented. I just keep hoping Wells can figure out how to fix the offense and learn from these OOC mistakes.

I was overly optimistic about the season, but I also didn't freak out after the Tennessee game. My thoughts were something like, "well. It looks like we aren't as good as I thought we would be. I will lower my expectations now and just enjoy some football." I was a little more disappointed after this loss. It felt like the Colorado State loss in 2011. We should have won against a comparable team and we just gave it away. Frustrating, but I still can't wait to see how the rest of the season turns out. I have to admit, if we don't make a bowl, I might just freak out. But I don't think that is going to happen.