You know it's almost college football season when FSN and the Big 12 get together for their extremely amateurish, poorly produced pre-season event......

....so let's hear it. Your season predictions please.


* I assuming this is not a make-or-break year for Sherman, barring a total meltdown. It would probably be a good idea though, if he could refrain from anymore humiliating WTF-type losses like KSU last year. Who am i kidding, as long as the McKinney family doesn't suffer a plane crash high in the Andes and have to resort to eating each other, Sherm will be The Man.

* How the fuck though, does a coach going into his third year, a coach who's specialty is supposed to be the offensive line, go into a season counting on two and possibly three freshmen on the offensive line? Isn't this about Year Three of this deal with the O-line being a question mark?

* I'm afraid everyone is falling into a familiar trap; getting excited about our skill guys and ignoring very real issues elsewhere. besides the offensive line, we've got a new defensive staff, new defense and all the adjustments that go with it. DeRuyter has a rep for turnarounds, this had better be a quick one.

* The lack of off-season talk from any of our coaches about special teams scares the piss outta me.

* The November schedule is an absolute bitch; there's a damn good chance we could face three Top 10 teams in four weeks.

* IMHO, we have three games that will make or break the season; OSU, Arkie and Tech. We need to win two of those.

That said;




SFA (win) -- good test for the D early, the Lumberjacks were one of the top passing teams in the country last year.

LOUISIANA TECH (win) - these guys always worry me, don't know why. I'm never happy to see them on the schedule.

FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL (win) - two things scare me. first the name "Florida" and the other is "International". I have visions of some linebacker named Achmed running into our huddle and blowing hisself up.

OKIE STATE (win) - I guess. I don't like this one at all. Road game on a Thursday night against a rebuilding team. KSU was rebuilding last year too. Didn't work out for us.

ARKIE (loss) - we got manhandled by the Pigs Dline last year and we're gonna have two or three fish on the Oline? Jesus wept.

MISSOURI (win) - I'm assuming we aren't coming off back-to-back losses to OSU and UA. If we are, this one could be tough. And if we lose, the wolves will start howling.

KANSAS (win) - I think UK maxed out with Mangino. Back to sub .500 football with you, Jayhawks.

TECH (win) - I think the tech dragon in our heads got slain last year. Tech got a steal with Tubs as their coach, but I think the Ags find a way to win at home.

OKLAHOMA (loss) - If Sherm wants to make a statement to recruits that the Ags have turned the corner, he's gonna have to beat OU. There's no one else (even Texas) whom he could beat that would deliver that message better. IF, the O-line and defense have started to jell at this point, they could maybe pull it off. We'll see.

BAYLOR (loss) - Classic trap game. The Ags will either be licking their wounds after another OU beatdown or basking in the glow of an upset. And the Beggin' Bears have this one circled.

NEBRASKA (win) - Corn is either rolling at this point or have been exposed as frauds. I think the Ags will be jacked for this one.

TEXAS (loss) - a good game, a close game.

8-4. And for God's sake, win the bowl game for a change.

Just some of my thoughts in Spark Notes form:

1. I will be happy with 9-3, I expect 8-4.

2. OU, Neb, and Arkie will be the most important games of the season, in that order. OU and Neb at home are two of the most important games we have played in years when it comes to turning this program around. We HAVE to win at leat one of those games at home. Absolutely have to. If we don't, we're just taking care of business with teams that we should, and getting blown out by teams that we eventually want to compete for conference titles with. That's not improvement. That's just the same shit, different year.

3. It's time for the blowouts to stop. We've had at least one tremendously embarrassing blowout each season for the past fucking decade, and more than one for most of those seasons. We are going to lose some games this year, and that's fine. What's not fine is losing by 30 or 40 points. People can still respectt a team that goes up against a big boy and plays them tough. However, people won't (and shouldn't) take us seriously as a legit contender if we go out and lose to someone by 40 points. The blowouts have to stop, and they have to stop now. This means not letting one fucking mistake that happens in the first quarter ruin the rest of the game for us. I can't count how many times we couldn't recover from one mistake.

4. We don't have a popscicles chance in hell at contending for the Big 12 if we field a special teams unit like last year's. Special Teams flat out cost us our bowl game last year, and cut out our chances of staying in other games. We can't let special teams lost any more games for us. Especially with things that are supposed to be basic fundamentals of the game.

5. Same thing as above, except, insert "defense" for special teams. I don't know how the hell DeRuyter, Nguyen, and Co. plan to turn around our defense enough in one year to actually make a difference, but they have to if we want any shot at competing for a conference title. Our defense has been in the 100-110 range the last two seasons. If we want to be honest when talking about competing for a BIg 12 title, we need a defense in the 40's or 50's; and that's assuming our offense stays as productive as it has been. It doesn't seem like a realistic goal for a new staff to complete in one year, and I don't expect it to happen, but that's the only way we have any kind of shot at the Big 12.

