yeah, i remember seeing that here, but i don't recall that being the predominant wisdom for prognosticators at large. rival fan bases, the usual negative nancies here, sure. Hell in August Roman Harper picked us to go 10-2 on live TV in front of gawd and everybody lol.
Joe T and Greg M referenced some of the pre season narrative on us as the Orange bowl was ending, and while it's safe to say we more than exceeded expectations, the general feeling was we'd progress, and if the defense got good, look out....that's all.
if memory serves, and not to nit pick, we were picked 3rd in the SEC E at media days behind UGA and UK...these were the same people that picked LSU 5th, and aTm 2nd so do with that what you will.......ESPN FPI had us 7-5...with less than 50% chance of winning at Pitt, LSU, UK. and a little over 50% chance of beating USCe.....all the 247 guys had 8-4...except Patrick Brown at 9-3. CFN had 8-4 as well i think.
long story short, if your predominant source of recollection is here/message boards/twitter etc..., then yeah, i agree, i remember seeing all the same things you referenced. if it's an "outside looking in" perspective of what 2022 looked like, most had us making at least a 1 game step in the right direction to 8-4, maybe 9-3 if we won a game we weren't supposed to.
all that to say....a step back next year just isn't a terrible thing, is all i was trying to get at. and it's definitely not as terrible a thing as it has been in the past where that would entail falling back to losing seasons, missing bowls and likely firing up the coach search boards....
i think we're past that......lol