Roar, Tavoy will be in for the fall, he was not a mid-year transfer.
In my opinion, 3-8 or 4-7 would be a move in the right direction. I think this team could be much better than last year.
I expect the defense will make some nice steps forward--but it still remains unclear about the pass rush. If they can develop a pass rush, the defense will be that much better.
Offensively, this team has to be better, it has to be. Scoring more than 10 points a game has to be guaranteed and scoring 20 points a game should be a given. ISU is going to have to find more WR's or move kids from RB to slot receivers in my opinion.
Some will call me negative and really I am not trying to be. I just don't see a team that has won two games in the past two seasons to jump to 5-6/6-5 or better in one season. It rarely if ever happens.
No punter or long snapper has been identified as of yet and ISU may need a FG kicker. Who knows, maybe kids are already on board. But, you cannot underestimate the problems that will occur if they cannot at least find a quality punter and long snapper.
Also, at the risk of sounding like a broken record--Zamberlin has to retain kids and avoid academic casualties. I can guarantee that this is an issue that ISU needs to pay attention to and I think that they are. The ramifications of continued mass attrition and ineligible players can lead to scholarship reductions and it is tough to revitalize a program if you lose scholarships down the road. File it in your memory banks, gang... this may be just as important as wins and losses.
I think if the majority of us that chat on this board see the right types of improvement, the mood will change around here. Regardless of what the win/loss record is--we are going to have a pretty good idea by the end of this season as to if things are starting to point in the right direction.
