National signing day was yesterday as the top rated high school players all over the country sign with their favorite school. It is one of the most important days of the year for each college team as usually the teams with the best recruiting classes year in and year out usually find themselves in the Top 25.

Covering college football as I do takes 52 weeks a year as it is and while I personally do not scout the high school games and rate each player I do compile my rankings based on the many different recruiting services across the country that follow and scout HS football year round. I not only like to use all of the biggest and best services, but I also use regional reports as well. The colleges themselves use many of these services to get the latest information on recruits.

One very important part of my College Football Preview Magazine is an individual player’s “PS#”. You will see them on almost every page and I find them vital in my analysis of a team.  A simple definition for a PS# is my ranking of the players at their positions coming out of high school.

When I receive a recruiting magazine, I translate each player’s ranking into a point system from 1-100.  Each and every player is then logged into the computer and give them a point total from each source. This is a very time-consuming process. Many players are listed by just one or two sources. The higher ranked recruits are mentioned by almost every source. The more they are mentioned and the higher they are rated in each publication, the more total points they accrue. After months of entering all of this information, I sort the list by each position and by total points. Naturally, the QB with the most total points then becomes PS#1QB for that year. If a player is PS#99QB, that means he ranks 99th in total points of all QB’s coming out of high school that year.

While my final recruiting rankings for this year will not be completed for awhile, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at my top overall 250 players.

Phil Steele’s Current 2012 Top 250 Incoming Frosh

By School

Naturally these numbers could changed with 3 unsigned players but it’s a safe bet that Texas, Alabama and Florida St will be among my Top 10 when I published my final rankings in this year’s magazine. The Longhorns who “only” had 4 players in my Top 100 landed and incredible 11 players in my next 150 for a total of 15 players in the Top 250 to lead the way. I will be back later this week with my Top 500 players and start finalizing some of my positions for the 2012 recruiting class.

Well here it is, my projected AP Top 10 for next year as of January 30, 2012! I will mention it now and I will mention it numerous times throughout today’s blog but this is not MY preseason Top 10 for next year, it is where I project the AP Top 10 to come out at the start of the season.

Most AP voters usually look at a couple of criteria when they evaluate a team for the upcoming season. First they look at the number of returning starters that the team has coming back particularly at the offensive skill positions. A team that returns its starting QB and a combination of its RB and WR’s is often times more highly thought of than a team that loses its starting QB but returns its entire offensive line. Similarly a team that returns most of its starters on offense but loses a lot of its defensive playmakers usually is more highly thought of than a team that returns a majority of its defensive starters but loses its skill position players on offense.

Another factor that is heavily weighted is the performance of the team in the bowl game, which undoubtedly is the lasting image of that team in the offseason. A team coming off a huge bowl win usually is more highly thought of than a team that is coming off a bowl loss regardless of what their schedule looks like for the upcoming season.

Using these criteria and a few more, I project the preseason AP Top 10 every year at the conclusion of the previous season, which in most cases is nearly 6 months in advance. Now as you all know, a lot can happen from January to August including injuries, suspensions, transfers, etc.

In 2009, my projected Top 10 for the AP Poll was #1 Florida, #2 Texas, #3 USC, #4 Oklahoma, #5 Alabama, #6 Virginia Tech, #7 LSU, #8 Oklahoma St, #9 Ohio St and #10 Mississippi. The actual AP Top 10 was #1 Florida, #2 Texas, #3 Oklahoma, #4 USC, #5 Alabama, #6 Ohio St, #7 Virginia Tech, #8 Mississippi and #9 was a tie between Oklahoma St/Penn St.

I nailed nine of the ten teams that appeared in the Preseason Top 10 with the only exception being LSU/Penn St and I may have had something to do with that. It’s interesting to note that of the main preseason magazines, only two had Penn St ranked in the Top 10 and I had them my #1 surprise team and ranked #5. Most had Penn St out of the Top 10. Perhaps since I had them rated so high in my magazine, it influenced a few voters across the country, bumping them into the Top 10.

