SEC Preview 2010
West:
The SEC west features the overwhelming number one team in the nation. The defending National Champion Alabama Crimson Tide bring back their quarterback, running back, and maybe most importantly, their coach. Nick Saban has done amazing things at Alabama. He took an underachieving program to the top of the rankings. Bama has lost only two games in the last two years, and should be right back in the title hunt this year.
The question in the West is what are the teams behind Alabama going to do. Auburn should be better this year. SEC fans will know the name Cameron Newton. The ex-Florida Gator could win the starting quarterback job out of fall practice, but one way or another, Newton will see the field this year on the plains.
Arkansas has the offensive talent to challenge Alabama in the league. The Tide have to travel to Fayetteville to play the Hogs, so Arkansas will have their chance to unseat the Kings of the West. My guess is that Arkansas will underachieve this year. Ryan Mallet doesn’t have the mental makeup to last a long, hard season in the SEC. Not to mention, Bobby Petrino has be getting a little antsy. He hasn’t run out on a team in almost two years…
LSU will be looking for a new coach after this season. Les Miles won a title just a few years ago, but those were Nick Saban’s players, and Tiger fans have seen a lot of talent translate into nothing on the field. LSU will lose in Atlanta in the Chick-fil-A kickoff game, and Miles will be on his way out from there. Funny thing is, North Carolina, who LSU will lose to in Atlanta, will be where LSU turns for a new coach. I expect Heals coach Butch Davis to be the front-runner for LSU.
Bad year for Mississippi. First an oil spill and then a long fall for Rebels and Bogus Bulldogs alike. If I had to pick one to stink a little less, I’ll take the Bogus Bulldogs.
East:
Never in the history of the SEC have we seen a season like we will see this fall. Georgia, Florida, and Tennessee will all have new quarterbacks and new defensive coordinators. Tennessee also has a new head coach. Florida’s head coach was retired for about 20 minutes, and Georgia will feature a 3-4 defense.
The obvious first impression for any prognosticator would be that South Carolina should be in position to win the East this year. They have an experienced quarterback, stability within the coaching staff, they play three of their four hardest games of the year at home, and they have a very solid defense. So South Carolina will play in the Dome in early December right?
Wrong.
There is one indisputable fact that South Carolina has going against it. They are South Carolina. They will find some way to screw it up. The only thing South Carolina has done since Spurrier got there is ruin Georgia’s season in 2007 as well as Florida’s season in 2005. Both of those teams would have played in the SEC title game if it weren’t for a loss to the Gamecocks, and Georgia might have had a shot at the National title in 2007. Funny thing is, in 2005 South Carolina finished the season 7-5 and they were a game worse in 2007 when they finished 6-6.
So, with the lame cocks out of the picture, we are left to speculate which of the Big 3 rebuilding programs can make it to Atlanta. Tennessee is out. There talent level has dropped off after losing Eric Berry on defense, and Bryce Brown has left the program.
So, it’s down to Georgia and Florida. By the time we make it to Jacksonville, we will know what these two teams are. The winner of the game in Jacksonville should play Alabama in Atlanta. My heart says Georgia, but my head says Florida.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Saturday, August 28, 2010
A Look around the country
National Preview:
ACC:
The theme at the beginning of the 2010 season for the ACC will be welcoming the new.
Jimbo Fisher is the new head coach at Florida State. He is charged with returning the ‘Noles to the level of national importance they seemed to own during the 90’s under Bobby Bowden.
There are new expectations at North Carolina. Butch Davis has the Tar Heals garnering some National attention with a defense that will feature multiple first round NFL draft picks and an offense that can’t possibly be as bad as they were last year.
There is a new defensive coordinator at Georgia Tech. Despite winning the ACC last year, Paul Johnson was not happy with his defense, so he brought in Al Groh to be his new coordinator. Early prediction: Al Groh will be the best thing to happen to Georgia Tech since Reggie Ball graduated.
At the end of the season however, it will be all about the old. The same old teams will be in contention in ACC. It is quite possible that the four best teams in this league all play in the same division. Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, Miami, and North Carolina will have fun beating each other’s brains in throughout the year, and by rule, one of these teams will make it to Jacksonville (or whatever parking lot they are having the ACC title game in this year). My pick is Virginia Tech. I feel sorry for Frank Beamer. His team could compete for a national title, but the schedule is just too tough. Virginia Tech will have to settle for beating the crap out of one of the also-rans in the ACC Atlantic Division, I’ll take Florida State for no reason what-so-ever.
