the numbers were awful on D, maybe injuries...I don't know.

Tedford did it in his first year with two prior coach's players...and had massive turnarounds. Can't blame admissions or recruiting on that. I don't think its a coincidence, and I think its a product of his skill as a coach. Once might be luck, but twice...that's him.

I also agree the academics are, and will continue to be, a huge issue for us.

Our defense was worse (poor schemes and few adjustments), our offense much better (better game plans for the most part), and our special teams were equal or worse (although they didn't lose us any games this year on bonehead plays, our kickoff and punt coverage is downright scary). Hawk needs help from the university, and they need alumni money and student support. Hard not to have a better year all things considered, but celebrating this season as a success is a sad state of the program. I'm sure Hawk is not remotely satisfied with this year.

I'm admittedly bitter about the poor performance the last two weeks. I wonder how Tedford takes an 0-12 Cal team, and then a 1-11 Fresno St team, and completely turns them both around to 7+ wins in his first year? What are we missing?

The Ags five wins in 2017 were: Cal Poly (1-10); Portland (0-11); Idaho St. (4-7); North Dakota (3-8); and USD (non-scholarship). We played one FBS team (San Diego State) instead of two like we did in (2014, 2015, 2016) which gave us one of those wins. So in other years we would be 4-7, with a loss to Slack. C+ at best. Please explain to me why I should feel like we are 100x better when our defense gave up an average of 46.25 points in the last 4 losses in the season.

Celebration of mediocrity only leads to acceptance.

I don't know, I felt like the D was better in some big games under Watts, and we made no adjustments in the SUU game. 50+ points to Slack? Wow, can't remember that happening in any game I saw. It was awful. With that said, I didn't pay as much attention to injuries this year, so that could have had something to do with it.

Long way is right. Weakest schedule in years, and we were 5-6. Giving up 38 first half points to Slack St. is horrible, but every few years we seem to give them one to keep it somewhat interesting. Overall, this season was a C+ in my book. I still feel Hawkins was handicapped by our system and the effects of years of recruiting difficulties. I think it got better this year, and he's had some good recruits so far. Another 5-6 season and we are going to lose a lot more of our already dwindling fan base.

In other Notes, out of curiosity I thought I would look up and give a few updates on our former coaching staff. Gould is coaching a Heisman candidate for 8-3 Stanford as RB coach. Daft is the OC for 8-2 Dartmouth. Watts, and his Fresno St LBs, are 8-2 (after going 0-11) playing for a conference championship under first year coach Tedford. From 0-11 to 8-2 in one year with the same players, gotta give it up to Tedford and his staff...that's some coaching for you. Each of our former big 3 coaches are enjoying 8 win seasons so far...good for them.

Cal Poly and PSU were awful this year. We played one FBS team this year, beat a horrible non-scholarship USD team, and we are still getting blown out in games. I think the offense is better, but I'm not sure the defense is even the same. I think a successful season depends on this week. If we lose to Suck St., I'll be disappointed with the season. This was our easiest schedule in years, the conference had some down teams, and we squeeze out 4 wins against scholarship schools? Thankfully, I've tempered my expectations after hoping for the best under Gould (who by the way, is producing another insane back, can't knock his talent for developing RBs). If we win this year, then we will end up with a decent outcome all things considered with lots of room to grow.

I'm not sure we have had a big improvement yet, but I feel optimistic I thought the in-game decisions were very reminiscent of the Gould era...i..e not going for it twice on 4th and 1 in their territory (which they did against us a few times successfully). I like Hawk, we are getting better players, I feel a lot better about our traditions, but the product on the field looks very familiar. Expecting a turnaround in the first year is unrealistic anyway.

I never saw an in-session game at the Toom with less kids than last weekend, but they were almost weekly winners back then.

For sure, I've coached these kids a little in the past. They will make a difference.

Both are studs. There has been nothing public yet, so I'll keep it quiet for now.

Late to chime in here, but it was embarrassing considering I was schmoozing some local recruits (both committed to UCD last night though). There was nothing good last night. The offense, awful. The defense, a sieve. The crowd, anemic. Where are the damn students?

I think the offense has looked better this year, but there was absolutely no adjustment on D last night. No attempts at pressure, and they destroyed us. We had an easy early schedule, CP and PSU having horrible years helped, and it led me to believe we were better than we were. Good teams have waxed us. Long way to go!

"inconsistent play calling and lack of focus," I think that was a common theme last year too.

69Aggie is right...we are not deep, are always going to have a hard time being deep, and we can either adapt to this high-scoring wide-open conference or continue to suffer abysmal seasons. Cal Poly is really down, and they kicked our tails for three quarters.

Give Hawkins a few years to create his culture...let's see where this train goes. However, if we lose to Suck St., this season is a total bust in my mind.

Under Gould, our D routinely kept us in games and weather many storms caused by poor offensive play calling. However, just like last week, they were not athletic enough to hold down teams for an entire game. This is not our problem, our conference very offense heavy, but It's even harder for us. We need to be open on offense every week!

I felt like it was a lot like last against EWU (except our success was with the run). We were leading that game at half as I recall, but then EWU exploded and corrected their first half mistakes. However, there is no question I feel the offense is way ahead of last year. I loved the fact we exploited Wes Preece's size, and forced them to mostly single cover Doss. Defensively, I see the same issues at DB with speed (5 was faster than anyone on our roster), and we put zero pressure on the QB in the second half. I think we got too conservative on D too. With that said, we were in that game until the last play against a top 15 FCS team. I think its been a long time since that's happened.

lol, I meant the next week (NAU). Although we've never lost a bye week.

Great effort by the men, but I couldn't help but think back when I saw the Prevent Offensive plays calls in the 3rd quarter. Did we really think we would shut them down all game? Two bad picks by their QB at the LOS was the only reason we held them in the first half. The last drive was the worst. Burning two timeouts to get one first down? In any event, I was pleasantly surprised with the fact we were able to score with them. Tough to play D in this conference, but the offense, 90% of it at least, was outstanding. A win this week is vital.

If we beat a ranked conference team, or even one with a winning record, I'll start to get excited. First chance is Saturday. We do have Wes Preece, a stud TE, and his contributions will be absolutely vital this weekend. We won't win this game if we can't keep their offense off the field. As always, the offense has a big role in keeping EWU points off the board by keeping their O on the sidelines. If we have repeated 3 and outs or short drives, we get waxed.

I think its great that we are all excited about Aggie Football again, but as Movielover said above, we need to stay humble. We have not won a game against a single quality opponent (PSU is 0-4, NDU is 1-4, and San Diego is non-scholarship). The one ranked FCS team we played destroyed us. This game will be our second chance at really seeing where we are as a program against our competition. If we get waxed,I'm not sure I will feel like this is anything different than before other than the "prospect of a brighter future." I'll be cheering, as always win or lose, but I sure hope we can get a W against these guys. I'm sure there will be lots of recruits in the house...this is a huge game for the Ags.

Don't celebrate too early. 6 or 7 wins seems great, but remember, we would be 1-3 if we played two FBS teams like the past few years. Not to be Debbie Downer, but we are not there yet.