Revisiting the 2011 Pre-Season Magazine Rankings
by kleph on Jan 23, 2012 10:00 AM CST
in Football
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PrintWay back in June of last year we took a look at how all the college football preview magazines were predicting Alabama's 2011 would turn out like. Turn out two of them, Athlon and Phil Steele, got it right by choosing the Crimson Tide as the team to win it all. The Sporting News put the eventual number two, LSU, in the top slot -- the only mag to have the Bayou Bengals in the top three.
Just for comparison's sake, I put together the list of all four pre-season magazine's Top 25 lists alongside the final USA Today Coaches Poll (which is used to select the BCS National Champion). The correct guesses are in red and the teams each listed that did not appear in the final poll are highlighted in grey.
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Needless to say, the hits were few and far between while the misses were in abundance. The four magazines got a whopping six teams in their correct placement at the conclusion of the 2011 season. And none of the tabloid prognosticators tapped final poll teams Baylor, Kansas State, Cincinnati, Clemson or BYU (although Steele was the only one to include Southern Mississippi and Houston).
The collapse of Oklahoma and Florida State alongside LSU proving to be astonishingly good (at least during the regular season) pretty much threw a spanner in all the magazine's top picks. After the No. 6 slot a few few clear patterns -- Arkansas was a lot better than they thought and Nebraska was a lot worse -- but, for the most part, it's clearly just a crap shoot.
Obviously there were some outside factors at work here (mainly the scandals at Ohio State and Miami) tbut, for the most part, the pre-season mags pretty much suck at making picks worth putting money on. But we're going to buy them again this year anyway and pore through them looking for some secret insight about the season ahead.
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Penn State was ranked in two of those
so obviously their scandal impacted the rankings too. But mostly, how in the world can Athlon and Steele be so right about us at number one and so wrong about the Domers? Number SIX? You have to be kidding me.
'There are two pains in life. There is the pain of discipline and the pain of disappointment. If you can handle the pain of discipline, then you'll never have to deal with the pain of disappointment,'- Nick Saban
i thought the schedule was eady for ND
I thought they would end up high as well
Obviously I underestimated the power of the derp
People who live in glass houses should not hang out with Charles Barkley.
Stache pic upgraded to Championship mode
by Wallacewade04 on Jan 23, 2012 10:35 AM CST via mobile up reply actions
I think that was reasonable.
They should have beaten USF, but they turned it over five times including a 96-yard Fumble-Six. They blew a 24-7 4th quarter lead against Michigan including an 80-yard drive in the last :28 seconds to lose. Oh, and they turned it over 5 times in that game as well.
If they win those two games, we would have spent Thanksgiving weekend praying for a loss from 10-1 Notre Dame because they probably would have been in the driver’s seat for the national championship.
And did I mention that they blew a 14-3 4th quarter lead by turning it over 3 times (twice in the 4th) in their bowl game against FSU?
That Notre Dame team was an 11-2 team that just couldn’t get out of its own way.
You are who you are though.
If you turn the ball over that much on a consistent basis, you are not a good football team.
'There are two pains in life. There is the pain of discipline and the pain of disappointment. If you can handle the pain of discipline, then you'll never have to deal with the pain of disappointment,'- Nick Saban
My point is that
- was not out of this team’s reach. A lot of that was because of an easy schedule, but Notre Dame could have been #2 going into their Thanksgiving weekend game against Stanford and could have easily finished 10-2, gone to the Sugar Bowl and finished #6. It wasn’t a crazy prediction.
Lots of teams could say that.
I’m sure there are loads of four loss teams with two coulda-shouldas. My point is that it WAS out of their reach because they are incapable of taking care of the football.
'There are two pains in life. There is the pain of discipline and the pain of disappointment. If you can handle the pain of discipline, then you'll never have to deal with the pain of disappointment,'- Nick Saban
Sure, we see that now.
But there was no reason to think that ND would turn the ball over several times in goal line situations in multiple close games.
A person picking ND to finish 6th back in July would not have been crazy in doing so.
"Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that." - George Carlin
by Slice of Life on Jan 23, 2012 1:32 PM CST up reply actions
Based on what?
Their five losses last year? Nothing about that team screamed top ten coming into this season.
'There are two pains in life. There is the pain of discipline and the pain of disappointment. If you can handle the pain of discipline, then you'll never have to deal with the pain of disappointment,'- Nick Saban
Are you kidding?!?!
IT’S NOTRE DAME!!! God’s gift to football, nay, America!!!
God bless our Dark Lord.
Next year Notre Dame and Florida State baby!
They’re back!
