Feldman: 10 teams that can win the BCS
April 7, 2009 by feed · Leave a Comment
ESPN’s Bruce Feldman breaks down ten team that have the best shot to win the BCS in 2009. There’s some familiar favorites on the list (Florida, USC, Oklahoma… yawn), but a couple of fresh faces on the list that are sure to raise some eyebrows.
Ole Miss: This may look crazy, but keep reading. The Rebels are fearless. They won at both Florida and LSU last season. They have a budding star at quarterback in Jevan Snead, some terrific receivers, and potentially the best D-line in the country. They also have the luxury of playing the softest nonconference schedule in the country, with two games against FCS teams, UAB and a Memphis team they beat every year. Better still, they get Alabama and LSU at home. Can the Rebs handle success and expectations now? We’ll see. A Thursday night trip to South Carolina appears to be the toughest road game.
OK. I’m not Nutts about the pick (ba-da-dum-ching!), but this is just crazy:
Oklahoma State: I love the Cowboys’ offense, and I think bringing in Bill Young to run the defense was a great move, but OSU has to go to Norman late and gets a visit from Georgia early. Also, playing Houston in Week 2 right after a big, physical Bulldogs team might be more treacherous than people think.
In my opinion, Feldman tends to fall in love with the personality of a team and that clouds his perception, but… he makes a strong case for several “dark horses”, including Virginia Tech and ((gulp)) Notre Dame.
Check out the whole thing over at Bruce’s blog.
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Who are the nation’s greenest units?
March 17, 2009 by feed · Leave a Comment
The ESPN bloggers are getting into the St. Patrick’s Day spirit by breaking down the least experienced units in college football. Some highlights below, with links to the full reviews….
BYU offensive line: The Cougars will have to fill four of the five starting spots on the offensive line, but do have some depth there since several players received playing time due to injuries and some shuffling last year.
Boise State wide receivers: Boise State lost its three starting receivers, including Jeremy Childs, who left early for the NFL. Childs led the team in receiving yards and receptions last year and now quarterback Kellen Moore is going to have to break in some new playmakers.
Louisville: The biggest bunch of newbies are at quarterback, where there are four candidates for the job but not one who’s seen any significant playing time at this level.
South Florida: Look no farther than the offensive line, where four of five starters need to be replaced.
Oklahoma offensive line: The departure of starting center Jon Cooper, tackle Phil Loadholt and guards Duke Robinson and Brandon Walker means that Sam Bradford will have an inexperienced group protecting him next season. Trent Williams moves to left tackle and Bob Stoops likes his incoming talent, if not its early work habits.
Texas defensive line: The major question dogging the Longhorns’ national title hopes will be rebuilding a defensive front that loses All-American defensive end Brian Orakpo, defensive tackle Roy Miller, defensive tackleAaron Lewis and defensive end Henry Melton from last season.
Texas Tech offensive line: New quarterback Taylor Potts will be relying on a retooled offensive line protecting his blind side after left tackle Rylan Reed, left guard Louis Vasquez and center Stephen Hamby all departed from last year.
Alabama: The Crimson Tide are replacing three-year starter John Parker Wilson at quarterback, but losing the threesome of Andre Smith, Marlon Davis and Antoine Caldwell on the offensive line leaves the biggest void. They were at the crux of just about everything Alabama did on offense last season.
Georgia: Much of the focus this spring will be on Joe Cox and the quarterback position, but the Bulldogs’ most glaring weakness is the lack of a dominant pass-rusher from the defensive end position. They’ve got to find somebody who can consistently get to the quarterback.
LSU: Jordan Jefferson started the final two games at quarterback last season as a true freshman and enters 2009 as the favorite to win the job. His main competition will come from another true freshman, Russell Shepard, who graduated early and is going through spring practice.
GEORGIA TECH — Having lost three of four starters on the defensive line, it’s easily one of the greenest groups in the whole conference.
