A successful season (I keep hearing this debated)

[Go Vandy!]

is: eligibility for post-season. Are there positive signs short of that? Sure. 4 wins. An SEC win. Clear improvement in play from last season. Highlight plays from expected or unexpected players. Multiple competitive SEC (including Wake) games.

But success- in any sport- is nothing less than a winning season and/or post-season play.

[Vandy_Law07]

Typically agree- but since we're still rebuilding from literally rock bottom (i.e. 2019-2020)- I'll regard at least 1 more win over last year, and hopefully a league win as a "successful" season. Start to raise sights a bit more next year. Always open to being pleasantly surprised though of course.

[Johnmn555]

All four win seasons are not alike. One in which there are close loses and overall improvement from start to finish is one thing. One in which there are regular blow outs and deterioration towards the end is another.

[coachinwaiting]

I missed the deadline for the season prediction contest, but I would have chosen 3 wins as that answer. That would be an improvement, but far from a successful season on the face of it. However, if some of the stronger teams on the schedule had to really work for their wins, that could be a form or success and encouragement. Getting 4 wins would have to be encouraging to anyone who watched the last two seasons, especially if an SEC win was mixed in. Winning all 4 OOC games plus 1 SEC game would be a great basis for enthusiasm going into next year.

[FayetteDore]

... Winning all 4 OOC games plus 1 SEC game would be a great basis for enthusiasm going into next year.

Yes it certainly would. And also a very successful season on its own, compared to recent years. Given their records last year, NIU on the road and Wake at home are not cupcakes.

[coachinwaiting]

... Winning all 4 OOC games plus 1 SEC game would be a great basis for enthusiasm going into next year.

Yes it certainly would. And also a very successful season on its own, compared to recent years. Given their records last year, NIU on the road and Wake at home are not cupcakes.

After ETSU last year, I wouldn't consider even Elon a given, and I'm skeptical of the 9.5 point spread on the Hawaii game. I guess Hawaii is expected to be pretty bad, but with the travel and distraction of playing there, I expect a closer game. WF is a pre-season Top 25 team, so if that is even close to accurate they should be strong favorites.

[cc11316]

I think it is a successful season when objectively they are a better, more disciplined football team capable of making big plays and stopping teams on 3rd and 8. The best way I can describe it is I will know it if I see it (the improvement). It's not so much statistics or even wins, it's keeping drives alive, occasionally hitting for a big play and legitimately having a shot at stopping the other team.

Take for instance, Franklin's first season in 2011. Though they lost to a #8 Arkansas team at home and then at Florida the next week, both games were extremely competitive and they showed that they were more athletic and the play calling made so much more sense for the personnel. Games like those usually aren't competitive. While I didn't think they would win 9 games the next two seasons, they were definitely much, much better than they were in previous years and you could tell they were on the rise.

[alathIN]

is: eligibility for post-season. Are there positive signs short of that? Sure. 4 wins. An SEC win. Clear improvement in play from last season. Highlight plays from expected or unexpected players. Multiple competitive SEC (including Wake) games.

But success- in any sport- is nothing less than a winning season and/or post-season play.

If you're talking about what should be the baseline season expectation for a healthy VU football program, I think that's reasonable. Maybe a good year you win 8 or 9 and get to a better bowl, in a down year you win 6 and go to the Ed's Small Motor Repair Shop Bowl.

But from last year's baseline, and the depleted roster and dysfunctional culture Lea & Co inherited, that is not going to happen this year. You are declaring the season failure before it even starts.
6 wins would require two wins over SEC teams, and if you look at our schedule, there are no likely candidates for two "down year" SEC opponents (arguably Missouri? - but certainly not two). Winning two SEC games will mean beating at least one legit competitive SEC team in the second year of a rebuild from the Darkest Pits of Despair.
I do expect Vanderbilt will be better this year, but I will be astounded if we're that much better.

To me, winning 6 and going to a bowl would be "successful beyond realistic expectations." Which is possible, and would be great.

However, if you say that winning 5 games this year constitutes a failure, I disagree.
Winning 5 games this year would be a solid step in the right direction and evidence that the program is on the right track. It would mean either beating a quality Wake program, or beating two SEC teams. Considering where the rebuild started, I don't see how you can label that a failure.

[dallasdore]

We need to understand how rock bottom this program was going into last year. We are in as total rebuild as total rebuilds get. Our two wins last year were each on last minute field goals. I think both of them were over 40 yards? We were that close to a 1 win season or--gulp-- even worse, and with a softer schedule.

I think two things: 1) we are on the right track to improvement, and I think CCL is a great choice to right the ship if given time, and 2) I can't see us winning more than two this year. If this years team wins 4 games, I'll learn to do cartwheels and post it on here. We just don't have any combination of talent or experience. Too many conference teams on our schedule are already on the rise--Carolina, UK, Uthug, Ole Miss, etc. I just want us to look better as the season progresses, which I think will happen as long as we keep injuries at bay.

The winning starts in 2023 and definitely 2024.

[bornadore57]

I think another solid recruiting class, but better than last year's, and fewer non-graduate transfers at the end of the season will be signs of a successful season. I agree that Clark Lea provides hope for raising the program and am all in. I want others to buy into that in the ways noted above. Results on the field will, of course, impact this.

[Mrcommodore]

A successful season is one where in 3/4 of the games we still believe after 3/4 of the game that the game is reasonably winnable. This is a spectator sport and I'm tired of not enjoying spectating.

[Nashmann]

Nothing short of a bowl game I would consider a success. 3 to 5 wins I would consider progress. 2 wins or less I would consider SOV....

[dorelover82]

I see all games as tests. For me the Vanderbilt Superbowl of success would be:
3 0f 4 against non-con (contrary to popular belief the will be really chanllenging)
Any SEC win
This 4-8 record would be cause for hope in the future.

Seems to me for intangible, it would be true enthusiasm in each game. This sounds like a given, but with the modern athlete it is not. I am pleased to hear CCL making bold statements within a controlled understanding. If we don't believe, who will.

I can surely live with 3-9 if one is an SEC game.

[dorelover82]

Like what I read above. I bought my season tickets today becaue several posters said we needed to be all in. While I have been all in for the last 40 years, I live 9 hours away and can't often make games in person. But if we are not going to stand behind the effort who will.

Tough one in Hawaii tonight! Let's grind out an opening season win. Something we haven't often had.

[BrentVU]

"Success", like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.

Vandy could go 7-5 or 8-4 and someone on here would argue that the coach and team could have done more.

Vandy could go winless, and someone on here would argue that he/she saw lots of signs of progress and the future is bright.

Thank goodness for VandyMania, and that we have all lived long enough to see another season.

[dorelover82]

Like what I read above. I bought my season tickets today becaue several posters said we needed to be all in. While I have been all in for the last 40 years, I live 9 hours away and can't often make games in person. But if we are not going to stand behind the effort who will.

Tough one in Hawaii tonight! Let's grind out an opening season win. Something we haven't often had.

[Go Vandy!]

It's too late now. I was trying to define a difference between success and progress. Nobody celebrates a losing season. (Vandy being a possible exception.)

[VU1970]

A successful season is for every team that plays us to know they've been in a battle.