WOOOOOOOOOO!
...and utter those three magical words: "in hand, motherfuckers."
Official "in hand, motherfucker" photo taken Saturday, June 4, 2011, after I stopped hyperventilating.
I've been digesting the 2011 College Football Preview as best I can, considering yesterday was full of yardwork and a nice dinner out. (No, I did not bring the Steele to the restaurant.) As you know it is JAMPACKED WITH INFORMATION but here are some initial observations:
I've been digesting the 2011 College Football Preview as best I can, considering yesterday was full of yardwork and a nice dinner out. (No, I did not bring the Steele to the restaurant.) As you know it is JAMPACKED WITH INFORMATION but here are some initial observations:
- He likes Alabama and Oklahoma in the title game.
- He had Ohio State at No. 15 knowing about the 5-game suspensions, but not about the car dealership and Tressel's resignation.
- Ohio U. is at Number 34! This is an insanely high number, and a huge inflation from their "pure" ranking (ignoring schedule) of No. 90. Why such a bump? Because Phil ranks their schedule as dead last in all of America. He likes them to win the MAC East.
- Notre Dame makes a strong showing in the unit rankings: #20 QB, #38 RB, #6 WR, #11 OL. And then get ready for this: #15 DL, #5 LB, #8 DB, #19 Special Teams.
- In fact, Phil is fully conflicted about the Irish: he admits ND under-achieves his prediction every year, but Brian Kelly over-achieves every year. This year he goes in for the Irish again, putting them at No. 6.
- Iowa, after losing a ton of senior talent, lands at third in the Western division behind Nebraska and Michigan State (#42 nationally).
- Whether you are glass half-full or glass half-lose-to-ISU about Iowa, turn to page 299. In two separate articles, he lists the Hawks as likely to improve on last year's bad fortune (3 net close losses), as those tend to even out over the years. But he also notes that Iowa's bend-but-don't-break defense gave up a lot of yards without giving up points, and that tends to even out to the other direction as well.
Quigley loves the Steele too. Wait, is that how he won last year??
Reading through Steele also piques your interest about all that knowledge he's crammed in there. For example, while perusing the MAC, I pieced together this marvelous trivia question: Who is the most recent MAC Coach of the Year still in his job? (Hint: 11 teams have a first-, second- or third-year coach.)
Even more crazy trivia question: who holds the record (since they started keeping track in 1965) for most MAC Coach of the Year awards? Keep in mind, the MAC is known as the "Cradle of Coaches" for sending luminaries to the Big Ten and other prominent Midwestern universities.
That's most of what I've got on first glance, without going all geeky on you** about the Newcomers section moving and the confusion of those western conferences. Leave your trivia guesses in the comments section. Pick 6 is only about 10 weeks away!
* Freudian slip. I really did type that, and found it too hilariously true to correct.
** 99% of readers to MPF004: "Too late."
Reading through Steele also piques your interest about all that knowledge he's crammed in there. For example, while perusing the MAC, I pieced together this marvelous trivia question: Who is the most recent MAC Coach of the Year still in his job? (Hint: 11 teams have a first-, second- or third-year coach.)
Even more crazy trivia question: who holds the record (since they started keeping track in 1965) for most MAC Coach of the Year awards? Keep in mind, the MAC is known as the "Cradle of Coaches" for sending luminaries to the Big Ten and other prominent Midwestern universities.
That's most of what I've got on first glance, without going all geeky on you** about the Newcomers section moving and the confusion of those western conferences. Leave your trivia guesses in the comments section. Pick 6 is only about 10 weeks away!
* Freudian slip. I really did type that, and found it too hilariously true to correct.
** 99% of readers to MPF004: "Too late."
1 comment:
And where is Illinois listed?
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