Big 10:
The Big 11 as it stands now and the future Big 12, which for some unknown reason will still be called the Big 10 next year, will enter its final season before big changes come to this numerical oddity of a conference. The only conference I hate more than the ACC is the Big 10. However, they may be able to manage some decent football this year.
Ohio State is clearly the favorite, but Wisconsin and Iowa should both have a say. Penn State is probably good for an upset of one of the Big 3 at the top of the conference, and Michigan will be looking to hire another coach very soon. Luckily for them, Les Miles will probably be available after this season.
At the end of the day it breaks down like this. If Ohio State loses a game, they better hope there isn’t a 1 or 2 loss SEC Champion out there because they might be settling for Roses rather than playing for crystal come January.
Big 12:
The Big 12, which will be the Big 10 after this season (no word yet if they will have a name that make sense in 2011) will once again come down to Texas and Oklahoma.
Texas flirted with every other conference in America during the summer, but it is still the best team in this conference.
If you are looking for a team that is going to come out of nowhere, keep looking past Texas A&M. All the national guys are picking A&M to be a contender this season, which means they aren’t coming out of nowhere. Besides, we have heard this song before in the Big 12. Remember Oklahoma State last year? They were better, but they still couldn’t crack the Texas/Oklahoma strangle hold on this conference.
Honestly, the thing I’m looking forward to the most in the Big 12 is to see how Tommy Tuberville does at Texas Tech.
Big East:
Do they still play football?
PAC 10:
Top to bottom the Pac 10 should be the second best conference in America this season. Defending champion Oregon should be favorite again, and they should be getting a lot of national attention.
However, there is that semi-pro team that plays in Los Angeles that seems to be making the news a bit these days. USC can’t go to a bowl game this year, they have a coach that would be the National Champion of BS if such a thing existed, and still they will be the center of the Pac 10 universe.
Even if they win the conference the number 2 team would play in the Rose Bowl, so unless they are playing one of the actual contenders in this conference, or unless I want to make fun of them, this blog will be a USC-free zone for the next two seasons.
Arizona, Washington, Stanford, and Oregon State should all have a say in the Pac 10 this year, but at the end of the day, the Ducks might be a national title contender.
Notre Dame:
Notre Dame and A-TRAK’s have two things in common: they were both great in the 70’s and neither are coming back.
Good luck Chip Kelly. In four years you will be able to join Bob Davie, Ty Willingham, and Charlie Weis in the group of men who couldn’t resurrect this buzzard of a program.
Prediction for the Future: The top two candidates for the Notre Dame heading coaching job in 2014 will be Urban Meyer and Pete Carroll.
In all seriousness, there are a handful of teams that could play for the National title in January. Although I won’t give you a Top 10 or Top 25 until these teams play a few games, here are my contenders, pretenders, and programs to keep an eye on.
Contenders:
Alabama
Ohio State
Texas
Oklahoma
Florida
Virginia Tech
Oregon
Iowa
Miami
Pretenders:
Boise State
TCU
BYU
North Carolina
Nebraska
Keep an Eye On:
Georgia
Arizona
Washington
Texas Tech
Clemson
Auburn
Close Both Eyes and run away:
Teams from Mississippi
Teams from Michigan
Teams from Los Angeles
The Big East
Tomorrow: SEC Preview!
ACC:
The theme at the beginning of the 2010 season for the ACC will be welcoming the new.
Jimbo Fisher is the new head coach at Florida State. He is charged with returning the ‘Noles to the level of national importance they seemed to own during the 90’s under Bobby Bowden.
There are new expectations at North Carolina. Butch Davis has the Tar Heals garnering some National attention with a defense that will feature multiple first round NFL draft picks and an offense that can’t possibly be as bad as they were last year.
There is a new defensive coordinator at Georgia Tech. Despite winning the ACC last year, Paul Johnson was not happy with his defense, so he brought in Al Groh to be his new coordinator. Early prediction: Al Groh will be the best thing to happen to Georgia Tech since Reggie Ball graduated.
At the end of the season however, it will be all about the old. The same old teams will be in contention in ACC. It is quite possible that the four best teams in this league all play in the same division. Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, Miami, and North Carolina will have fun beating each other’s brains in throughout the year, and by rule, one of these teams will make it to Jacksonville (or whatever parking lot they are having the ACC title game in this year). My pick is Virginia Tech. I feel sorry for Frank Beamer. His team could compete for a national title, but the schedule is just too tough. Virginia Tech will have to settle for beating the crap out of one of the also-rans in the ACC Atlantic Division, I’ll take Florida State for no reason what-so-ever.
