Obviously I have criticized Shaw a lot in the last few years. But I give him significant credit for the offensive progress the team has made this year. I had thought the progress we saw in the last few games of 2014 was an aberration, based on playing some really bad defenses. But it turns out it was the beginning of a signification trend (except for Northwestern, of course). And that's encouraging.
But what hurts the most is after 3 full seasons (2012-2014) of having a top 5 defense, and watching the offense sputter along the spectrum of awful to average and back again, we finally seemed to figure it out JUST as our defense ran out of fumes and needed a rebuilding year. With the offensive tools we had in that time span, I just don't know why it took so long. If we'd seen just a third of the offensive improvement we had this year over any of the last 3 years, we'd likely be national champions. Oh well.
What's tough to swallow is that with Hogan leaving, I'm not sure if we can expect this long-awaited offensive momentum to continue. The reviews on Chryst have been mixed, but at the end of the day there's just too little information to accurately project what type of QB he'll be one way or the other. But given our Big Playbook (TM) and Complicated Offense (TM) I think it will be hard for a first year starter to keep the offense operating as it is right now.
Depending on how this season plays out, it's very possible that for 4 of the last 5 years, we were 1 win away from getting into the BCS national championship game and/or the playoff. Ugh.
Anyway, I will continue to keep my expectations modest to protect against disappointment and I'm happy to hear others tell me why I'm wrong.
But what hurts the most is after 3 full seasons (2012-2014) of having a top 5 defense, and watching the offense sputter along the spectrum of awful to average and back again, we finally seemed to figure it out JUST as our defense ran out of fumes and needed a rebuilding year. With the offensive tools we had in that time span, I just don't know why it took so long. If we'd seen just a third of the offensive improvement we had this year over any of the last 3 years, we'd likely be national champions. Oh well.
What's tough to swallow is that with Hogan leaving, I'm not sure if we can expect this long-awaited offensive momentum to continue. The reviews on Chryst have been mixed, but at the end of the day there's just too little information to accurately project what type of QB he'll be one way or the other. But given our Big Playbook (TM) and Complicated Offense (TM) I think it will be hard for a first year starter to keep the offense operating as it is right now.
Depending on how this season plays out, it's very possible that for 4 of the last 5 years, we were 1 win away from getting into the BCS national championship game and/or the playoff. Ugh.
Anyway, I will continue to keep my expectations modest to protect against disappointment and I'm happy to hear others tell me why I'm wrong.
