Expectations - unmet, met, exceeded

Not sure I can make a poll from my Zphone - yes traveling again. Provo is wonderful - rain notwithstanding.



There are at least two kinds of expectations.



I will call the first type - entitlement expectations. With this type, irrespective of the current team's abilities - a fan might expect a NC, BCS Bowl, elite team, Top 10 ranking, marquee win, just because that is what they expect their team to do every year and are disappointed or even pissed if they do not.



This thread is not about that.



This thread is about what you expected this team, with it's strengths, weaknesses, experience, and limitations to do this season playing this schedule. For example polls seem to mostly have BYU as a top 35ish team. Some fans think BYU is better than that. One recent post seemed to think that this is going to be that long-awaited magical season.



The Bibster - wet blanket - apologist - realist - and other identifiers that have been heaped upon him -



Expected 8 or 9 regular season wins and a bowl win against a mediocre to good, but not great, opponent.



The Bibster felt that this "realistic" expectation had a fairly equal chance of being higher or lower than actual and a very good chance of being "spot on"



Maybe someone can make a Poll(s) if I can't.



The Bibster had different expectations for different players and player groups. So an overall expectation was supported by detailed expectations.



Overall - BYU slightly exceeded my game 1 expectations. I expected BYU to be lucky to cover the spread. They easily covered it and blew past it. This is just 1 game - but the Cougars are on pace with an expected win and leaning favorably since it was a more convincing win than expected. And yet, some concerns, on offense arose.



Actually, the first offensive and defensive series raised all kinds of concerns because WSU looked better than BYU looked. But then BYU defense just got better and better and better. BYU offense got better, but sputtered at times. But, Hoff was side-lined. Special teams was solid, especially considering our kicker was out.



Anyway - I had huge expectations for the defense. Huge. They met them after a slow start and eventually even exceeded those high expectations in spite of penalties, a few broken tackles, and looking unathletic and slow vs speedy guys in the open field. Hype about depth and talent of the DBs and linebackers was met.



I had solid expectations for special teams before our kicker's back problems became known. So I tempered those expectations. BYU exceeded my tempered expectations and met the untempered ones. The Hype about the scholarship players following Nelson's lead and asking to be on special teams seems to have paid dividends - the one big return being the only real blemish.



I had modest expectations of the offense. Nelson has limitations. The RBs and FBs are new and unproven. The OL was a question mark. Tight ends a question mark. I had huge expectations of the receivers and of Riley as a feisty leader. I felt our sophomore OC and some assistants would still be learning. Nelson met expectations. Receivers met huge expectations and Cahoon exceeded them. RBs and Dupaix did not meet even my very modest expectations nor did the OL and Weber. Tight Ends hugely exceeded my expectations. I have always had high regard for Coach Reynolds and he came through. Doman seemed like the sophomore he is.



Special Teams exceeded my tempered expectations.



What was your take?



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My Take:



This Is Going To Be A SPECIAL Season.



And nothing that I saw last night changes my opinion on that.

Y 4 Ever wrote:
My Take:



This Is Going To Be A SPECIAL Season.



And nothing that I saw last night changes my opinion on that.

So - you had very, very, very high expectations - and they were met, if I am correctly understanding your reply.



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Cougarbib wrote:

My Take:



This Is Going To Be A SPECIAL Season.



And nothing that I saw last night changes my opinion on that.

So - you had very, very, very high expectations - and they were met, if I am correctly understanding your reply.



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My expectations for the SEASON are very high. My expectations for the game - strong d, good but somewhat inconsistent o - were met. considering that Sorenson didn't play, my expectations for fg kicking were exceeded.



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I expected our rushing defense to be good but to give up yards because they were focusing on pass protection, they exceeded expectations. In passing defense we exceeded my expectations but only barely, I expected Tuel to be a bit more accurate than he was but I wasn't surprised by how well we handled their receivers.