Big 10:
The Big 11 as it stands now and the future Big 12, which for some unknown reason will still be called the Big 10 next year, will enter its final season before big changes come to this numerical oddity of a conference. The only conference I hate more than the ACC is the Big 10. However, they may be able to manage some decent football this year.
Ohio State is clearly the favorite, but Wisconsin and Iowa should both have a say. Penn State is probably good for an upset of one of the Big 3 at the top of the conference, and Michigan will be looking to hire another coach very soon. Luckily for them, Les Miles will probably be available after this season.
At the end of the day it breaks down like this. If Ohio State loses a game, they better hope there isn’t a 1 or 2 loss SEC Champion out there because they might be settling for Roses rather than playing for crystal come January.
Big 12:
The Big 12, which will be the Big 10 after this season (no word yet if they will have a name that make sense in 2011) will once again come down to Texas and Oklahoma.
Texas flirted with every other conference in America during the summer, but it is still the best team in this conference.
If you are looking for a team that is going to come out of nowhere, keep looking past Texas A&M. All the national guys are picking A&M to be a contender this season, which means they aren’t coming out of nowhere. Besides, we have heard this song before in the Big 12. Remember Oklahoma State last year? They were better, but they still couldn’t crack the Texas/Oklahoma strangle hold on this conference.
Honestly, the thing I’m looking forward to the most in the Big 12 is to see how Tommy Tuberville does at Texas Tech.
Big East:
Do they still play football?
PAC 10:
Top to bottom the Pac 10 should be the second best conference in America this season. Defending champion Oregon should be favorite again, and they should be getting a lot of national attention.
However, there is that semi-pro team that plays in Los Angeles that seems to be making the news a bit these days. USC can’t go to a bowl game this year, they have a coach that would be the National Champion of BS if such a thing existed, and still they will be the center of the Pac 10 universe.
Even if they win the conference the number 2 team would play in the Rose Bowl, so unless they are playing one of the actual contenders in this conference, or unless I want to make fun of them, this blog will be a USC-free zone for the next two seasons.
Arizona, Washington, Stanford, and Oregon State should all have a say in the Pac 10 this year, but at the end of the day, the Ducks might be a national title contender.
Notre Dame:
Notre Dame and A-TRAK’s have two things in common: they were both great in the 70’s and neither are coming back.
Good luck Chip Kelly. In four years you will be able to join Bob Davie, Ty Willingham, and Charlie Weis in the group of men who couldn’t resurrect this buzzard of a program.
Prediction for the Future: The top two candidates for the Notre Dame heading coaching job in 2014 will be Urban Meyer and Pete Carroll.
In all seriousness, there are a handful of teams that could play for the National title in January. Although I won’t give you a Top 10 or Top 25 until these teams play a few games, here are my contenders, pretenders, and programs to keep an eye on.
Contenders:
Alabama
Ohio State
Texas
Oklahoma
Florida
Virginia Tech
Oregon
Iowa
Miami
Pretenders:
Boise State
TCU
BYU
North Carolina
Nebraska
Keep an Eye On:
Georgia
Arizona
Washington
Texas Tech
Clemson
Auburn
Close Both Eyes and run away:
Teams from Mississippi
Teams from Michigan
Teams from Los Angeles
The Big East
Tomorrow: SEC Preview!
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
5 Rules for Enjoying the New Fooball Season
For any college football fan, each season seems to go by way too fast. It seems that August lasts for 6 months, and before you know it, it is New Year’s Day. However, there are a few things that every fan should remember when heading into a new college football season. All you need to know are these five rules:
1. Preseason Polls are crap.
There is nothing less scientific than preseason polls. The preseason poll is almost always based on last year’s team, which obviously has nothing to do with this year’s team, even if there are a lot of returning starters. The other factors that go into making a preseason poll is media hype. ESPN creates some teams to be better than they are because they need good stories. They want to hype every team to boost ratings. If there was any justice in the world, there would be no official preseason polls.
Think about this, in 2004, the Auburn Tigers went undefeated in the toughest conference in America. However, they were shut out of the National Championship game because all season long they had been ranked behind both USC and Oklahoma. Why were they ranked there? Because in the preseason poll they were ranked #17, while USC and Oklahoma were ranked #1 and #2 respectively. Auburn was ranked 7 spots lower than the Florida Gators who ended up going 7-5 in 2004. Obviously Oklahoma and USC were good teams, but Auburn was too, and the preseason poll was the only reason they never got a shot at playing USC for the national championship.
