How many of you honestly expect 2026 to be better? Never has so much talent been wasted like it was in 2025, and to let Clemson come in and dominate up front like they did . No decent OC is going to come here knowing that Beamer is likely gone next year anyway. Just stating facts!
2026 false hope?
- Thread starter blessedtiger81
- Start date
Filled needs with this class. Agree it’s all on what a new OC can do. But boys, it is the SEC. Some of you have have said next season competition will be worse. When I looked I thought it looked a little better, by a little. Look for yourself. It all depends on the portal at this point. If… if we can fill a few in gaps we can be more competitive, with or without Sellers. Have to get some portal gamers to make it happen. We will know after the portal window if we even have a chance. It will become evident from a talent standpoint and will then be on the coaching. Beamer is cleaning house, so all depends on the new OC. But don’t kid yourself, we are in the SEC, and we aren’t leaving .
Blew a giant lead at Texas A&M, blew fourth quarter leads against several other top 15 teams, and lost by 14 to a garbage Clemson team via a ball getting knocked out of your qbs hands that laid there dead so he could pick it up and priss the opposite way for a score, a pass that bounced off our star receiver’s chest into a Clemson defender’ hands for what was hailed as a ‘pick six’, and at least three crapola officiating calls. This year was not meant to be; we’ve taken steps to correct that and will be making more so yes, I honestly expect 2026 to be ‘better’ sweetie.
You underestimate the power of the offseason optimism.
If Sellers comes back, he'll be a heisman candidate by late July. The new OC, whoever he is, will be the magic pill that is going to bring us to 10 wins.
You've already seen it starting in this thread, and we're not even a full week removed from finishing 4-8. Granted, those same posters will claim they said the opposite if the seaon goes south.
And then we can start the whole process over again next year.
Didn't you hear? We're going to the playoffs next year.
Seriously, we'll never get an answer, but i would be curious as to the expectation for Shane next year. What keeps him safe? 6 wins, 7?
I just hope we're not defending next year's losing record by listing out the moral victories of the year, and using that to say how close we are.
I think folks on here know by now I'm not a rosy-eyed optimist, but I really don't think we are THAT far off. The offense was abysmal, but if we had a mediocre offense, with our defense, I think we would have won 7-8 games easily this year. Maybe 9. With a halfway respectable offense, I think we beat Bama, LSU and Ole Miss and Clemson. We don't need a new OC to come in and score 35 ppg. It would be fantastic if we could, but if we can score in the mid to upper 20s, I think we'll be fine (so long as there's not substantial drop-off with the defense).
On the other hand, I don't think we've been that far off for much of our history. We're perpetually turning the corner. So we shall see.
I think we need to realize that every team can point to a few plays and claim that just making those plays would have changed things.
We lament close losses to some teams, other teams lament losses to us in the same fashion.
We are bringing in talent that we think will fill holes, so is every team on our schedule.
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Great post! Every team can point to a play here or there during the season that would have meant a victory instead of a loss. Every program recruits for needs and every program signs players who they think are going to be difference makers. It is easy to get caught viewing football in a vacuum where everyone else is going to stay the same and your team is going to get better.
Coaching by the head coach is the closest thing to being a constant. I am still not sold on Shula having been the devil he has been made out to be. Beamer had to have had confidence and pretty high expectations of him when he hired him. That leaves two options explaining what happened.
First, Beamer is an idiot and cannot recognize the difference in a good and bad OC. This does not bode well for his next hire.
Or, Shula wasn't that bad and the problem lies in a lack of talent or ability of the players. This also doesn't bode well since the vast majority of these players will be back.
We signed a decent class, about what we usually sign. The two standouts are Duckworth and Walker. Walker may be able to have a fairly immediate impact or at least be able to play right away. Duckworth, on the other hand, is at least a full year away from being useful. True freshman, even redshirt freshmen QBs aren't generally successful in the SEC. The 4 star OL we signed may or may not pan out. OL is one of the toughest positions to transition from HS to college.
I think 7 wins next season would be a good step in the right direction.
For sure. Nothing happens in a vacuum. We aren't the only ones working to get better while everyone else remains static,
OP might want to wonder about his Tigers about same issues mentioned. I'm sure Dabo will lift his spirits up.
I heard from someone very well connected in the program that there was a billion percent chance of being really really good next year.
It was reduced to a million percent chance a few minutes later. Beamer hedging his bets.
Didn't even catch the name when I replied to the poster. Oh well. You're right.
They've got their own mess to get in order.
I mean, yeah, they beat us and they're going to a bowl game so they get to rub our noses in it. But for a team that was a pre-season title contender, their disappointment far overshadows ours.
As cringe worthy as Beamer's "playoff" talk was, Dabo's "first team to go 16-0" crap was much worse.