"The same things win today that have always won, and they will win years from now. The only difference is the losers have a whole new bunch of excuses why they don’t win or can’t win."-Bear Bryant
(12-4)+2=12 hoping for a +1
Robot Chicken Star Wars should be canon.
by the thin red line on Jan 23, 2012 10:41 PM CST up reply actions
Did I forget to mention Oklahoma?
"The same things win today that have always won, and they will win years from now. The only difference is the losers have a whole new bunch of excuses why they don’t win or can’t win."-Bear Bryant
(12-4)+2=12 hoping for a +1
Robot Chicken Star Wars should be canon.
by the thin red line on Jan 23, 2012 10:42 PM CST up reply actions
and Virginia Tech....
also, a trendy auburn somewhere around #23
The games they lost were very winnable.
USF was probably considered a win coming in (shoulda been). Michigan was probably 50-50 at worst. The only “sure” loss was Stanford, and the only likely loss was USC.
I think it was reasonable to think this could’ve been a 2-loss team. And I think that the season bore it out.
"Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that." - George Carlin
by Slice of Life on Jan 23, 2012 2:19 PM CST up reply actions
Again
coming into the year, what had they done to earn that type of preseason respect? Go back and look at the past few seasons. I’ll wait.
'There are two pains in life. There is the pain of discipline and the pain of disappointment. If you can handle the pain of discipline, then you'll never have to deal with the pain of disappointment,'- Nick Saban
I'll give you nationalchamps.net's explanation:
If people get tired of seeing and hearing Notre Dame get over-hyped during the eight month off-season, those same people might want to look the other way as this course of action begins to roll around. With 19 starters set to return in South Bend, a three game winning streak that could carry into El Paso in a bowl game with Miami [ed. it did}, Notre Dame has gone from a team struggling to just get bowl eligible to a winning team with plenty of promise for the future. The current win streak can be directly traced to true freshman quarterback Tommy Rees, who took over for injured sophomore Dayne Crist during the October 30 Tulsa loss. Despite the speed bumps, this passing attack still spells most of the success for Notre Dame and both young signal callers will be back again. If receiver Michael Floyd decides to return and tight end Kyle Rudolph does the same while staying healthy, this aerial assault could really post some high range numbers. The offensive line has four starters back while the entire front seven on defense goes relatively unchanged. All this spells an advantage up front. What is still missing from the equation is the inability to run the ball (or even try) and defend against the pass, two areas which have haunted the Irish for a very long time. Is head coach Brian Kelly the right man for this job? That answer cannot be made yet. Injuries, a difficult schedule and inconsistency have hampered his first season. The grade on Kelly looks fairly good at this juncture seeing how they closed the regular season. A lower end Top 25 preseason position is based on the shear amount of experience coming back. There is still a fine line to walk under the Golden Dome between receiving a passing and failing grade. Fortunately for Coach Kelly, that line is sitting a little lower these days. A nine-win season would be considered a major improvement. This 2011 Irish squad can actually do better.
/tldr: 19 starters returning, 4 game winning streak, losing Western Michigan, Army, Utah, and Tulsa from the schedule (who went 33-18 in 2010) and adding Maryland, Wake, Air Force, and USF (who went 20-30 in 2011)
I should also add that the 4 game winning streak at the end of 2010
was sparked by the switch from Dayne Crist to Tommy Rees, thus giving reason to be optimistic about 2011.
First off...
secondly,
A lower end Top 25 preseason position is based on the shear amount of experience coming back.
I’ll overlook the misuse of “shear” and point out that these folks are suggesting a more reasonable preseason ranking in line with Lindy’s and Sporting News. Having them in the top 6 was ludicrous. Bringing back a bunch of starters from a five-loss team, that hasn’t had much success in recent years, rarely makes for a MNC contender without investing substantial money into a juco QB.
'There are two pains in life. There is the pain of discipline and the pain of disappointment. If you can handle the pain of discipline, then you'll never have to deal with the pain of disappointment,'- Nick Saban
Oops.
Should say “First off, who the hell is nationalchamps.net?”
'There are two pains in life. There is the pain of discipline and the pain of disappointment. If you can handle the pain of discipline, then you'll never have to deal with the pain of disappointment,'- Nick Saban
nationchamps.net was the first response in my Google search.
I was looking at their analysis, which I’m sure is similar to the thinking Athlon and Steele used.
Must not have been.
They said they can’t run the ball or stop the pass. That ain’t a top 6 team.
'There are two pains in life. There is the pain of discipline and the pain of disappointment. If you can handle the pain of discipline, then you'll never have to deal with the pain of disappointment,'- Nick Saban
Notre Dame finished 8th in defensive S&P
and 18th in offensive S&P, 10th overall. They weren’t a bad team, they just had some bad luck and I don’t think predicting them that high was completely insane. Would I have put them there? No. But if a couple of balls bounce differently, they would have been #2 or #3 when they played Stanford in their final game.
