They lose a ton of production on offense between the loss of two WRs, two TEs, and their RB Taylor. Not sure about the OL but they signed a very very good OL class last year so they should be fine there. Hogan at QB is an upgrade but he's no Andrew Luck. Plenty of FR sensations fail to carryover the spark into their SO years and to boot he has new offensive coordinator.
Their schedule is a tale of two halves. First half they face some ok teams but nobody who should be able to beat them straight up (yes I know Washington beat them last year). Second half is a tough stretch with UCLA, @ Ore St, Bye, Oregon, at USC, Cal, and Notre Dame. If they make it to 11-0 prior to playing us, they are the #1/#2 team.
I personally don't think they will go 11-0 but I sure hope they do. Both of our defenses should be comparable and I'll give our offense the edge as of now on paper. Plus I think ND drops a game to OU so losing that game and winning the rest (including a #1/#2 Stanford) gives us a shot to get back into the title game - where coincidentally ND has never lost in the Rose Bowl.