In 2010 I projected the preseason AP Top 10 would be #1 Alabama, #2 Ohio St, #3 Boise St, #4 Oregon, #5 Texas, #6 TCU, #7 Iowa, #8 Florida, #9 Nebraska and #10 Virginia Tech.

The actual AP Top 10 was #1 Alabama, #2 Ohio St, #3 Boise St, #4 Florida, #5 Texas, #6 TCU, #7 Oklahoma, #8 Nebraska, #9 Iowa and #10 Virginia Tech.

For the second year in a row I nailed nine of the ten teams that appeared in the Preseason Top 10 with the only exception being Oregon/Oklahoma, which I can defend easily.

First, at the time I wrote my projection back in early February Duck QB Jeremiah Masoli was not yet suspended. With Masoli still in the fold at that point Oregon had 17 returning starters including RB LaMichael James and Masoli in the backfield. The Ducks clearly would have been a preseason Top 10 team and probably Top 5 had Masoli not been kicked off the team. Even without Masoli Oregon was still rated #11 in the preseason poll.

The team that I did not have in my projected AP Top 10 was Oklahoma (#7) and if you have purchased the 2010 magazine or listened to one of my radio shows across the country you know I thought very highly of the Sooners as I had them ranked #1. Like Penn St in 2009 perhaps since I had them rated so high in my magazine, it influenced a few voters across the country, bumping them into the Top 10 despite the Sooners having five losses in 2009 and the fact that they did not even finish in the final AP Top 25.

I also am pleased that six of the 10 teams were ranked in the exact position that I projected including the Top 3 in Alabama, Ohio St and Boise St. I also had Texas, TCU and Virginia Tech ranked in their exact positions in the poll.

Last year I projected the preseason AP Top 10 would be #1 Oklahoma, #2 Alabama, #3 Oregon, #4 LSU, #5 Stanford, #6 Texas A&M, #7 Boise St, #8 Florida St, #9 Oklahoma St and #10 South Carolina.

The actual AP Top 10 was #1 Oklahoma, #2 Alabama, #3 Oregon, #4 LSU, #5 Boise St, #6 Florida St, #7 Stanford, #8 Texas A&M, #9 Oklahoma St and #10 Nebraska.

For the third year in a row I nailed nine of the ten teams that appeared in the Preseason Top 10 with the only exception being South Carolina/Nebraska, which I can defend easily.

First, when I released my projection back in February of last year South Carolina QB Stephen Garcia was still on the team and was not suspended which would end up costing him the spring and summer with the team. With Garcia’s status up in the air at the time of the AP ballots being due in late July and early August, South Carolina was dropped a bit giving way to Nebraska. The Cornhuskers meanwhile were my pick to win the Big Ten in last year’s magazine which probably influenced a few voters as well.

Now let’s take a look at this year’s projected Preseason AP Top 10:

***#10 West Virginia-The Mountaineers get the nod here due to a dominating 70-33 Orange bowl win over Clemson. This year WVU returns 14 starters including QB Geno Smith who should be more comfortable in his 2^nd-year of Dana Holgorsen’s offense. The asterisk is put on them because at the time of this projection it is not sure whether the Mountaineers will play in the Big East or the Big 12 for 2012. If they remain in the Big East they will be the clear-cut favorites with an easier schedule but if they are joining the Big 12 for 2012, their schedule will be tougher and I would project South Carolina for the #10 spot.

 #9 Arkansas-The Razorbacks have had their most successful B2B seasons since 1988-89 going 22-5 the last two years. This year they return 13 starters including QB Tyler Wilson and will get back 2010 All-SEC RB Knile Davis who was out all of last season with an ankle injury. Last year the Razorbacks lost only two games to the top 2 teams in LSU and Alabama (both on the road) and this year the Crimson Tide and Tigers have to travel to Arkansas.

#8 Florida St-The Seminoles were a darkhorse pick for the National Title last year but an injury to QB Manuel saw the Noles drop to 2-3 at one point in the season. FSU would respond to win 7 of its last 8 games including wins over Florida and Notre Dame in the bowl to cap off the season and this year they return 15 starters including QB Manuel and defensive stars DL Jenkins and DB Reid. FSU looks to also bring in one of the best frosh classes in the country and should clearly be the favorites in the ACC.

