[jcmanson]

Do you think the 2013 season was a success?

[Sly Fox]

Wow, what a simple closed-end question with a billion layers of questions wrapped inside it.

[SuperJon]

I said no. Any season with no playoff birth is not a success. We've come too far to expect less.

[ludlpstudent]

+1

[PAmedic]

I said no. Any season with no playoff birth is not a success. We've come too far to expect less.

this.

though to the kids actually playing i'm sure the perspective is different.

to me... no

the bad losses outweighed the expected wins

they have for years now

[BJWilliams]

I said yes for sake of the poll but my actual answer is yes and no. No in the sense that like Jon said, we had no playoff berth, but to Medic's point, the players probably feel differently about what defines success and I'd say that the yes is that the players did not give up and finished with a winning season and that is a success to some degree. not the degree the fans would prefer but its something to hang your hat on and build for next year

[Schfourteenteen]

I voted Yes because saying No alludes to the year being a failure, which I disagree with. In other words, I read too much into the question and didn't just answer the freaking question.

We closed the gap on Coastal who hasn't gotten worse
We improved to 6-4 in our DI games, although the schedule may have had a good amount to do with that
The Big South may have been the best it has ever been relative to FCS
We had no Asa Chapman incidents
The team played hard even when there was nothing to play for
We are still only 2 years out from a coaching change

I am choosing to ignore or at least devalue that we lost to Danny Rocco, we lost in incredible fashion twice, we didn't finish first in the conference(that we won, of course), we didn't make the playoffs, and winning just one of those choke jobs would have put us in a position to be considered for the postseason.

[alabama24]

I said no. Any season with no playoff birth is not a success. We've come too far to expect less.

+1

That isn't to say that I am down on the team or not optimistic about next year. If we are 8-4 next season w/o making the playoffs, it'll be time to make some changes.

[flamesfilmguy]

I said no. No playoffs and no outright Championship = underachievement

We've come too far (like Jon Said) to expect anything less.

[Sly Fox]

It didn't take long for most of you to turn into grumpy old hags after you left Lynchburg.

[flamehunter]

I feel sorry for some of you guys' wives. Supper is probably never quite good enough.
Wife: "How was the chicken, honey?"
Flamefan: "Not the best ever. You fail!"

[flamesfilmguy]

I feel sorry for some of you guys' wives. Supper is probably never quite good enough.
Wife: "How was the chicken, honey?"
Flamefan: "Not the best ever. You fail!"

My Fiance' is a great cook. so Thats not a problem.
Rant time:

I'm sorry, When I was growing up in little league, Not too long ago, We didn't get Participation trophies. We didn't get CO-Champion trophies. you either won, or you lost. I was taught to accept that. The world is a tough place and sometimes you aren't good enough to win, or you didn't try hard enough, or the other team was just better than you. Tough luck. get over it, get better and move on. There shouldn't be a reward for second place in college football. If I was coastal I'd be mad that there was such a thing as a CO-Champion. Maybe if KK would get off his incompetent hind quarters and fix the system, so there is no way to have a CO-Champion, then this wouldn't be an issue. Until then, Co-Champion shouldn't be in our vocab. We underachieved our goals... its that simple. I don't consider underachievement synonymous with Success. But maybe with the coddling politically correct culture we live in I should just get used to the idea that people are going to be offended when I consider a season with no OUTRIGHT championship AND playoffs a Failure.
/Rant

Geez.. sly was right I am becoming an old hag.

[SuperJon]

Good is the enemy of great. I was taught that a long time ago and I stand by it today.

[flamesfilmguy]

Good is the enemy of great. I was taught that a long time ago and I stand by it today.

This

[VAGolf]

Heck no, it wasn't a success. How is that even a question? We didn't improve. In fact, we did almost exactly what we did last year. The entire season was completely lackluster except for the last game. The last game proved to me that we have the ability to beat any FCS team we play. Thus, the fact that we lost 4 times means that this year was most definitely NOT a success.

[BJWilliams]

back away from the ledge mon frere...the entire season? while we all share in the disappointment at not making the playoffs, if that was the sole sign of a successful season there would be a lot of failures in FCS this year. improvement isn't all wins and losses (though it is a quantifiable number). to ignore the fact that this team could have completely given up and blown up the season (which I'm sure you would have been fine with you since nothing else matters) is a disservice to the players. Would 9 wins have been enough? 10? undefeated?

