COLLEGE FOOTBALL PREDICTIONS IN '07
With just hours till the kickoff of the 2007 college football season, here are my predictions on what awaits us during the upcoming months…
Games the Irish will win this season? Eight, as Notre Dame shows their "Brut" force down the stretch beating Navy, Air Force, Duke and Stanford grabbing a Sun Bowl win too, the first bowl victory in the Charlie Weis era.
On the Palouse...
At Washington State: Head coach Bill Doba will get himself off the hot seat, following the footsteps of his predecessor Mike Price and have a successful year just as he's about to be sent packing. The Cougs will win eight games including the Armed Forces Bowl.
At Idaho: First-year coach Robb Akey will stick around for his second season at Idaho, marking the first time in a quarter-century that the Vandals will have continuity at the head coaching position.
Dan Hawkins will have his Colorado team playing Division I football this season NOT intramurals! But, redshirt freshman QB Cody Hawkins, the coach's son, and the rest of the Buffs are one year away from actually having an impact.
Bad karma is coming for Alabama and Arizona State. Head coach Nick Saban said he would never take the Alabama job, yet four million reasons a year later, Saban is in Tuscaloosa. The Tide will drop its two biggest games this year losing to LSU and Auburn. Entering last season, coach Dennis Erickson said he was taking a retirement job, ending his career where it all began at Idaho. Eight months later Erickson took another retirement job in the valley of the Sun (I suspect better weather). Expect Rudy Carpenter's sophomore slump to become a permanent slump as the Sun Devils hover around .500.
Hear them meow. The Clemson Tigers will do just enough to keep coach Tommy Bowden around AND on the hot seat. Bowden has won at least eight games in three of the past four seasons; expect four of five.
AP who? That's right Oklahoma fans will forget all about last year's AP (Adrian Peterson), as tailback Allen Patrick runs wild in the Big 12. Sooner Nation will celebrate another conference title.
Hang loose...the Heisman race will come down to a pair of high-octane quarterbacks, Louisville's Brian Brohm and Hawaii's Colt Brennan. Brohm will take home the hardware because of the Island curse of Timmy Chang. Not to mention, the voters won't stay up to watch Brennan play at 3 a.m. on the East coast.
Sophomore QB Tim Tebow, who has only attempted 33 career passes, and the Florida Gators will lose at least three games. There won’t be a repeat-repeat in Gainesville as the year of blue AND orange comes crashing to an end. [see April blog post “Feeling Blue (and Orange)” for more]
Ohio State won’t win the Big Ten title, but they will get close. The Buckeyes will continue to give Michigan fits, stealing a win from the Big House.
AND
USC will lose at least one game and not win the National Championship. I don't believe a quarterback named Booty can win it all. Can you imagine? Booty's self-esteem is probably still affected from grade school.
BCS BOWL PROJECTIONS
Jan.1
Rose Bowl -- USC (Pac-10 champ) over Wisconsin (Big 10 champ)
Sugar Bowl -- Michigan (at-large) over Texas (at-large)
Jan. 2
Fiesta Bowl -- Oklahoma (Big 12 champ) over Hawaii (at-large)
Jan. 3
Orange Bowl -- West Virginia (at-large) over Virginia Tech (ACC champ)
Jan. 7
BCS National Championship -- LSU (BCS No. 1) over Louisville (BCS No. 2)
2 comments:
There's certainly nothing wrong with your predictions, but after just 1 week of action I have this feeling like the national championship game won't have a USC, LSU, or Michigan in it at all. Perhaps Wisconsin or Oklahoma, who knows. I was dismayed at how aweful USC looked, uninspired by LSU's pitiful offense (though it is an SEC team after all), and we all know what happened to Michigan at this point. One thing I'm almost certain will happen is a bowl-less, 5 or 6 win season for the Fighting Lucky Charmers. They looked as hideous as a team this young should.
I’m sticking by my predictions, with one exception; Michigan won’t make a BCS bowl. It will be interesting to see if the Wolverines recover from last week’s loss. Two years ago, they lost at home to Notre Dame (in Sept.) and then spiraled downward to a lackluster 7-5 season. If Oregon wins in the Big House, consider their season over. The Big 10 will only get one in the BCS, unless Wisconsin plays for the National Title.
I’ve never been sold on USC as No. 1, but I think LSU is for real. The athletes they have on defense will keep them in games and in contention, until the offense catches up and they will. Plus they seem to get all their tough games at home (Va. Tech, Florida, Auburn, Arkansas). You don’t win in “Death Valley.” Finally, I’m not sold that the Irish are sunk yet. I mean they shouldn’t have won 10 games the past two seasons, but they did. I think they will surprise someone and next week’s match-up could be wide-open if Michigan is 0-2. Couple of things to note, this might be the year the Pac-10 finally gets two teams to the BCS. We’ll have to wait to see.
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