Senior laden team

[bigbub50]

Saw a talking head speculate 21 of 22 starters would be seniors or Covid seniors. That is astonishing. Would likly make us the most experienced team in college football. Now counter that with 2 coordinators and a head coach with no sec experience and that pulls expectations back a little. Also a new offensive philosophy, though this new offensive coordinator has had success in year 1 at his last two stops which is encouraging. Should we be optimistic?

Listed below are the players I believe will or can start that are not seniors. Who else am I missing?

Corey Ellington- junior
John Lewis- third year sophomore
Justin Robinson- 4th year junior

[Dawgology]

Change our logo with Arkansas and the line would “though breaking in a new head coach and coordinators this senior laden, record holding class will average 8-9 wins this year”. But with Miss State it equates to a 4-5 win season in the medias eyes

[BuckyIsAB****]

Its finally our turn to have the covid team

[TrapGame]

Saw a talking head speculate 21 of 22 starters would be seniors or Covid seniors. That is astonishing. Would likly make us the most experienced team in college football. Now counter that with 2 coordinators and a head coach with no sec experience and that pulls expectations back a little. Also a new offensive philosophy, though this new offensive coordinator has had success in year 1 at his last two stops which is encouraging. Should we be optimistic?

Listed below are the players I believe will or can start that are not seniors. Who else am I missing?

Corey Ellington- junior
John Lewis- third year sophomore
Justin Robinson- 4th year junior

This is just one of the reasons we aren't going to finish last in the West. Nothing is changing with our defense. And the offense has some talent on it. This is not a Croom coached team, but the media (and some of our fans, tbh) think it will be.

[Coach34]

We win in the SEC when we have veteran teams. End of story

We should have a good season

[msu15]

8-4 is well within the realm of possibility. Win all 4 non-con, retain the egg, hold serve against Kentucky, and then find some way to get 2 wins out of the rest of our non-conference opponents excluding our annual Bama ass beating.

[TrapGame]

8-4 is well within the realm of possibility. Win all 4 non-con, retain the egg, hold serve against Kentucky, and then find some way to get 2 wins out of the rest of our non-conference opponents excluding our annual Bama ass beating.

Totally in the realm of possibility. Then when our first-year head coach goes 8-4 the college sports media will start the "He needs to go to a better school." mantra. They'll project him as the next head coach at three other schools before he starts his second season as head coach.

[bigbub50]

That?s right but we have room to give him a nice pay raise to fight off contenders. And blue bloods will want to see more than one year of success before they invest.

[R2Dawg]

Totally in the realm of possibility. Then when our first-year head coach goes 8-4 the college sports media will start the "He needs to go to a better school." mantra. They'll project him as the next head coach at three other schools before he starts his second season as head coach.

CZA has the Mullen example to think about before leaving for a blue blood. Grass ain't always greener. If Kirby hadn't won NC, he be on hot seat to be gone right now.

[MaroonFlounder]

excluding our annual Bama ass beating.

Careful The PollyAnna brigade will come after you for mentioning the ass-beating that Bama gives us every year.

[viverlibre]

8-4 is well within the realm of possibility. Win all 4 non-con, retain the egg, hold serve against Kentucky, and then find some way to get 2 wins out of the rest of our non-conference opponents excluding our annual Bama ass beating.

Yuup, I'm looking at 7-5 or 8-4. 8-4 would be fantastic.

[viverlibre]

Saw a talking head speculate 21 of 22 starters would be seniors or Covid seniors.

I've seen BFW say the same.

[msu15]

Careful The PollyAnna brigade will come after you for mentioning the ass-beating that Bama gives us every year.

No doubt, but until we prove otherwise I'll stand by it. That game hasn't been a competitive contest since Mullen left.

[Goldendawg]

No doubt, but until we prove otherwise I'll stand by it. That game hasn't been a competitive contest since Mullen left.

0-7 and the scores were only a touchdown or less in 2014 (very late 4th quarter td, I think) and 2017. Other game losses not very competitive. Dan usually drew up against bama, but so have vast majority of the coaches in our history against them.

[BuckyIsAB****]

I think 8-4 is the floor barring injuries

[confucius say]

0-7 and the scores were only a touchdown or less in 2014 (very late 4th quarter td, I think) and 2017. Other game losses not very competitive. Dan usually drew up against bama, but so have vast majority of the coaches in our history against them.

2013 was competitive

[Goldendawg]

2013 was competitive

You are correct. We were only down 10-7 until bama scored a TD with 5:46 left in 3rd. We never scored again and lost 20-7. We have not been competitive since 2017. Let's change that this year in a win! Hail State!

[Captain Falcon]

2013 was competitive

I?ve always wondered what that game ends up being if we have healthy QB?s. Dak was out and Tyler was playing hurt, didn?t even finish the game. We were playing Damian Williams in the 4th quarter. Our defense played a great game that night.