[VAGolf]

back away from the ledge mon frere...the entire season? while we all share in the disappointment at not making the playoffs, if that was the sole sign of a successful season there would be a lot of failures in FCS this year. improvement isn't all wins and losses (though it is a quantifiable number). to ignore the fact that this team could have completely given up and blown up the season (which I'm sure you would have been fine with you since nothing else matters) is a disservice to the players. Would 9 wins have been enough? 10? undefeated?

I'm not even sure you fully understand what you said; because quite frankly you aren't making a lick of sense.

First off, our biggest win came at the very end of the season against a not-very talented team that over-achieved all season. That isn't to take away from CSU's year or the way we dismantled them. But are we really determining our season as a success based on one win over Charleston Southern? Gill had 4 opportunities to get us to playoffs and we choked on all of them. 2-2 out of those 4 games would have been fine, but 0-4 is not okay. And it CAN'T be okay if we want to be a great football team. Other great football teams don't settle for that. I'm not saying this year wasn't a total failure by any means, but it definitely was NOT a success.

[Purple Haize]

I feel sorry for some of you guys' wives. Supper is probably never quite good enough.
Wife: "How was the chicken, honey?"
Flamefan: "Not the best ever. You fail!"

What does cooking have to do with football? I mean if you want to play marriage analogies we could do that all day.
Flamefan: Honey were you over at your boyfriends house?
Wife: yes but I'll be home early
Flamefans: Ok, that's better than last time when you spent the night.

I mean its ok if she still comes home. Who cares about anything else?

[Purple Haize]

Good is the enemy of great. I was taught that a long time ago and I stand by it today.

Disagree very much with that philosophy, especially when dealing with athletics.

Good gets a heck of a lot more done than Great. You can always put off doing something because it will only be good not great.
If you do enough good things, you will have a better chance of experiencing greatness

[Cider Jim]

In comparison, Danny Rocco won "only" 8 games his second year at LU, too; and this year, DR's Richmond team only went 6-6.

Though they beat us this year in a rain storm, I'd still take Turner Gill's LU team over DR's Richmond team!
No Spiders in my .

[flameslinger]

The way the question is framed, simply put, the answer has to be no, unless the goal was to go 8-4 and not make the playoffs. Success or failure is based upon achieving the goal or failing to reach the goal. I can't imagine that this season's goal was anything less than achieving our first playoff spot. The Flames failed to achieve that. As long as we are FCS, and until we make the playoffs, I don't see any other way to judge the success or failure of "the season." That said, I applaud the guys on a good season. I don't think any of them are failures or that this team is a failure. I think there are a lot of positives to see this year. I feel good about the direction of the program as a whole, and have high expectations for next season.

[BJWilliams]

this^^ is what I was getting at (what flameslinger said) although I do consider it successful in that we improved in the quantifiable sense (wins and losses) and we did so under circumstances where most teams would have just as well thrown up their hands and said "well we are 3-4 and have nothing left to play for so what's the point?" Anyway like I said, my answer is yes and no but you can only pick one so I went with yes

[WinterIsComing]

The season was a success. I'll still gripe about the overall cultural issues I see within LU Athletics, but for the players (they hung together) and the coaching staff (I feel they grew as the year went on) it was a successful season.

While this might seem contradictory to what I said above, we won't truly be able to judge the success of this season until next year. Is this the best we've seen from this coaching staff or is an 8-4 season the mountaintop? Has Josh Woodrum peaked? Or is there another level to his game he has yet to realize? Have we been doing our due diligence recruiting and developing talent? Can we make field goals and XP's next year? Only time will tell. But I believe the best is yet to come for Coach Gill, his staff, and the team...Or at least I hope so.

[flameslinger]

we won't truly be able to judge the success of this season until next year.

That's either really deep, or you're channeling your inner Nancy Pelosi trying to convince us that the Affordable Care Act is really a good thing

I still can't keep my own score in bowling, so take that for what it's worth.

[flamehunter]

I feel sorry for some of you guys' wives. Supper is probably never quite good enough.
Wife: "How was the chicken, honey?"
Flamefan: "Not the best ever. You fail!"

What does cooking have to do with football? I mean if you want to play marriage analogies we could do that all day.
Flamefan: Honey were you over at your boyfriends house?
Wife: yes but I'll be home early
Flamefans: Ok, that's better than last time when you spent the night.

I mean its ok if she still comes home. Who cares about anything else?

I will eyeroll your eyeroll.