What a horrible Saturday for yours truly. My Blue Raiders (Middle Tennessee) start the season 0-1 with a loss at Florida Atlantic. With the next two opponents being Louisville and LSU, 0-3 is just around the corner.
That said, I believe in second-year coach Rick Stockstill and his staff. He inherited a program with severe depth issues that will not be easily fixed. It will take him a year or two to get the quality numbers up and get his team competing at the level he is expecting.
True, Stockstill guided his charges to seven wins and a Motor City Bowl bid, but he had depth issues a year ago as well. No major injuries cropped up and what did was covered by the depth on hand. This season, he is on a tighter rope. Case in point, he has just seven (yes seven) offensive linemen healthy for Thursday's tilt against the Cardinals.
As I blogged earlier, this is a key year for Charlie Weis and my Fighting Irish. Weis is entering his third season and now we get a look at how he is building the program, not just coaching Ty Willingham's recruits. First week grade is an F.
To get blown out in the opening weekend by an unranked opponent is blasphemous (I know, I know, big word for you Western Kentucky grads). And the road ahead is not easy by any stretch. After a trip to Happy Valley and Penn State this weekend, ND has to go to the Big House and face a Wolverine squad that will be looking to prove itself to the world.
Michigan State, Purdue, UCLA, Boston College and USC before the end of October, an 0-8 start is a possibility. At this point, 3-5 would be considered a good start. Navy is not a push-over and Air Force took Tennessee to the brink last season. At least Duke and Stanford give Irish fans a fighting chance for wins.
I don't give up on a coach because of a bump in the road. Willingham would have had two more years with me at the helm. A coach deserves five years to build a program, but when a coach does what Weis did his first two years and then struggles when his recruits start playing key roles, worry starts to settle in.
Much like the Wolverines, the Irish can still go 11-1. Right now, that has as much likelihood as my Blue Raiders starting the season 2-1.
Daniella Sarahyba
Alison Preston
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