As expected this is a 8-9 win roster, that should be the goal. Our roster has a lot of holes in it and Mario has done his best to fill them but it's only year 1. WR,DL,LB and CB are all question marks but that's as expected. The transfers and Injured guys will help out a lot, we're still missing a lot of starters and key depth. It's difficult to judge a spring game because everything is very vanilla but we look very small on defense and not very fast.
Last year the expectation was 10 wins going into the season. Why should the expectation be any less than last year? We were 2 plays away from winning 9 games last year under a poorly coached team. Perhaps you think the team will play worse under the new coaching staff than they did under the Diaz regime?
If you want to make the argument that there are better teams in the Coastal than Miami, then you could say this is an 8-9 win team. What Coastal team(s) are going to be better than Miami this year? Pitt, UVA, UNC, VT? Are any of those teams complete? NO, they all have holes. All will have new QBs except UVA. UVA and VT have new coaches as well.
Is this year's team worse than last year's team? NO. Maybe a drop off at WR (unknown), but every other position is the same or has improved. I think we all agree the offensive line is better. Because the OL is better, the perception of the DL is that it's worse. I don't think it is. I think the defense will be better because LB and CB play will be better than last year, while the DL and the Safeties will be the same or better. Most importantly, this will be a better tackling team.
Is the ACC going to be better or worse than it was last year? I'd say it'll be worse. We will be favored in every ACC game except Clemson. We will be favored in every non conference game except TamU. If we are favored in every game except Clemson and TamU, why should anyone have a lowered expectation in win total?
Every team on our schedule has holes except maybe TamU and Clemson. What you and others are suggesting is that we should have a lowered expectations when our talent level is just a little better than our opponents and when we have Alabama talent we can expect 10 wins and 2 losses. That is still mediocrity given the talent level. I just don't think that way.
My expectation is that we beat the teams we are supposed to beat. That is my expectation every year. This program hasn't done that in over a decade with the exception being 2017, but we should have never lost to Pitt that year. Just because the team loses games it shouldn't, the expectation to win shouldn't change. You don't lose a game against a team you should beat and say, "That's OK, we always lose a game we should have won. I expected it." NO!!! That's a defeatist attitude.
The choices are binary. For any given game, you either expect to win or you don't. I DON'T expect us to win against TamU or Clemson. If we do, I'm ecstatic as my expectation has been exceeded. I DO expect to win against FSU, UVA, Pitt, UNC, VT, Duke, and GT. We may lose to one or more of those teams, but my expectation is that we don't lose to any of them. If you or anyone else EXPECTS us to lose against any Coastal team and/or FSU, then please do share who you expect us to lose to.