Jmo but you're underestimating how insane it is to be the #1 offense...while playing in the SEC...vs possibly the toughest schedule in the whole country.
Afaik last year was our first ever #1 offense. These don't grow on trees, especially when the likes of USC, OSU, Clemson get to play their schedules and we play ours.
Otoh finishing with an offense pumping out 35-38 ppg and finishing top 15 seems reasonable. I think we have to remember JUST how elite HH was last year. Not a knock on JM, but what we saw was generational greatness. Best season of any UT QB ALL-TIME...and not all that close. And replacing that OL production is not going to be easy, they were very underrated for what they did.
That said, our defense will just keep getting better and anchor us a tad more imo. A team that can score 37 and allow 19 would have us right back in the thick.
I'm not underestimating anything.
Heupel hasnt been outside of the top 10 since he was the offensive coordinator at Missouri and it was ranked 14th with the second worst roster in the entire SEC.
I know Hendon was elite, but a LOT of his success was directly influenced by our offensive system. Dillin Gabriel put up huge numbers in 10 games in his second year under Heupel. 3,500+ passing yards 4 INT's as a true sophomore. Drew Lock 3,900+ passing yards and 44 TD's. What does Peyton do in our offense with our receivers?
Peyton, while his numbers weren't as impressive in college, David Cutcliffe's system was far more complex and more conservative and was asked to do more.
Hendon is maybe the second best QB we have ever had, but seeing as every QB Heupel has had has put up big numbers, I don't really think that his performance will be exclusive. Especially after we just saw Bazooka Joe have a very Hendon like performance against perhaps the second best defense we played all year.
We will certainly be worse at right tackle, but will we be bad? Mincey and Crawford could easily be solid starters there and we might be better at left tackle with John Campbell. Cooper and Sprag will only get better. We'll see what happens at left guard, but we have so many experienced candidates I have a hard time seeing someone not working out. I mean the offensive line needs to fail miserably along with a resurgence of overthrow joe with some injuries sprinkled in to not stay in the top ten on offense.
We also have, UVA, Austin Peay, UConn, UTSA, Vandy and Missouri on our schedule. Yes UTSA is good, but they don't have the dudes to keep up with our offense. We can score as many points as we want against those teams. No Pitt on the schedule, UVA instead. Video game numbers galore.
Our running back core is deeper, more talented and more experienced.
Bru McKoy is the most talented receiver we've had since maybe Robert Meachem and we haven't even seen him fully healthy yet.
Squirrel is going to be great. Ramel is steady eddy. Donte Thornton is an athletic freak and is 6'5 running a 4.3.
Jacob Warren is back, Castles has NFL scouts looking at him. Better receiving TE than Fant.
Joe is a 6th year senior going into his third year in the system with the Clemson performance to build off of, the strongest arm in the world, weapons everywhere and an offensive guru captaining the ship.
Betting the mortgage we are firmly in the top ten with better odds to be number one again than falling out of the top ten.
Oh and yeah if our defense is better its going to be even harder to fall out of the top ten.