Bad luck is a ball boucning the wrong way
it’s not throwing a thousand INTs and allowing Denard Robinson to look like Montana in the remaining the mintue.
"There are 40 rules all Schrute boys must learn by age 5. Rule #17- There are 3 things you never turn your back on--- Bears, men you have wronged, and a dominant male turkey during mating season."
You mean like
That’s basically the same play that officials blew dead yesterday in the Giants-49ers game.
Sure, we can call that bad luck.
So how did ND respond after that? At home.
"There are 40 rules all Schrute boys must learn by age 5. Rule #17- There are 3 things you never turn your back on--- Bears, men you have wronged, and a dominant male turkey during mating season."
A top six team
ain’t that close with South Florida to begin with.
'There are two pains in life. There is the pain of discipline and the pain of disappointment. If you can handle the pain of discipline, then you'll never have to deal with the pain of disappointment,'- Nick Saban
Oklahoma State lost to Iowa State
Arkansas needed a missed FG to beat Vandy.
Bama needed to block two Tennessee FGs to win in 2009.
Are you really arguing that good teams can’t play close games with inferior opponents?
Not as many as they did.
'There are two pains in life. There is the pain of discipline and the pain of disappointment. If you can handle the pain of discipline, then you'll never have to deal with the pain of disappointment,'- Nick Saban
What do you mean "as many"?
ND’s other four losses came to teams with a combined record of 41-10.
They had one close bad loss and four others to teams who finished in the Top 25 (three in the top top 12).
There is no reason
ND should have been a preseason top 10 team. Then again there is no reason for them to be a preason top 10 next year but i’m sure they will be.
"There are 40 rules all Schrute boys must learn by age 5. Rule #17- There are 3 things you never turn your back on--- Bears, men you have wronged, and a dominant male turkey during mating season."
Well
USF, Boston College, Wake, and Pitt are all sub-.500 teams with a combined 22-28 record. They lost to USF and beat the other three by 2, 7, and 3 respectively. That’s too many bad games to be in the top ten.
'There are two pains in life. There is the pain of discipline and the pain of disappointment. If you can handle the pain of discipline, then you'll never have to deal with the pain of disappointment,'- Nick Saban
My point is simply this:
Given what we knew about Notre Dame (8 wins in 2010, 19 starters returning including a QB who led them on a four-game winning streak to finish the season after taking the starting job during the year, and an easier schedule) it was not unreasonable to think that this team could potentially win 10 games.
As we saw this year, it doesn’t take a great team or even a particularly good team to win 10 games. Kansas State, Arkansas, Georgia, USCe, and Southern Miss all went 10-2 without great teams.
As USC showed, 10-2 is good enough to be a Top 5 team.
If all it takes to be in the top 6 is to go 10-2, you don’t have to be a great team to go 10-2, and given how this team played last year, a preseason number 6 ranking isn’t completely insane.
Then, if you look at how Notre Dame actually played this year, they damn near made that projection happen. The only functional difference between Notre Dame and Kansas State was that the Wildcats got a couple of breaks to beat Mizzou and Baylor while ND lost a couple of breaks to lose to USF and Michigan. If the ref whistles that run dead on stopped forward progress and if the ND secondary doesn’t leave a Michigan WR wide open for a 60-yard catch with 20 seconds left, Notre Dame would have been 10-1 and playing for a BCS Championship berth.
Was Notre Dame a great team? No. Were they a good team? Barely. But can barely good teams ride an easy schedule and a little bit of luck to a number 6 ranking? Absolutely.
But again
you just woulda coulda shoulda’d ’em from 8-5 to 12-1.
'There are two pains in life. There is the pain of discipline and the pain of disappointment. If you can handle the pain of discipline, then you'll never have to deal with the pain of disappointment,'- Nick Saban
Preseason polls are entirely based on "woulda coulda shoulda"
The question here is “was it reasonable to believe that Notre Dame COULD be a top 6 team”.
I make three arguments:
Argument a) 10-2 was good enough to be a top 6 team in 2011
Argument b) It didn’t take a great team (or even a particularly good team) to go 10-2 in 2011
Argument c) Given what we knew about Notre Dame in 2010 and what they were bringing to 2011, it was not unreasonable to think that they could go 10-2 in 2011.
Therefore, it was not unreasonable to think that Notre Dame could finish in the top 6 in 2011.
You are welcome to refute any of those points.
by rugman11 on Jan 23, 2012 9:23 PM CST up reply actions 1 recs
I disagree with c.
