2018 Schedule Complete

[Mr_Tibbs]

Chris Murray, the Montana State QB who almost led the comeback against us in Bozeman last year, will not be making the trip to Brookings on September 8th. Looks like he's going to "Focus on academics" this year and burn his redshirt. I had the MSU game as must win for us in September, and I like our chances much more now. MSU was a good team last year (despite their record), and that QB was a good athlete. We'll see what the bobcats have for a replacement in August.

[thumper_76]

This turns this game from one I was worried about into one I feel pretty confident about. I’ll have to wait and see what the general feelings about his backup is, but I can’t see them being on par with where he was at.


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[Hareofthedog]

Huge news about MSU Murray missing the season. I had the Jacks at 6-5 and now see this game as a W making a 7-4 season and a playoff team.

[Mr_Tibbs]

Jacks had 3 tough games in September (ISU, MSU, NDSU), and there was a real possibility to be 1-3 going into October. This game gets a little easier now, and I'd be surprised if we drop that game. If we can steal one of the NDSU/ISU games, we'll be sitting good for playoffs and maybe another seed. Road games at ISUR and at UNI will be tough, so more wins up front would be a huge relief.

[CappinHard]

Huge news about MSU Murray missing the season. I had the Jacks at 6-5 and now see this game as a W making a 7-4 season and a playoff team.

Either a Debbie downer or sandbagger... I'm calling 8-3. Any less is a failure, any more is a good year.

[MontanaRabbit]

Either a Debbie downer or sandbagger... I'm calling 8-3. Any less is a failure, any more is a good year.

I know you're trying to be realistic, but I think the expectation needs to be maximum 2 losses and a seed. If we want to be big time we gotta have big time expectations.

[CappinHard]

I know you're trying to be realistic, but I think the expectation needs to be maximum 2 losses and a seed. If we want to be big time we gotta have big time expectations.

I agree. I expect us to have a good year, so my personal prediction is 9-2, hoping for 10-1.

[Mr_Tibbs]

I don't think there's anything wrong with being realistic. We can have big time expectations and still have a conservative estimate to the W-L record, given all the unknowns. The big expectations of the last few years have been a by product of some of the talent we had that is now gone. We don't know at this point if our D will be better, or if our O will be as dynamic as we hope. We have a much tougher schedule this year, with all of our hardest games on the road. The D and O could all come together for us, and 7-4 could still easily happen, just based on the FBS game and the road conference schedule. Personally, I think we will lose either @ ISUR (because we haven't won there in 10+ years, even with our talented teams of 2014 and 2016), or we lose at UNI. But I don't think we'll lose both. I imagine we might lose one of the USD/@SIU/Hobo Day games as well, and then we have two hard games in September. 8-3 is pretty realistic, and 7-4 wouldn't shock me. 9-2 would shock me, just looking at the schedule. Just my opinion, but I think 7-4 is more likely than 9-2, until we see this team in September. We may very well be a 9-2 or 10-1 type team, but it will be a tough challenge.

[WestSideRabbit]

Chris Murray, the Montana State QB who almost led the comeback against us in Bozeman last year, will not be making the trip to Brookings on September 8th. Looks like he's going to "Focus on academics" this year and burn his redshirt. I had the MSU game as must win for us in September, and I like our chances much more now. MSU was a good team last year (despite their record), and that QB was a good athlete. We'll see what the bobcats have for a replacement in August.

MSU was already without their top 2 receivers from last year. Johnson blew out his knee in spring ball. Against us last year he had 8 rec. 116 yards and 2 TDs. They also lost Mitch Herbert (9-111-2).

Murray blew our doors off last year passing for 311 and 4 tds while rushing for 107 yards and another td.

Their defense graduated a number of decent players too. We need to dominate this game.

[MontanaRabbit]

I don't think there's anything wrong with being realistic. We can have big time expectations and still have a conservative estimate to the W-L record, given all the unknowns. The big expectations of the last few years have been a by product of some of the talent we had that is now gone. We don't know at this point if our D will be better, or if our O will be as dynamic as we hope. We have a much tougher schedule this year, with all of our hardest games on the road. The D and O could all come together for us, and 7-4 could still easily happen, just based on the FBS game and the road conference schedule. Personally, I think we will lose either @ ISUR (because we haven't won there in 10+ years, even with our talented teams of 2014 and 2016), or we lose at UNI. But I don't think we'll lose both. I imagine we might lose one of the USD/@SIU/Hobo Day games as well, and then we have two hard games in September. 8-3 is pretty realistic, and 7-4 wouldn't shock me. 9-2 would shock me, just looking at the schedule. Just my opinion, but I think 7-4 is more likely than 9-2, until we see this team in September. We may very well be a 9-2 or 10-1 type team, but it will be a tough challenge.

I don't really either, but if we want to take the next step, 8-3 and 7-4 can't be considered a success if it proceeds an early exit in the playoffs.