Almost no way, if a person is neutral, can you see this yr being very successful unless something truly stunning happens (FR-Yates comes in and kills it -and/or new transfers/Fr kill also ?) On paper-We lose our starting DL with our best DL, our starting QB, our by far best OL and are putting in new OFF and Def systems.Quite a list.Really on paper, it is easy to see the SS conclusion.My guess we struggle early and get better.
I hope we don't struggle early - our 2nd, 3rd, and 4th games are against USF, Temple, and Citadel. Then we get UNC and Duke. If we start 0-6 or 1-5, we're not winning 5 games.
I don't honestly see the pessimism. Who is in our division - Pitt, UNC, Duke, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Miami - nobody won more than 7 games in the regular season last year. We have at worst like 9 tossup games.
We get all 3 of our top running backs (by yardage) back - Mason, Howard, and Cottrell. We get the all time state of Georgia record holder in touchdowns Jamious Griffin. We get some upgrades at the WR position with guys like Ahmarean Brown, Adonicas Sanders, Jalen Camp, and Malachi Carter actually getting to play. We have 4-star WR Ezzard coming in. Lucas Johnson has been here a few years and to me he's an upgrade at the QB position. We completed 40% of passes the last 2 seasons. We're getting an upgrade there. If Lucas doesn't start, it will likely be because 4-star James Graham or 4-star Yates won the job. On OL we get in Southers and guys like DeFoor finally get used to their strengths.
On defense, Tariq Carpenter, Christian Campbell, Juanyeh Thomas are back at the safety position. Tre Swilling, Jaytlin Askew, Jaylon King, Zamari Walton at the corners - all these guys are really good. We have 4-star Myles Sims coming in. Our length at all these positions is great. David Curry and Bruce Jordan-Swilling are back at linebacker. We have over 10 guys rated 4-star by one agency or another. We have 5-star DE Clayton coming in.
To me, if I had to make a forecast that wasn't biased, I'd say all of our Coastal games plus USF and Temple and NC State = 9 tossups. Citadel is a win. Clemson and Georgia are losses. I'd say 5-7 wins is the guess. To finish last in the Coastal Division is to forecast either an 0-8 year or a 1-7 year. If we go 2-10 against a bunch of largely average teams, we've got bigger problems.