We get a lot of those players back that had us looking a lot better at the start of the season.

We started 5-0 with those including possibly our 3 best wins - Utah (#11 Sagarin), Arizona St (#36), USU (#55).

We then went 5-3 the rest of the way with victories over cupcakes Idaho St (#199), Ga Southern (#137), a USC in complete shambles (#73), mediocre Virginia (#64). The highlight in that span was beating a possibly respectable Wazzu (#45) by 2 points when they didn't have much of their coaching staff.

Truth be told we were a different (and not as good) team in the second half of the season and so that's what pollsters and analysts see most recently and think of us. The first 5 games we were a top 15 (at least) team. The last 8 we probably were an unranked team.

My hope (and belief) is that we'll be closer to the early-season version next year once we get some key contributors back from injury.