[msqueri]

For what it's worth, on paper, Sagarin scopes out our schedule like this:

Colgate - WIN

USC - LOSS

at Washington - LOSS

at Oregon - LOSS

Oregon State - LOSS

at Notre Dame - 17 percent

Arizona State - 51 percent

at UCLA - 22 percent

Washington State - 42 percent

at Utah - 11 percent

at Cal - 39 percent

BYU - 47 percent

Expected win total: 3.29


Still in the 3-4 win range according to the computers. The big questions for me are intangible, specifically whether the cratering of the program is something algorithms can't keep up with and whether mounting losses crush morale in a way that makes the team play much worse in the second half of the season than the apparent first half quality of the team. Right now Sagarin has us as the #59 team in the nation, which should be able to win a couple of the four remaining on-paper near tossups. But will the team remain the level of team that played Oregon State (i.e., win 3-4 games total this year), live up to the team's talk and become a better team (getting to a bowl), or collapse under the weight of all this losing (the 1-2 total wins that feel like where we are to the fan base)? 2-10 seems right to me.

[msqueri]

For what it's worth, on paper, Sagarin scopes out our schedule like this:

Colgate - WIN

USC - LOSS

at Washington - LOSS

at Oregon - LOSS

Oregon State - LOSS

at Notre Dame - 17 percent

Arizona State - 51 percent

at UCLA - 22 percent

Washington State - 42 percent

at Utah - 11 percent

at Cal - 39 percent

BYU - 47 percent

Expected win total: 3.29


Still in the 3-4 win range according to the computers. The big questions for me are intangible, specifically whether the cratering of the program is something algorithms can't keep up with and whether mounting losses crush morale in a way that makes the team play much worse in the second half of the season than the apparent first half quality of the team. Right now Sagarin has us as the #59 team in the nation, which should be able to win a couple of the four remaining on-paper near tossups. But will the team remain the level of team that played Oregon State (i.e., win 3-4 games total this year), live up to the team's talk and become a better team (getting to a bowl), or collapse under the weight of all this losing (the 1-2 total wins that feel like where we are to the fan base)? 2-10 seems right to me.