MIAMI – The Canes are still young everywhere, but remember quarterback Jacory Harris has only started two games and his backups have no collegiate experience.
NORTH CAROLINA — The Tar Heels lost their top three receivers and will be counting heavily on inexperienced players to replace Hakeem Nicks, Brandon Tate and Brooks Foster.
Arizona State — QB: Combined starts of the five candidates to replace Rudy Carpenter at quarterback? Zero.
Oregon – DT: Both starting defensive tackles are gone and this unofficial depth chart shows 14 combine tackles for seven potential replacements.
Oregon State — DE: Sackmasters Victor Butler and Slade Norris and their 41.5 combined sacks over the past two seasons are gone. Sophomore Kevin Frahm and senior Ben Terry, who split two sacks between themselves in 2008, are in.
Ohio State’s offensive line — Don’t be shocked if Ohio State enters 2009 with three sophomores (Mike Brewster, Mike Adams, J.B. Shugarts) and a transfer (Justin Boren) on its starting line.
Penn State’s defensive ends — Jerome Hayes should be back from another knee injury, but Penn State will be on the lookout for a proven pass rusher after losing Aaron Maybin, Maurice Evans and Josh Gaines.
Purdue’s wide receivers — New coach Danny Hope made wide receiver a peak priority in his first recruiting class after losing Greg Orton and Desmond Tardy, who combined for 136 receptions and 1,596 yards last year.
Wisconsin’s defensive line — The Badgers lose three multiyear starters (Matt Shaughnessy, Mike Newkirk and Jason Chapman) and don’t return many proven players aside from ends O’Brien Schofield and Dan Moore.
And — of course — everyone’s favorite green unit:
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Florida, Oklahoma odds on favorites for 2009
March 10, 2009 by feed · Leave a Comment
The Wiz spotted BodogLife’s updated odds for the college football season. Long story short… it looks like the Gators and Sooners are the early picks, followed by USC, Texas, and Ohio State.
Here’s the complete rundown:
Alabama 22/1
Arizona 100/1
Arizona State 150/1
Arkansas 150/1
Auburn 150/1
Boise State 100/1
Boston College 100/1
California 60/1
Cincinnati 90/1
Clemson 60/1
Colorado 100/1
Florida 7/4
Florida State 30/1
Georgia 50/1
Georgia Tech 50/1
Illinois 80/1
Iowa 75/1
Kansas 75/1
Kansas State 175/1
Kentucky 125/1
Louisville 150/1
LSU 20/1
Maryland 200/1
Miami 35/1
Michigan 120/1
Michigan State 100/1
Missouri 90/1
Nebraska 55/1
North Carolina 45/1
North Carolina State 100/1
Notre Dame 30/1
Ohio State 17/2
Oklahoma 5/1
Oklahoma State 50/1
Oregon 20/1
Oregon State 100/1
Penn State 35/1
Pittsburgh 60/1
Rutgers 125/1
South Carolina 100/1
South Florida 80/1
Tennessee 100/1
Texas 8/1
Texas A&M 150/1
Texas Tech 60/1
UCLA 150/1
Utah 125/1
USC 5/1
Virginia 100/1
Virginia Tech 20/1
Wake Forest 80/1
Washington 200/1
West Virginia 75/1
Wisconsin 100/1
Field (Any Other Team) 20/1
And remember… entertainment purposes only… of course.
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Will Terrelle Pryor Be the Greatest Dual-Threat QB There’s Ever Been?
February 26, 2009 by feed · Leave a Comment
As the spread offense has undoubtedly dominated the world of college football, coaches have an added attention span for quarterbacks who can both throw and run the football. From Vince Young of the mighty Texas Longhorns to JaMarcus Russell of the tenacious Tigers of LSU, big, fast quarterbacks have changed the face of college football forever.
In this day and age, when thinking of a stud…
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Final Grades: A look back at the preseason AP poll
February 16, 2009 by feed · Leave a Comment
It’s time to pay the piper. Here’s a look back at the 2008 pre-season AP poll contrasted against the final 2008-2009 AP poll.
