2025 Football Season Expectations

[Dawg83]

What do we think?

 

Ole Miss lost a lot from last year but worked the portal hard again and the schedule isn’t terrible by any means. I think it’s a 7-8 win caliber team with a 9-10 win schedule, if they catch some breaks.

 

State should be improved but the schedule is probably the hardest they’ve had since Mullen’s first year. I think it is fair to say that 5-7 would be a great accomplishment and 6-6 would mean Lebby is a star on the rise. I think it’s a 5-7 caliber team with a 3-9 schedule, unfortunately. Having a hard time figuring out where the wins are going to come from.

 

Charles Huff era begins at USM and they bring in a ton of guys from Marshall’s conference champ team last year. They should be improved, but how improved? We will find out quickly. State at USM on Labor Day weekend.

 

Will dive deeper into the rest of the SEC over the next couple of weeks.

 

 

Edited July 15, 2025 by Dawg83

[maroontide06]

Where are the conference wins going to come from for State?  I have a hard time wrapping my head around that.  It's an extremely tough schedule and if you told me the opening game against USM would be a struggle for State, I'd believe you.

[pancho]

the easiest(weakest) SEC games are on the road which is not good.

[Vott]

21 hours ago, Dawg83 said:

What do we think?

 

Ole Miss lost a lot from last year but worked the portal hard again and the schedule isn’t terrible by any means. I think it’s a 7-8 win caliber team with a 9-10 win schedule, if they catch some breaks.

 

State should be improved but the schedule is probably the hardest they’ve had since Mullen’s first year. I think it is fair to say that 5-7 would be a great accomplishment and 6-6 would mean Lebby is a star on the rise. I think it’s a 5-7 caliber team with a 3-9 schedule, unfortunately. Having a hard time figuring out where the wins are going to come from.

 

Charles Huff era begins at USM and they bring in a ton of guys from Marshall’s conference champ team last year. They should be improved, but how improved? We will find out quickly. State at USM on Memorial Day weekend.

 

Will dive deeper into the rest of the SEC over the next couple of weeks.

 

 

So USM and MSU are going to wait and play each other in a Spring Game on memorial Day weekend? LOLOLLOL

[pancho]

yes

[Dawg83]

On 7/14/2025 at 10:25 AM, Vott said:

So USM and MSU are going to wait and play each other in a Spring Game on memorial Day weekend? LOLOLLOL

Whoops, my bad. lol

[Dawg83]

Just can’t get past State’s schedule. Their six FBS home games consist of the following:

 

Four playoff teams from last year, including both SEC title game participants as well as the Big 12 champion.

 

Ole Miss who has won at least 8 games in every full 12 game season of the Kiffin era.

 

And then the easiest home game other than Alcorn is against a MAC team that won in South Bend last year against the national runner ups.

 

The more winnable games are all on the road but State is probably a double digit underdog in at least 3 of those.

Edited July 15, 2025 by Dawg83

[Bulldogs4]

State will be improved though that is not saying much from our starting point. 
The conference can be weird at times and games that are seemingly a shoe in for a team can and do turn into losses. I think State (if we beat Arizona State to gain some confidence) might pull a few of those off this year. 
For whatever reason, I don’t see any conference team winning more than 10 games in the regular season. I know that sounds crazy but with all the player movement I predict a lot of inconsistency this year. A team will look great one week and then horrible the next week. There are going to be a slew of teams from 7-5/8-4 to 10-2 this year and the conference is going to be a muddled mess. 
 

[NoWammies]

I was tough on Ole Miss last year saying it was a playoff or bust year. I don’t think I was wrong. It was a wasted opportunity with one of the best teams we’ve ever had. This year I’m the same even though the expectations are lowered by some. I love what I’ve seen from the defense and it’s a defense that’ll improve each week. LB group is going to be one of the best we’ve seen in a very long time. Dottery and Perkins going to be fun to watch. DL will be nasty again. Raw at spots but nasty and learn each game. Secondary is my only concern with the defense and I think by midseason they’ll be where they need to be. Offensively it’s all going to come down to the OL. Yes the OL, not Simmons. WR group IMO is better than it was last year and people will notice it quickly. TE group even with the loss of Hasz should be plenty good enough to give Simmons something to throw to and are all good blocking TE’s as well. Hoping Wright builds on his final part of last season. Even though he’s not listed in the depth chart at TE I expect Odom to be like an Evan Engram hybrid type of TE. RB group, can it get any worse than last year? I love the duo of Diggs/Lacy. Hopefully Kiffin loves them too or it’s UBIV all over again. 
 

I like that we get LSU, USC and Florida at home. It helps our odds. Those games being at home make them tossups for me. I expect us to lose on the road to Georgia. Them looking for revenge plus us going from 4 home games in a row to that one is a recipe for disaster. The game I got circled that can make or break the season is on the road against OU. Comes the week after Georgia so the team will either be on a high or a low so it’ll be how they go from one game to the next. I think we lose 1 of the 3 home games I mentioned above so this one will be a make or break game for playoff implications. 

[rebmus]

Ole Miss should win between 3 and 9 games. **

 

 

[NoWammies]

23 minutes ago, rebmus said:

Ole Miss should win between 3 and 9 games. **

 

 

Lol good times 

[Dawg83]

Interesting to reflect on this now that 75% of the season has played out. I think you can easily argue that Ole Miss, State, and USM have all exceeded expectations that most had at the start of the year.

 

Now it’s a matter of can you REALLY exceed expectations.

 

1. Ole Miss - has a realistic path to hosting a playoff game, outside chance of playing in the SEC championship, in a year where most expected a step back.

 

2. State - can reach bowl eligibility in a year where their Vegas O/U win total was 3.5 and not many State fans at all thought they could sniff six wins.

 

3. USM - controls its own destiny to reach the conference title game, a year after going 1-11.