Win the last game of the season vs tu and we are in the playoffs! sips will be out of the playoffs!

6-6 is not successful under any circumstances. Absurd to even suggest that. 8-4 would be meh. Bare minimum for me. No, that doesn't mean we are going to fire anyone. But anything worse than 8-4 would be an utter disappointment, and even 8-4 would be, too

There's simply way too much turnover in football every year these days with the transfer portal to not expect to win right away. This is a very old, mature, and still talented Texas A&M team. Comparing it to the 2008 roster is absurd. This team is set up to win right away. Missing an elite WR to maybe be a true title contender, but no doubt a real contender to win any game we play. With a fortunate home/away schedule.

one safe place said:

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Iraq2xVeteran said:

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We have a favorable home/away schedule with our toughest games against Notre Dame, Missouri, LSU, and Texas at home and winnable road games at Florida, Mississippi State, South Carolina, and Auburn. With that schedule, I am expecting a floor of 8-4 and a ceiling of 10-2. 9-3 would be considered a successful because it would mean winning 3 of our 4 toughest games and going 2-2 in road games after losing 10 consecutive road games (9 under Jimbo Fisher).

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If you take away the cupcake games that are always at home, we actually haven't dominated at Kyle for a long time and our away record is terrible. Turning that around with a new coaching staff might be a tall order.

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When Elko was here, we lost 4 total home games in 4 years. Three of which to the #1, #2, and #8 teams. One unranked team. We beat #7, #13, #4, #13, and #1 teams in those four seasons.

When we played good defense (Elko), we were damn tough to beat at Kyle the first four years under Fisher. This is probably Elko's best defense on paper. In his career, not just at A&M. With Jimbo's offense, mind you.

I expect one home loss or less this year. Two would be very disappointing. Need to take care of 3/4 of Missouri, LSU, Texas, and Notre Dame. Ideally all 4.

BudFox7 said:

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Lol the only time we win 10 games is with a generational talent at QB. We are not winning 10 games.

We hired a HC with 2 years experience who has done nothing, and a very mid coaching staff.

7-8 wins as usual

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Mond would have won 10-11 in the 2020 season if it was a normal length year. Kellen Mond. Under Jimbo's offense.

Why? Because we finally, for the only season in Jimbo's tenure, had mature talent on both the offense and the defense. Well, don't look now, but this is by far the most experienced, mature team we have had since 2020 (and in terms of actual letters, it's more experienced outside of the OL). On both sides of the ball. Many in the program think it's Elko's best overall talent he's had to work with on defense, too. And 2021 was a "national championship caliber" defense.

I'm not saying 10 wins is some guarantee. 8-4 is more than a reasonable prediction until we prove otherwise. But writing it off is premature and simply ignores the roster we have now compared to many seasons we fell short of 10 wins.

Take 2022. Everyone was enamored with the 2022 recruiting class. Completely ignored that it was A&M's youngest two deep to enter a season in our lifetime. Yes, injuries made it worse, but it started off really young. Look what happened. Experience matters a ton, and we have more now than we have had in a long time. Probably one of our top 2-3 most experienced teams of all time in terms of total letters in our two-deep. A FR/SO that is in the two-deep at almost every position will have beaten out 2-3 quality RSR/JRs to get there.

Since I never answered the original question, success this year is the same that it will probably most every year: make the playoffs (or at least be close enough that we should have been in, like in 2020). Now that the bar has lowered drastically for playoff entry, that should be success each year, especially if it lowers to 14 or 16 or whatever in the near future.

However,

This is Elko's first year, and he gets a year, or possibly even two, of being unsuccessful as long as the team is getting built in the right way. If there are no playoff berths by 2026, he should start getting nervous.