Fatty, good point about 96. The big thing is that I don't think there are as many "gimmees" now as there were then though. ku, ISU, MU, and OSU were all pretty dreadful that year; all probably worse than any Big 12 team this year, and Cinci and Rice were probably both worse than Marshall. Tech and aTm were pretty decent, and NU and CU were very good teams. I do think this year's team could've made a run at 9-2 with that schedule though, and I think 7-5 is the ceiling for our current schedule.
Again, I don't think this year's defense was on par with that one, but I do think offensively and special teams wise these teams are pretty close.