[yvonne]

Not to nitpick here, but IIRC people expected 1993 to be a building year, because we lost so many players off the outstanding 1992 team.
I don't think anyone anticipated 4-7, but I don't think we were expected to do particularly well.  Probably a better example is 1997 when we had most of the top players coming back from the 1996 Sun Bowl blowout and many expected us to contend for the Rose Bowl. We started out 4-1 with the last victory being a buttwhipping of USB, and then everything went downhill from there with 5 straight losses.

You may be right that no one expected 4-7, but publications were still predicting we'd finish near the top of the conference, just not tied for first. I remember being shocked when I talked informally to a coach I knew at the time and he said he thought we might win six games.

No. 1 is a red herring. It's true we've sometimes overlooked San Jose State in the midst of otherwise successful seasons. But nobody overlooks an opening game. The only time in all history that we've lost to San Jose State in an opener, 1998, we weren't overlooking them, we just sucked. We finished that season 3-8.

The smaller point of whether we overlooked San Jose State may or may not be true. The greater point, that good teams can have bad games, remains. I can think of a season in which we stunk up the first game AND lost to San Jose State. I wouldn't mind the season ending at that bowl.

[yvonne]

Not to nitpick here, but IIRC people expected 1993 to be a building year, because we lost so many players off the outstanding 1992 team.
I don't think anyone anticipated 4-7, but I don't think we were expected to do particularly well.  Probably a better example is 1997 when we had most of the top players coming back from the 1996 Sun Bowl blowout and many expected us to contend for the Rose Bowl. We started out 4-1 with the last victory being a buttwhipping of USB, and then everything went downhill from there with 5 straight losses.

You may be right that no one expected 4-7, but publications were still predicting we'd finish near the top of the conference, just not tied for first. I remember being shocked when I talked informally to a coach I knew at the time and he said he thought we might win six games.

No. 1 is a red herring. It's true we've sometimes overlooked San Jose State in the midst of otherwise successful seasons. But nobody overlooks an opening game. The only time in all history that we've lost to San Jose State in an opener, 1998, we weren't overlooking them, we just sucked. We finished that season 3-8.

The smaller point of whether we overlooked San Jose State may or may not be true. The greater point, that good teams can have bad games, remains. I can think of a season in which we stunk up the first game AND lost to San Jose State. I wouldn't mind the season ending at that bowl.