I love to watch college football, and I try to get as good a feel as I can for who's going to be good and bad. Problem is, I know nothing of recruits since Seton Hall never had a football team. As long as the Pirates play in the Big East and the NCAA Tournament is a possibility, I always will look at recruiting and comparing college basketball teams. What Seton Hall robbed me of is a football team to tailgate hours and hours for and the chance to storm the field after big wins, unlike a certain fellow New Jersey school that no matter how many times we finish better than them in basketball (which is everytime), will always have football over our heads.
The good thing about this year in college football is there are so many name players coming back such as Colt McCoy, Sam Bradford, Dez Bryant and of course Jack Bauer and Chuck Norris rolled into one, Tim Tebow. This definitely shapes our best college season since 2005 when Reggie Bush, Matt Leinhart and Vince Young were centerstage and were all-time great NFL prospects great college football players. That is the first of my fearless predictions on this college season, which will also feature a picks post just like I will do during the NFL season. Here's five more:
1. Notre Dame will finish at 9-3, but their schedule keeps them out of the BCS. Charlie Weis won't survive this year without a BCS bid and true to form, the Irish will fire him after the season. Notre Dame will try to get Urban Meyer and get laughed in their face again, before picking up another former NFL coach, Herman Edwards to become the next Pete Carroll and to make up for any residual anger over how they handled Tyrone Willingham (though his Washington career has proven the Irish correct to fire him). And if there was a coach that would be as good as Carroll, wouldn't it be Herm. He can motivate anyone and would rarely have to make any real decisions in coaching. We all remember how Carroll ruined the game for USC in the 2006 Rose Bowl by leaving Bush on the bench and running White on 4th and 2 when 100,000 people knew what play was coming. Well he's proven to succeed without any real coaching ability and Herm will too. Of course, Notre Dame could hire Jeff Jagodzinski, who was fired by the Bucs today to try to irk Boston College.
2. Rutgers will win the Big East with a 8-4 record and get the BCS bid despite 4 teams out West who will have better years. I'd say that Penn St would do the same, but they have a joke of a non-conference schedule that even my high school alma mater could beat. The ACC will be better since they have to be, though Virginia Tech is still the team to beat. And it will still be USC's Pac-10 to lose, since Oregon and California will have to prove they can beat the Trojans. USC is still the one team not in the Big 12 or SEC that could win a National Championship and it wouldn't be tainted and/or surprising. Any other team it will be because the Big East is terrible this year, the Big Ten is the Big Ten, and the ACC can't be expected to become a top conference one year after the parity that was involved. As for the Pac-10, they are arguably worse than the Mountain West.
3. There will be two teams outside non-BCS conference that will make it to the BCS. Boise St will be one of them (yes, I'm picking them against Oregon) and even though they will lose to Oklahoma, BYU will win the Mountain West and finish 11-1 and get into the BCS. They will join Rutgers, Virginia Tech, Penn State, USC, Texas, Oklahoma , Florida and Alabama in the BCS this season. Of course, Boise State will go undefeated and will not go to the BCS Title game, and once again we will hear about a playoff in college football as we do every year. I guess that's the most fearless pick you can make in sports is complaints about the BCS. It would be like the ESPN NFL Power Rankings deciding who goes to the Super Bowl. That's what will always hurt college football for those who don't live and bleed with their alma maters.
4. Dez Bryant will be the best player in college football this season and that won't be good enough for an invite to Manhattan for the Heisman Trophy. We don't even need to play games this year, the finalists will be Tebow, Bradford and McCoy, that's it, thanks for playing everyone else. Bryant will be this year's Michael Crabtree...wait a minute, this year's Michael Crabtree decided his best course of action is to listen to his cousin and not play this year for the Niners, costing him the millions he would of got if he just took less than Darius Haywood-Bey... scratch that, Bryant will be last year's Crabtree. Colt McCoy will win the Heisman this year because Heisman voters will think he deserves it since Tebow and Bradford won it already (should McCoy get hurt, Jesus' QB will win his second).
5. Florida will not win the National Championship this season. Anytime teams like Florida are hyped as they are, they either lose a late game to knock themselves out of the BCS Title Game picture, or they lose the BCS Title Game. Florida should get to the national championship game, and they will play USC in a battle for Team of the 00's (should be pronounced "oughts"). I know USC is starting a true freshman in Matt Barkley, but for some reason, I think USC will find a way to A. not waste a Pac-10 game, costing their shot at a title and B. keeping the game lower scoring than Oklahoma did last year. USC will be unbeaten this year, the first one since Texas in '05. Texas will win the Big 12, but lose to Oklahoma State, costing them a championship game appearance, while Oklahoma will finished tied with Texas, but lose in Dallas at The House Jerry Built.
Also, as I mentioned earlier, I will make college picks each week and you can compete against me on ESPN's College Pick'em with confidence points. On this site, I pick against the spread so here's my picks this week (based on College Pick'em and interesting games omitted):
LSU (-18) over Washington
Minnesota (-7) over Syracuse
Navy (+22) over Ohio State (I don't think Ohio St. blows them out)
Missouri (-7) over Illinois
BYU (+22.5) over Oklahoma
Wash St (+16.5) over Stanford
Maryland (+21) over California
Wake Forest (-2.5) over Baylor
Oklahoma St. (-4.5) over Georgia
Alabama (-6.5) over Virginia Tech
Monday's games
Rutgers (-5) over Cincinnati
Florida St. (-6.5) over Miami
Upset special
Western Michigan over Michigan both ATS and SU
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