6. STOP LOSING BY SHOOTING OURSELVES IN THE FUCKING FOOT. We beat Arkansas in almost EVERY SINGLE STATICTICAL CATEGORY last year (including turnovers), and still lost by 30 points. That's some serious self-destruction. And Arkie is just one of many games you can point to where our stats don't even come close to matching the scoreboard. Good teams don't beat themselves with stupid mistakes. It's that simple. And you can bet we won't be a good team until we stop beating ourselves.

After not keeping up with the 'goings on' in CFB AT ALL, here you go.

9-3

SFA (win)
LOUISIANA TECH (win)
FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL (win)
OKIE STATE (win) - they weren't very good last year, and will most likely be worse this year.
ARKIE (loss) - but not as bad as last year.
MISSOURI (win)
KANSAS (win)
TECH (win)
OKLAHOMA (loss/win) - home game, win. road game, loss. not sure which it is.
BAYLOR (win)
NEBRASKA (loss) - I don't think you get to 10 wins, so I have to count this one as a loss.
TEXAS (loss/win) - home game, win. road game, loss. not sure which it is.

Winning that Arkansas game handilly would be a huge step forward for Sherm and would probably put you in a real nice bowl game.

I have no idea about how Tech will be, but if you can beat Arkansas.....;I think you lose two games next year.

If you lose to Arkansas you could lose 4 or 5. (probably 4)

I'll be happy with 7 wins.

I don't care against who. I'm waiting to get into football once it actually starts, see how we fare up til the Arkansas game and go from there. I may call it quits if Arkansas butt fucks us again.

Anything above 7 wins would make me happy, as pathetic as that sounds. Haven't read the football board or M&W board in about a month. I stopped once I read the first post claiming 10 wins was possible.

Moe was correct when he mentioned our young o-line and new defensive staff. Everybody seems focused on JJ, Von and the offensive skill players while forgetting/ignoring everything else.

I'm not sure 7 wins means we've showed much progress at all, depends who we beat of course. The home schedule breaks right for us this year, our toughest roadie is in Austin. I think 8 wins minimum will be needed to prove any progress.

I'm pissed with only 7 wins. We only get to 7 this year, I think Sherman has to go.

Fuck that shit

We couldn't let him go if we wanted to.

You can thank $ill for that.

Kinda hope we're gonna hear from our resident texas, tech and ou folks about their teams as well.







no one gives a fuck about ohio state though

I'm not saying 7 wins will be improvement, I'm just setting my personal expectations low. I'm tired of getting kicked in the junk watching this team getting BLOWN OUT multiple times per season. I don't have any reason to believe we are capable of 8-9 wins just yet.

texas tshirt opinion:

Rice (W): Easy win. Good tune-up for GG

Wyoming (W): I don't think Mack or Muschamp will overlook this team again. Last year was embarrassing.

Tech (W): WAY too many new parts. Tubs might be a good thing for Tech, but year one will be ugly.

UCLA (W): New quarterback, lots of players coming back that should have played last year and didn't. Solid win at home.

Oklahoma (L): This game could be uglier than the UT/NEB BIG XII title game last year. Two great defenses against two suspect offenses.

Nebraska (W): Let me be one of the few people to call out Nebraska for what they are. Pretenders. They will have a strong D, but a joke of an offense. Top five my ass.

Iowa State (W): I don't know much about this team, but that Arnaut (sp) guy didn't look too bad for them.

Baylor (W): Can't wait to see Griffin in action. Hope his knee stays healthy.

K-State (W): Let's hope they don't still have Texas' number. Fuck K-State.

Oklahoma State (W): Rebuilding that offense is going to suck for them.

Florida Atlantic (W): ??? If you can convince me to be worried, you win.

Texas A&M (w): If this game was at Kyle again, A&M wins this game outright. At DKR, I'm going with the lowercase w because I'm scared for GG in this game.




FUCK I CAN'T WAIT FOR COLLEGE FOOTBALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I couldn't tell you much about Tech this year. I promise you, every other person reading this board knows more about what is going on at Tech regarding football. I'd say that 6-6 and some .com bowl would be a relative success.

11-1, Kat? That's BSC Championship material right there.

not this year.

this year will be the SEC champ or Ohio State vs. Boise St. for the MNC.

I think Texas will go 11-1 as well, losing either to OU or Nebraska but not both.

Back to Pasedena to play Ohio State if someone comes out of the SEC with one loss to play for the MNC v. Boise.

I believe that because I believe this will be the best defense we have seen at Texas since the '84 team.....and that will allow Gilbert to mature and not fuck off a football game while he does it.

He should be pretty well developed by the second half of the season....the OU game should rattle him, but last year in Pasedena should have settled his nerves some in preparation for that.

