Do teams normally announce that they are contenders?

[shrek2]

There has been so much hype from Rolo and some members of the football team about being contenders for the MWC title. There was never any talk about how they are working on certain aspects of their game. In the movie "Hoosiers," they never spoke about going for the state title. Every scene focused on the players focusing on the fundamentals. How come there was never any talk about working on quarterback passing accuracy or receivers working on blocking on screens or other basic skills required for their position? I don't recall any major college coach and/or players saying before the season started that they were contending for the title. The more classy way of saying something positive would have been we are going to be competitors in the MWC and anyone that thinks that we are bottom dwellers are going to be surprised. I cannot imagine Jim Harbaugh or Nick Saban saying that their team will be #1 in the nation.

[shrek2]

I guess I have several issues with this. First when a team announces that they are the team to beat, they are. Reporters usually do a good enough job of hyping the program that players and coaches don't have to announce their ambitions to get the title. Second, humility against competition always is better than being braggarts as history should have shown when Hawaii was blown away by the Grambling Tigers. They targeted Golden Richards and he got his leg broken on the first kickoff of the game. Finally, focusing on the title takes away from focusing on game skills improvement and causes for disappointment with every loss.

[Neighbor]

Every team says their goal is to win a championship

[uhwarriors]

It's not hype, it's a goal that they are striving for and want to achieve. I haven't seen anything where the players have said that they're the team to beat. All I've seen or heard is that they want to win the championship. There's a big difference in saying we're the team to beat and we want to win the championship. They have many specific goals for each game and they work on achieving them during every practice. Those goals are related to skills, alignment and assignment, techniques and execution. If they achieve enough of those game specific goals, they should win most games. If they win enough games, they can win the championship.

[shrek2]

I personally think the fans want to hear about is that they're working on in terms of pressuring the quarterback, defensive coverage, plans for converting third downs, how they can be more effective in the red zone rather than hear about what they need to do to win the MWC title or how they can get into a bowl game. And, it may be the interviewer's questions that are on YouTube that distorts the real picture of what UH is working on when they interview the players. I don't really want to hear details on exact plans but that they are addressing these issues. Goals are great but when you verbalize them to the public which includes the other team, you give the other team a target to shoot for.

[UnBiasFan]

"We will win football games and we will chase championships. ..." Norm Chow

[Dos Inus]

"We will win football games and we will chase championships. ..." Norm Chow

Well we did win a FEW...