2008 AP College Football Poll Comparison – Preseason vs Final Poll
| TEAM | FINAL RANKING | PRESEASON |
| Florida | 1 | 5 |
| Utah | 2 | NR |
| USC | 3 | 3 |
| Texas | 4 | 11 |
| Oklahoma | 6 | 4 |
| Alabama | 6 | NR |
| TCU | NR | NR |
| Penn State | 8 | 22 |
| Ohio State | 9 | 2 |
| Oregon | 10 | 21 |
| Boise State | 11 | NR |
| Texas Tech | 12 | 12 |
| Georgia | 13 | 1 |
| Ole Miss | 14 | NR |
| Virginia Tech | 15 | 17 |
| Oklahoma State | 16 | NR |
| Cincinnati | 17 | NR |
| Oregon State | 18 | 22 |
| Missouri | 19 | 6 |
| Iowa | 20 | NR |
| Florida State | 21 | NR |
| Georgia Tech | 22 | NR |
| West Virginia | 23 | 8 |
| Michigan State | 24 | NR |
| BYU | 25 | 16 |
The big standout poll flops are Georgia (P-1 F-13), Ohio State (P-2 F-10), Missouri (P-6 F-19) and West Virgina (P-8 F-23). And — of course — the teams that never even made it to the final poll, including LSU, Clemson, Auburn and Wisconsin.
The Cinderella stories of Utah, TCU, Boise State, and Alabama surprised pollsters and fans alike. (Outside of Alabama, of course, who always expects the Tide to be #1… and they’re not afraid to tell you about it, as well. Still, I suspect there were more than a couple of surprised Bama fans out there this season when the Crimson Tide rose to the top of the polls.)
The biggest surprise for me was how many of the teams were actually ranked consistently from pre-season to final poll. That shocked me, actually. I have long advocated not doing any polls at all until the fourth week of the season, but there’s enough balance between the good & bad of the pre-season poll to suggest that *some* of the pollsters might actually put some thought into this whole thing.
What stands out to you and where do you stand on pre-season polls — sacrosanct or sacrelidge?
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Hall A Buckeye!
February 2, 2009 by feed · Leave a Comment
The much anticipated wait is over, as Ohio State has reportedly received it’s 26th verbal commitment for the Class of 2009 in Cleveland Glenville OL Marcus Hall.
Hall committed to the Buckeyes over offers from Miami, Tennessee, Michigan, LSU, and Illinois among others. The 6′5″ 293-pound lineman informed his family of his decision this morning and [...]
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What are the most prestigious college football programs?
January 23, 2009 by feed · Leave a Comment
ESPN has taken the lead in trying to rank the most prestigious college football programs since the inception of the AP poll in a psuedo-scientific fashion. It’s really more of a “which current FBS programs have lived in the spotlight” list, because it doesn’t take into account teams that aren’t currently in FBS and doesn’t attempt to match them one versus the other, per se.
First, the method to their madness:
ESPN’s Prestige Rankings are a numerical method of ranking the best FBS college football programs since the 1936 season. Point values were assigned for certain successes (win a national title, earn 25 points) and failures (get your program banned from the postseason, lose two points). The research department ran all the numbers through the computer to come up with the No. 1 program (and Nos. 2 to 119) of the past 73 seasons.
The full breakdown of how points were accumulated (and deducted) is online as well, with the “biggies” being National Championships, major bowl berths, major bowl wins, Heisman winners, and points for various finishes in the AP top twenty five poll.
The results are… pretty interesting. In fact, it’s really hard for me to quibble over all but a few positions – and even that might be subjective.
