Is 9-3 good or do we have to get at least 10-2 to have a "good" season? I feel like 9-3 is a good team in the SEC, but I don't know what is "good" in the new 12 team playoff era.

It would have qualified as good this season.

And if we had made that happen this year, the bar would raise to 10-2 being the minimum requirement for good next season.

You sum*****.

We should be competing for a playoff spot every year and we should be in the playoffs more often than not. When the stars align we should win it all.

That's it.

Definitely Not A Cop said:

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9-3 is the engineer lifestyle of seasons. You have a decent life and never want for anything really.

But you see those sales guys driving badass trucks going on vacations around the world with crazy hot women that are half their age, and they still are able to pay off alimony to two different women.

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I'm an engineer and work for a very sales driven company. I can relate.

If you are asking if 2025 and 9-3 would be good, hell I would be ecstatic. There is no way that we sniff 9 wins next year with our road schedule. 10-2 should be the definition for a good year and don't get your ass kicked in the bowl game.

9-3 in 2025 is meh. We return 16 starters and all of our away opponents lost double digit amounts of starters.

9-3 but 6-2 in the SEC is ok but 9-3 with 5-3 in SEC play is not good enough.

We need to go 10-2. We are a developmental program meaning we have to develop our talent and take advantage of the experienced talent when it happens every 4 years. 2025 is our year. Yes, we have some depth issues at DT and WR is not great but we have the bones to go out and win 10+ games. At some point we should be able to go out and overachieve or better yet put all the pieces together when we have the pieces and our opponents are still building.

I feel like 9-3 is solid, shows some improvement, and tells me that we are headed in the right direction. Good as a stepping stone. Obviously, ultimately, we want to be at 10 plus wins consistently and making a run into the playoffs.

VP at Pierce and Pierce said:

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9-3 in 2025 is meh. We return 16 starters and all of our away opponents lost double digit amounts of starters.

9-3 but 6-2 in the SEC is ok but 9-3 with 5-3 in SEC play is not good enough.

We need to go 10-2. We are a developmental program meaning we have to develop our talent and take advantage of the experienced talent when it happens every 4 years. 2025 is our year. Yes, we have some depth issues at DT and WR is not great but we have the bones to go out and win 10+ games. At some point we should be able to go out and overachieve or better yet put all the pieces together when we have the pieces and our opponents are still building.

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Things that won't happen in 2025 for $5000...

The schedule on the road is brutal and we are now in the New SEC, where we get to see Texas on every SEC pedestal available to Sankey's discretion.

You all need to manage expectations downward. An 8-4 year would be excellent, IMO.

Detmersdislocatedshoulder said:

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9-3 at bama puts you squarely on the hot seat

9-3 for us is a damn good season. not great but damn good.

i wish 9-3 wasn't considered damn good for us

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9-3 is a "good" season.

But did we really spend 77 million to appease the hurt hineys and buy out Jimbo, because we wanted to go 9-3?

Detmersdislocatedshoulder said:

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9-3 at bama puts you squarely on the hot seat

9-3 for us is a damn good season. not great but damn good.

i wish 9-3 wasn't considered damn good for us.

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Yep. Gets you fired at bama, gets you a raise and an extension here.

This is good

Biggest problem is who some of the 3 or 4 have been. Ags should be beating a couple of them a lot more often than they have been.

JWinTX said:

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VP at Pierce and Pierce said:

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9-3 in 2025 is meh. We return 16 starters and all of our away opponents lost double digit amounts of starters.

9-3 but 6-2 in the SEC is ok but 9-3 with 5-3 in SEC play is not good enough.

We need to go 10-2. We are a developmental program meaning we have to develop our talent and take advantage of the experienced talent when it happens every 4 years. 2025 is our year. Yes, we have some depth issues at DT and WR is not great but we have the bones to go out and win 10+ games. At some point we should be able to go out and overachieve or better yet put all the pieces together when we have the pieces and our opponents are still building.

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Things that won't happen in 2025 for $5000...

The schedule on the road is brutal and we are now in the New SEC, where we get to see Texas on every SEC pedestal available to Sankey's discretion.

You all need to manage expectations downward. An 8-4 year would be excellent, IMO.

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This might be correct unfortunately. We had our chance then rested on our loins once we saw slight improvement. Meanwhile we forgot to relentlessly look out for our best interest like the other bigs and allowed the keys to be handed directly over to sip.

