I like to break down next seasons by looking at our opponents vs what we think we have.
OOC Bowling Green, USF, Alcorn State, UGA
We should beat Bowling Green and Alcorn
I am not sure what to expect from USF because they lost 80% of their offense, their QB. I would think we win
UGA Well let's see what losing 30 seniors, 80% of the offense and a lot of the defense does.
Conference
Clemson will be very good, our toughest game
Louisville I expect a Tech win since their entire offense just wen to the NFL, and they have never faced CPJ
UVA, in Atlanta and new QB I think we win
UNC I think they are going to be bad again. Tech win
Duke maybe we actually get up for this.
Pitt Another Tech win
VT I think they are on a downswing. I know they won 9 games but 4 came against not great teams. At VT but that has not seemed to matter.
Miami I am not buying the hype. I think Tech wins this one but they have become our nemesis
We should win at least 9 games.
Um. We didn't win a road game last year. This year our key road games are @USF, @Louisville, @Virginia Tech, @Georgia, @Pittsburgh, @North Carolina.
We play 3 teams ranked in the top 5 - all 3 of them will vie for the CFP (Miami, Clemson, Georgia). Those 3 teams are currently all ranked in the Top 5!
Virginia Tech is ranked in the teens. And we play them on the road.
Even if we somehow win 2 out of 4 of Miami, Clemson, @Virginia Tech, and @Georgia, that still means to win 9 games we can only lose 1 game against Alcorn State, Bowling Green, @USF, @Louisville, Virginia, @North Carolina, Duke, @Pittsburgh. There's 4 road games in there.
I view 2018 the same way I viewed 2017. We could win a ton of games. But our schedule is so damned difficult we could play incredible football and still only go 8-4.
Meanwhile, have you looked at Georgia? The team that thinks they are National Champions to be? They think so highly of themselves that their out of conference opponents next year are Austin Peay, Middle Tennessee State, and Massachusetts. They have 2 opponents who finished ranked last year out of 12. Pathetic.