ESPN COLLEGE FOOTBALL PRESTIGE RANKINGS
1. Oklahoma
2. USC
3. Ohio State
4. Notre Dame
5. Nebraska
6. Alabama
7. Texas
8. Michigan
9. Florida State
10. Miami
11. Penn State
12. Tennessee
13. LSU
14, Georgia
15. Florida
16. UCLA
17. Washington
18. Georgia Tech
19. Arkansas
20. Texas A&M
21. Auburn
22t. Clemson
22t. Colorado
24. Ole Miss
25. BYU
Click here for positions 26 – 119
Again, this is more of a prestige spotlight list than a comparison of team A versus team B. That’s obvious when you look at the criteria, and then also compare the rankings above with head-to-head records, for example. Case(s) in point… Oklahoma has a losing record all-time against Texas, but is ranked ahead in prestige. Florida State has a losing record all-time against both Miami and Florida, but gets the presige nod. The Noles have a winning record over both top five Notre Dame and Ohio State, but I digress.
Even still, it’s hard for me to look back at the history of college football and not put the Sooners at or near the top of the list. Certainly Ohio State, USC, Notre Dame, and Nebraska all deserve to be near the top as well. You can debate where everyone falls (ie should “x” be #6,#7, or #8) but it’s hard to see someone in the top 25 that doesn’t belong.
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Jumping Ship: Who’s leaving early for the NFL?
January 21, 2009 by feed · Leave a Comment
The good folks at ESPN’s data center have the updates on which college football underclassmen are leaving school in search of huge bags of money a career in the NFL. Here’s the updated list, with a few notable talents highlighted.
Asher Allen CB 5-1 198 Georgia
Chris Baker DT 6-2 298 Hampton
Kenny Britt WR 6-4 215 Rutgers
Eben Britton OT 6-5½ 310 Arizona
Donald Brown RB 5-10 210 Connecticut
Everette Brown DE 6-4 252 Florida State
James Casey TE 6-4 245 Rice
Jeremy Childs WR 6-0 196 Boise State
Glen Coffee RB 6-1 198 Alabama
Austin Collie WR 6-2 206 BYU
Emanuel Cook S 5-10 203 South Carolina
Jared Cook TE 6-5 243 South Carolina
Michael Crabtree WR 6-3 214 Texas Tech
Andrew Davie TE 6-5 266 Arkansas
Nate Davis QB 6-1¾ 217 Ball State
Vontae Davis CB 5-11⅞ 203 Illinois
Josh Freeman QB 6-5½ 238 Kansas State
Shonn Green RB 5-10¾ 233 Iowa
Percy Harvin WR 5-10¾ 187 Florida
Darrius Heyward-Bey WR 6-1⅞ 203 Maryland
P.J. Hill RB 5-11 236 Wisconsin
Greg Isdaner OG 6-4 322 West Virginia
Ricky Jean-Francois DL 6-3 289 LSU
Paul Kruger DE 6-5 265 Utah
Jeremy Maclin WR 6-0 198 Missouri
Sen’Derrick Marks DT 6-0⅞ 289 Auburn
Aaron Maybin DE 6-3½ 250 Penn State
LeSean McCoy RB 5-11 205 Pittsburgh
Gerald McRath LB 6-3 220 Southern Miss
D.J. Moore CB 5-10 184 Vanderbilt
Knowshon Moreno RB 5-10¾ 207 Georgia
Captain Munnerlyn CB 5-9 185 South Carolina
Hakeem Nicks WR 6-1 215 North Carolina
Kevin Ogletree WR 6-2 189 Virginia
Jerraud Powers CB 5-9 191 Auburn
Mark Sanchez QB 6-2½ 225 USC
Andre Smith DT 6-4⅞ 341 Alabama
Sean Smith CB 6-2½ 212 Utah
Matthew Stafford QB 6-2½ 235 Georgia
Brandon Williams DE 6-5 246 Texas Tech
Chris “Beanie” Wells RB 6-1 235 Ohio State
Of course, it’s worth mentioning a few standout players who are not going pro this year:
Tim Tebow, QB, Florida
Sam Bradford, QB, Oklahoma
Colt McCoy, QB, Texas
Jermaine Gresham, TE, Oklahoma
Brandon Spikes, LB, Florida
C.J. Spiller, RB, Clemson
Greg Hardy, DE, Mississippi
Equally notable, FSU S Myron Rolle will leave the Noles, but isn’t going to the NFL… yet. Rolle accepted a Rhodes Scholarship and will study medical anthropology at Oxford. Rolle was expected to be a top 50 or better pick, but will instead look to enter the 2010 NFL draft.