Carry on.
'There are two pains in life. There is the pain of discipline and the pain of disappointment. If you can handle the pain of discipline, then you'll never have to deal with the pain of disappointment,'- Nick Saban
worth the price
of admission
If Auburn was in New Mexico and we never played them I would still hate them and their dumb coach and their cheating players.
Oh
and the coulda-shoulda also works both ways. I bet BC and Pitt fans have some coulda-shouldas about those two games. If you’re that close consistently it’s unreasonable to think that you should win all of them. I guess you “could” but it would require some serious luck.
'There are two pains in life. There is the pain of discipline and the pain of disappointment. If you can handle the pain of discipline, then you'll never have to deal with the pain of disappointment,'- Nick Saban
Every single thing you just wrote
could have been said about South Carolina. USCe lost 5 games in 2010. They haven’t had much success in recent years (only 2 eight-win seasons in the last nine years, ND had 4). USCe has never been a MNC contender (ND could have made the BCS Championship Game in 2006 if they had beaten #2 USC Thanksgiving weekend).
All that said, South Carolina began the season ranked #12 in both polls and finished 11-2 and #9.
Not mention that three of this year’s preseason AP Top 10 teams lost 4 games in 2009 (Florida State, TAMU, Nebraska)
Right.
Pretty big difference between 12th and 6th, no?
'There are two pains in life. There is the pain of discipline and the pain of disappointment. If you can handle the pain of discipline, then you'll never have to deal with the pain of disappointment,'- Nick Saban
Ima expound a little.
They ain’t finished that high in this millennium.
'There are two pains in life. There is the pain of discipline and the pain of disappointment. If you can handle the pain of discipline, then you'll never have to deal with the pain of disappointment,'- Nick Saban
Whoa...
so many times turnovers are based on the bounce of the ball, rather than talent or skill. I believe this has been well documented here on this site.
"It's not the size of the cat in the fight, it's size of the fight in the cat"
"Pep talks... only work when they touch that ember of truth learned the hardest possible way on the field.-Kleph
by thecalicocat on Jan 23, 2012 2:14 PM CST up reply actions
I think the discussion has been that fumble recoveries are random,
but not fumbles or interceptions.
God bless our Dark Lord.
That's true...
but its not a turnover if its not recovered, so the same “randomness” that is characteristic of recovery would describe the fumble, etc.
"It's not the size of the cat in the fight, it's size of the fight in the cat"
"Pep talks... only work when they touch that ember of truth learned the hardest possible way on the field.-Kleph
by thecalicocat on Jan 23, 2012 3:01 PM CST up reply actions
No, because some teams would be more prone to fumbling than others.
So yeah, maybe you should recover ~50% of your fumbles, but if you’re fumbling twice as often as everybody else, it’s not a mystery why you’re losing more fumbles than the other guys.
(Numbers completely made up, as an example.)
God bless our Dark Lord.
I guess a team more prone to recovery is not subject to the randomness of recovery then.
"It's not the size of the cat in the fight, it's size of the fight in the cat"
"Pep talks... only work when they touch that ember of truth learned the hardest possible way on the field.-Kleph
by thecalicocat on Jan 23, 2012 3:39 PM CST up reply actions
Recoveries are based on the bounce of the ball, rather than talent or skill. I believe this has been well documented here on this site.
God bless our Dark Lord.
Yep.
You can’t control recovering it, but you can damn sure keep from dropping it to begin with.
'There are two pains in life. There is the pain of discipline and the pain of disappointment. If you can handle the pain of discipline, then you'll never have to deal with the pain of disappointment,'- Nick Saban
Did you see how he was carrying that ball?
pathetic.
'There are two pains in life. There is the pain of discipline and the pain of disappointment. If you can handle the pain of discipline, then you'll never have to deal with the pain of disappointment,'- Nick Saban
Maybe you missed the point...
propensity to fumble or recover is not proof that it isn’t random. You can’t say recovery is random, even though some teams may be prone to recover, but then say turnovers are not because a team is prone to fumbling.
"It's not the size of the cat in the fight, it's size of the fight in the cat"
"Pep talks... only work when they touch that ember of truth learned the hardest possible way on the field.-Kleph
by thecalicocat on Jan 23, 2012 4:52 PM CST up reply actions
You must have failed statistics.
You are saying that it’s not highly probable that more fumbles will result in more lost fumbles because the recovery rate is inconsistent?
'There are two pains in life. There is the pain of discipline and the pain of disappointment. If you can handle the pain of discipline, then you'll never have to deal with the pain of disappointment,'- Nick Saban
No.
