Whoa. We are most definitely NOT national title contenders this year. Not unless this offense makes miraculous strides from last year.
Our legitimate expectations this year are:
Win the Big XII North - not a guarantee, but very possible. Missouri will be stout, and we'll have to avoid getting tripped up by A&M, OSU, Texas and Missouri. These are all losable games.
Win the Big XII Championship - If we get in the title game, and we play with the same heart we played it with last year, I give us one chance in two to win the Conference Title. There isn't a team in the Big XII that I'm afraid of. There are a lot of pretty decent teams, though.
Win a BCS Game - Definitely our biggest hurdle, and not just because even getting here depends on one or both of the first two expectations coming to fruition. I give us one chance in ten to be playing in the MNC game. I give us one chance in five of just making a BCS game. Once there, our defense should keep us within striking distance of just about anyone (barring a Texas Tech-like collapse like last year), but the questions on offense are what concern me.
Any talk of a national title run ignores the disaster that constituted our offense last year, and presumes that all the areas of weakness we had will have been fixed in the offseason. While possible, it is not likely that they are all fixed, and we would need every one of them fixed to make a run.