ESPN+ College Football SP+ preseason projections

[Mcbowen327 63]

Auburn 25

Not sure if am allowed to post the full SEC rankings. Notable was Tenn 9. Moo State 12. LSU 45.

Just wanted to see how others feel about this. I was expecting mid 40's at best. What am I missing??

[aucom96 1,658]

I think they may have confused us and LSU. 

[JDUBB4AU 5,305]

It can happen with an incredible plan. Expectations are lower than they have ever been

[WDE_OxPx_2010 5,477]

Too many people act like we weren't approximately 5 plays away from being 9-4. Texas A&M and Georgia are really the only 2 that we were pretty far from competing with and you have to figure we'd lose 2 others that we lost. It's not crazy to expect that we'll bounce back. 

[Mcbowen327 63]

Just now, WDE_OxPx_2010 said:

Too many people act like we weren't approximately 5 plays away from being 9-4. Texas A&M and Georgia are really the only 2 that we were pretty far from competing with and you have to figure we'd lose 2 others that we lost. It's not crazy to expect that we'll bounce back. 

I don't disagree. And maybe when some new faces begin to stand out in practice reports it will be different, but I can't convince myself were gonna be as good as we were last year

[GoAU 1,696]

Here’s to hoping.  
 

At this point pessimism just isn’t any fun…..

[Win4AU 4,201]

Low expectations = good things

high expectations = bad things

I look at next year and see only 2 sure Ls and 3-5 toss ups.  Tennessee at 9 is pretty insane.  You never know about Miss State.  Some D coordinators can’t figure out Leach and some have no problem.

[NWALA Tiger 3,695]

40 minutes ago, WDE_OxPx_2010 said:

Too many people act like we weren't approximately 5 plays away from being 9-4. Texas A&M and Georgia are really the only 2 that we were pretty far from competing with and you have to figure we'd lose 2 others that we lost. It's not crazy to expect that we'll bounce back. 

We were competing with a&m till nix scored a td for the aggies 

[NWALA Tiger 3,695]

2 hours ago, Mcbowen327 said:

Auburn 25

Not sure if am allowed to post the full SEC rankings. Notable was Tenn 9. Moo State 12. LSU 45.

Just wanted to see how others feel about this. I was expecting mid 40's at best. What am I missing??

Gonna be some posters on here who don't like this.. It won't fit their narrative.I won't name names. We all know the guilty parties😆

[aucom96 1,658]

44 minutes ago, WDE_OxPx_2010 said:

Too many people act like we weren't approximately 5 plays away from being 9-4. Texas A&M and Georgia are really the only 2 that we were pretty far from competing with and you have to figure we'd lose 2 others that we lost. It's not crazy to expect that we'll bounce back. 

We won't have Nix, who accounted for nearly half of our offense this past year, presumably replacing him with a QB who had less impressive numbers behind a better offensive line. We've lost our best defensive playmakers, are painfully thin at wide receiver, have yet to develop any sort of pass rush and will be facing a tougher schedule overall. We really didn't add much of anything to last year's team as of yet and may have lost a bit, give or take what we can do in the portal.

Looking at the schedule I can only see 4 wins I'm mostly confident in, 2 very likely losses and 6 toss-ups...2 of those on the road. Split the toss-ups and win the gimme's and we're at 7 wins and Harsin should win coach of the year. I still am not sure that would be good enough for top 25, but it could happen I guess. 

[Mikey 16,781]

10 hours ago, NWALA Tiger said:

Gonna be some posters on here who don't like this.. It won't fit their narrative.I won't name names. We all know the guilty parties😆

Guilty of what? Realism? You end the season on a five game losing streak. Then, between normal graduation, kids moving on from football and the transfer portal disaster most of your major contributors bail out.  The recruiting is 9th in the conference. Transfer portal rating is 29th in the nation. Equivalent replacements haven't been brought in to replace all the losses. Top that off with disarray in the coaching staff.

Harsin should probably get Coach of the Year if he wins the three gimme games plus two more for a 5-7 record.

[NWALA Tiger 3,695]

6 hours ago, Mikey said:

Guilty of what? Realism? You end the season on a five game losing streak. Then, between normal graduation, kids moving on from football and the transfer portal disaster most of your major contributors bail out.  The recruiting is 9th in the conference. Transfer portal rating is 29th in the nation. Equivalent replacements haven't been brought in to replace all the losses. Top that off with disarray in the coaching staff.

Harsin should probably get Coach of the Year if he wins the three gimme games plus two more for a 5-7 record.

Ahhh, the first taker... I wondered who it would be

[AUGoo 2,703]

8 minutes ago, NWALA Tiger said:

Ahhh, the first taker... I wondered who it would be

[NWALA Tiger 3,695]

7 minutes ago, AUGoo said:

They will really start biting after the sun comes up

[Mikey 16,781]

1 hour ago, NWALA Tiger said:

Ahhh, the first taker... I wondered who it would be

Now you have your answer.

[AUinMS9528 1,086]

21 hours ago, Mcbowen327 said:

 

Auburn 25

Not sure if am allowed to post the full SEC rankings. Notable was Tenn 9. Moo State 12. LSU 45.

