College Football Preview

Today I am going to make a return to sports talk, with an early look at College Football. Yes, I like many others out there is making predictions 3 months out of the season. Hey its never too early to talk about College Football in the South or anywhere for that matter, without further ado here is my early 2009 predictions for this season (subject to change until the season starts)... Feel free to disagree and share your comments with me, this is just one man's opinion.

NCAA Football 2009

ACC Atlantic
1. Wake Forest
2. Florida State
3. N.C. State
4. Clemson
5. Boston College
6. Maryland
ACC Coastal
1. Virginia Tech
2. Georgia Tech
3. UNC
4. Miami
5. Virginia
6. Duke

Big 11
1. Ohio State
2. Penn State
3. Michigan State
4. Illinois
5. Wisconsin
6. Iowa
7. Minnesota
8. Northwestern
9. Michigan
10. Purdue
11. Indiana

Big East
1. Pittsburgh
2. Cincinnati
3. West Virginia
4. Rutgers
5. South Florida
6. Connecticut
7. Louisville
8. Syracuse

Big 12 North
1. Missouri
2. Nebraska
3. Kansas
4. Colorado
5. Kansas State
6. Iowa State
Big 12 South
1. Oklahoma
2. Texas
3. Oklahoma State
4. Texas Tech
5. Baylor
6. Texas A&M

Pac-10
1. USC
2. Oregon
3. California
4. Oregon State
5. Stanford
6. Arizona State
7. UCLA
8. Arizona
9. Washington
10. Washington State

SEC East
1. Florida
2. Georgia
3. South Carolina
4. Vanderbilt
5. Tennessee
6. Kentucky
SEC West
1. Ole Miss
2. LSU
3. Alabama
4. Arkansas
5. Auburn
6. Mississippi State

Top 25
1. Florida
2. Oklahoma
3. USC
4. Texas
5. Virginia Tech
6. Ohio State
7. Ole Miss
8. LSU
9. Oklahoma State
10. Oregon
11. Boise State
12. TCU
13. Georgia Tech
14. Alabama
15. Georgia
16. California
17. Penn State
18. Oregon State
19. Utah
20. North Carolina
21. Cincinnati
22. Texas Tech
23. BYU
24. Nebraska
25. Florida State
Comments: I don't claim to know much about conferences outside of the South, so take those picks with a grain of salt. I relied a lot on the opinions of others to give me a base in which to work with in conferences like the Big 11, Pac 10, Big East, and Big 12. Now to the conference we care about here, the SEC. Florida, is the defending National Champs and return their whole defense, not to mention this guy named Tebow. While I despise everything that the Gators do, they are the best team with probably the best coach in the conference which means they have the best team with one of the best coaches in the entire country. They have so many athletes, with so much speed and they are well coached and they are physical on both sides of the ball. There is no reason Florida should ever be worse than 10-2 in any season, if they do it is just because of bad coaching. The state of Florida has so much talent, it is ridiculous. UGA poses the only other serious threat in the East. 5th year senior Joe Cox takes the reigns at QB and will do a solid job behind a more experienced offensive line. I keep thinking back to the DJ Shockley year at QB for UGA in 2005 and think that this season could be very similar. A season that saw the Dawgs winning the SEC Title. The key will be the defense and if it can bounce back this year after taking a step back last year. Finding a pass rush and learning how to tackle would help. South Carolina gets the third spot by default. Their defense will be good I am sure but I have not done full research on them, so this pick could easily change over the summer. Vanderbilt returns a lot from their team from last year and I expect them to go to a second consecutive bowl game after getting over the hump last year. Tennessee will struggle because they do not have a QB and I am not sure about Kentucky, they could be better but they just lost one of their best defensive players to a year long suspension for steroid use.

The West should be a little more competitive I think. Ole Miss is the popular pick for now so I will stick with them for now. Jevean Snead will help to lead the way for the Rebels, I do worry about their OLine, but the defense will be as strong as ever so thats where I hang my hat on. LSU is a big mystery, always full of talent, but the Les Miles era has proven very rocky and inconsistent so you are never quite sure what you are going to get from them. I like Jordan Jefferson at QB, Charles Scott at RB, and their OL is always pretty good. I like the hire of John Chavis at DCoordinator, formerly of Tennessee, his units were always solid and well prepared and I think he return some of that discipline to the Tiger defense. Alabama, they had a big year last year but I expect them to take a step back this year. They are bringing in a new QB, which always leads to struggles in this conference. Nick Saban is a jerk, but also has a proven track record of success. How long will he stay at Bama and can he keep them at the top of this very competitive conference, that remains to be seen. So for now, I place them in the middle until further research can be conducted on this squad. Arkansas, much to my chagrin will be better this year. Ryan Mallett takes the reigns of Bobby Petrino's offense. This team will have improved talent and was competitive in games they should not have been in last year. So that experience will help them this year. They will probably be top 25 before the season is over. Auburn, brings in a new coach, has big question marks at QB and on offense where they had one of the worst in the country last season. Guz Malzahn will help at OC, but how much we do not know at this moment. Auburn always has a good defense and that will keep them competitive and they may be able to steal some games that they shouldn't win, but this team also likes to lose games that they should win, so a .500 season is about where they should finish, unless Gene Chizik and their QB's are better than we think right now. Mississippi State was a disappointment to me and a few others last year. It is just hard to get quality football players to come to Starkville. Probably one of the toughest places to win in major college football. Dan Mullen is the new coach their taking over for Sly Croom, so it remains to be seen how much he can do with this program after spending the last few seasons as OC for the Gators. The West should be competitive and I look forward to see what happens with the best conference in the land in the fall.

Like I said I do not really care much for the other conferences so you can look at the picks and decipher what you will. As of right now I think Florida wins it all, but I am sure that could change. I think there is a clear separation of teams after the top 6. Virginia Tech and Ohio State should take care of business in their conferences, as well USC in the Pac-10. That is all I have for now. I could keep talking about this for hours on end, but it is time to eat so I will leave you these nuggets to chew on. Enjoy.

Mb