The Tigers once again finished with at least eight wins after going 8-4 (5-3) in 2016. Ed Orgeron led the team to five of those victories after he was named the interim coach following Les Miles’ firing.

The expectations for Orgeron and the Tigers are pretty high, and it’ll be interesting to see if they’re able to reach them. LSU was ranked No. 12 in the preseason Coaches Poll and is expected to be in that neighborhood when the AP Top 25 Poll is released Aug. 21.

Here are some of the best and worst-case scenarios for the Tigers in their first full season under their new head coach.

Dream scenarios

1. Canada finally puts the offense over the top: Under former offensive coordinator Cam Cameron, the Tigers struggled to find balance between the run and the pass. The rushing game averaged being the fourth-best in the SEC over his four years calling plays, but the passing game was 11th.

Orgeron is hoping Matt Canada can change that. Canada comes to Baton Rouge after spending last season as the offensive coordinator for Pittsburgh of the ACC. He did some impressive work with former Tennessee transfer Nathan Peterman — who was a fourth-round pick to the Buffalo Bills after throwing for 2,855 yards, 27 touchdowns and 7 interceptions as a senior.

Canada’s offense scored 42 points against Big Ten champion Penn State and 43 in handing eventual champion Clemson its only loss.

2. Clapp makes smooth transition to C: Junior OL Will Clapp has proven to be a reliable guard for LSU. He has 23 starts (11 at RG, 12 at LG) and earned All-SEC honors last season.

At 6-5, 314 pounds, Clapp does an excellent job using his size to be a consistent force as a run blocker and pass protector. In fact, in his two years as a starter, the former 4-star prospect hasn’t give up a sack.

Clapp only has one question left to answer: Can he make a successful transition to center to replace Ethan Pocic — a third-round pick for the Seattle Seahawks in the 2017 NFL Draft?

3. Key dominates the SEC: It’s hard to have a much better year than Arden Key did in 2016. As a sophomore, he registered 12 sacks in only 11 games — breaking the school record for most sacks in a season.

Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

One of the biggest knocks on the former 4-star prospect was his lanky frame. At 6-6, Key only weighed about 235 pounds last season. While playing at that weight didn’t drastically affect his play, the LSU coaching staff wanted to put more weight on him. According to LSU’s official school website, Key has gotten that weight up to an impressive 265 pounds.

Key has proven that he is one of college football’s elite pass rushers, and the hope is that he can continue to create havoc on opposing quarterbacks.

4. Guice performs better without Fournette: Leonard Fournette only played in seven games last season. In those seven games, Derrius Guice was only able to post 408 rushing yards and 4 touchdowns — averaging 58.3 yards and 0.6 touchdowns per game. For comparison, in the five games where Fournette was out, Guice rushed for 903 yards and 11 touchdowns — an average of 180.6 yards and 2.2 touchdowns per game.

Guice seems to get better with each carry, and the argument could easily be made that Fournette’s presence hindered the Baton Rouge native. If you extrapolate the numbers where Guice was the workhorse, it equates to 2,167.2 yards and 26.4 touchdowns over 12 regular season games. Former Alabama RB Derrick Henry ran for an SEC-record 2,219 yards and 28 touchdowns during his Heisman Trophy season in 2015.

5. The away games aren’t as difficult as they look: LSU has a tough slate of road games. They’ll have to travel to Mississippi State, Florida, Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee.

According to this graphic from USA Today, LSU will play two of the top three teams from the SEC East — both on the road. Having to play Alabama in Tuscaloosa is already difficult enough, but LSU is going to have to overcome a lot more than that in its quest for their first SEC West title since 2011.

Disaster scenarios

1. The offense doesn’t improve under Canada: What if the offense ends up being more of the same under Canada? It’s actually not as outrageous as you might believe if you really think about it.

At Pittsburgh, Canada had star RB James Conner leading the run game, and his 1,092 rushing yards along with 16 touchdowns played a significant role in the Panthers having the conferences’ third-ranked rushing offense. The passing game was a different story, however.

Much like LSU in 2016, Pittsburgh’s passing game was one of the conferences’ worst — checking in as the 11th of the ACC’s 14 teams. The similarities to the offensive production as a whole is a lot more similar than people probably realize.

The good news for LSU is that Peterman was an efficient quarterback — the Panthers’ 28 TD passes ranked fifth in the league — and the offense still had the second best scoring offense in the ACC. LSU, meanwhile, finished 10th in scoring in the SEC and only Vanderbilt threw fewer TD passes than the Tigers (12).

2. Key struggles with distractions and lingering injuries: In February, Key left LSU for what was described as “personal reasons.” He missed the entire spring, and it wasn’t until early June that Key rejoined the team.

Once he returned, it was revealed that the star pass rusher had undergone shoulder surgery, and he was still in the process of recovering. What happens if one or both of these things end up playing a role in Key’s production this season?

We’re still not entirely sure why he left, and shoulder injuries can linger if some cases. After having to replace five starters in the front-seven, LSU can’t afford to have its best defensive player not playing at full speed. If that happens, it could be a disaster scenario.

3. Guice falters with a full workload: Guice only saw 20-plus carries in three of LSU’s 12 games. In fairness, one of them was a spectacular 37-carry effort against Texas A&M that netted a school-record 285 rushing yards and four touchdowns.

In comparison, Fournette saw 20-plus carries in nine of LSU’s 12 games in 2015. What if Guice struggles with a heavy workload and wears down?

Let’s face it, LSU’s offense is going to be run through Guice. Danny Etling is a solid starting quarterback, but he is considered more of a game-manager than a gunslinger who can carry the offense.

Unlike when Fournette was the lead guy, the Tigers don’t have a Derrius Guice-level running back waiting in the wings if Derrius Guice fails. As important as Key is to the defense, Guice is equally important to the offense. They need him to be in Heisman form for the entire season.