Topic: Marshall Athletic Teams - What is a successful season?

[svherd]

Keep seeing comments about this football season being a flop, or basketball only needing to win the league tourney to have a good season.

Thought it would be interesting to get posters thoughts on what does constitute a successful season for Marshall athletic teams?

Is it defined differently for each one, or do they all have the same goal?

Is winning the Belt in football good enough? Winning a bowl game? 9-10 wins?

For basketball - is winning the league the ultimate goal? An NCAA win? Winning 20 plus games?

Obviously men's soccer has set the bar high. I highly doubt any Marshall sport will come close to achieving what they did and have with the national championship and consecutive weeks ranked and NCAA appearances.

What about the other sports? Do we just settle for winning seasons? Are league titles the goal?

And if the teams don't meet the expected goals, is the season a total failure?

Eager to read your thoughts.

[Buffalo Bop]

8 wins or more in football and at least 20 wins in basketball does it for me.

[muherd34]

What are you asking?   Obviously, success can be measured in many different ways.  Being successful and reaching ones goals can be 2 different things.  So I will try to answer.

Football- Successful= 8+ wins and a bowl win.
              Very good year= 10+ wins and a bowl win and a top 25 ranking
              Great year= 10+ wins, division championship, conference championship, top 25 and a shot at a NY6 bowl.

Basketball- Successful= 20+ wins and maybe win 1 game conference tournament.
                 Very good year= 20+ wins and go to conference championship game.
                 Great year= 20+ wins and a trip to the big dance.

Soccer- Success is measured differently here.  I would imagine its all about the championships to the players and coaches.  I do not follow enough to say much more than that.


As far as the other sports go, I do not follow enough to say much.  I would guess winning conference championships is the goal.  But for some it may just getting better from season to season.

[forphase1]

Football speaking, for me we have to be playing meaningful football in November.  We don't have to win the division or the conference, but we need to be in the conversation in November.  This year was NOT a success, in my opinion, even with 8 wins, as when November started we were 4-4, and really out of the conference championship discussion with losses to Troy, Louisiana and Coastal.  I still believe in the 'We Play for Championships' standard, and it's been way to often recently when we really haven't been playing for them.  So it goes beyond just a pure win/loss record, though that certainly comes into play as well. 

[coalherd]

Winning seasons and, in some cases, challenging for Conference championships in our Olympic sports, which means our women's sports also.  Every HERD team this season is in the same boat meaning they are getting used to playing a lot of new opponents in the SBC.  Wishing them all successful seasons, however we use the criteria to determine "success"!!

[chris88]

Depends on sport and situation to me:

Are we making progress forward in sports in which we are down? (like women's soccer).

- For soccer this year making it to sweet sixteen was beyond what I thought we would achieve when season started. I'll admit my expectation grew at times during year but we lost a lot of players and two of our best players on this years team didn't even play vs Indiana. I also loved that Grassie called it a good but not great season.

- Football I had us pegged at 7-5, so that was exceeded but there is no reason we should not be in championship hunt and we weren't in November.  I am glad and proud of the guys for not giving up.  Would have been nice for a better bowl game. Notre Dame win was one for ages.  Never thought we would even play them, let alone win. So kudos for that.  Personally I think Huff is gone but hope i'm wrong just from a continuity standpoint.  In any case we still need the offense to be much better. Overall we should be in running every year in SB race and competing for Access bowl/playoff every few years. That JMU came in from FCS and essentially won the division says the league was more than winnable.

- BB has no excuse not to be in running for top spot in SB come March this year or any year. Win regular season and you at least get to NIT. Anything less than that is disappointing all things considered. We should be in NCAA's at least once every three or four years in the SB.

[MicDrass1]

Top 3 in the league in your sport AND beating Notre Dame on NBC. 

[goherd24]

Football, success is winning our division at least every other season, playing for a title. If anything ever special is to come, we have to go undefeated to do it. But I don't think expecting that every season is reality.

Basketball 22+ wins, competing for a conference title, at least semi finals in tournament. I'm no hypocrite, basketball needs to win this weaker league at least 2 out of 3 years IMO. Just like football in cusa should have been expected to do that but never did in cusa being so weak.

[BraveSaintStuart]

This football season was an absolute roller coaster. After ND, I didn't think anything else really mattered, but I never would have imagined falling off like we did the next few weeks. Then we played some pretty solid football down the stretch when all my expectations were substantially lowered. Was it a successful season? Not to me, really. But it wasn't as horrible as it could have been. Then again, I always loved that the goal for Doc was the winning the conference (even if... well... we all know what happened during Doc's tenure). I think it's really the most that you can control. You win games, you win a championship. It's that simple. And we didn't. So from that standpoint, it wasn't a success. We also had the limelight, and did nothing with it. The Notre Dame win was historic, but the season should have been more after it.

