re: Your predicted record for this season

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To me the improvement of the offensive line is hands down the #1 issue facing this team. Honestly, they don't have to be dominant (although that would be amazing) but if they can be at least decent and a good bit improved from last year, that is HUGE,

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I think if they're functional at running the ball from an efficiency standpoint but Russell or Mack turn out to be top tier passers we will be a top 10 offense.

People think of us as an elite passing team last year but we really werent past the Missouri game because of Ty's injuries and RW failing to develop into what we thought he would be as a threat.

We had zero deep passing game and our intermediate stuff wasnt anywhere close to where it was early particularly once OU figured out a scheme that worked against it and other teams copied them.

So to me it comes down to faith in Keelon Russell and what the scheme can do when it has a true downfield passing element that we really havent seen in Tuscaloosa yet IMO.

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I agree with Diego. I nominate UK or maybe MSU to be the early stinker. Avoid that early clunker and 10-2 gets Bama a playoff spot. I also worry about Lane in Red Stick. He will have such a hard on for Bama you won’t believe it. That game would buy him a lot of credit with fans and boosters of LSU.

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I suspect we are going to struggle on the road especially early in the season because of so many new pieces on offense. You’d like to think Kentucky and Clanga are good training wheels for hostile environments but we have struggled on the road as far back as 2021 and had some outright awful road losses under DeBoer. So I would not overlook them as portents for the season. Getting Aggy and Georgia at home and likely night is huge. They’re probably the two most talented rosters we will see. Unfortunately Vols and LSU on the road is pretty rough.

It’s crazy to me that fans who actually follow the team/roster closely feel that way. The defense alone is worth 9 wins.

KR will be the surprise player of the conference

You guys are focused on the wrong thing. It has nothing to do with the OLine improving and being able to run the ball in a drastically different way.

The root cause of the failure of the offense to live up to what CKD has done in the past is the complete and utter lack of a vertical/downfield passing game.

At UW and Fresno he was #1 in the nation in Dow field passing efficiency and #6 at Indiana. This past season Bama completed 4 passes where the ball traveled 40 yards or more. Against Lanning’s best Oregon defense UW completed 7 such passes in that ONE game alone.

The vertical passing game forces defenses to play 2-high/split safety coverages at all times which leaves a light/+1 box to run the ball against.

The ability to throw the ball with touch and accuracy down the field will determine the success level of the offense. The run game will take care of itself when 6 guys only have to block 5 instead of 6 or 7.

I wanna say 10-2 but I'm gonna go with 9-3 one of the first teams out of the CFP. I think Kirby having finally gotten over the Alabama hump gets us again. I also have a terrible premonition that Marcel Reed has a Johnny Football 2012 type game against Alabama for some reason this year and A&M pulls out a close win. And worst of all I think Lane, trying to prove a point, throws every junk pitch he's got and LSU comes out on top. 2027 is the year though.