Excited and optimistic for that schedule. While the ending of the Mississippi State game sucked, we had some young guys step up, and I really do trust this staff to get the most out of the players we have. I mean, the improvement from 2020 to 2021 to 2022 is nothing short of astounding, and a few breaks here or there have us playing Utah in the Rose Bowl. The losses are what they are, I'm just making the point that we REALLY put ourselves in positions to win games - and that's a far cry from the hopeless blowouts of the Lovie Era.
I heard during the game that this would have only been our fourth 9-win season in the last 70 years ... while that is astounding and it sucks we fell just short, the last two seasons have actually been pretty amazing from another standpoint.
In the last three decades, this is only the second time we have improved our record for three straight seasons, with the third one being a winning record. That is literally crazy, lol. In other words, while we have improved our record over a 3-year span, it has often been over periods like this:
2012: 2-10
2013: 4-8
2014: 6-7
--- Then we had losing seasons in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 before Lovie was fired... ---
I know the number of games we play has changed over the years, but you would have to go back to before Robert Zuppke was the head coach to find another instance of us improving our regular season record for three years in a row to culminate in at least 8 regular season wins are below:
2020: 2-6
2021: 5-7
2022: 8-4
Bravo to this staff!