When the Dawgs were mediocre, my hopes for a season were pretty simple, one year it was just to have the defense lined up when the ball was snapped, seriously. Their DC (Grantham) had such a complex defense they would often be looking around and out of position. They fired that guy and sure enough, they did a lot better the next year.
Then I started looking for whether the OL could run block reasonably well. This was back in the Richt era. They would stockpile some serious talent and then crap the sofa against "South Carolina". Then of course the sole objective was to beat UF. 1-11 would be OK if the right 1 was there. Not really. Sorta.
Of course, over the past six seasons, hopes got loftier, I've noted in some ways it would be neat to be a "KSU" fan, enjoy the TG, enjoy the game, hope for a bowl invite somewhere, and have a good time. This is how Ole Miss fans explained their fandom to me. There was a Bama fan there and she said "Yeah, and Bama fans go ballistic if they let Auburn score, they never have a good time."
Expectations lead to disappointment. And of course, I'm the same person even after my team won the NC and my other team won the WS. It's nice for a time of course. Like many shiny things in life ... it fades.