I know we’ve been burned on offseason hype before

If qb play is elite, this team can be in the playoffs. I think it can be.

We have a top 10 roster in the country and a top 5-6 coaching staff in the country.

The main question for this season is how quickly we can get all the newness acclimated to get through September undefeated or slip up just once because we have 3 loseable games in the first month.

If we can somehow get to November with one loss look out baws.

One of my biggest gripes with Kelly and the offense outside of 2023 was that they could never put the small teams away. This would force our defensive starters to play so many more reps than they needed to. This is why we would see our defense start the season so strong and then begin to drop off as the season went on. I think this is why we would have so many injuries to the front 7 by November.
I’m hoping that Kiffin can establish the run game and put these smaller teams away at HT so the defense can stay fresh and the 2nd string players can get more reps. This should reduce injuries and make us more competitive in late Oct/Nov. I think the difference in Bakers defense being a top 15 defense vs a top 30 defense is the offense establishing the run and putting the lower level teams away early.
If the defense can stay fresh and Kiffin can average 30+ppg, like he is capable of doing, we should be in a great position.

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But man on paper it’s hard to not be excited about this team on both sides of the ball.

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We have a great coach who, if he stays at LSU long enough, will win a national title.

It's important to remember that even Saban went 8-4 his first year at LSU. Granted, LSU today is in a far better spot than LSU was on Saban's first day, but still, I firmly believe a 9 win regular season for LSU this year should be considered the goal and a win. It might even get us into the playoffs if we're lucky.

If we get past Clemson we should be in good shape if we stay healthy. There will be some growing pains with new offensive system and cast of characters the first couple of weeks.

The hope is we get past Clemson, we stay healthy, and we gel enough by week 3 before we play Ole Miss in what will be an insanely hostile atmosphere.

I think our problems with Mobile QBs will start to shrink this year. Baker is actually able to coach against a competent offense in practice every day now against an elite offensive mind.

I think the speed of our offense in practice helps get them much more prepared, as well as getting them more time on the bench compared to last year. It’s hard to play elite defense all game when your offense goes 3 and out every drive.

The offense and offensive line especially is a complete rebuild. Thats a huge question mark. We brought in a ton of talent, but how they all fit and run the offense is a guess. Offense and oline cant be worse, but we'll see how many more wins that means.

Defense is replacing 2 of the better cb, s pieces we've had, and we saw UH torch pickett and woodland all game. Whit needs to stay healthy. Will be tough for defense to be as good as last yr. Ton of GREAT talent brought in, but how they learn the defense and play together is a guess.

I think we're going to be in every game for sure.

If you go by position groups I think its positive overall.

Qb- better
Rb- better
Wr- idle
Te- better
Oline- cant be worse, better.

Dline- idle or better
Lb- idle or better
Cb- idle or worse (delane was a freak)
S- idle or worse (haulcey was a freak).

We didn’t have to defend against a mobile QB in practice. We will every day this year. But containing a running QB is always a concern.
We will run the ball because the scheme on offense is just different. We will have more than two running plays plus we have a RB coach now. That always helps believe it or not.