BOL Round Table

Like others have said, this is a HUGE stretch.

They're still gonna win at least 10 games with Manziel @ QB.

W - RICE
W - SAM HOUSTON STATE
?? - ALABAMA
W - SMU
W - at Arkansas
W - at Mississippi
W - AUBURN
W - VANDERBILT
W - UTEP
W - MISSISSIPPI STATE
?? - at Louisiana State
W - at Missouri

Ole Miss had them beat last year but choked the game away in the fourth quarter.

I only care about Bama-TAMU.

Obviously, the jewel in the Aggies crown now is having beaten Bama last season. Without that, JM wouldn't have won the Heisman and everybody would be talking about how they had a "Good" season last year.

There were 3 reasons why we lost last year. We were exhausted from the LSU game the previous week. They were better than we expected. We only had a week to prepare for JM.

I think playing them early in the season should minimize our injury/fatigue issues. Certainly the open date before we play them should help a lot in being ready for JM. With the personnel losses they've had, they shouldn't have quite as good of a team overall as they had last year.

The real question in my mind is how good will WE be? Will we be able to reload in the O-line? Will the defense come together? I eagerly await the A-day game to see what our team is going to look like in 2013.

Their schedule is almost embarrassingly easy except for our game. What I think is that they take a huge step back in talent next year (similar to the losses AU had in 2010 but return their QB), but these are partially masked with the schedule. You have them possibly losing two out of the three I picked.

Despite how down the rest of the west will be, I feel pretty good about them dropping one more game with them going TO Fayetteville, TO Oxford, and then Auburn and State at home. They just don't have the talent on that team YET to reload like that.

You mean like drinking champagne, waving around money, and trademarking his nickname?

I agree 100%

Ole miss repea was to make 14 teams work.

Few things to note:
-Both myself and the OP are arguing that theyre "just" an 8 or 9 win team, not that they will be awful. The OP said as much in his first post.
-No one is arguing that the offense will be bad. we're just arguing it might be slightly worse or about the same.
-This is important because we ARE arguing that the defense will be much worse. The offense can improve and they still be a notably worse team.
-Intangibles and whatnot may or not be there, but the idea was to examine their team focusing on tangible changes.

Fair points. I happen to believe they will win 10 games again. I don't think they will be as good b/c I think they lose too much on D. However, their schedule is much easier and I think they lose to Bama and one other team. That's it.

The OP also said they had glaring weaknesses at every other spot but qb. I ask... what glaring weaknesses? They return 3 starters on the OL and lost one first round pick at LT and one center that isn't going to be drafted. They return a first rounder at LT and 2 soph guards that are very highly thought of in regards to pro potential. They return 3 of their top 4 pass catchers and 3 of their dtop 5 receiving yardage wrs. 2 of those 3 were freshman last year. They should be much improved.

Defense is going to be the question and I htink they drop off. But, they didn't beat anyone with D last year so....

The one question I have is whether they become complacent and how much an extra year of preparation will affect them? That is something we do not know and IMO that is what will make them end up with an 8-4 record like the OP said when comparing this to AU. They didn't lose near the experience or talent as Au did. Not even close. But they may become more complacent. Time will tell.