From a basketball standpoint, I'll agree with other contributors on here that in the Sun Belt Conference, we ought to be really the top of the class; especially this year it would seem. After a dud against Queens, and again, everyone's expectations being substantially lowered right off the bat, D'antoni seems to have recruited a very capable team and a fairly deep bench. Now our hopes are up. We obviously aren't playing our most important games yet, but it's been nice running rough-shod over MAC teams and Duquesne tonight. We're likely going to lose again this season. Just reality. But what constitutes success, to me, is playing our best ball during the conference portion of the schedule and making a strong push to the conference championship every year.

[Mako]

What are you asking?   Obviously, success can be measured in many different ways.  Being successful and reaching ones goals can be 2 different things.  So I will try to answer.

Football- Successful= 8+ wins and a bowl win.
              Very good year= 10+ wins and a bowl win and a top 25 ranking
              Great year= 10+ wins, division championship, conference championship, top 25 and a shot at a NY6 bowl.

Basketball- Successful= 20+ wins and maybe win 1 game conference tournament.
                 Very good year= 20+ wins and go to conference championship game.
                 Great year= 20+ wins and a trip to the big dance.

Soccer- Success is measured differently here.  I would imagine its all about the championships to the players and coaches.  I do not follow enough to say much more than that.


As far as the other sports go, I do not follow enough to say much.  I would guess winning conference championships is the goal.  But for some it may just getting better from season to season.

I could quibble a little with some of that but mostly agree. 

[MUonium]

This is the 2022-2023 SBC Championship Schedule (by date).   Even if you don't care, you will probably notice who is listed so far and who is not- is this the true measure of AD Spears?  Probably few fans care about the overall picture as is already indicated by most of the answers so far- "it's the money, national fame & prestige, stupid"   ;D

Men Cross Country - regular season champ: none - tournament champ: Arkansas State
Women Cross Country - regular season champ: none - tournament champ: Southern Miss
Women Soccer - regular season champ: Georgia Southern - tournament champ: Old Dominion
Men Soccer - TBD
Women Volleyball - TBD
Football - TBD
Men Indoor Track - TBD
Women Indoor Track -TBD
Women Basketball - TBD
Men Basketball - TBD
Women Golf - TBD
Men Tennis - TBD
Men Golf - TBD
Women Tennis - TBD
Softball - TBD
Men Outdoor Track - TBD
Women Outdoor Track -TBD
Baseball - TBD

Like many of us, i want The Herd to compete for ALL championships, often. 
My top favorites in order of importance: MBB, FB, SB, BB, both soccers and T&F.
For now, i assume Swimming-Diving is not sponsored by the SBC- am i missing anything?

[svherd]

This is the 2022-2023 SBC Championship Schedule (by date).   Even if you don't care, you will probably notice who is listed so far and who is not- is this the true measure of AD Spears?  Probably few fans care about the overall picture as is already indicated by most of the answers so far- "it's the money, national fame & prestige, stupid"   ;D

Men Cross Country - regular season champ: none - tournament champ: Arkansas State
Women Cross Country - regular season champ: none - tournament champ: Southern Miss
Women Soccer - regular season champ: Georgia Southern - tournament champ: Old Dominion
Men Soccer - TBD
Women Volleyball - TBD
Football - TBD
Men Indoor Track - TBD
Women Indoor Track -TBD
Women Basketball - TBD
Men Basketball - TBD
Women Golf - TBD
Men Tennis - TBD
Men Golf - TBD
Women Tennis - TBD
Softball - TBD
Men Outdoor Track - TBD
Women Outdoor Track -TBD
Baseball - TBD

Like many of us, i want The Herd to compete for ALL championships, often. 
My top favorites in order of importance: MBB, FB, SB, BB, both soccers and T&F.
For now, i assume Swimming-Diving is not sponsored by the SBC- am i missing anything?

How can it be a measure of Spears? The man has been on the job less than a year. If anything, our poor performance overall, dwindling fan base and lack of upkeep on facilities can rest at the feet of our former AD. Spears has a lot to clean up.

[MUonium]

How can it be a measure of Spears? The man has been on the job less than a year. If anything, our poor performance overall, dwindling fan base and lack of upkeep on facilities can rest at the feet of our former AD. Spears has a lot to clean up.

in the future, not the past-  it will indeed be on Spears first and foremost

[svherd]

in the future, not the past-  it will indeed be on Spears first and foremost

Agree. No question.

[coalherd]

Agree. No question.

Need an asterisk on this point, IMO.  Spears can and will only go so far as the support of our FAN BASE will allow him to go.  Meaning he will succeed in terms of team goals achieved based in large part on how many more fans in the stands he and our athletic teams can attract and how much more financial, $$$$$, support he is able to obtain, induce, "rake in", from our overall fan base, of which there is little evidence is growing numerically to any measurable extent.  Whether AD Spears has any new ideas, techniques, measures, etc., which he implements to achieve improvements in such areas remains the big question behind the future of MU ATHLETICS, in terms of on the field success and otherwise, IMO!