2024 football prediction

[Duckdog]

12-0

[DesotoDog1967]

What defense are they even running? 4-3????

[Walkerhill]

If you think we are going to finish in the top 15 in offense you are about to be crushed.

In the last 7 years Lebby offenses have ranked 5, 4, 2, 3, 6, 33, 4 in total offense.

I expect 15-20 probably just based on the state of our offensive personnel when he took over and the amount of new and/or unproven players. If we wind up top 15 in total offense, Lebby did a heck of a coaching job.

That being said, a lot of those previous teams had similar challenges - 2018 UCF had a freshman starter qb, 2020 Ole Miss was coming off prolonged ncaa probation from the Freeze era, 2022 Oklahoma had severe player attrition the preceding off season.

If anything, I am being a little cautious and pessimistic vs. past performance.

[Leroy Jenkins]

We'll see what he can bring in when the post spring portal opens. He put together a pretty solid class in the 2 weeks before signing day. I'm curious to see what he can do after a few months on the job.

[msumudcat]

Floor 5-7 Ceiling 7-5. Take the middle at 6-6

[preachermatt83]

Floor 5-7 Ceiling 7-5. Take the middle at 6-6

This

[Goldendawg]

6-6 Floor, 8-4 ceiling, 7-5 great 1st year. Some opponents on our schedule have to mesh into a team from August fall practice to the first game just like us. The portal has changed things. Good coaches must put things together every year now.

[schddog72]

Floor 5-7 Ceiling 7-5. Take the middle at 6-6

Don't mean to be a downer, but I think 7-5 is extremely optimistic. My realistic expectation is 4-8 (floor as well) with a ceiling of 7-5. I would be extremely happy with 6-6 in the first year given what we lost vs what's coming back. I hope I'm wrong, though!!

[Quaoarsking]

A lot will depend on whether Texas and Missouri are great teams again like they were last year, or regress back to their typical selves.

I would expect us to beat Missouri at home unless they're a top 10-15 team again. And if Texas is back to typical Texas, we would have a shot in Austin, but not if they're a top 5 team again. Texas loses to a team worse than us every other year anyway.

[Dawgface]

Any of you insiders have a report on how Spring practice is looking?

[Walkerhill]

Don't mean to be a downer, but I think 7-5 is extremely optimistic. My realistic expectation is 4-8 (floor as well) with a ceiling of 7-5. I would be extremely happy with 6-6 in the first year given what we lost vs what's coming back. I hope I'm wrong, though!!

These bold over/under projections crack me up. No one could possibly know at this point.

1) my original point was that we can have reasonable confidence in the offense improving, based on Lebby’s track record and the apparent fit of Shapen to this scheme. So far so good. Defense is a total question mark - we don’t even know what scheme we’ll be running and our co-coordinators have very little experience by SEC standards. These guys have coached alongside Saban, Muschamp, Durkin, Don Brown so they have a pedigree, and Lebby has coached with them so he knows what he is getting firsthand. But… the floor here is Peter Simon bad until proven otherwise.

2) Some of our opponents have concerns also. Napier is on the hot seat. UF always has talent but what has really been done to improve results? Mizzou was great last year but lost a ton and lost an elite DC and is breaking in a new one that is even more untested than ours. Arkansas brought back Petrino in what has to be one of the weirdest shotgun marriage coaching staffs ever. ASU was a dumpster fire last year. A&M have a ton of resources and made good coaching hires imo but still you never know with staff changes. Even Ole Miss - on paper they should beat us at home, but throw out the paper and the records in the Egg Bowl - especially if they have CFP pressure on them and we get to play spoiler. The idea these are unwinnable completely and our ‘ceiling’ should not even consider them is just poor ol State mentality and nothing more.

3) Also, the spring transfer portal could completely change the talent equation, not just for us, but for any of these teams.

Wake me up in July for win/loss predictions that mean diddly squat.

[was21]

Horrible take from the 1980s.

How 'bout the 1920's