2. Have reasonable expectations for your team, you’ll live longer.
Here is a news flash: only one team can win a National Championship each year. So programs like USC, Ohio St., Florida, Alabama, Texas, LSU, Georgia, Miami, Virginia Tech, Oklahoma, and Notre Dame who expect their team to be playing for a title each and every year are bound to be disappointed more times than not. Winning a national championship is very difficult, and most of the time, talent is not enough to get a ring (more on that in a bit).
You have to be aware of who your team is, in order to accurately judge the season as it plays out. Georgia fans should not expect to win a National Championship in 2010. This doesn’t mean that there is no way Georgia could win, but to expect a red-shirt freshman to lead you to a title is simply ridiculous. A great season in Athens this year would be 10-2. That means that 2 times during the season, Georgia is going to lose. That means, after Georgia loses a game, there is no reason for any fan to talk about Mark Richt being fired, Mike Bobo being fired, or benching Aaron Murray. Write it down on a piece of paper and stick it to your refrigerator: 10-2. Look at it after Georgia loses its first game, and don’t be one of those fans who end up looking stupid at the end of the year.
3. One loss is ok for a National Title Contender.
For those teams who come into a season with a reasonable expectation to contend for a title, one loss will most likely not mean the end of your January dreams. Sure, there have been a few exceptions, most heartbreakingly Georgia in 2002, but for the most part, a one loss team will still be in the picture come November, especially a one loss SEC team.
Now, as with any rule, there are a couple of exceptions. If you are a non-BCS team, you have no chance if you aren’t undefeated, if you lose your last game of the season, you will not play for the title, and if you are Ohio State you better win all of your games because you have given us enough bad games in January.
4. Two losses is not ok for a National Title Contender.
Just as one loss doesn’t eliminate you from contention, two losses does. Of course there are exceptions, LSU in 2007 being the only exception thus far. However, I can see another exception perhaps happening this year. Let’s say Alabama loses to Florida in the regular season loses another game before the beginning of November. Then they get hot and beat Auburn to finish the year. They roll over the Gators in the SEC championship and finish the season 11-2. They could get in ahead of a one loss Ohio State team, and perhaps ahead of an undefeated Boise State, TCU, or Utah team. However, their #1 preseason ranking is the only reason they might be able to pull this off.
5. Injuries, luck, and upsets will usually decide the championship.
For all of these categories, we will focus only on Georgia.
Injuries. In 2005, Georgia was playing about as good as any team in the country. Until DJ Shockley got hurt against Arkansas on Homecoming and ended up missing the Florida game. Georgia loses to Florida and then loses to Auburn 2 weeks later by a single point when Shockley returns. Without the injury, maybe those two wins get Georgia into the title conversation. The win over #3 LSU in the SEC title game would have given Georgia a very convincing argument.
Luck. Let’s look back at 2002. Many fans remember this as the rebirth of Georgia football. SEC Champs and Sugar Bowl Champs. But remember the season. Georgia is a heroic play by David Pollack away from losing to South Carolina, and there was that tiny little miracle on the Plains in Auburn where Michael Johnson wrote his name in Georgia’s history books. In more recent years, both Florida and Alabama have benefited from blocked field goals at the end of games to keep their title hopes alive, and both eventually took home the hardware. Ohio State got a bad call against Miami in 2002 in the title game to keep their hopes alive. While Colorado got 5 downs against Michigan in 1990 to share a title with the bumble bees from Atlanta. As is true in all walks of life, sometimes it is better to be lucky than good.
Upsets. Each year we look down the schedule and find the game we think our team can win, and the ones our team might lose. More often than not, you will select a win that will become a loss when the season is played out. Upsets are a huge part of College Football each and every year. Georgia was upset twice in 2007 (South Carolina and Tennessee). LSU was upset twice that very same year (Kentucky and Arkansas). Ole Miss clipped Florida in 2008. Florida broke Bulldog hearts in 2002. Georgia shocked LSU in 2005 in the Dome. Don’t get too far ahead of yourself on the schedule because nothing is a guarantee.
All of these rules lead us to the biggest rule about College Football. Enjoy the ride. It will be January very soon.
1. Preseason Polls are crap.
There is nothing less scientific than preseason polls. The preseason poll is almost always based on last year’s team, which obviously has nothing to do with this year’s team, even if there are a lot of returning starters. The other factors that go into making a preseason poll is media hype. ESPN creates some teams to be better than they are because they need good stories. They want to hype every team to boost ratings. If there was any justice in the world, there would be no official preseason polls.
