We started 5-0 with those including probably 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), and mediocre-at-best Virginia (#64). The highlight in that span was beating a possibly maybe kind of respectable Wazzu (#45) by 2 points when they didn't have much of their coaching staff.

If we're being honest, we were a different (and not as good) team in the second half of the season. That's what pollsters and analysts saw most recently and so that's what they think of us. The first 5 games we were a top 15 (at least) team. The last 8 we probably were an unranked team.

But next year we get a lot of those players back that had us looking a lot better at the start of the season.

My hope (and belief) is that we'll be closer to the early-season version next year once they return from injury.