#7 Michigan-The Wolverines were one of the biggest surprises in college football last year winning 11 games and a BCS Bowl under first-year HC Brady Hoke. This year they return 7 starters on offense led by QB Denard Robinson and RB Toussaint who should be more comfortable in the 2^nd-year of the new offense. UM also return 7 starters from a defense that allowed just 17.4 ppg (#6) which was nearly an 18 ppg improvement from 2010! Michigan finished #12 in the final AP poll and figure to be the favorites to win the Big Ten this year.

#6 Georgia-I was one of the few people in the country last year to pick Georgia to win the SEC East over South Carolina thanks to a favorable SEC slate that had them avoiding Arkansas, LSU and Alabama out of the West and the Bulldogs would not disappoint taking home the SEC East crown. This year they return 15 starters including QB Aaron Murray, leading rusher Isaiah Crowell, their top 2 rec’s and a 1^st-Team All-American candidate on D in OLB Jarvis Jones. Again the Bulldogs AVOID LSU, Alabama and Arkansas out of the SEC West and will be the favorites to repeat as SEC East Champs.

#5 Oklahoma-The Sooners were the preseason AP #1 team last year and clearly underachieved losing three games including a 44-10 beatdown in Bedlam. They did win their bowl game over Iowa, return 15 starters including QB Landry Jones who will play better than last year’s finish and HC Bob Stoops and the Sooners have won at least 10 games in a season 10 times since 2000!

#4 Oregon-The Ducks have become a fixture among the nation’s elite under HC Chip Kelly with 3 straight BCS appearances and last year captured their first Rose Bowl win since 1916! While QB Darron Thomas and RB LaMichael James are gone, their replacements are plenty capable as QB Bryan Bennett and RB’s Kenjon Barner and De’Anthony Thomas return with some valuable game experience and the Ducks do not open with a marquee non-conference game like they did last year vs LSU.

#3 Alabama-The Crimson Tide were my pick to win the National Title last year and they did just that avenging an earlier loss to LSU by dominating the Tigers in the BCS Championship game 21-0. This year the defending champs return 7 starters on offense led by QB AJ McCarron who played magnificently in the title game. While the defense returns only 4 starters from last year, keep in mind in 2010, the Tide returned only 2 defensive starters and were the Preseason AP #1 team!

#2 USC-Last year while the probation-stricken Trojans were not eligible to play in the Pac-12 title game, I picked them to be the best team in the South and clearly they were just that going 10-2 (7-2) beating their crosstown rival Bruins who were the de facto Pac-12 South Champs 50-0 in the regular season finale! The Trojans locked up their spot here with the surprising return of QB Matt Barkley who is clearly one of the Heisman favorites in 2012. He will have plenty of skill position talent surrounding him with his top 2 WR’s Robert Woods and Marqise Lee back and 1,000 yd rusher Curtis McNeal also returning.  A case could be made at the end of last season that no team in the country was hotter than USC winning 7 of their last 8 games with a 3OT loss to Stanford their only blemish. With 15 returning starters, the Trojans clearly will be one of the favorites to take home the crystal ball.

#1 LSU-Last year LSU was picked 2^nd in the SEC West behind Alabama and would go on to have arguably the best regular season in school history going 13-0 winning the SEC Championship and would beat EIGHT Top 25 teams! While the National Title loss to Alabama still stings, many of the Tigers’ star players return for 2012 including Heisman candidate DB Tyrann Mathieu along with their their top 4 rushers. Throw in QB Zach Mettenberger who Miles said last year was his best pure passing QB and a home game vs Alabama and the Tigers will be the favorites to win the National Title!

JUST MISSED OUT:

I mentioned at the start of the blog that last year I had nine of the top 10 teams correctly predicted and it was the same case in 2009 and 2010 where I also missed out by 1. If one of the team’s I have projected in the Top 10 doesn’t make the polls, there are some teams that have a shot at jumping into the Top 10.

