ISU got written off early in the season, but they have a strong case to be ranked again. Their only two losses are by one possession against an Iowa team that's much better than anyone realized at the time (granted, they just lost) and by a failed two-point conversion against a Baylor team that's also better than many realized.
All the reasons that led to ISU's high pre-season ranking: an excellent coach and lots of returning talent that won a lot of games last year, are still valid. Maybe they're not a top 10 team like some thought, but top 25. There's a good chance they'll be ranked when we play them.
Baylor's pretty good. WVU and KSU aren't. We shouldn't need to say anything about KU. I see no one we can't beat, but only one team that can't beat us.
Going into the bye, my prediction for the rest of the season:
at Baylor: L
at Iowa State: L (4-5 record, low point of the season)
Kansas: W
at WVU: W
K-State: W
7-5, 5-4 in conference, probably in 5th place, maybe tied for 4th. We play in a 3rd-tier bowl and steamroll a 3rd-tier opponent to close the season on a four-game winning streak.
Head into 2022 season with a lot of optimism (Bijan for Heisman!) and go 9-3, 3rd in conference, which is improvement, but arguably not enough.
In the unlikely event we run the table and finish 9-3 (7-2 in conference), plus win the bowl game, that means closing the season on a somewhat impressive six-game winning streak and finishing with 10 wins for the second time since 2009. Not that it's likely, but that'd be a better season than many predicted before it began.
Last edited: Oct 16, 2021