The NFL Draft is scheduled for April 26th and 27th in New York City.
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Who will be the 2009-2010 BCS National Champion?
January 21, 2009 by feed · Leave a Comment
While memories of Tebow hoisting the trophy may still be dancing through your head, the pundits can’t help but look ahead to the 2009-2010 BCS National Championship.
With more returning starters than USC or Oklahoma, the early favorites of the talking heads are the Florida Gators and Texas Longhorns.
Here’s a breakdown of the pundit pre-pre-preseason projections, with click-through links to their full lists.
Rivals.com
1. Florida
2. Texas
3. USC
4. Oklahoma
5. LSU
Highest Projected non-BCS: #9 – Boise State
Mark Schlabach (ESPN)
1. Florida
2. Texas
3. USC
4. Oklahoma
5. Alabama
Highest Projected non-BCS: #8 – Boise State
Dennis Dodd (CBS Sportsline)
1. Florida
2. Oklahoma
3. Texas
4. Alabama
5. Virginia Tech
Highest Projected non-BCS: #15 – Utah
Mr. College Football Tony Barnhart (Atlanta Constitution-Journal)
1. Florida
2. Texas
3. USC
4. Alabama
5. Oklahoma
Highest Projected non-BCS: #17 – TCU
Bruce Feldman (ESPN)
1. Florida
2. Texas
3. Oklahoma
4. Oregon
5. Virginia Tech
Highest Projected non-BCS: None in Top 10
Matt Hayes (Sporting News)
1. Florida
2. Texas
3. Oklahoma
4. Alabama
5. Ole Miss
Highest Projected non-BCS: #18 – BYU
So… if you believe the pundits… go ahead and book your reservations now, Gator & Longhorn fans. But… then again, that didn’t work out too well for Georgia fans last year, so… maybe just watch the games, first.
PS – On a side note, let me just say that I am glad to be back in the saddle. It’s nice to see the community has grown to the point where our contributors have taken over with amazing, self-generated content. Keep these great posts coming because… there is no off-season, boys.
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Big Ten bowl wrap-up with Jim Delany, Part II
January 12, 2009 by feed · Leave a Comment
Posted by ESPN.com's Adam Rittenberg
Here's the second half of my bowl wrap-up interview with Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany. For Part I, click here.
Given that these things tend to be cyclical, do you see a four- or five-year stretch of winning records on the horizon for the Big Ten?
Jim Delany: That's what we came out of. We had four or five years where we had done pretty well. If you look at the history of it, you can break it down by 20 years, 10 years, five years. People don't get to where they've got without having some success along the line. To whom much is given, much is expected, and we have amazing universities, amazing fan bases, amazing resources. We have very good coaches. It's more the surprise if you go on a four-year, five-year period where you're not competing at the very top. And having said that, I don't think it's as far down as many think. If you want to pick out LSU, Florida and USC and say, 'Did we get beat good?' I'd say, 'Yeah.' I'd also say, 'Did anybody else play them at that level?' They're beating everybody pretty good.
You've had four consecutive seasons of getting multiple teams in BCS bowls. Given the recent struggles, are you still confident that it will continue next season?