This year I believe there is just one team with a shot and it is #11 South Carolina who could jump the Mountaineers depending on what conference WVU will be in for 2012. Also putting the Gamecocks here is the fact that if they are in the Top 10 that would mean 5 of those teams would be from the SEC. The Gamecocks do return 13 starters including QB Connor Shaw and get back RB Marcus Lattimore who missed the last six games with a knee injury. They also get last year’s SEC East winner Georgia at home.

There you have it – My projections for the AP Preseason Top 10. As mentioned a couple of times in this article, these WILL NOT BE THE TOP 10 IN MY MAGAZINE. As you know, I tend to go out on a limb in a lot of cases and have a lot of surprise picks in my magazine. Those will be unveiled at the start of June when my magazine hits the newsstands but when the first AP poll comes out in August this year, go ahead and take this list and compare it and you’ll find that probably 9 or maybe even all 10 will be in the Preseason AP Top 10 this year.

Every year in my magazine, I list my Top Non-AQ teams for that particular year and over the course of the last six seasons I have had great success!

In 2006, my top non-AQ team was Boise St and I PROJECTED THEM INTO A BCS BOWL and they went undefeated and got to the Fiesta Bowl where they beat Oklahoma. In 2007, I called for Hawaii to go 12-0 and grab a SUGAR BOWL BERTH and that is exactly what they did!

In 2008 my top non-AQ team was Utah and while they were NOT RANKED in the preseason and no one picked them to even win the MWC at the start of the year except me, they finished unbeaten and #2 in the country! In 2009 my Top non-AQ team was Boise St and when they beat TCU in the Fiesta Bowl they finished #4 and the top non-AQ team in the country. In 2010 it was FIVE in a row. EVERYONE had Boise St as their top non AQ team but I went against the grain and picked TCU and coach Patterson and company did not disappoint as they knocked off Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl and finished #2 in the country, naturally the top rated non AQ team out there (Boise #9!)

My Top Non-AQ Teams for 2011 as Featured in my College Preview Magazine Published in May!

This past year I picked Boise St as my Top Non-AQ Team and the Broncos came within one missed 39-yard FG vs TCU away from yet another unbeaten season and a possible berth in the national title game as LSU and Boise would have been the only two remaining unbeaten teams. Keep in mind there was a lot of resentment against having an Alabama/LSU rematch and there probably would have been some support for Boise and the little guys to finally get their shot at the title. The Broncos were even shutout of a BCS game but would go on to finish 12-1 and #8 in the AP poll ranking ahead of every other Non-AQ team.  That means in the 6 years I have posted my Top non-AQ team 5 of them have gone to BCS bowls and ALL SIX have finished as the best non-AQ team!

Also listed in this past year’s magazine were 5 other Top Non-AQ teams and I am very pleased with their success as well. Each of the top 5 Non-AQ teams finished in the top 25 of either the final AP or Coaches poll and all SIX of them had double digit wins!

TCU was my #2 AQ team and the Horned Frogs despite returning the 2nd fewest amount of starters in the country won the MWC title finishing with 11 wins and indeed finished as the #2 Non-AQ team at #14 in the AP Poll. My #3 Non-AQ team was Southern Miss and the Golden Eagles would finish with their best season in school history with 12 wins and a #20 AP finish which included an upset over my #4 Non-AQ team Houston in the CUSA Championship Game. The Cougars also had a dream season finishing with 13 wins and a #18 finish in the AP poll. Also listed was BYU who won 10 games and finished #26 in the AP poll and #25 in the Coaches’ Poll while Ohio was my #6 Top Non-AQ team and the Bobcats finished with their first double digit win season since 1968!

This year I’m going for SEVEN IN A ROW! So make sure you buy my pre-season college football preview to see which Non-AQ team will top my chart with a great shot at grabbing a BCS Bowl next year!

We have already been working hard on the 2012 season and today’s blog is the current list for returning starters for each team in 2012 broken down by offense, defense and special teams (kicker/punter). The * on the offense number denotes that the starting QB is returning. Below the list I broke down teams with the most/least returning starters.

I will be back later this week with my forecasts for the AFC and NFC Championship games while on Monday I will expand on the Las Vegas odds to win the 2012 BCS National Championship and give you a breakdown of each of the teams including key starters back/lost.

