Excellent interview and I totally agree about not utilizing ASJ enough, especially in the short passing game! ASJ could've stiff-armed or bounced off the first tackler and gotten more YAC. Yeah he wasn't in ideal shape but it's not like Benn was proposing ASJ run deep skinny posts every play.
I expect a MINIMUM of 9 wins next year and am projecting 10 regular season wins in 2014. Losing talent and experience like Sankey, Price, and ASJ isn't ideal but we are pretty deep at RB, very talented at QB, and Perkins began to emerge more last year; he's no ASJ but he can still be a mismatch in the passing game and should have more size to him now that he's a RS-JR.
But more than anything, we return ALL 5 starting OL and from what I've gathered, Strausser is a superior OL coach to our previous one. A more mobile QB and better passing blocking (already good at run blocking) should cut down on sacks allowed / throw-aways.
On D, we return all of our starting front 7 except for Fuiamaono. He was good but RS-JR Feeney arguably is an upgrade and he's farther removed from his shoulder surgery at the end of the 2012 season (that and maybe some complacency may have led to a disappointing 2013).
I don't think I'm Dooging out in seeing 10 regular season wins and inexperience at QB, no as-of-yet proven #1 RB, a TBD secondary outside of Peters, and an uncertain specialist situation could put us at 5-4 in the Pac or even a puke in my mouth 4-5 Pac-12 record. Still, I see so much experience returning (and on the all-important lines) and superior coaching, especially now that the Fat Club Hopping Hamster, Cozzetto, and Johnny Nantarded are gone.