Do we go winless in conference next year?

Zero chance IMO.

We'll beat Ole Miss and MSU, possibly Mizzou.

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We'll beat Ole Miss and MSU, possibly Mizzou.

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Ehh....I think we will be just as bad if not worse. We're losing pressure on our D-Line and an All-American Center. Which is huge. Anyone that remembers what the O-Line looked like when Swanson went out with an injury in the middle of a game will cringe. Unless our young guys completely transform in the offseason, and someone can take the starting job from Brandon, I see 2 wins as optimistic.

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OM and Aubie may be better.

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MSU won't be a pushover either.

I'm really not too worried about our losses on d-line. Yeah Chris Smith and both DTs are studs and not to mention Flowers if he declares. But whenever Deatrich Wise, Jamichael Winston, Brandon Lewis and Darius Philon were in, there was minimal drop off. Another offseason will make them even better. And we started 2 true freshmen on o-line and they were both good. Pittman seems like he might be the magician we were hoping he was. We're set at TE and we should be better at receiver. We get Hatcher back along with Demetrius Wilson whom we SORELY missed this year and we add Jared Cornelius who looks like a real hidden gem on film.

What I am worried about is our secondary and linebackers which might not be much improved. And obviously QB.

If we go winless next year ill be moving to the camp of bb can't get this done. We need to show improvement.

Anything is possible but I'd expect improvement enough to win a couple. We'll need more than our running game and will need to play 60 minutes of football rather than having a good drive or good defensive stand here and there during the course of a game.

There were some bright spots more toward the end of the year and we really just have to see how things develop in the off season and in Spring practice to get a better indicator. But I do think this team has the potential to win a couple and maybe more.

If the team that played LSU shows up every week we should be able to win a few.

I think it depends entirely on QB play. The rest of our team isn't good enough to make up for having the worst QB play in the West, or SEC even.

Also, none of the young DE's has shown the pass rushing ability that you could see in Flowers or Smith's first years. Maybe they'll get there, but I don't know if any of the ones that played this year will ever replicate what Flowers and Smith can do. Hope they prove me wrong.

I'm actually of the mind that LB is going to improve. Ellis being a sophomore, with a year in the program, after a promising debut should be pretty good. Otha, if he gets his head on right, could be a beast. And even Mitchell seemed to get better as the season progressed.

CB shouldn't be any worse and might actually be okay. But safety is a big-time concern. Have to get better players back there.

Think we'll lose some of our rushing game just because we don't have the badass that is Kiero anymore.


Who are the true freshmen/JUCO's coming in that have a shot at starting or contributing, in you guys' estimation? I don't buy Rafe. If we couldn't play a freshman in the SEC this year, I don't see how you can play a freshman in the SEC next year. Mid-term or not. But if he's special at least we'd have some legs on the field (DuWop - pleeeeease be good). Who else?

Once again it'll all revolve around QB play.

I'm not holding out hope for awhile, pretty much until Storey wins the job or we go get a graduate transfer.

Our schedule is brutal as hell next year again, the OOC plays right against our weaknesses. So there's not much breathing room at all. I'm not at all convinced that Brandon Allen is the answer, he looked great in the spring, but of course so did every damn QB that faced that Defense the last 2 years.

I see the conference opponents like this as of now.

Auburn - [up] Will likely be better, we can just hope they win it and get lazy in the summer.

Texas A&M - [down] Basing this on Sumlin's complacency and JFF & Evans entering the draft. However they've had 2 killer recruiting classes and it appears they can replace both of them with highly regarded youngsters.

Alabama - [down] Saban or No Saban, replacing McCarron is going to be a challenge.

Georgia - [down] Same deal as Bama. Replacing Murray will be an issue for them but they too have talent all over the field that out mans ours.


So yea, first 4 games are against likely Top 15 teams that all were in the Top 10 at some point this season.

Mississippi St. - [up] Their QB play should be much better, Merlins has some talent to capitalize on there. We blew our chance to beat them this year, we go there next year and we've never had an easy time in Starkville.

LSU - [up] When Mettenberger went out my exact words were "This isn't good for us, he's been playing like shite." LSU has talent, Les just hasn't ever really developed a smart, clean playing QB. If they ever do they'll win more titles.

Ole Miss - [up] For Freeze's sake they'd better be better. They'll have a lot of returning playmakers, I'm not sure we'll be able to contain them or outscore them on the offensive side.

Missouri - [down] They'll be losing quite a bit on defense and Franklin at QB. Mauk looked pretty good and DGB came on strong in the second half of the year. Their recruiting class is a bit of a disaster right now considering the just won the East. If this is going to be a rivalry we need to sneak out of Columbia with an upset to set the tone right.


2Beez has to do a whale of a job to get us competitive next year. I don't see it happening because I think the QB play will be a shitshow again. Ole Miss will be our best shot, the most important thing is to actually play the way Bielema said we'll play in his introductory press conference. Not beat ourselves, not commit penalties, not turn the ball over. It seemed like almost every time we did something positive they'd fumble, throw a pick, or have a stupid penalty to make it all for naught.

Just too many questions (that I listed in another thread a few days ago.)

We COULD go winless in conference, I'm not going to dismiss that possibility.

But I'm hoping we improve enough despite the critical losses of Small and Swanson on offense and a few uncertainties on D, to win at least a couple. In my mind, we should hardly ever lose to Ole Miss or Miss State.