 

All of these rankings are a little surprising to me!   Preface this with I haven’t paid attention to CF much lately.  So my opinions are admittedly worthless.   
UT seems way too high!  Not sure what is happening in Knoxville to merit #9 preseason.   
MSU seems a little high.   I like Will Rogers, but last I heard they’re desperate for WRs which is huge in their O.  Also, I was thinking defense was losing a lot of talent.  MSU doesn’t recruit well enough to play with the big dogs unless they have a special kind of magic happening.     
I think AU seems high.  The off-season following a 6-7 season has been a serious gut punch.   We could rebound, and I certainly hope we do, but I would say the chances of a disastrous season are higher atm.   
And that seems a little low for LSU.  Just raw talent alone should have them in the 30s.   🤷‍♂️

[McLoofus 35,182]

Quote

I will update these numbers in August

Maybe the most important sentence in the article. Definitely the only one I'm putting any stock in. 

[NWALA Tiger 3,695]

19 minutes ago, Mikey said:

Now you have your answer.

I didn't realize the same fish would bite twice on the same day.

[Mikey 16,781]

5 minutes ago, NWALA Tiger said:

I didn't realize the same fish would bite twice on the same day.

Ridiculous posts tend to get a response. Yours were ridiculous so,,,,,,

[Mims44 2,027]

19 hours ago, NWALA Tiger said:

Gonna be some posters on here who don't like this.. It won't fit their narrative.I won't name names. We all know the guilty parties😆

The rank is surprising, going 6-7 and not having a big splash in new comers, you wouldn't expect to start ranked.

That being said, I don't follow other teams much, maybe a number of teams that finished ahead of Auburn last season had much worse off seasons that AU did?

8 hours ago, Mikey said:

Guilty of what? Realism? You end the season on a five game losing streak. Then, between normal graduation, kids moving on from football and the transfer portal disaster most of your major contributors bail out.  The recruiting is 9th in the conference. Transfer portal rating is 29th in the nation. Equivalent replacements haven't been brought in to replace all the losses. Top that off with disarray in the coaching staff.

Harsin should probably get Coach of the Year if he wins the three gimme games plus two more for a 5-7 record.

Doubtful it's gonna be that bad. You lower the bar too much Mikey and people gonna be on here saying 'I told you so' after a 6-6 season  

[NWALA Tiger 3,695]

11 minutes ago, Mikey said:

Ridiculous posts tend to get a response. Yours were ridiculous so,,,,,,

Still kinda new here. Haven't read many of your posts.. But I'm gonna hazard a guess and say u are/were a Malzahn man. BTW. My original post wasn't ridiculous.  There are some on here who's hate for Harsin far outweighs their hope for LONG TERM success for AU.It really don't matter who the coach is to them, it could be Harsin or someone else. They are so blinded by their Gus love,  they want nothing positive to come out of AU or whoever the coach is.

Edited February 21, 2022 by NWALA Tiger

[NWALA Tiger 3,695]

9 minutes ago, NWALA Tiger said:

Still kinda new here. Haven't read many of your posts.. But I'm gonna hazard a guess and say u are/were a Malzahn man. BTW. My original post wasn't ridiculous.  There are some on here who's hate for Harsin far outweighs their hope for LONG TERM success for AU.It really don't matter who the coach is to them, it could be Harsin or someone else. They are so blinded by their Gus love,  they want nothing positive to come out of AU or whoever the coach is. I will have to research some of your posts to see if u fall into this category. 

 

[woodford 3,751]

If they win more than 5 games I would be over the moon. If we had an OL we could compete for the West for at least a year. Have no faith in the coming years because recruiting will be dreadful (unless something drastic happens). 

[W.E.D 11,071]

On one hand if we had Bo we probably win 3 more games.

On another hand we still lost 5 straight and constantly blew 2nd half and 4th quarter leads & nearly lost to Ga State

On another hand it seems like most around us are getting better wrt the portal and we haven't done much outside ensuring QB spot is probably around a push.

On another hand maybe 2nd year in the system will help a lot of people and the team be better as a whole.

On another hand, we've lost so many ppl & need so many impact players from the portal...will we have many going into their 2nd year?

I could see us being really bad.  4-8/5-7 types season.  I could also see us winning every game outside UGA/Bama/Aggies.  There isn't that much separating between us and the other 8 p5 teams on our schedule that we "can't" beat them all.

Edited February 21, 2022 by W.E.D

[McLoofus 35,182]

10 minutes ago, W.E.D said:

On one hand if we had Bo we probably win 3 more games.

On another hand we still lost 5 straight and constantly blew 2nd half and 4th quarter leads & nearly lost to Ga State

On another hand it seems like most around us are getting better wrt the portal and we haven't done much outside ensuring QB spot is probably around a push.

On another hand maybe 2nd year in the system will help a lot of people and the team be better as a whole.

On another hand, we've lost so many ppl & need so many impact players from the portal...will we have many going into their 2nd year?

I could see us being really bad.  4-8/5-7 types season.  I could also see us winning every game outside UGA/Bama/Aggies.  There isn't that much separating between us and the other 8 p5 teams on our schedule that we "can't" beat them all.

I'd say we're actually a WR or two away from having a pretty solid starting 11 on offense. We're simply not going to have quality depth, though. We're just not. 

If we get lucky staying healthy, then I fully believe the offense can be better this year for the reasons you mentioned. And also with Kiesau and Harsin in full control of the offense from the start.  I think we have to find a playmaking WR, though. 

As for our record last year, exactly, we were as close to 4 wins as we were to 9. And the 2 additional losses would've both been with a healthy Bo Nix. We probably shouldn't try to woulda coulda that one either way.