This is my quick, and non-educated (ok, somewhat educated) thinking on the 2009 Cowboys and is completely subject to change once I spend more time at practices and scrimmages.
Obviously, replacing the talent they had last year is not going to happen. It's pretty hard to replace the single season rushing and single season passing record holders at the same time, and then that defense. Holy Cow, what a defense that was.
But I don't see this team trying to replace anybody. There's no point in trying, so I don't think they will.
This is going to be a very young team, I want to say there's only a handful of seniors, so most of the starters will be juniors, and maybe a sophomore or two. But there is a ton of talent. Shane Cooley may be one of the most gifted athletes I've been around in my 5 years at the Star, and there are some big lineman.
I'm not sure who's going to be running the ball, but I'm guessing you could be seeing something different in the offensive system that was run last year.
I want to say they're replacing something like 19 starters, or pretty close to that, so there's not going to be a lot of expectations. But I see this team doing well. Looking at the rest of the Eastern A- Billings Central is going to be tough, really tough. I think they only lost a few guys (Grosulak being the most recognizable). Hardin lost their coach, who was a good one and will be missed. Laurel will be decent, but lost some studs. Sidney is still in a rough patch and Glendive wouldn't compete in most Class B conferences.
So in my predictions, I'm going with the Cowboys second in the Eastern A this year and will be at least a few games over .500.