Pathetic. Yes we sucked last year. Everyone knows that. Let it go though. Jesucristo, these guys are scary about everything. What fun is it being a UM fan expecting to be in a dog fight with an average CUSA team? Yikes.
What fun is it being a fan that expects a dog fight with UAB? Not very, that's for **** sure. What fun is it actually losing to teams like FIU and LaTech? A **** of a lot less fun.
Back when we played ApSt, I expected us to walk in there and spank them. From a talent standpoint, UAB should be a sacrificial lamb. Manny, however, has yet to prove he can beat a bye week. Here's hoping he gets it right and starts getting his teams ready when he has time to prepare. The biggest sign your coach is a corch is losing EVERY game you have extra time to prepare for. He has to fix that, starting with UAB. A good coach gets his team ready, and let's face it, Manny simply was terrible last year. I think Lashlee and King will make us better, but what happens when a team punches us in the face? Will we fold like we did when FIU laid down on the turf and faked injuries?
UAB won't tell us everything we need to know, but it will tell us a lot. I'm not predicting a close game, loss, or a blowout. Truth is, no one knows. Like Lance said, great teams dominate consistently, and one game does not a pattern make. However, it would be a nice place to start.
Bobby Bowden once said there are four stages. Lose big. Lose small. Win small. Win big. Last year we were somewhere between lose small and win small. Can we make the jump to winning big, or even a mix between winning small and winning big? We can no longer see the close calls to teams like UAB, CMU(my personal biggest indicator of ineptitude early on), FIU and LaTech. Good teams don't play down to teams like this. Good teams beat them comfortably. Great teams take their starters out at the half.
So, what jump do we make? Anything that resembles last year will be a huge disappointment. There is so much room to improve, the bar set so low, that if we don't see a massive improvement, there should be a sense of disappointment among the fans.