Rockne's Roundtable

I'm on board with this..

9-3 and a convincing bowl win would work for alot of us. 17 yrs of mediocrity will do that to you.......

If we also win the bowl game, then absolutely!

Good responses, with an almost 2-to-1 leaning toward signing up for 9-3. Just wanted to kind of feel the pulse.

Usually, after ending a season the way ND did last year and taking some hits in various areas, the January pulse is about "lucky to be 6-6," at the end of recruiting and spring it goes up to about 8-4, and usually right before the start of pre-season it starts edging into the double-digit column again. That's why I thought 9-3 would be an interesting gauge.

With this schedule? Absolutely.

By the way we haven't gone 9-3 since 2006-2007 season. That's 6 years. And this is the best schedule we have faced in that time, so yeah, I'd take that in a heartbeat.

I hope for better, but if you could guarantee 9-3 you would have to take it. At least it would be a step in the right direction for the program.

As a competitor. I cannot concede any losses. It would be like kissing your sister.

nbennyboy,

You're very kind. I'm merely trying to do what I'm supposed to do. That's why one of my pet peeves in sports is "incentive clauses" in contracts, where if a player meets a certain weight, he receives a bonus, or if a coach wins a certain amount of games, he gets a bonus.

Lou Holtz said that in his first year at NC State, the Wolfpack went 8-3-1, won the Peach Bowl and had their first winning season in something like 5 years, and going 3-8 both the previous two years. When he went to the AD to ask for a $2,000 raise for himself and the staff, he pointed out all those positives.

The AD paused for a moment and said, "That's what I hired you for. The last coach didn't do that, which is why I fired him." Holtz said it was a great learning moment.

Like Coach CFT, though, I just couldn't take the cash in hand and am more curious about what's behind the curtain.