I am saying turnovers or turnover margin is a poor indicator of the capability or incapability of a team r/t a certain outcome (top 6) because of the random nature of turnovers themselves.
Simply the point of above is that the same randomness that is characteristic of recovery would describe the fumble, etc. And, you can’t say it isn’t by simply pointing out that some teams demonstrate a proclivity for recovering without disagreeing with what has been covered in detail on this site.
"It's not the size of the cat in the fight, it's size of the fight in the cat"
"Pep talks... only work when they touch that ember of truth learned the hardest possible way on the field.-Kleph
by thecalicocat on Jan 24, 2012 11:23 AM CST up reply actions
Turnovers aren't random.
Fumble recoveries are. ND had a ton of INTs. I think that you can make a prediction on where a team will finish based on a high turnover margin that is bouyed by a tone of INTs.
"Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that." - George Carlin
by Slice of Life on Jan 24, 2012 11:38 AM CST up reply actions
Meh.
Once the ball is in the air, it is the same as if it is on the turf…its anyone’s ball.
"It's not the size of the cat in the fight, it's size of the fight in the cat"
"Pep talks... only work when they touch that ember of truth learned the hardest possible way on the field.-Kleph
by thecalicocat on Jan 25, 2012 9:59 AM CST up reply actions
Aight, I'm done.
If you believe what you just typed then you know nothing about football. “Anyone’s ball?” Are you serious? Completing passes is not random.
'There are two pains in life. There is the pain of discipline and the pain of disappointment. If you can handle the pain of discipline, then you'll never have to deal with the pain of disappointment,'- Nick Saban
C’mon JT, you know it’s just like a toin coss. Just throw it up in the air and see what happens.
God bless our Dark Lord.
Well, that's kinda what Cam does.
'There are two pains in life. There is the pain of discipline and the pain of disappointment. If you can handle the pain of discipline, then you'll never have to deal with the pain of disappointment,'- Nick Saban
Yes...yes you are.
"It's not the size of the cat in the fight, it's size of the fight in the cat"
"Pep talks... only work when they touch that ember of truth learned the hardest possible way on the field.-Kleph
by thecalicocat on Jan 25, 2012 4:45 PM CST up reply actions
Wait
who said some teams are prone to recover?
'There are two pains in life. There is the pain of discipline and the pain of disappointment. If you can handle the pain of discipline, then you'll never have to deal with the pain of disappointment,'- Nick Saban
Would an 80% recovery rate demostrate a propensity to recover?
"It's not the size of the cat in the fight, it's size of the fight in the cat"
"Pep talks... only work when they touch that ember of truth learned the hardest possible way on the field.-Kleph
by thecalicocat on Jan 24, 2012 11:24 AM CST up reply actions
No
because that stat fluctuates wildly and uncontrollably from season to season and game to game. Once the ball is on the ground it’s all about the bounce.
'There are two pains in life. There is the pain of discipline and the pain of disappointment. If you can handle the pain of discipline, then you'll never have to deal with the pain of disappointment,'- Nick Saban
That's the point...
it is random, and a propensity to recover or not does not adequately support ability or incapability. Yet, at the same time, a statistical showing of such a propensity doesn’t mean it isn’t random. Like flipping a coin.
"It's not the size of the cat in the fight, it's size of the fight in the cat"
"Pep talks... only work when they touch that ember of truth learned the hardest possible way on the field.-Kleph
by thecalicocat on Jan 25, 2012 10:04 AM CST up reply actions
And this has what to do
with fumbling to begin with?
'There are two pains in life. There is the pain of discipline and the pain of disappointment. If you can handle the pain of discipline, then you'll never have to deal with the pain of disappointment,'- Nick Saban
we covered this topic in detail
in this post last off season.
SB Nation's The Historical: Because all those games way back when matter.
Not that many.
'There are two pains in life. There is the pain of discipline and the pain of disappointment. If you can handle the pain of discipline, then you'll never have to deal with the pain of disappointment,'- Nick Saban
Ima just throw this out there.....
No Alabama fan should ever take up for Notre Dame…..EVER….
#19661973’d
by p3bhambama on Jan 23, 2012 10:40 PM CST up reply actions 7 recs
One more rec, please....
"High standards come from passion within...." --Coach Nick Saban
by NiceLittleSaturday on Jan 24, 2012 8:46 AM CST up reply actions
/disapprovedwhilealive
//hasseentheircowardlytyingandcryingfromtheheavens
"High standards come from passion within...." --Coach Nick Saban
by NiceLittleSaturday on Jan 24, 2012 12:25 PM CST up reply actions 1 recs
It's my understanding that all he did was QB Notre Dame.