I see it ending a whole lot like 2008 did. - some tie break bullshit for the conference title...maybe we will whine enough to get into the game this time.

i'm calling 11-1 because nebraska is a joke, and the big 12-2 is down in a bad way. this is not a slight at a&m. y'all will be scary soon enough. but returning everyone on a shitty defense does not make them magically better. sorry ags, but not this year. soon, though.

also, i'm not calling a natty champ appearance because of how shitty the big 12-2 is. i don't think any sensible horn/t-shirts could complain about being left out if there are more than one undefeated teams. 11-1 in the big 12-2 is like being 10-2 in the SEC, and even then, i would give the nod to the SEC.

11-1 is not that crazy. 9-3 wouldn't be crazy either. disappointing, yes, but not that crazy.

assuming texas DOES go 11-1 and wins the big 12 but doesn't get into the title game, wouldn't that mean the chips and salsa bowl?

yeah, that might be right.

I guess none of this off season noise did anything to affect bowl game alignments...there is some kind of Fiesta/Big12 tie in...I think.

Then it rotates as to who picks first.

Something.l

Damn we were sooooo close to not having to fuck with this anymore.

Likely Overrated = Joke?

overrated to the 13th power = joke

i've told you this. i think they are going to suck. their defense will take a step back, although they will still have a better D than most, but their offense is the equivalent of a&m's defense this year. it was pitiful last year, and just because they are returning people doesn't mean they will magically not suck.

When you say they will suck, do you mean compared to their preseason ranking, or just suck period? If it's the former, we agree.

But I do still think they are a good team and will most likely finished ranked. I would never call a ranked team or one that is close "a joke".

Throw us out a prediction for the corn then. Here's their schedule:

Sat, Sept 4 vsWestern Kentucky 7:00 PM ET Tickets
Sat, Sept 11 vsIdaho 12:30 PM ET Tickets
Sat, Sept 18 @Washington 3:30 PM ET Tickets
Sat, Sept 25 vsSouth Dakota State TBD Tickets
Thu, Oct 7 @Kansas State 7:30 PM ET Tickets
Sat, Oct 16 vsTexas TBD Tickets
Sat, Oct 23 @Oklahoma State TBD Tickets
Sat, Oct 30 vsMissouri TBD Tickets
Sat, Nov 6 @Iowa State TBD Tickets
Sat, Nov 13 vsKansas TBD Tickets
Sat, Nov 20 @Texas A&M TBD Tickets
Fri, Nov 26 vsColorado 3:30 PM ET Tickets

I'm saying 10-2

Sat, Sept 4 vsWestern Kentucky -W-
Sat, Sept 11 vsIdaho -W-
Sat, Sept 18 @Washington -L-
Sat, Sept 25 vsSouth Dakota State -W-
Thu, Oct 7 @Kansas State -W-
Sat, Oct 16 vsTexas -L-
Sat, Oct 23 @Oklahoma State -W-
Sat, Oct 30 vsMissouri -L-
Sat, Nov 6 @Iowa State -W-
Sat, Nov 13 vsKansas -W-
Sat, Nov 20 @Texas A&M -L-
Fri, Nov 26 vsColorado -W-


I'm calling 8-4.

With a schedule that pathetic, and a team that is preseason top 10, overrated doesn't do NU justice.

I'm not sold on ut's defense resembling the '85 Chicago Bears. I'm not sold on Muschamp being a DC without equal either.

I think their d has been better than it seems because their offense has been able to jump on people early, and the other team's offense becomes predictable. They've been torched by several high octane offenses since he's been there, yet their offense kept them in those games. I don't think they're going to have that luxury this year. I think their defense is going to be very good, I just don't think it's going to be good enough to win games by themselves when they're faced with a formidable offense. When I watch their defense play, they seem a little vanilla, relying on their Jimmys and Joes rather than X's and O's, which happens to work for them, usually.

I think their offense is going to be a work in progress, especially if they're dedicated to going to a more balanced attack. They don't have a RB that I'm impressed with. They need play makers to emerge at WR. I think they drop 3 games, OU, NU, and Texas A&M.

I would concede OU and A&M long before Nebraska.

Where is Nebraska going to find an offense between now and October? Theirs is complete shit.

They're not. I'm expecting them to win 10-7 or something like that, scoring a defensive TD.

vs. SMU Lubbock
at New Mexico Albuquerque
vs. Texas Lubbock
at Iowa State Ames
vs. Baylor Dallas
vs. Oklahoma State Lubbock
at Colorado Boulder
at Texas A&M College Station
vs. Missouri Lubbock
at Oklahoma Norman
vs. Weber State Lubbock
vs. Houston Lubbock

I gotta say I'm pretty concerned about Tech's chances this year. We have players built around a specific offense for a head coach that focused 100% on that offense. Now we have a head coach that is focused on defense, and couldn't care less about Leach's offense, so the players and the scheme are a complete mismatch. If Leach had recruited a few decent defensive guys, I'd be a bit less concerned, but we all know where is priorities were. I'm glad we have the coach we've got, but he is no miracle worker. I hope he sticks around for a few years.

