Preseason expectations have been exceeded, but those have changed significantly since even before the LSU game. My "revised" predictions are on par with where we currently are.
Preseason, I expected 7-5. I thought we'd lose to Bama, lose all 3 to LSU-UGA-Auburn, and split A&M / Ark one way or the other while winning the rest.
After week 2, when it was blatantly obvious how terrible A&M and Arkansas were (in addition to OM who was already known to suck) and how mediocre the rest of the West was outside Alabama, I upgraded my position to 9-3. Lose to Bama, win one out of 3 vs. LSU-UGA-Auburn (check), win both against A&M and Arkansas. We are right on track with that right now.
One thing that is weird is that Mullen has never gone 7-5 or 9-3. He's hit every final record between 5-7 and 10-2 besides those. So its kind of weird that both of my predictions would be Mullen firsts if they actually happened.