After that, he steadily made his way to Bama. I’m alright with a former Domer choosing to coach at Alabama, especially with the defensive mentality he had.
9th January, 2012: Section 101, Row 1, Seat... I'll let y'all spot that one.
"And a crashin' blow from a huge right hand
Sent a Louisiana fellow to the Promised Land"
-- "Big John" by Jimmy Dean
by TiderUpNorth on Jan 25, 2012 12:28 AM CST up reply actions
it was far more than that
http://chi.scout.com/2/655115.html
SB Nation's The Historical: Because all those games way back when matter.
but loved Alabama with all of his heart.....
and if he had witnessed the screwjob in ’66, he would have pissed on the dome himself…..
by p3bhambama on Jan 25, 2012 10:49 PM CST up reply actions 1 recs
Rec'd for truth and eloquence....
"High standards come from passion within...." --Coach Nick Saban
by NiceLittleSaturday on Jan 26, 2012 8:27 AM CST up reply actions
Ranking
I think it would be interesting to look at the magazines in terms of standard deviation. It would give more accurate synopsis of how the magazines are doing. It is obviously very difficult to pick the exact spot where a team is going to end up.
Also, in fairness some magazines are doing preseason projections different. For example, Phil Steele tries to project where the teams will end up, where as others simply do a sort of power poll and project who has the best team going into the season.
That sounds like a very good (and time consuming) idea.
1, 2, 3.. NOT IT!!!
"Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that." - George Carlin
by Slice of Life on Jan 23, 2012 11:37 AM CST up reply actions
As Kenny says above, predicting the exact spot is very difficult, and not really a fair gauge
(especially for spots below the top 2 or 3). So here are the projections that were within 3 spots of their final ranking. Sorry I don’t have a way to represent this graphically.
Athlon had the following 5 teams within 3 spots of their final ranking (listed by pre-season ranking):
#1 Alabama, #3 Oregon, #5 BSU, #15 TCU, #17 WVU
Lindy’s had 6:
#2 Alabama, #3 Oregon, #4 LSU, #8 Stanford, #11 South Carolina, #15 TCU
Sporting News had 4:
#1 LSU, #3 Alabama, #4 Stanford, #5 Oregon
Phil Steele had 4:
#1 Alabama, #3 BSU, #11 TCU, #20 Southern Miss
So every magazine was close on Alabama. And most (at least 3) were close on Oregon and TCU. The rest of the time, they didn’t know WTH they were talking about.
God bless our Dark Lord.
Why so sarcastic?
'There are two pains in life. There is the pain of discipline and the pain of disappointment. If you can handle the pain of discipline, then you'll never have to deal with the pain of disappointment,'- Nick Saban
FWIW...
…SI’s preseason rankings included 1. Alabama 3. LSU 4. Stanford 5. Oregon 7. South Carolina 8. Boise State 11. Wisconsin 13. Michigan State 18. TCU 24. Auburn.
"High standards come from passion within...." --Coach Nick Saban
by NiceLittleSaturday on Jan 24, 2012 8:57 AM CST up reply actions
Agreed.
My mental caption is “Where the hell am I gonna put all these?”
"Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that." - George Carlin
by Slice of Life on Jan 23, 2012 11:38 AM CST up reply actions
Was thinking the same thing....
love the look on Coach’s face….
Troll on, troller.
LSU proving to be astonishingly good (at least during the regular season)
"Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that." - George Carlin
Told everyone that A&M and Nebraska were way over rated.
//locatingownhornandtootingloudly
And we already have the sports media narrative for this off season: USC is back and preseason #1!!!
Although they play no one, they cant go undefeated with lane at the helm. And I would dearly love to play him for the NC. There would be blood.
Proud mini-Saban.
Lane gave us one of our toughest games of '09 with a depleted Tenn team.
I wouldn’t presume that we’d take it easily.
"Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that." - George Carlin
by Slice of Life on Jan 23, 2012 1:27 PM CST up reply actions
lane is out of his depths until he demonstrates otherwise.
Proud mini-Saban.
by Tidee Whitee on Jan 23, 2012 4:28 PM CST up reply actions
I'm a Lame Kitten detractor as well, but I will admit I was impressed with his victory at Oregon.
9th January, 2012: Section 101, Row 1, Seat... I'll let y'all spot that one.
"And a crashin' blow from a huge right hand
Sent a Louisiana fellow to the Promised Land"
-- "Big John" by Jimmy Dean
by TiderUpNorth on Jan 23, 2012 7:08 PM CST up reply actions
Agreed.
He beat oregon and took Stanford to OT.
USC is not a cupcake.
"Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that." - George Carlin
by Slice of Life on Jan 24, 2012 8:37 AM CST up reply actions
YOU'RE OUT OF YOUR ELEMENT, LANE!
You’re like a little child who wanders into a movie and wants to know what’s going on.
God bless our Dark Lord.
My projection for 2012
at the start of the season based on players on the roster: 1. USC, 2. LSU, 3. Alabama, 4. Oregon, 5. Arkansas, 6. FSU, 7. Oklahoma 8. Michigan, 9. UGA, 10. Oklahoma.
But they won’t finish that way because of schedule etc- our schedule is very tough. Right now I’d say the winner of USC v Oregon will play the winner of Bama v. LSU for the NC, but a lot can happen during a season.
If Auburn was in New Mexico and we never played them I would still hate them and their dumb coach and their cheating players.
We are losing a lot
so i’m not ready to plug us in the NC yet. Though I hope you’re right.
"There are 40 rules all Schrute boys must learn by age 5. Rule #17- There are 3 things you never turn your back on--- Bears, men you have wronged, and a dominant male turkey during mating season."
I think it's highly possible
that we navigate the schedule, though losing at LSU and/or Arkansas is quite possible. I really think this defense can be near the top nationally again. The funny thing is that we could see a pretty dramatic dropoff in performance and still have the number one D.
'There are two pains in life. There is the pain of discipline and the pain of disappointment. If you can handle the pain of discipline, then you'll never have to deal with the pain of disappointment,'- Nick Saban
How bout this: we lose one game, to Arky, and the NC is a Bama Arky rematch.
Heads asploding everywhere.
Proud mini-Saban.
by Tidee Whitee on Jan 23, 2012 4:29 PM CST up reply actions
Hell...
…I’d buy one….
"High standards come from passion within...." --Coach Nick Saban
by NiceLittleSaturday on Jan 24, 2012 8:48 AM CST up reply actions
I agree.
At first I was thinking our D would be just so-so.
But when I look at the starting line of Williams, Dial, and Square. Backed up by Stinson, Billingsley, Ivory and Lake I think our D-line will be better than this years line.
When I look at our Linebackers and see Mosely, Johnson, and Depriest inside and Hubbard, and Dickson outside with Patrick and Ragland playing backup I think our LB’s will be not as good as this year, but pretty close.
When I look at our Backs and see Milliner, Lester, Sunseri, Lowery, Ha-Ha, and then throw in Belue, Collins and Dixon I think our D-Backs will be as good as 2011.
The only place we drop off is LB and even that is not a big drop by any means. As of right now I don’t think we have an Upshaw although maybe Dickson will be that guy. Other than that, we will look a lot like 2011.
If Auburn was in New Mexico and we never played them I would still hate them and their dumb coach and their cheating players.
I think the D line is the only place where we'll see improvement immediately.
The new mix among the linebackers and defensive backs will be evident. They won’t be soft, but it will take time for them to become familiar with each others’ tendencies.
However, I do see our D being quite a bit stronger than the 2010 group.
9th January, 2012: Section 101, Row 1, Seat... I'll let y'all spot that one.
"And a crashin' blow from a huge right hand
Sent a Louisiana fellow to the Promised Land"
-- "Big John" by Jimmy Dean
by TiderUpNorth on Jan 23, 2012 7:17 PM CST up reply actions
My two bits.
DL improves.
LB drops a bit.
DB drops even more.
Overall, better than 2011 by a bit.
"The same things win today that have always won, and they will win years from now. The only difference is the losers have a whole new bunch of excuses why they don’t win or can’t win."-Bear Bryant
(12-4)+2=12 hoping for a +1
Robot Chicken Star Wars should be canon.
by the thin red line on Jan 23, 2012 10:56 PM CST up reply actions
*2010
I would assume you meant.
'There are two pains in life. There is the pain of discipline and the pain of disappointment. If you can handle the pain of discipline, then you'll never have to deal with the pain of disappointment,'- Nick Saban
Ahhh, the offseason overconfidence finally kicked in.
Can’t believe it took two full weeks to get here!
God bless our Dark Lord.
I don't know that it's overconfidence
to say that this defense could be the best in the country next year. It seems that most believe it will be better than the 2010 version, and that unit finished number 5 overall.
'There are two pains in life. There is the pain of discipline and the pain of disappointment. If you can handle the pain of discipline, then you'll never have to deal with the pain of disappointment,'- Nick Saban
Yeah, but I don’t think they’ll be anywhere near as good as Notre Dame!!!
Just having a laugh because it’s an annual thing to gloss over our holes and assume that every former backup is going to step up and be All SEC, though that confident feeling doesn’t normally start until June or so for me. Then OTS comes along with a post about how we have gaping holes at every position and it’ll take a lot of luck to win more than 8 games.