Returning Starters for 2012

Last year in this blog I talked about several teams that were the most experienced in the country and three of them mentioned went on to have outstanding seasons. Last year new Vanderbilt HC James Franklin inherited one of the most experienced teams in the country with a total of the 21 of the 24 players back for this season including all 11 starters on offense. Franklin and the Commodores would go on to qualify for only their 2nd bowl game since 1982. New Michigan HC Brady Hoke also inherited one of the more experienced teams in the country with the Wolverines returning 20 starters led by All-American candidate Robinson at QB. The Wolverines delivered with 11 wins and their first BCS Bowl win since the 2000 season! Also mentioned was Alabama as despite losing RB Ingram, WR Jones and DE Dareus to the NFL draft early, the Crimson Tide still returned 17 starters and would go on to win the national title!

On the opposite end was the 2010 national champion Auburn Tigers who returned only 7 starters which was an incredible 3 fewer than any other team and they would go from 14-0 to 8-5.

In 2012 UTSA returns the most starters in the country but that should be expected since they are a start-up program that will move into the WAC this year. The two FBS teams from last year that return the most starters are Texas Tech and Tennessee who return 20 starters including ST’s and are similar in many ways. Both are coming off disappointing 5-7 seasons and both feature a 3rd-year HC who has struggled to live up to expectations to date. With so much experience returning for both teams, look for them to be improved and back in a bowl game for 2012. Another school that missed out on a bowl last year for the first time since 1998 was Boston College who also will be one of the more experienced teams in the country and should be improved.

At the bottom of the rankings to no surprise is Boise St who was featured near the top of the returning starters list in 2010 and 2011. The graduating class of seniors went an unbelievable 50-3 in their 4 years and naturally the Broncos will have to replace their 4-year starting QB Kellen Moore. The last time Boise St had this many key departures they were coming off the 2006 BCS Bowl win over Oklahoma and would finish 10-3 in 2007.

Returning Starters for 2012 By Conference

]]> http://blog.philsteele.com/2012/01/20/2012-returning-starters/feed/ 7 http://blog.philsteele.com/2012/01/10/bowl-confidence-contest-winners/ http://blog.philsteele.com/2012/01/10/bowl-confidence-contest-winners/#comments Tue, 10 Jan 2012 22:23:58 +0000 Phil Steele http://blog.philsteele.com/?p=5157

Every year people ask me who my favorite team is. It is the team I pick #1. Last year I rooted AGAINST Alabama almost every week as my magazine was about the only one out there not to pick them to win (or even play in) the title game. This year I picked them #1 and it was not easy but I will admit I rooted for the Tide each week and they held LSU to under 100 yards (4 to 1 yardage edge) last night in a dominating 21-0 national title win!!!

The Daily blog will be undergoing some changes in the next couple of days now that the college football season is complete. Tomorrow’s blog will give you some bowl notes on 15 bowl games with also some top bowl performances from a stats perspective in Friday’s blog. Later on this week you will get my forecasts for the NFL Divisional games played that day including my computer’s projected box score of the games.

Starting next week I will be going to a Monday, Wednesday and weekend blog format until magazine season is over in late spring/early summer. In early February, my projection of what the Preseason AP top 10 will be for 2012 and that will be coming after January 15th when juniors have to declare or not declare for the NFL Draft. I also will be updating you with 2012 NFL Draft and 2012 Frosh Recruiting updates.

Bowl Confidence Contest

The 2011 Bowl Confidence Contest was a huge success with more than 3000 entries! Congratulations to Rick Nicholas the winner of the 2012 Bowl Confidence Contest!! Jim finished with an amazing 562 points won to just 68 points lost (29-6) and will take home the grand prize of $250 and a complete set of 2012 Preview magazines. Mike Steele finished in 2nd with 558 points (27-8) and will get $100 and a set of 2012 previews. Salvador Valle finished in 3rd (won tiebreaker) with 55 points (28-7) and will get $50 and set of previews.