JD: You have to look at each year on its own merits. If you have a team in the Top 10 and they're going to travel well, they could go. We don't have a situation where the top eight teams go. We have a situation that is different. A lot of people were complaining that Utah wasn't [No. 1]. Well, if it wasn't for the BCS, Utah wouldn't have been in a major bowl. Nor would have Boise [State in 2007]. Nor would have Hawaii [in 2008]. The BCS made those venues available in ways that were never available before. So rather than criticize it, I look at it as, 'Hey, we've opened up the system.' People might say, 'The Rose Bowl should be opened up and anybody should be able to go.' And I would say, 'That's something that was built over 60 years, and I don't think that's going to happen.' I look at it as hey, we've played some great football teams. We've been competitive in some cases, we've won some games and we've gotten beat pretty soundly in some others. Those are the facts. If you can't be honest enough about the facts, you're not being realistic. And you have to be realistic. They have been really, really good, and we haven't had a team at the level that Florida played at, at the level that LSU played at and the level that USC played at. At all other levels, we've got teams that can play, and at a particular time and place, we can climb back up. I'm optimistic and resilient about it.
You mentioned USC, LSU and Florida and not having a team quite at that level right now. Do you think a team isn't far from that in the Big Ten?
JD: It's hard to know because wherever Florida was this year, they weren't there last year because we beat them. And LSU, the year before they won it, we beat them. So I don't think that there is a big gap between playing at what I would describe as super elite level and at a very good level. Penn State had four or five losing seasons and coach [Joe] Paterno said, 'We're just a few players away.' Well, he was correct. I look at Ohio State with Beanie Wells and Terrelle Pryor and they were certainly all Texas could handle, but without them, they really weren't capable against USC. So I really don't think it's far, but who's to say? We've got a half dozen of our 11 teams, they have young staffs, new staffs, that are building programs. I think Michigan will be back quickly, Illinois is on the upswing, Michigan State's on the upswing, Iowa, Northwestern, Minnesota. Having played on three teams that went to Final Fours and never won a national championship, I can identify with how good Ohio State is. They're a very, very good college football team. It's more a sign of the times when somebody can be that good, accomplish that much, win at Texas, play Texas tough this year, do a lot of really good things, and people can only find out, if you're not [No.] 1, you must be no one.
Oklahoma will go through the same thing now, no doubt.
JD: I think there's something fundamentally wrong with tagging somebody who accomplishes something as much as the Oklahoma team has accomplished. That means there could only be one great program, and everybody else is a loser. And you know what? That doesn't conform to reality. That doesn't conform to my sense of quality. I'm not saying we can't get better, we won't get better, we haven't been better. All I'm saying is there are a lot of good football teams. Congratulations to Florida for winning two of the last three and the SEC. They have clearly demonstrated they're at the top of the heap in this cycle, and they should be recognized for such. But I've always felt the Pac-10 didn't get their due. Everybody was down on the Pac-10. Well, USC was pretty good, they went 5-0 [in bowls]. But again, it's five games. I look around at people that were 4-2, they could have been 2-4. But it is what it is, and I take a little bit of a longer-term view. You have to look at your programs and say, 'OK, what's really going on? Do you like the leadership of your programs?' And in all of my cases, I say, 'Yeah, I do.' They have enough resources to be successful. They have great fan bases and media agreements. So everything's in place, and there's not a lot of difference between winning and losing. You have to tip your hat to those that are at the elite level, but you can't crawl in a hole and start making excuses and self-flagellating. The infrastructure's there to be very good.
We talked about urgency before the bowl season. Is there a new sense of that or an even heightened sense going into the 2009 season?
JD: Our coaches and our players are not immune. They realized that we haven't performed on the big stage as well as we would have liked to. So I think they played very hard. I saw how hard Penn State played. I thought Ohio State played really hard. The [Northwestern] Wildcats, I was really proud of how hard they played. So I don't think it's a matter of urgency because if your players are playing their hearts out and your coaches have them prepared and they lose the game, there's no shame in that. If you're doing it the right way in college sports, while you're disappointed, you get up, you clean your pants off, you go back to spring practice, you continue to recruit, you hope the kids graduate and have a good experience, and you congratulate the people that won the game. That's how I've tried to view it, even though I'd much rather win the games.