Following my recent Hawk Talk post, The Week 3 Morning After Edition, there was some discussion and maybe even a little irritation at my 8-4 prediction for this Kansas Jayhawk team.  A predicted loss to Missouri naturally ruffled some feathers and my picking Texas as a loss and Tech as a win was deemed a bit premature. 

Please don't misconstrude this as me being defensive because that is not the case.  The fact of the matter is that this blog needs a little controversy, a little discussion and something to make us all think a little bit about our own opinions and back them up.  This should be fun.  

My question to you Rock Chalk Talk readers is this...take our current sample of three games.  Take our sample and take your preseason notions about this team.  What is your prediction for the end of the year right now?  What games do you see as losses?  What games are toss ups?  Will we be favored anywhere and lose?  Will we be an underdog and win?  If you were around early in the year some of you may remember this poll.  Has your vote changed?  Open it up to if you want 9-3 is obviously on the table, so is 7-5, and god forbid something worse than 6-6.  Let's here how you all feel and let's have some fun with this, let's get a little talk about the who's, the what's, the why's that will make or break this Jayhawk team.  I'll start things off with a little more detailed explanation of mine in the post.

At the beginning of the year I said 8-4 for this team.  I wasn't sure where the losses were coming from but I felt the tougher schedule and some inexperience at key spots would justify this in the long run.  Following the South Florida loss that has not changed. 

At the beginning of the year if I had known we were going to lose the game friday I may have adjusted down to 7-5 for the year, but after the way we lost, the battle we put up, and Todd Reesing showing me something I wasn't certain he had I feel good that we can compete with anyone. 

Here's the reality, right now we would be an underdog against, Texas, Texas Tech, Missouri and Oklahoma.  We would be favored against Nebraska, CU, ISU, K-State .  If your going strictly on that we are 7-5 at the end of this year.  8-4 to me sounds much better.  Again this is just a prediction some of this is based on things I have seen and others have to be based on my preseason thoughts because we don't have a good enough sample yet to say.  Also I hope we can win all of these but here we go:

• First off clearly to go 8-4 we are beating CU, K-State at home and I shudder the thought of a loss at ISU so that is a win for me as well.
• With our defensive line woes and lack of a pass rush I just don't see us beating Missouri or Oklahoma.  Quarterbacks are too good and these guys will be able to score in bunches.  However, there is an element that we should see in both games that could swing it and that is our team playing with nothing to lose and a giant chip on their shoulders.  I'm hopeful in both but not optimistic at this point 
• Texas is another one that I see as more of a mental hurdle for this team and they could clear it.  Texas doesn't have the wow factor they have in years past but make no mistake they are still Texas and Colt McCoy can play football.  Right now it's a loss to me but we haven't seen a huge sample for Texas and this could change and I hope it does.
• Tech I'm picking as my win in a game that as of right now we would be the underdog.  We won't know a thing about Tech until nearly week 6 when they go to K-State, but solely based on preseason notions I think we can exploit there defense and they have struggled at times on the road.
• Nebraska I have marked as a win but this is my biggest toss up.  This one to me is more of a toss up than Texas or Texas Tech and that is because it is in Lincoln.  No one in this world could convince me that after we threw up 76 on them last year that the bugeaters aren't going to be fired up.  There defense still looks suspect and there offense has been streaky early so it's still a win in my book but a very tricky game to pick.
• Lastly no game on our schedule after Sam Houston is a gimme and it's going to be a fun year for Kansas football.  Here's to keeping things rolling and let's hear everyone elses thought.  Also let's take another poll and see how or if opinions have changed.