The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly: Preseason Projections

Well, it was a great year.

Actually, that's a giant understatement. This year was the best by any estimation, surpassing even 2005 (which was my favorite to date). Whether it be App State/Michigan, Stanford/USC, Colorado/Oklahoma, Syracuse/Louisville, Arizona/Oregon, Arkansas-Kentucky/LSU, or Pitt/West Virginia, you couldn't help but enjoy the upsets.

There were also many off-field things that caught a lot of people's interest. George Gipp's body was exhumed, Mike Gundy made it known that he was a man, Joe Paterno got into the verbal battle with that one dude, App State was HOT HOT HOT!, and the coaching searches were very interesting (Petrino to Arkansas, Jones to SMU, Rodriguez to Michigan).





But, what about my predictions? Whew, do we dare examine how clueless I was during the preseason? Okay, read...(I'm cringing while writing this)


THE GOOD (wha-wheawheawheawhea-wha, wha, wha, wha...):

•Cincinnati Would Surprise. Statistically, Cincy looked just as good as USF did on paper and I was actually sort of stunned at how drastically they were disrespected. Some people (like Joe Starkey) had Cincy finishing seventh in the conference. Brian Kelly is one of the top 5 coaches in the entire country and it's no surprise that Cincy was performing at that level. This team was a lot better than the one Dantonio had last year, they just had a few flukes against Pitt and Louisville.

•Sun Belt Titans. To begin the year, I was saying that FAU would come out on a top. I later switched that to Middle Tennessee near the end of the year, but I was really harping on the fact that the top three teams in the conference would be Middle Tennessee, Troy, and FAU. That was sort of the case with UL Monroe and Arkansas State looking decent at different points in the season though. I was singing Arkansas State's praises early on, but I shifted towards the three mentioned above later in the preseason.

•Rutgers/San Jose State/Rice Would Disappoint. There was no chance that they would repeat what they did in 2006. Brian Leonard was a pretty important piece to that puzzle and they had a lot of luck in pulling out many of their victories. I had SJSU pegged at 6-6 with Rice winning 3 or 4 games. Both teams had a huge amount of luck and, as evidenced by the 2006 New Orleans Bowl, there was no way in hell Rice should have found a way to get into a bowl game. Last year's SJSU team had more of a knack at finding ways to win. They really took a step back this year.

•Michigan Was All Hype. I was saying this for the longest time. There was no way on Earth that Michigan should have been in the top 5. I would have placed them in the top 25, but not anywhere near the top 10. Michigan showed their potential in the Capital One Bowl (where I had the Wolverines headed), but it was rarely used all year.

•No Bowl Game for Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish were depleted at almost every position and were forced to start a true freshman at QB. The schedule was one of the toughest in the nation even though it did lighten up near the end.




THE BAD (wha-wheawheawheawhea-wha, wha, wha, wha...):

•West Virginia and Louisville Were to Battle for the Big East Crown. I don't find this to be that bad of a prediction. Most people figured this would happen with Rutgers and USF being dark horses. But Kragthorpe was supposed to keep the momentum rolling and he just didn't.

•Western Michigan Was the Best MAC Team. I figured that Cubit would keep this thing going and they could have been the most baffling team in the country. How disappointing. The Broncos were selected to win the MAC West with their back-to-back winning seasons but it wasn't to be.

•Kentucky Would Miss the Postseason, but Vandy Would Go. Shoot. I whiffed on this one. I saw the Kentucky schedule being too difficult, but they did prove me wrong in games against Louisville, LSU, and Arkansas. I saw Vanderbilt getting a win against one more team plus Wake Forest.

•Kansas. What more is there to say? Nobody saw that coming. I had the Jayhawks at 6-6 and just missing out on the postseason like 2006. There really wasn't any indication that they would be very good, but they just.........were.

•Hawaii's BCS Dreams. I was saying all year that they would stumble once. It never happened (in the regular season). Even though they were basically playing a tough FCS schedule, the Warriors escaped potential road defeats against Louisiana Tech, San Jose State, and Nevada (the one game I thought they would trip up on).




THE UGLY (wha-wheawheawheawhea-wha, wha, wha, wha...):

•Auburn Would Be Down. Yeah right! They were one of the best teams in the country at the end of the season. Their defense was ferocious and even though the offense just flat out stunk, they exceeded my Liberty Bowl expectations.

•SMU Would Win the West. The Mustangs were pathetic under their final season with Phil Bennett. Justin Willis wasn't able to make plays even though he is certainly capable of making them. The defense was one of the worst in the nation.

•Arizona State Wouldn't Go to a Bowl. If you thought saying Oklahoma State, Kentucky, and Wake Forest wouldn't go bowling, how dumb does this sound? I said ASU would be 6-6 and get lost in the log jam. I also said Washington State would be bowling. Yeah......right....

•Nebraska Would Win the Big 12. Yikes! You never read this....

•Arizona's Holiday Bowl. I was big on the Wildcats this year, saying they had a shot at the Holiday Bowl. I really saw Sonny Dykes making the offense go through a gigantic improvement. Statistically it did a lot better, but it didn't score enough points and the defense wasn't as good as it has been over the last few years under Stoops.