Think about this, in 2004, the Auburn Tigers went undefeated in the toughest conference in America. However, they were shut out of the National Championship game because all season long they had been ranked behind both USC and Oklahoma. Why were they ranked there? Because in the preseason poll they were ranked #17, while USC and Oklahoma were ranked #1 and #2 respectively. Auburn was ranked 7 spots lower than the Florida Gators who ended up going 7-5 in 2004. Obviously Oklahoma and USC were good teams, but Auburn was too, and the preseason poll was the only reason they never got a shot at playing USC for the national championship.
2. Have reasonable expectations for your team, you’ll live longer.
Here is a news flash: only one team can win a National Championship each year. So programs like USC, Ohio St., Florida, Alabama, Texas, LSU, Georgia, Miami, Virginia Tech, Oklahoma, and Notre Dame who expect their team to be playing for a title each and every year are bound to be disappointed more times than not. Winning a national championship is very difficult, and most of the time, talent is not enough to get a ring (more on that in a bit).
You have to be aware of who your team is, in order to accurately judge the season as it plays out. Georgia fans should not expect to win a National Championship in 2010. This doesn’t mean that there is no way Georgia could win, but to expect a red-shirt freshman to lead you to a title is simply ridiculous. A great season in Athens this year would be 10-2. That means that 2 times during the season, Georgia is going to lose. That means, after Georgia loses a game, there is no reason for any fan to talk about Mark Richt being fired, Mike Bobo being fired, or benching Aaron Murray. Write it down on a piece of paper and stick it to your refrigerator: 10-2. Look at it after Georgia loses its first game, and don’t be one of those fans who end up looking stupid at the end of the year.
3. One loss is ok for a National Title Contender.
For those teams who come into a season with a reasonable expectation to contend for a title, one loss will most likely not mean the end of your January dreams. Sure, there have been a few exceptions, most heartbreakingly Georgia in 2002, but for the most part, a one loss team will still be in the picture come November, especially a one loss SEC team.
Now, as with any rule, there are a couple of exceptions. If you are a non-BCS team, you have no chance if you aren’t undefeated, if you lose your last game of the season, you will not play for the title, and if you are Ohio State you better win all of your games because you have given us enough bad games in January.
4. Two losses is not ok for a National Title Contender.
Just as one loss doesn’t eliminate you from contention, two losses does. Of course there are exceptions, LSU in 2007 being the only exception thus far. However, I can see another exception perhaps happening this year. Let’s say Alabama loses to Florida in the regular season loses another game before the beginning of November. Then they get hot and beat Auburn to finish the year. They roll over the Gators in the SEC championship and finish the season 11-2. They could get in ahead of a one loss Ohio State team, and perhaps ahead of an undefeated Boise State, TCU, or Utah team. However, their #1 preseason ranking is the only reason they might be able to pull this off.
5. Injuries, luck, and upsets will usually decide the championship.
For all of these categories, we will focus only on Georgia.
Injuries. In 2005, Georgia was playing about as good as any team in the country. Until DJ Shockley got hurt against Arkansas on Homecoming and ended up missing the Florida game. Georgia loses to Florida and then loses to Auburn 2 weeks later by a single point when Shockley returns. Without the injury, maybe those two wins get Georgia into the title conversation. The win over #3 LSU in the SEC title game would have given Georgia a very convincing argument.
Luck. Let’s look back at 2002. Many fans remember this as the rebirth of Georgia football. SEC Champs and Sugar Bowl Champs. But remember the season. Georgia is a heroic play by David Pollack away from losing to South Carolina, and there was that tiny little miracle on the Plains in Auburn where Michael Johnson wrote his name in Georgia’s history books. In more recent years, both Florida and Alabama have benefited from blocked field goals at the end of games to keep their title hopes alive, and both eventually took home the hardware. Ohio State got a bad call against Miami in 2002 in the title game to keep their hopes alive. While Colorado got 5 downs against Michigan in 1990 to share a title with the bumble bees from Atlanta. As is true in all walks of life, sometimes it is better to be lucky than good.
Upsets. Each year we look down the schedule and find the game we think our team can win, and the ones our team might lose. More often than not, you will select a win that will become a loss when the season is played out. Upsets are a huge part of College Football each and every year. Georgia was upset twice in 2007 (South Carolina and Tennessee). LSU was upset twice that very same year (Kentucky and Arkansas). Ole Miss clipped Florida in 2008. Florida broke Bulldog hearts in 2002. Georgia shocked LSU in 2005 in the Dome. Don’t get too far ahead of yourself on the schedule because nothing is a guarantee.
All of these rules lead us to the biggest rule about College Football. Enjoy the ride. It will be January very soon.
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