I do want to personally thank the good people specifically Todd DeVries and David Pollock at Sportsfan.com who helped put our contest together this year. I encourage anyone of you who is looking to do a college football bowl contest or March Madness pool to give them a try. I look forward to next years contest and promise it will be even bigger and better than this years!

Thanks again to the 3000 people that have entered. If you have any questions concerning your points or do not see your name in the Top and think it should be please email Brandon@philsteele.com.

Here are the final leaderboards.

Top 10 Bowl Confidence Contest

Phil Steele’s 2011-12
Bowl Confidence Contest

Pick the Winners of all 35 Bowl Games and rank them in order of 1-35 with 35 being your most confident pick and 1 being your least confident pick.

FREE to ENTER with Cash Prizes!!!

1st Place: $250 and a Set of 2012 Preview Magazines
2nd Place: $100 and a Set of 2012 Preview Magazines
3rd Place: $50 and a Set of 2012 Preview Magazines

One Picksheet Per Person!

All picks must be completed by Saturday Dec 17th at 2:00 PM EST

The last couple of years I have had a Bowl Confidence Contest that generated a lot of interest on our site and we had hundreds and hundreds of entries. Two years ago we had the biggest entry pool yet with nearly 1200 entries and it was a huge success with more than double the amount of entries compared to ‘08! Last year we outdid ourselves again with an incredible 2922 entries! This year we will again have a “Bowl Confidence Contest” and I hope there will be many more participants!

You can enter the contest by simply clicking here. To enter, just go to the sign up page and log in your information. Then after that go to your picksheet page and simply pick who you think will win each of the 35 bowl games. You then award your confidence points to each. The team you think will definitely win their game would get 35 points and the team who you picked at the bottom which was very tough for you to call would get 1 point.

For each team that wins their bowl game that you picked correctly, you get the confidence points you assigned to them. Those with the highest points are the winners. The first bowl game takes place on December 17th at 2:00 PM EST and Good Luck!!

One Bowl Entry Per Person Please!! For more contest rules click here and if you have any questions or concerns please email brandon@philsteele.com.

Make Your Group and Compete Against Your Friends!

Also make sure to check PhilSteele.com everyday for complete information and coverage on all the bowl matchups. On the homepage click on the Bowl Matchups link, where you will find all 35 bowl games. Click on the bowl logo for each game to get all the information you need to become an expert! Start doing your homework now and get your 35 bowl predictions done.

When I release my All-American and All-Conference teams, I get input back from NFL scouts, schools and head coaches and feel that my teams are the most complete and most accurate post-season awards teams out there today.

Today I am releasing my All-American team with four full teams complete 116 players representing every conference including the independent schools. This year with so many players pulling double duty at RB/WR and ST’s I have added an extra position as “AP” designates All-Purpose with each of the 4 players excelling in at least two different categories.

Tomorrow I will post all of my postseason All-Conference teams.

Download Phil Steele’s 2012 Postseason All-American Team!

Bowl season is upon us and PhilSteele.com will be overwhelming you with the most complete information and coverage on all the bowl matchups. On the homepage page on the Bowl matchups link, where you will find all 35 bowl games. Click on the bowl logo for each game to get all the information you need to become an expert.

Keep checking back everyday at PhilSteele.com for more bowl information!!

Now Available in iTunes!  Steele Stats iPhone App!

Just $1.99

While I am not always up-to-date on the latest technology, there have been several requests that PhilSteele.com needed to have an iPhone app and I am very pleased that earlier this year we released our first app and we have gotten some great feedback. Here are some of the comments….

The App is Now on sale for $1.99 and features Live scores, box scores, team schedules, week-by-week schedule, 2011 team and individual game statistics including FBS Power Ratings for the 2011 season and includes all 120 teams!

The Steele Stats App has it all!

2011 Live Scores – Live college football scores for all FBS 2011 Games

Individual Team Content at your fingertips!

2011 Individual Team Schedules – All FBS college footballs team schedules, locations, and times.

Quick Facts – Summary of facts about each team including coach, coaching records, colors, mascot, year founded, team formation, stadium and other fun facts.

