USA TODAY gives us Ralphie's dream grade

[phatcat]

A+

Season grades for all 133 college football teams. Who got an A on their report card?

It's report card time with the college football season complete. Who was at the head of the class and the bottom? Here are our letter grades.

www.usatoday.com

 

[zeek55]

Historically great turnaround off of a 1 win season + offseason turmoil.

Only possible grade for what this team/staff delivered.

In our own football history only '95 was more shocking.

Cats fans have been spoiled by our sports teams the past 12 months.

 

[phatcat]

Historically great turnaround off of a 1 win season + offseason turmoil.

Only possible grade for what this team/staff delivered.

In our own football history only 95 was more shocking.

Cats fans have been spoiled by our sports teams the past 12 months.

Let's not forget that the FB team showed no indication of anything special through the first 3 games. They got clobbered twice and were tied with a moribund UTEP team at the half. They came out of nowhere and finished strong

 

[zeek55]

Let's not forget that the FB team showed no indication of anything special through the first 3 games. They got clobbered twice and were tied with a moribund UTEP team at the half. They came out of nowhere and finished strong

Yeah after the first game, consensus even around here was that 2-4 wins was the absolute ceiling, even among our most optimistic supporters.

That Minnesota 4th quarter changed the season, and even then it probably wasn't until we held off Howard and beat Maryland that we started to think about going bowling.

5 wins in the final 6 games, the team really came together when it mattered most.

That was really difficult to imagine halfway through the season.

 

[TheC]

Yeah after the first game, consensus even around here was that 2-4 wins was the absolute ceiling, even among our most optimistic supporters.

That Minnesota 4th quarter changed the season, and even then it probably wasn't until we held off Howard and beat Maryland that we started to think about going bowling.

5 wins in the final 6 games, the team really came together when it mattered most.

That was really difficult to imagine halfway through the season.

Yep.... the Minnesota game indicated that this year wouldn't be another total disaster. The Maryland game started making a Bowl game a real possibility. And it was the Wisconsin game that made you say... gotdamn.... something special is going on here!

 

[Catslash]

The results this season are beyond what anyone imagined if Bryant had not been injured there might have been two more wins the ability of Coach Braun without the full support of fans ,athletic department, the University adminstration and faculty, speak volumes about the heart and desire of this team and it's leadership. Looking forward to 2024.

 

[zeek55]

Yep.... the Minnesota game indicated that this year wouldn't be another total disaster. The Maryland game started making a Bowl game a real possibility. And it was the Wisconsin game that made you say... gotdamn.... something special is going on here!

100%. That Wisconsin game was the one where we went "wait I was just hoping we might find 5 wins to get a bowl based on APR but now we can win out if we can thoroughly dominate Wisconsin."

And I still think in many ways the Illinois game might be the most impressive:

All the motivation related factors favored Illinois: we already got to 6 wins with a bowl secured while they were at 5 and desperate for a 6th. Braun had already been named permanent HC. The game was at Illinois. It was a rivalry game that they'd dominated 2 straight.

Everything screamed: okay this is the game where they come back to earth and drop a game.

Yet the team dug deep and held on to take back the hat and deny them a bowl game.

Might honestly be our sweetest win against Illinois in a while given the way the season went for both programs (as well as the past 2 years of blowouts against them).

 

[NJCat]

NU has 3 of the other 6 A+ teams on the 2024 schedule......