yeah i have dropped my expectations dramatically. I don't expect LSU to win anything, i don't expect anything actually. I hope they win em all, i hope they at least win 10. But high expectations have drained the fun.
This is what I have been saying for some time. I don’t expect anything, I can only hope for the best and support how things turn out. It makes the season more fun when you go into every game with the mindset that I hope we play to our best ability, because if we do we should win the game. It makes the ride thru the season a more pleasurable experience. This is not to say that I would sit back and take poor performance without expressing my displeasure and discontent. To me this is a better mindset than those that expect us to be in the SECCG or MNCG every year, because all that ends up happening for those fans when it doesn’t happen is they complain so much they miss the excitement of what turns out to be an ok season in the end. Of course just ok isn’t completely acceptable, but it sure beats the teams we were watching back in the 90’s. As a fan I can only hope that we will continue to play at an elite level, with a few hiccup years every now and then, and remain one of the top programs in the country.
I'd have to believe in the QB situation more to predict 12-0. I picked the 2007 squad 11-1, and they dropped one more game. With a question at QB, no way I predict 12-0 (although it could happen). Saban now has all his recruits at Bama and he's not had a class lower than the top 5. Pretty much the same at Fla. Those will be 2 tough games. Bama will have a Sr. at QB that led them to the nat. championship, no chopped liver. I agree LSU should be improved in many places, even on D where we were very good last year. I think we can have 2 better DE's than last year, and Nevis returns for his Sr. season. Our LB should be at least as good as last year, and the secondary also. We'll be a little lighter without Jones at safety, but maybe faster, and hopefully smarter. JJ will be better at QB, the question is will he be enough better to win the west for us? I don't know, will just have to wait and see. Same for the o-line.
I think even a little bit of improvement would have won us the Alabama and Ole Miss games last year, putting us in Atlanta. Hell, we almost did it anyway. Alabama has recruited very well over the last 4 years, but I don't think they have recruited any better than us. You could argue about the 2009 and 2010 classes, but I think they were a wash. Bama's was clearly better in 08, and ours was clearly better in 07 (which was a Saban class lower than 5th, albeit his first and partial class). I think ultimately though, as you suggest, it all comes down to QB. They have the Sr. QB with a ring. Will we, come this time next year?
I'm going to retract my original statement because if we don't beat Florida being that they lost practically everyone, i will be pissed. other than that, i don't expect us to win anything.
Just because, we as fans, won’t accept us losing to Bama, UF, and Ole Miss again, doesn’t necessarily mean we expect to win those games. We hope we win them, but will not accept losing to them anymore. Not an expectation, just the demands of the fan base. If is fair for our fan base to have those demands, we have a never ending want to be the absolute best, we have the desire to see an improved team on the field from previous down years. Given, as was pointed out earlier, that we barely lost two of these games it would only be the improvements that we want to see that should end up with us winning those very games this season. Anything short of that would show that in these matchups that we hadn’t improved. We, as a fan base, have the right to want to see improvement, and should we not, have the right to voice our displeasure. Although that political correctness aside, I agree with you.
We lost 9 starters on defense, 3 All-American. We lost 3 starters on offense, one All-American. We lost our punter, kicker, and all-American kick returner.We lost a ton of leadership as well. Early Vegas odds has us playing Ohio St. in the NC. Based on all this the days of rebuilding seem to be over. Talk about expectations.