[Coach34]

2013 was competitive

We have a chance this season which will probably mirror 2017. We are at home, vet team, experienced QB, good on D. Got to find a way to make a few plays when we need it

[Todd4State]

We have a chance this season which will probably mirror 2017. We are at home, vet team, experienced QB, good on D. Got to find a way to make a few plays when we need it

Hopefully the Egg Bowl turns out better than it did in 2017.

[confucius say]

We have a chance this season which will probably mirror 2017. We are at home, vet team, experienced QB, good on D. Got to find a way to make a few plays when we need it

And Bama is going to play a style that is less conducive to blowing people out. More run first than what they've been recently.

[Todd4State]

And Bama is going to play a style that is less conducive to blowing people out. More run first than what they've been recently.

This should be our best chance to beat them probably since 2017. Yes, they will be a lot different in that they do not have a Hurts, Tua, or Young at QB that can score with anyone and create and make plays.

People talk about our offense failing to score on them- well the defense hasn't exactly been great against them either. If we can contain their run game and their QB doesn't have the game of his life like Will Levis last year then we'll force Saban to hit the red emergency button in Birmingham to force the officials to beat us.

[viverlibre]

This should be our best chance to beat them probably since 2017. Yes, they will be a lot different in that they do not have a Hurts, Tua, or Young at QB that can score with anyone and create and make plays.

People talk about our offense failing to score on them- well the defense hasn't exactly been great against them either. If we can contain their run game and their QB doesn't have the game of his life like Will Levis last year then we'll force Saban to hit the red emergency button in Birmingham to force the officials to beat us.

Let's keep our powder dry and beat them in 2024 propelling us into the 12-team playoff. :cool:

[Reason2succeed]

The game I have circled is LSU. Figure out how to win that game and the whole season opens up to us. We will automatically be in the West Championship race because LSU will have to beat everyone to catch up. We might actually get decent officiating against Bama if we have taken care of SCar.

[Ranchdawg]

The game I have circled is LSU. Figure out how to win that game and the whole season opens up to us. We will automatically be in the West Championship race because LSU will have to beat everyone to catch up. We might actually get decent officiating against Bama if we have taken care of SCar.

Nope not going to happen, no chance, water is wet, rinse and repeat. My 40+ years of watching Bama vs State I can count on one hand the times we didn?t just get screwed by the officials and some really unjustified calls against us. Not just my imagination either.

I forget which Bama coach it was that was heard yelling this ?gosh damit we?ve got Kenny Stabler?s cousin out there officiating the game and we can?t get a call to go our way!?

[R2Dawg]

This should be our best chance to beat them probably since 2017. Yes, they will be a lot different in that they do not have a Hurts, Tua, or Young at QB that can score with anyone and create and make plays.

People talk about our offense failing to score on them- well the defense hasn't exactly been great against them either. If we can contain their run game and their QB doesn't have the game of his life like Will Levis last year then we'll force Saban to hit the red emergency button in Birmingham to force the officials to beat us.

Need to cut the line to Stankey before the game. Even in 18 the officiating was criminal as we lost 0-25. They held and tackled our D all day long. They took away a TD we scored. They were allowed 3 players past line of scrimmage on rush.

Fact is the streak is there because of SEC office controlling game. Since 2007, we could have won 3-4 times against them easy without Hep.

[BlackSailsDawg]

The game I have circled is LSU. Figure out how to win that game and the whole season opens up to us. We will automatically be in the West Championship race because LSU will have to beat everyone to catch up. We might actually get decent officiating against Bama if we have taken care of SCar.

Yeah, it's the legs of the QB that we have to combat

[Reason2succeed]

Nope not going to happen, no chance, water is wet, rinse and repeat. My 40+ years of watching Bama vs State I can count on one hand the times we didn?t just get screwed by the officials and some really unjustified calls against us. Not just my imagination either.

I forget which Bama coach it was that was heard yelling this ?gosh damit we?ve got Kenny Stabler?s cousin out there officiating the game and we can?t get a call to go our way!?

Bama gets calls not just because they are Bama but because the SEC is protecting their best investment. If we win early and show that we are legit team with playoff possibilities we MAY get the calls that usually go against us.

[Johnson85]

The game I have circled is LSU. Figure out how to win that game and the whole season opens up to us. We will automatically be in the West Championship race because LSU will have to beat everyone to catch up. We might actually get decent officiating against Bama if we have taken care of SCar.

I'm assuming LSU is one of the least winnable games on our schedule. I don't care for him, but Brian Kelly is a good coach. As overrated as Notre Dame is every year, it might be even more overrated as far as being a good job where you can win. South Bend sucks and very few athletes of the type needed to compete nationally are concerned about whatever cachet Notre Dame has academically. Hell, BYU might be an easier job to win at. At least they get a lot of 20 year old freshmen to work with.

[Dawgology]

Bama gets calls not just because they are Bama but because the SEC is protecting their best investment. If we win early and show that we are legit team with playoff possibilities we MAY get the calls that usually go against us.

Even then I think Bama would have had to drop a couple before we play them and we would have to be sitting on 1 or less losses. Otherwise, if we are ranked it’s a win that would help them out so…