I have some expectations, and some hopes for improvements next season:

EXPECTATIONS

1) Behren will be a SR and will improve again. He isn't perfect, but he is better.
2) OL- Combination of Cody promising to purchase a good OL and the youngsters taking a step or two forward this off-season.
3) WR - Douglas is a beast waiting to emerge. I think that a healthy Hudson starts to have an impact as well. Valsin and Eakin, among others will make this an experienced and talented unit.
4) LB room will still mostly be intact. This could be the best part of our team.
5) JM will grow more this off-season. He is absolutely on a learning curve. Gundy had his, and OSU has been pretty fortunate to have him.

HOPES

1) Better health. Surely we have had the worst of it, right?
2) There is a TON of young players get a year older on D. We need them to take a step forward and improve. It is reasonable to hope for that, I think.
3) The portal brings us more age and talent at needed spots.
4) This is more of a wish (throws quarter into fountain) - This year's class is massively under-rated. While that won't make any impact next year, I'm throwing it in as a bonus for your edification.

With Ole Miss, Aggie and Bama all taking L’s yesterday, it now leaves the SEC with only 3 teams that have 2 losses or less.

And these were what you would call “bad losses” too.
5-5 OU beat Bama
5-5 Florida beat Ole Miss
4-6 Auburn beat Aggie

Effectively knocking all 3 schools out of the CFP (unless of course the powers that be decide to really show how biased the system is…)

There is a high probability now that the SEC SHOULD only have 3 or less teams eligible for the CFP.

10-1 Texas (who has had an extremely easy schedule so far by SEC standards)
9-2 Georgia
9-2 Tennessee

Next week Georgia plays a solid Georgia Tech team, Tennessee plays AT Vandy which has become a tough place to win and Texas plays Aggie

Then you also have the conference championship on top of that.

I’ve heard it said multiple times by everyone from Herbstreit to Cowherd “If you have 3 losses, sorry for ya”

Long story short, there are legitimate scenarios where the SEC only has 2 maybe even 1 team that is CFP worthy… and I know I know, it’s ESPNs baby and they’ll probably find a way to screw over someone. Regardless SEC took a ballistic missile hit last night and now they’re gonna have to do some serious lobbying and have a lot of work to do to get more than 2 in the playoff.