11-1 (lose to l$u).
Reed will be a beast in new offensive scheme.
Defense will be Top 5.

The season is not even over, so it is too early for even the way to early predictions. That being said:

Missouri State (H) - High likelihood win
Arizona State (H) - Probable win (I guess)
Kentucky (H) - Probable win
LSU (A) - Pick-em (first season for Lane, hard to tell what will happen)
Arkansas (H) - Probable win
Mizzou (A) - Lean win
The Citadel (H) - High likelihood win
Alabama (A) - Lean loss
South Carolina (A) - Lean win
Tennessee (H) - Pick-em
Oklahoma (A) - Probable loss (given away game late in season right before tu game)
tu (H) - Lean loss (I'll change this when we prove we can win it)

Low 5-7
High 11-1
Expected 8-4

All of this is extremely subject to change. That being said, there is a decent chance given the schedule we get on a roll at the beginning of the year and come into the bye week (after the Bama game) 7-1 or 8-0, but those last four games are going to be rough.

I think we start out 10-0 and then finish with games at ou and hosting tu. Both of these teams will be flawed and struggle with more challenging schedules and only 1 of them will join us in the CFP field. Without seeing how the new OC is at calling plays and what happens in the Portal, it's hard to finalize this prediction, but I see no reason to assume we decline much if at all from 11-1.

big red dog said:

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11-1 (lose to l$u).
Reed will be a beast in new offensive scheme.
Defense will be Top 5.

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New scheme? Elko said they are keeping the same "scheme" fyi.

Way too many variables to predict the overall next season. However, it's a bit disconcerting that leaving September being at 2-2 is a real possibility.

If I had to predict right now I'd say 9-3 with 10-2 as a possibility

Loss at Tuscaloosa and Baton Rouge. Then split the Tennessee/OU games.

I also don't see us losing to Texas for a 3rd year in a row. We're winning that one barring catastrophic injury situation

Maroon Dawn said:

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Reeds progress seems to be a paper tiger and he still plays terribly when there's even the slightest pressure or spotlight on him. The decision to promote a guy who has never been a head coordinator is mind boggling.

So between an unforgiving schedule and our usual stupid organization decisions, we could very easily lose 5 games next year.

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What's the percentage of Head Coordinators who weren't promoted to that position?

Blue Chip said:

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Maroon Dawn said:

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Reeds progress seems to be a paper tiger and he still plays terribly when there's even the slightest pressure or spotlight on him. The decision to promote a guy who has never been a head coordinator is mind boggling.

So between an unforgiving schedule and our usual stupid organization decisions, we could very easily lose 5 games next year.

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What's the percentage of Head Coordinators who weren't promoted to that position?

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Sorry didn't phrase that well

The decision for a program like ours to promote a guy with no experience instead of hiring a guy with a proven track record is mind boggling. There are plenty of great coordinators at smaller programs looking for that next step up and we said "naaaaaah let's take a chance on someone completely new to the job"

For all our claims of being a major brand and a rich program we make dumb decisions like this as if we are a broke ass FCS team and the coaching budget looks a little thin for next year because the concession stand sales weren't as good as we hoped

Coryhub said:

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5-7 if we stay with Reed…. Tough schedule and first time coordinators is a terrible decision to just promote..!

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Our DC has experience at the postion.

New OC (1st time play caller), very young RB room (no elite RB1), poor depth at QB, at minimum 3 new starters on OL, and young DEs. We can fix a lot of that in the next ~2 weeks.

Prior to portal & QB coach hire: 8-4 or 9-3

After portal: TBD

Edit: I'm going to assume Wiggins is alright at his new job.

7&5 if we don't get a quarterback that can play SEC level football !

I'll guess that a lot of the gloom and doomers on this thread are the same folk that endlessly predicted 7-6 and 8-5 for this year.

As PO as I was a few weeks ago and last week, in retrospect I have to admit that the team overachieved against expectations this year. Maybe they will do it again in 2026.

Just Tired said:

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early 2026 forecast

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Not sure where you're located, but in College Station it looks to be a high of 71 and low of 44 on January 1.

I wonder if other teams will have attrition via graduation and portal?

Or new players via portal etc.

tjack16 said:

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If I had to predict right now I'd say 9-3 with 10-2 as a possibility

Loss at Tuscaloosa and Baton Rouge. Then split the Tennessee/OU games.