God bless our Dark Lord.
When your former backups
were all part of number one ranked recruiting classes who showed flashes of brilliance when they get to play and your coaches are known as the best in the player development biz, it’s hard not to think that way. Hubbard, Depriest, and Sunseri all look like studs, not to mention HaHa.
'There are two pains in life. There is the pain of discipline and the pain of disappointment. If you can handle the pain of discipline, then you'll never have to deal with the pain of disappointment,'- Nick Saban
I'm not usually optimistic.
But Smart returned for a reason. He knows what he is sitting on and he knows he could be the DC of the greatest defensive run of this generation. If you think about it since 08 we have had a great defensive run and if 12 turns out to be even as good as 10 it would one of the greatest defensive runs ever.
I’m not saying we will win the NC in 2012 because we will need a little luck to do that. But, I think we have a solid chance of being in the middle of the hunt when we pull into Baton Rouge. What happens after that is somewhat based on what LSU has done up until that time.
But, even if we were to lose one early (and hopefully we will not)- to either Mich or Arky, if beat LSU, we will go to the SECCG and from there we have a good shot at a return ticket. I do not think we will lose as many as 3 games next year.
If Auburn was in New Mexico and we never played them I would still hate them and their dumb coach and their cheating players.
Oklahoma may be good in 2012, but NO ONE is good enough to occupy the 7th AND 10th spot.
9th January, 2012: Section 101, Row 1, Seat... I'll let y'all spot that one.
"And a crashin' blow from a huge right hand
Sent a Louisiana fellow to the Promised Land"
-- "Big John" by Jimmy Dean
by TiderUpNorth on Jan 23, 2012 7:07 PM CST up reply actions
Sorry, I meant Okie St. #10.
If Auburn was in New Mexico and we never played them I would still hate them and their dumb coach and their cheating players.
Homer.
9th January, 2012: Section 101, Row 1, Seat... I'll let y'all spot that one.
"And a crashin' blow from a huge right hand
Sent a Louisiana fellow to the Promised Land"
-- "Big John" by Jimmy Dean
by TiderUpNorth on Jan 23, 2012 7:10 PM CST up reply actions 1 recs
No really
I know Okie St. lost a lot but… they play in conference which knows not defense, I think Gundy is a pretty good coach, and they have learned how to cause turnovers. I do not see them going undefeated but they will be plenty good enough for teams like Texas Tech and Kansas. I’d see them 10-2.
And, by the way I hate Okie St.
If there is anyone missing in my top 10 it is Wisconsin. Just don’t know how they do without their qb, same for Boise.
If Auburn was in New Mexico and we never played them I would still hate them and their dumb coach and their cheating players.
I was just kidding about being an OK homer.
I agree that the Big12 is probably the easiest conference (next to the ACC) in which to recover from graduations/NFL draftees.
What I would have a field day with, is if TCU steps in next year — plays defense — and ends up winning the conference.
9th January, 2012: Section 101, Row 1, Seat... I'll let y'all spot that one.
"And a crashin' blow from a huge right hand
Sent a Louisiana fellow to the Promised Land"
-- "Big John" by Jimmy Dean
by TiderUpNorth on Jan 25, 2012 12:35 AM CST up reply actions
Notre Dame. LOLZ.
Dave Robertson is growing up to be the new Mariano Rivera. My two universes of fandom can finally unite!
by SoGladILeftTheACC on Jan 23, 2012 4:54 PM CST reply actions
What I wouldn't give to see a preseason article summing up ND's 2012 chances with "LOLZ"...
9th January, 2012: Section 101, Row 1, Seat... I'll let y'all spot that one.
"And a crashin' blow from a huge right hand
Sent a Louisiana fellow to the Promised Land"
-- "Big John" by Jimmy Dean
by TiderUpNorth on Jan 23, 2012 7:12 PM CST up reply actions
I always liked this Jet review by Pitchfork.
Somebody: Do this for ND 2012!
"We knew we had to turn it up or we would get beat. We ripped the knob off. We turned it up so much we broke the knob." - Roy Upchurch after beating Florida in the 2009 SEC Championship Game
by bearbryantwonit on Jan 24, 2012 2:56 AM CST up reply actions
He would have been conceived in genius if he hadn't spritzed himself in the eyes.
9th January, 2012: Section 101, Row 1, Seat... I'll let y'all spot that one.
"And a crashin' blow from a huge right hand
Sent a Louisiana fellow to the Promised Land"
-- "Big John" by Jimmy Dean
by TiderUpNorth on Jan 25, 2012 12:36 AM CST up reply actions
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