By the looks of things, there are 4 sure wins (SMU - decent game though, UNM, ISU, Weber State???) and 3 sure losses (UT, OU, AM).

Of the remaining 5:

Baylor - not sure about this one. it's been getting closer and closer each season, they're better, we're worse
CU - horrible team, but we suck (at least w/leach) in CO
Missouri - i know they have a decent QB, but nothing else about the team
OSU - I think they'll be hurting this year, they lost too much from last season, and even then, they weren't that great. i'll call this a win
Houston - sort of same situation with Baylor, not sure about this. last year should have been an easy W, but we had an idiot calling plays and f'ing up the game plan.

So, out of that group, I think we squeeze out 3 more wins for a 7-5 season and a crappy bowl.

Overall, I think the big 12 South is wide open this year. I imagine the champ will be 6-2 as opposed to the 8-0 or 7-1 that is standard. UT will be very good on D, but suspect on O. OU lost some horses from last year, but still have their normal studs and Stoops. Losing Bradford last season helped them tremendously for this season in getting Landry tons of playing time. A&M will be very good again on O, but suspect, albeit improved, on D. Baylor should be better and OSU should be worse.

BULLSHIT. YOU TAKE THAT DOWN, RIGHT NOW!!! OUR OFFENSIVE TRANSITION WILL BE FREAKING SEAMLESS!!!![/Doc Marmalard]

People that don't think the O is going to change are just naive and holding onto memories of Leach. I, for one, don't really care. Recruit well, win games...that's all I care about. I don't care if we win 13-7 or 49-42, just win. I loved Leach, but if 3 fuck off and a cloud of dust wins games, I have no issue with that.

I'll have to wait until the week of thanksgiving to make any predictions.[/missy]

Also, going back to this point. You can thank fucking Fran for signing a grand total of 3 fucking o linemen in 2 years. Those 3 were not that good either.

Why not sign two or three JC guys while you work the fish into the lineup?

Which JCs? I think everyone thinks Juco guys will be a miracle cure but there's a reason those fuckers are in Juco in the first place!

it is amazing how our "all-american" juco corner can't even win a starting position.

on the other hand, i'm hopeful that mathis will do well on the line.

As RK and Bohunk stated, JUCOs usually at best are band aids, and a lot of time don't pan out to begin with. If you're coming from a JUCO, the chances are that you're not very bright and thus would have trouble figuring out which guy you're supposed to block in any given formation.

No predictions. Just praise be to God. This has been the LONGest summer with the slow recruiting we've been having.

You're damn right...I am so ready for the season to start.

A Greg Davis offense with no real threat at TE AGAIN should make this more interesting than I thought.

Jesus fucking Christ....let all TE's practice by themselves in rubber rooms from now on.

Hey, 3yds, what's your thoughts on going to the pro-style offense? Do you think that without a proven RB and with a QB that's got Gilbert's arm strength that it's really the right thing to do?

We went thru the same thing a few years back; lost four tight-ends in a season, I think. Had to use a lineman or linebacker in some situations.

Gilbert has had a ton of success not taking the snap under center.

Moving him under center, inserting a full back and dragging a TE were supposed to be instrumental in all of this....along with a ton of play action off of it.

This loss of yet another TE in this system can not be understated.

We can NOT run block out of that zone read shit that takes and alien to run....the running backs are not given a fair chance at hitting a hole, or bouncing to the outside when they are given the ball at a stand still.

I thought we might be recruiting that huge TE from Washington, but he decided to stay home....we have a real weakness this year and forcing defenses out of their "50" defense is obviously not going to happen until we prove that you all need line backers on the field to stop Texas' anemic running game.

Going to the TE has always been Greg Davis' happy place, and he hasn't been able to do that in a few years.

If we don't get running down hill, no one will respect the play action and all bets are off.

Unfucking believable that we can't keep a warm body at the TE position.

Didn't GG play under Chad Morris at Lake Travis? I thought he ran some 2 back, under center stuff there. Could be wrong though. I thought some of our 2 back sets were adopted from Morris.

never took a snap under center at Lake Travis nor in his back up role at Texas until last Jan.

Our defense is going to have to win some games for us this year....flat out.

Thomas Carriger...the Hog Hunter! It happened in '01 under RC when we moved Carriger over to TE. I think it might've happened in 2002 as well.

Texas won't lose 3 games this year, I would be willing to put money on it as well.

You should probably sacrifice a lamb

special teams are the biggest thing no one is talking about. they absolutely killed us last year.

And they won't be much better this year. At least on the punting side.