I also don't see us losing to Texas for a 3rd year in a row. We're winning that one barring catastrophic injury situation

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Totally agree

There are a lot of questions to be answered to prognosticate next year. But I, for one, refuse to buy in to the notion that our record this year was primarily due to a weak schedule.

The so-called close games such as Auburn weren't close…we dominated statistically but too often didn't exploit scoring opportunities. Little did I know that our propensity to get goofy in the red zone would be a factor down the stretch though. Even against UM we squandered multiple scoring opportunities and that was a big part of the loss on a day where we didn't even play well.

Otherwise, I know what I saw most of the year. This team was a legit top 5 team that simply blew their last game.

tjack16 said:

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I think I'm going to go with 9-3

Losses at LSU (I'd imagine Kiffin will have them ready for that one), and Alabama. Then lose one of the home games against Tennessee or Texas

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Guaranteed to lose against Texas. Elko cowers to Sark every time

Since its a "rebuilding year" again I'll say 8-4 or 7-5. With the annual bowl game loss in the Texas Bowl. Leadership will find an excuse to keep Elko and maybe give him a raise so he can get some more cheeseburgers while waiting to screw up in the transfer portal.

Big-D said:

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Since its a "rebuilding year" again I'll say 8-4 or 7-5. With the annual bowl game loss in the Texas Bowl. Leadership will find an excuse to keep Elko and maybe give him a raise so he can get some more cheeseburgers while waiting to screw up in the transfer portal.

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Bookmarked.

Elko has done very well in the portal in his 2 offseasons here. What are you *****ing about?

LincolnBorglum79 said:

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I think we start out 10-0 and then finish with games at ou and hosting tu. Both of these teams will be flawed and struggle with more challenging schedules and only 1 of them will join us in the CFP field. Without seeing how the new OC is at calling plays and what happens in the Portal, it's hard to finalize this prediction, but I see no reason to assume we decline much if at all from 11-1.

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Didn't you predict the Ags would beat the sips 56-6 on the way to a national championship a month ago?

Just Tired said:

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come season's end, it didn't matter if it was miami, bama or nd. all would have come into kyle and beaten our pedestrian offense.

and had we been seeded even one spot higher we'd still be playing as we could have also crushed either tulane or jmu. that's why the choke job against the sips sucked especially bad.

I will concede we were better than I thought we would be but just barely above average and couldn't take advantage of the schedule unexpectedly unfolding to give us a break with a down l$u and a lucky win on the road against nd in the opener. coin flip wins against arkie, auburn and even unexpectedly down s-car, tell you more about the true nature of this team. lose even one of those coin flips and the committee might have had their excuse to keep us out of the playoffs altogether.

would have all come to an end next week any way (unless we'd gotten the 5 seed. I'd rate the game against tech a toss-up). But georgia, indy, ohio-st (maybe ole miss / oregon) are all clearly better than us. we were just pretenders who got to hang around a little longer than the host of other pretenders. (but not quite as long as co-pretender Miami due to our pretender qb being exposed for the 2nd straight game (not to mention the 1st half against s-car.))

the offseason motto was "finish" and the sad truth is despite that beautiful and fortunate 11-0 start, this years team… like the year's before… didn't FINISH!

doubt the new oc is any better and the OL probably takes a step back even from this bunch. kc was special and he'll be gone. think reed is probably at his ceiling and we won't have the stones to upgrade. so no improvement from the current level of "just above average" that likely won't see a repeat of the golden opportunity this season presented that gave this season's rendition of "same old, same old" a shot of steroids.

final prognostication (and the safest you can always offer when it comes to Aggie football)… "wait 'til next year"… when we see a lot more "same old, same old".

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OUR pedestrian offense literally beat ND in their house. Remember?

The question is, what can you expect from an OL with 3 players to replace?

Even if you hit home runs in the portal and underclassmen talent, what's a reasonable expectation for this OL?

If the OL takes a step back, there's not much hope for improved stats from Reed and the RBs even if their individual play has improved. Wiggins will need to show a lot more creativity than Klein.

Barnacle said:

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The question is, what can you expect from an OL with 3 players to replace?

Even if you hit home runs in the portal and underclassmen talent, what's a reasonable expectation for this OL?

If the OL takes a step back, there's not much hope for improved stats from Reed and the RBs even if their individual play has improved. Wiggins will need to show a lot more creativity than Klein.

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Remember the talk around Notre dame going into that 2024 opener was how their OL was inexperienced and a weakness. Ended up being one of the strongest units in the national on the way to a runner up finish.

I'm hoping that's what we do next year at that position group. Make it a strength