Personally, I am pretty optimistic and think that 9 wins is the ceiling. If the young guys on D can step it up, this team has some potential to be a pretty solid team. What do you guys think?
I think that 9 wins is the ceiling...but it would mean stealing one, IMO. 8 seems like a real possibility if the newcomers keep...coming on, so to speak. Of course, these pre-season predictions are fairly useless until we see the other SEC squads come out of their camps.
I see Arkansas, Alabama, South Carolina, and LSU as easily 4 losses. I only see 3 or 4 "sure" wins. It will come down to the team finding some early momentum, imo.
I see 7 wins as the measuring stick for this year. 7-5 no one is complaining. 8-4 or better and Dooley and co. did a hell of a job. 6-6 or worse and we may have some problems.
I dunno about South Carolina. Definitely not a lock for a win, but short of the 2008 season I don't think I'll ever go into that game thinking it's a definite loss. Hell, we probably could have won last year had Bray Day come a bit sooner.
I don't see USCe as a definite loss. They're not very good. Arkansas and Alabama are definite losses imo. LSU is tough to call. If Tennessee can get up by 10 and sit on the lead, ballgame. I think Tennessee has a chance to go 8-4 with Arkansas and Bama blowing out Tennessee, Florida and either LSU or USCe being close losses. Then the bowl game is a toss up.
I teeter back and forth between 7-5 and 8-4, but I think it will be 7 wins. We are going to need to upset either LSU or USCe to get to 8-4 IMO because we are not going to sweep the '50/50 ' games.
I'm saying 8-4 unless the football gods finally look on us with good favor and we win another we're not supposed to. Only two games I have completely written off are Bama and Arkansas. Having UGA, LSU and SC at home is huge.
Bama and Arkansas are guaranteed losses as many have mentioned. I think we go 2-2 with UGA, LSU, USCe and UF. I fear we also lose a gimme win though. Either this is the year Kentucky finally trips us up or we are just totally flat against Cincinnati.
8 wins with a bowl is more plausible for sure. It's funny because I sit here and think, yeah, we're a couple of wins better than last year...then I look at the schedule.....
I feel like 8 wins is the ceiling, as well. Somebody on this team's defense is gonna have to show some serious improvement. That will most likely be a frosh. I want to see DD out-coach somebody. The veil has been lifted.
I don't usually look for freshmen to make big contributions early. If, in the rare instance, it happens for us and Maggitt/Harris/AJ Johnson learn the schemes quickly then our defense immediately becomes twice as good. Mo Couch also looks like if he ever gets in good enough shape to be able to stay on the field for more than 3 plays at a time then he'll be pretty damn good and a big difference maker.
I usually don't either, but Clear is going to have to play a lot, Coleman is looking like a very good option at CB and Maggitt and AJ are better than the other options at LB right now.
We all know football is funny. Hell we should have had 8 wins last season. If we win 8 games I will be elated. But the 4 we lose will still make me crazy angry. The question is Who are the two upsets that we can pull off? Florida? Georgia? LSU? Maybe Bammer. I would take a win over Bammer and 7 wins instead of 8 wins and say a win over Florida and Georgia.
Yeah Florida and Georgia would be the upsets imo, although I think that we could steal one from South Click as well.