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Tuesday, August 24, 2004
Autumn is in the Air
I’ve been dying these past eight months without college football. Improbably, my love for the sport keeps increasing, which is weird since I graduated from Stanford more than two years ago. I think college football has now passed college basketball (and is neck-and-neck with pro football) on my list of favorite sports. Thank goodness USC and Virginia Tech kick the season off this Saturday. Here’s my second annual season preview:
* Tyrone Willingham can make as many flowery NBC commercials as he wants; he’s still not gonna turn things around at Notre Dame this season. Simply put, the Irish will never be able to get a BCS berth until they lighten up their schedule. USC, Michigan, Tennessee, and Pitt? There’s too much recruiting parity these days and the Notre Dame program doesn’t appeal to the kids they way it used to.
* I know everyone keeps telling us that the annual Oklahoma-Texas showdown will be the game of the year. But isn’t it about time we hold off until the rivalry actually lives up to the hype? It’s hard to appreciate how important this game is when the Sooners just take Texas behind the woodshed every year. Yeah I’ll watch on October 9, but I’m not gonna get my hopes up that this might be the year that the Longhorns actually show up to the Red River Shootout.
* Speaking of Texas, the one thing they do have going for them is that they’re led by the most exciting player in the nation, Vince Young. I watched him play in a few games last year and I thought: “This guy is Michael Vick in Michael Jordan’s body.” And isn’t it nice that Texas can finally go into a season without a fat question mark at quarterback?
* The best conference race in the nation will certainly be in the SEC, where LSU, Georgia, Florida and Auburn are all talented enough to win any other conference in the nation.
* Conversely, the most pathetic conference race in the nation will be the Big East. So who ya got- West Virginia? Don’t forget about Boston College! How ‘bout them UConn Huskies?! What a pathetic offering. This conference belongs in I-AA.
* Has there ever been a better player to receive a more lukewarm welcome to his senior year than Jason White? The guy put up an astronomical regular season, but after two injury-marred games, the media wants to throw him under the bus. “Oh, you mean you want to come back for another year Jason? Are you sure? Really? Because, ya know, if you wanted to leave Oklahoma that would be totally cool too…”
* My must-see games of the year (okay, besides the Red River Shootout): LSU at Georgia (Oct. 2), LSU at Florida (Oct. 9), Oklahoma at Kansas St. (Oct. 16), Michigan at Ohio St. (Nov. 20) and Florida at Florida St. (Nov. 20).
* I think the following are overrated: the Miami Hurricanes, Missouri’s Brad Smith, LSU’s offense, Bobby Bowden, K-State’s Darren Sproles, the Big 12 in general, the USA Today/ESPN Coaches poll, and Cal (okay, bias).
* I think the following are underrated: USC’s running backs, the Florida Gators, Vince Young, Fresno State, Brent Musberger, Washington State as a program, conference championships in general, SI.com’s Stewart Mandel, Michigan’s offense.
Mr. Predicto
Pac-10: USC
Big 12: Oklahoma
Big Ten: Michigan
SEC: Florida
ACC: Florida State
Big East: West Virginia
BCS At Large: Georgia
BCS At Large: Miami
Heisman Trophy: Chris Leak, QB, Florida
National Title Game: USC over Florida. I grew up hating the Trojans, but I can’t help but sit in awe of the juggernaut that Pete Carroll has constructed over the past three years. They don’t even need Mike Williams, since they’ve been stockpiling an arsenal of top recruits for the past several years. Williams (whom Carroll somehow recruited despite the fact that Williams is from Florida) will be playing with pro-caliber athletes after all this year- at USC. Their three running backs (none of whom are seniors) zig-zag up the field like mosquitos. Matt Leinart was one of the best quarterbacks in the country last year- just think what he can do now that he actually has a year of experience under his belt. And that defense… did you see how they mauled Michigan on New Year’s Day?
Florida on the other hand, will be the surprise team of the nation. Everyone expects LSU and Georgia to meet in for the SEC title, but the plucky Chris Leak will follow up his phenomenal freshman year and start dominating like a young Peyton Manning. Leak will steal the Heisman vote by a hair over Leinart, setting up a showdown between the two with the national title on the line. But alas, these Trojans are just too experiened, too deep and too destined to be beaten.
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