I honestly don't see how anybody can equate anything of last year's performance to what will happen this year other than some of the same players being on both rosters. There is nothing else the same in our program other than the facilities at UT - and some of that has even changed such as the weight room.
As anybody who has actually played the sport at any level knows - the addition or removal of a small handful of players each year can produce radically different results on the field. You don't need 22 new guys to get past a 4-8 season. They were 9-4 the two years before even with the incompetent brick layer. Now they have a highly competent coaching staff and S&C guy - not the UC Bearcats finest. They've added talented guys who can play the game, one being an alpha dog who got hurt early last season who hated Butch. JJ has made huge plays in the past and he will again.The removal of the let's just have fun coaching and playing is a major addition through subtraction. Trey Smith, Kennedy, etc. in the O-line with other guys a year stronger and more experienced. Talented RBs and WR's everywhere. Upper classmen loaded defensive front 7 with Warrior in the roaming Star position. Maybe you don't thing Chryst is the answer at QB - but he can dang sure push JG to perform better. It's time to start to showing some pride and belief in the program again.
As rekinhavoc posted - cut to the chase on WVU. Grier does not have a UF level of talent around him and he is not going against Butch this time. They beat nothing last season and have a lot of holes in their roster. We are underdogs simply because none of the people making spreads has a clue about what we will put on the field. I sincerely doubt we are going to put a bunch of lightweights on the field to be pushed around by WVU. Even Butch was able to beat Va Tech, and they are a better program than WVU.