SicEm365 Staff Roundtable: What's Considered a Successful Season?

As fall camp approaches, the SicEm365 staff will address the most pressing questions about the football team. So far, the staff has given varying opinions on breakout players, the biggest questions surrounding the squad, the toughest game on the schedule and who will be the most impactful transfer. Today, the staff will define what they consider a successful 2024 season for Baylor.

Colt Barber – Be Competitive and Make a Bowl

This team is talented enough to win seven or more games. This team is old enough to win seven or more games. That was my baseline expectation of games it needed to win this fall for the season to be considered a success. However, my vantage point has changed in the last seven months with the number of recruits who are opting for Baylor. As of now, six wins is the benchmark. This team is still capable of more, but I will live with a competitive 6-6 season to get the next round of high school and transfer prospects on campus. 

At the end of it all, talent acquisition is the major key to success. Baylor has shown it is willing to pay top dollar for assistants and staff personnel, so hand-wringing over it too much is futile. Messing with something good when you are hot on the trail (unless you have to) doesn’t make a lot of sense. If Baylor is back in the postseason and the staff has an upward trend to point to when they start knocking on portal doors, the roster (which has 25 seniors) could be replenished with even more talent. 

Go beyond 6-6, and things get really exciting. 

Grayson Grundhoefer – Make a Bowl Game

Before the last month of recruiting, I would have probably added a disclaimer that they needed to be really competitive and squarely a top 50 team per advanced metrics this season. That stuff doesn’t matter at all to me now. Due to this momentum on the recruiting trail, I now believe that all this team needs to do is find a way to six wins and keep this class together. If that happens, then mark this one as a successful year for the program and a step towards becoming a Big 12 title contender in the near future.

Travis Roeder – You’ll Know It When You See It

Baylor needs to return to being a competitive, tough, and fun-to-watch team; a team that can legitimately win against anyone on their schedule, a team that you don’t feel like it is squandering its potential due to mismanagement.

I don’t mean it as a cop-out, but I don’t have a specific win number in mind, to an extent. Let’s be real: there is basically no version of 2024 Baylor that meets the criteria I listed above and only wins 4 games. But on the flip side, I think Baylor could win 7 games this fall and also not meet those criteria.

The Big 12 is going to be very good this season; it’s unreasonable to think Baylor should snap their fingers and get back to being a 10-win team after how bad they were last year. But there is zero reason that Baylor should look outclassed against teams like Utah, Colorado, Texas Tech, Iowa State, TCU, etc. Losing a few toss-ups to those teams is expected; getting out-classed by those teams is inexcusable. Moral victories are not enough, and a bunch of close losses will not be enough, but I think we’ll know when we see it this fall whether this team is “back” or merely an improved version of last year’s disaster.

Craig Smoak – Are We Having Fun? 

More wins is the most straightforward answer, but that depends entirely on how many we're talking about, how those victories were accomplished, and the nature of the losses. Does this team play with confidence? Is there chemistry? Do they look like they know what they're doing? Are players noticeably improving? Do they hold their own against the best? Or did they eke out 2-3 extra wins based on fortunate blessings and bounces from Lady Luck? 

Whatever the win total, does the program have upward momentum at year's end? A successful season meant we anxiously and eagerly looked forward to each Saturday because watching this team play and fight was enjoyable and exciting. That would also mean that, come December, we're talking about some bowl game. But we're also discussing and already looking forward to what Dave Aranda is cooking up for year six and the incredible recruiting class the Bears were officially able to sign for 2025.