9 players made preseason All-SEC by Athlon Sports. 9. Means no excuses.
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9 players made preseason All-SEC by Athlon Sports. 9. Means no excuses.
As I said- this should be an 8-9 win team this Fall
6-6 is the floor, 8-4 the ceiling and 7-5 most likely. If Mike was coming back I'd be more in the 9-win range.
Schedule really sets up nice. South carolina got hot late but started slow and I expect the same this year. A lot of big games at home could be a special year.
9 should be the expectation
Southeastern Louisiana (H) - W
Arizona(H) - W
LSU (H) - Toss
South Carolina (away) - W
Alabama (H) - L until we beat them
Western Michigan (H) - W
Arkansas (A) - Toss Id say a win but toss since its away
Auburn (A) - W
Kentucky (H) -W
Texas A&M (A) - W until Jumbo leaves
Southern Miss (H) - W
Ole Piss (H) - W
You realize we're asking Will and the OL and the WRs to do things they have never done? the OL was trained to pass block, WRs to run to space vs a zone, Will to throw to grass. Hell, we didn't have a TE on the roster 6 months ago. We have all new coaches working together for the first time.
Defense should be good from the start. Special teams should be fine. Team culture I expect to be good. But the offense will have growing pains. LSU and USC are losses unless the offense is much better than it has any right to be in games 3 and 4. Hell, its entirely possible the offense is a train wreck vs Arizona. I still have that as W but crazier things have happened than such a new offense not working at all in game 2 vs a P5 team.
I got us 7-5. Those last 5 SEC games are not wins, they are tossups that lean us. We will loose 2 of them.
Southeastern Louisiana (H) - W
Arizona(H) - W
LSU (H) - L
South Carolina (away) - Thinking this is a straight up win is silly. We have never played well there and they drummed Tennessee and beat Clemson last year at home. L
Alabama (H) - L
Western Michigan (H) - W
Arkansas (A) - Agree on the toss. Tough place to play but Pittman is floundering. He's either gonna sink or swim this year. KJ being back won't be a picnic. 50/50
Auburn (A) - They will without a doubt be better under Freeze and it will happen fast. L
Kentucky (H) -Most pivotal game of the season. Have to win this one at home. W
Texas A&M (A) - We have owned them as of late, and it won't last forever. They have players. L
Southern Miss (H) - W
Ole Piss (H) - Playing the rival at home to go to a bowl. 50/50
Having your hardest two games at home (which are near automatic losses) isn't as great as it sounds. I rather play those two on the road and have Ark and the Barn at home.
9 players and 10 spots - Tulu was 1st team KR and 4th team WR. I think only Bama, UGa, LSU and USC had more spots filled.
Bo Bounds and Matrix Man dumped a bucket of cold water on our season this morning. They think 6-6 is the most likely outcome. Going 8-4 would be HUGE and prove Arnett is going to be a good one.
Draftkings has us at 6.5 - I would take that over
If we can run the ball we will win 8-10. If we cannot we will be 6-7. That simple. I would like to say there is no excuses but there is no program in the country that has been thru more than ours and we still have won. They will keep proving you wrong as long as we keep the most important parts of Leach?s program and it?s by far not the offense.
8-4 is the benchmark. LSU at home in week 3 is the early barometer. We win that I can easily see 9-3. Lose it and I can see 6 or 7.
Southeastern Louisiana (H) - W
Arizona(H) - W
LSU (H) - L - this is not in BR and so it is a toss. history says I'm right
South Carolina (away) - I said in original post they got hot at the end after starting slow at worse this is a toss
Alabama (H) - L
Western Michigan (H) - W
Arkansas (A) - Agree on the toss. Tough place to play but Pittman is floundering. He's either gonna sink or swim this year. KJ being back won't be a picnic. 50/50
Auburn (A) - Agree they will be better but there team is going to put ALOT of emotion into the Ole Piss, Bama and UGA game. Freeze will put 150% into Auburn's rivals and not as much into MSU week. even if Auburn has the better record frequently under Freezus I think we will be no worse than 500 against them while he is there
Kentucky (H) -Most pivotal game of the season. Have to win this one at home. W
Texas A&M (A) - Yes we have owned them as of late so I can't understand why you insists this is a loss. At worse a toss L
Southern Miss (H) - W
Ole Piss (H) - Until there coach puts more emphasis on building a team not through the portal they will be gassed by the time they play us I feel very confident this will be a win
You could talk me into a few of my original Ws being tosses, but splitting those should still have us expecting an above average and potentially great year
1) big assumption to assume USC will lstart slow just cause they did last year... but also assuming our new offense will be able to move the ball on the road week 4. It's a toss for me.
2) Kentucky has proven to be a 50/50 game for 7-8 seasons now. Just cause we NEED the win doesn't mean you get to call it a W.
3) OM is the definition of 50/50. Doesn't matter record, momentum, or talent. Either team can win it.
There is only one game on our schedule that is a sure loss and that is Bama at home - and to be honest, I'm not ready to call that one yet. We will have an advantage at QB and I think our front seven could be extremely salty with all the seniors we have on the team.
I pop over there in the morning to see what the topic is or who the guest happens to be. If he's going on and on about his travels, bourbon, cigars, business acumen or anything like that, I change it to something else.
But he absolutely loves him some Freezus. Thinks he's the Saban Killer and will eventually dominate SEC football. He actually said Freeze will be the reason Saban retires in the next few years.
A WR (or even better two) that can consistently get open in one on one coverage, and a QB that can hit him, opens up everything. "New" offense, coaches, whatever, that all takes backseat to whether someone has the ability to get open and make the catch.
Defense is the opposite. If you have a single weakness, it will be exploited in this conference. A team has a much higher ceiling if the D is all around good.
Exactly.
We are going back to an offense that most of these guys played a version of in high school. The weight is off Will's shoulders to consistently find the open receiver. Will is a very accurate passer. If we have a solid run game forcing defenses to go more man coverage Will can pick off a thin backside. If the defense plays above average while the offense is just average we can reach 8-4.
My only concern about the transition for Will is that he will play in a more traditional pocket and won't have quick almost 1-2 second reads. I thought Will got in trouble when he had to sit in the pocket for 4-6 seconds to find a WR. Now that is not unique to Willi, but his lack of mobility could be a problem at times.
Southeastern Louisiana (H) - W
Arizona(H) - W
LSU (H) - L
South Carolina (away) - L
Alabama (H) - L
Western Michigan (H) - W
Arkansas (A) - W
Auburn (A) - L
Kentucky (H) -W
Texas A&M (A) - L
Southern Miss (H) - W
Ole Miss (H) - L
Unfortunately, I think we're staring down a 6-6 season. Could flip to a few more wins if we can beat a few of the toss ups.
Jimbo always has a chance to beat himself, but I think they win this year against us.
Absolute ceiling is 8 wins. Floor is 5 IMO.
I think LSU will be the 2nd best team we play and by season's end they may be the best. They are loaded on the DL, have great WR and I think one of the top QB's in the conference. That game will be tough. I wish we had them later in the year so our offense had time to gel.
A running game will help that out. Defenses knew we were not going to try and run it on them every other down. Defenses also started doing a lot of delayed LB blitzes on Will too. Will isn't going to see a lot of heavy zone now either. I really believe the problem with Will was just the Air Raid offense in general. Leach was putting a lot on his shoulders.