Ridley was a surprise at receiver and made for a very good backup to Hoffman, though I was surprised not to see Collie take the field. Overall our passing game performed about like I expected them too but we did it without Hoffman so I would say they exceeded expectations. The offensive line was about as good as I expected for inside runs but exceeded my expectations on outside runs. Some of that could have been scheme based. From watching the replay of the game twice it seems to me that when Apo and Hoffman were both on the field Washington state was double teaming whoever was on the strong side of the field, but once Hoffman went out they seemed to have Apo bracketed on every play that went beyond five yards. Their MLBs seemed to be covering short zones filling the run lanes as quickly as possible and covering the short middle routes on pass plays, and then they would man up on each of our receivers with their OLBs and other DB. I thought it was a very good scheme to stop BYU that would have fallen apart even faster if Hoffman had stayed in the game, so I would say the offense as a whole over performed compared to my expectations.



My expectation going into the season was that BYU would go 10-2 with losses to Boise St. and Notre Dame. After our game on Thursday and Boise State's game tonight I have upped my prediction to 11-1 with our only loss being Notre Dame. We'll have a much better idea about where our team is after game 4 though. If we can win convincingly against both Utah and Boise State I think our chances of going undefeated are really high, if we lose one of those games or if either of them are close then I would continue to project a loss to Notre Dame. I'll be watching NDs opening game in the morning and we'll see what they look like then.

My expectations were exceeded in some ways and unmet in others. I expected the D to give up more points. I expected our O to be able to run better on IMO a bad defense. Maybe their defense turns out to be better than it was last year but as for now, my expectation there was not met.

A quick follow up from the Notre Dame game this morning. Notre Dame's defense is fairly good. Manti Te'o reminds me of Rob Morris when he was here, but I think KVN might be better. They're going to shut down our run game effectively but I'm not sure they're going to be able to stop Apo and Hoffman so as long as we still have a quarterback to throw to them I think we can be pretty comfortable that we're going to score. Their offense is decent, might be the most balanced offense we face all year. I think we have about a 60% chance of winning as of right now (I would have given us a 40% chance before the openers).

Offense slightly exceeded my expectations. Defense against a Mike Leach offense greatly exceeded my expectations.



Pac-12 refs met my expectations.

CougarClaw wrote:
Offense slightly exceeded my expectations. Defense against a Mike Leach offense greatly exceeded my expectations.



Pac-12 refs met my expectations.

THIS. The Refs. I have never heard so many whistles.



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frdbtr wrote:
My expectations were exceeded in some ways and unmet in others. I expected the D to give up more points. I expected our O to be able to run better on IMO a bad defense. Maybe their defense turns out to be better than it was last year but as for now, my expectation there was not met.

Agreed. Good post.

Offense--expectations met.

Defense--expectations exceeded.



Now, A DIRE PREDICTION.



Riley looked as improved as I had hoped for that and so my expectations were met.

Regrettably, I agree with Bib about Rileys limitations, and have for two years.

Riley may have a square/iron jawbone, but his limitations will be exploited by superior defenses. And not his alone, but the Oline. And Rileys arm, unlike past top tier byu QB's, will not likely compensate and save us; and our Oline will not likely be strong enough to power our running game to set up our pass--maybe that is why the coaches are putting all the chips on the table in prepping Jamal Williams (who should/ could easily redshirt with all the other talent) who adds something potentially that the others cannot--along with others such as Kaufusi, who should have normally redshirted-- who returned from his mission 3 days before fall camp, but got significant minutes vs WSU.



Riley sensing the gap between a good team and a great team, a win and a loss, a defeat or an undefeated season, will make risky plays and risk himself to make the difference. If he escapes injury he may be able to come up with enough magic to pull out a win at Utah and or ND, an undefeated season or not, etc etc.

The good news is the defense exceeds most of our expectations. And "defense wins championships." is our D good enough? Is what Ogletree predicted accurate? Can our D "stop any offense"? Probably most offenses most of the time. But we can't hand the ball over to the opponent carelessly by Riley and the Offense. Inpatient and inpertinent players such as Riley have to mature and take what the defense gives them.

Riley, " any virtue pressed to an extreme, becomes a vice" (BKP). Learn it well. Never has so much depended on one QB as it does with you. And if that is not motivating, think about how not fun it will be on the sidelines watching another qb either taking your glory or struggling bc of lack of experience.



Long story, short.....I expect a one loss season and hope for an undefeated season. I do believe it is possible. I hope that BDoman has something special in store for Utah. We will need something special to get over that mountain. I think we get past BSU and GT and hope to have a miracle at ND.