I'm cautiously optimistic. Hoover needs to take a big stride forward, and the offense needs to go from generating "empty-calorie yards" to finishing in the red zone. The offensive line and defensive backfield are transfer heavy and need to gel as units, and we need (as always) to not do too badly on the injury front. If all of those worked out as we'd like, we have a manageable schedule and could be really good. If some of those work out as we hope we should be decent.
I'm not scared of anyone in the Big 12. Utah look solid but they are one bad hit on Rising from being solidly mediocre. K-State are, like TCU, going to live or die with a freshman QB's hopes of hitting his stride rather than slumping as a sophomore. Their guy (Avery Johnson) looks the better bet to do so than ours, but plenty of talented freshmen have failed to come good in the past, and plenty of comparably unheralded ones have surpassed expectations. You're seldom really as good as you feel when you're up (2022) or as poor as you feel when you're down (2023). Looking forward to seeing what this year brings.