Now the job is 100x as hard. It will take a lot of dominoes to fall into place for us to be allowed to have a good season.

9-3 is good if you don't mind being 4th in the SEC.

Yes, I think 9-3 would be a good season because we have 5 true road games at Notre Dame, Arkansas, LSU, Missouri, and Texas. A 9-3 finish would mean going 7-0 at home and 2-3 away or 6-1 at home and 3-2 away. Assuming we go 7-0 or 6-1 at home, those 5 road games will make or break our season. Also, a 9-3 regular season finish and a bowl win would mean our first 10+ win season since an 11-2 (6-2 SEC) finish in 2012.

VP at Pierce and Pierce said:

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9-3 in 2025 is meh. We return 16 starters and all of our away opponents lost double digit amounts of starters.

9-3 but 6-2 in the SEC is ok but 9-3 with 5-3 in SEC play is not good enough.

We need to go 10-2. We are a developmental program meaning we have to develop our talent and take advantage of the experienced talent when it happens every 4 years. 2025 is our year. Yes, we have some depth issues at DT and WR is not great but we have the bones to go out and win 10+ games. At some point we should be able to go out and overachieve or better yet put all the pieces together when we have the pieces and our opponents are still building.

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Next year, we will have a tougher home/away split because our toughest games against Notre Dame, LSU, Missouri, and Texas will all be on the road instead of at home. We will play a true road game at Arkansas for the first time since 2013 and at LSU the very next week. Also, our schedule is very unbalanced with 3 straight SEC home games against Auburn on 9/27, Mississippi State on 10/4, and Florida on 10/11 before a stretch of 3 straight SEC road games against Arkansas on 10/18, LSU on 10/25, and Missouri on 11/8 in span of 4 weeks. With that schedule, I think we will have a floor of 7-5 and a ceiling of 9-3 with likely road losses at Notre Dame, LSU, and Texas. The 5 road games at Notre Dame, Arkansas, Missouri, LSU, and Texas will make or break our season.

Winning back-to-back games on the road in the SEC is the rarest of all birds. Before this season, it had only been done 8 times in 78 such occurrences over the last decade, and 3 times in 38 occurrences over the last five years (the same disclaimer applies here as in the linked article: this tally does not include trips to Nashville or games separated by a bye week).

Those three teams were 2019 LSU, 2022 Georgia, and 2023 Alabama; in other words, two national champions and a top-4 team. Each of these teams had a "down" performance in one half of said back to back, but were able to overcome it when all was said and done.

https://gigemgazette.com/texas-a-m-football-fans-should-be-furious-about-the-schedule-the-sec-just-handed-them

Well, it's better than 8 and F'n 4!!

Historically 9 wins at A&M is amazing. We've not had that many. 10 wins is legendary.

Definitely Not A Cop said:

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9-3 is the engineer lifestyle of seasons. You have a decent life and never want for anything really.

But you see those sales guys driving badass trucks going on vacations around the world with crazy hot women that are half their age, and they still are able to pay off alimony to two different women.

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Lot of words to basically mean it's the difference in making the Playoffs and not. Playoffs spikes our recruiting too.

texag101 said:

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9-3 is good if you don't mind being 4th in the SEC.

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Some of these folks would be happy with Alabama's pathetic season, or the Ole Miss pathetic season….both were 9-3

Ag1188 said:

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Definitely Not A Cop said:

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9-3 is the engineer lifestyle of seasons. You have a decent life and never want for anything really.

But you see those sales guys driving badass trucks going on vacations around the world with crazy hot women that are half their age, and they still are able to pay off alimony to two different women.

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Lot of words to basically mean it's the difference in making the Playoffs and not. Playoffs spikes our recruiting too.

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Yes, congrats on successfully dissecting the symbolism of my metaphor. You must have been an English major.

It's not either. It's relative

Yep. Context matters here. I'd say in a season where you are expexted to be among the top 15, 9-3 SEC is good. If you are a pre-season natty contender, maybe not. Regardless, if you can stay in the 9-3 range or better in the SEC you are doing it right.

Considering the fact that an 8-4 record has been a generational occurrence, 9-3 would be a big step up. aTm has been in the SEC for over 10 years, if they can't break through the ceiling of mediocrity 1/3 of the time. Something is really wrong.

9-3 would have been a good accomplishment for Year 1 for Elko and it was easily attainable.
10-2 would have been a great accomplishment for Year 1 for Elko and it was also very attainable.

And yet both slipped right through his fingers.