One thing I think a lot of people forget or ignore about the 2012 team is that most of those dudes were major pieces of the 2011 team -- one of the unluckiest, disappointing, and soul crushing teams in A&M football history.
Everybody thinks of Manziel, but most of the starters were major players during the 2011 fiasco and I think that was a major aspect that made 2012 a special team.
My hope is that this group of guys learned the lessons from last year. While we have some portal guys there are a lot of dudes on this team that have already experienced losing 4 out of 5 to close a season.