2011 Game Scores – Final game scores for all season games.

2011 Box Scores for each game once 2011 season begins! Box scores include team, game and individual stats as well a recap of action for each quarter of all games!

2011 Week-by-Week Schedule! Select a week or day and see a complete listing of all game times and scheduled television coverage. Time listed in ET.

2011 FBS Power Ratings!

My Daily Blog – Expert commentary from college football’s own Phil Steele, publisher of “College Football Preview” since 1995. Phil’s blog covers College and Pro Football coverage. Available on the App daily at 2 p.m. ET!

Search by Conference or Team Name!

Only one app needed! No need to buy individual team apps or additional in-app purchases to access 120 FBS teams for scores, stats and schedules!

Whether you are at the game, in your living room or sitting around a table with your friends, follow your favorite FBS college football teams! Includes 120 all teams!

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1. Trent Richardson, Alabama-Richardson has a combined 1,910 rush/rec yds with 23 TD’s while being the best player on one of the two best teams in the country this year! When breaking down Richardson’s numbers even further, it is remarkable considering the fact that he has faced EIGHT total defenses that rank in the top 51 with FIVE of them in the top 20! If you want to compare Richardson’s numbers to former Alabama RB Mark Ingram who won the Heisman in 2009 they are better! Thru 12 games, Richardson has 1,583 rush yds (6.0) with 20 TD’s with 27 receptions for 327 yds (12.1) and 3 TD’s. Ingram (thru 12 gms) meanwhile had 1,429 yds (6.5) and 12 TD’s to go along with 28 receptions for 246 yards (8.8) and 3 TD’s. To top it off Richardson has put together his best performances this year in the biggest games. He had 111 rush yds (4.3) and 2 TD’s vs Penn St’s #11 D, 211 combined rush/rec yds vs Arkansas, 208 combined rush/rec yds vs Florida’s #11 D, 169 of Alabama’s 295 total yards vs LSU’s #2 D and in the Iron Bowl needing a big performance to top it off he ran for a career-high 203 yards (7.5) with another Heisman-caliber run similar to his outstanding run vs Ole Miss earlier this year. Simply put, Richardson is the best player in college football this season playing a top notch schedule and putting forth clutch performances to help his team win games.

2. Case Keenum, Houston-The Houston QB’s get knocked for being system QB’s, but if we are talking about what player is the most valuable to his team than any other in the country then Keenum could get the nod. Without Keenum last year (10 gms if you count UCLA where he got inj’d), the Cougars were 3-7 and avg’d 33 ppg and 461 ypg (down from 42 ppg and 563 ypg in ’09), now this year with basically the same team Houston is 12-0 ranked in the top 10 with a shot at a BCS game avg 53 ppg and 613 ypg! Keenum is #1 passing for 393 ypg, completing 73.2% of his passes (#2) and has an incredible 43-3 ratio which is on pace to set the NCAA record. I have not even mentioned that Keenum owns nearly every major career passing stat in NCAA history! Not only does Keenum deserve to be invited to New York, but I feel he deserves consideration to win it!

3. Andrew Luck, Stanford-The Heisman Trophy is about being the best college football player in the country for that particular season. If we are talking about the best college football player for the upcoming NFL Draft in April, then Luck clearly is that player and will get his reward by being selected 1st next year. However, this season with arguably one of the best OL’s in the country, with a stable group of RB’s and a talented bunch of TE’s, Luck has not put the numbers worthy of getting the Heisman. He has faced only two defenses that rank in the Top 50 including 8 teams that finished 80th or lower! The 4 best defenses he faced (USC, Oregon, Cal, ND) he avg 269 ypg (68%) with a 12-5 ratio and keep in mind 2 of those interceptions were returned for TD’s while a third vs ND would have been ret’d for a TD if not for a horse collar tackle. Simply put, if you’re an NFL GM Luck is your guy, but if you’re voting on who the best player was in college football this year then Luck would not be in my top 2.

4. Robert Griffin III, Baylor-I was all set to put Griffin among my top 2 until last week. All year I thought that the most valuable player for any team was RGIII but Baylor proved that wrong this past weekend. Griffin was knocked out of the game at the end of the 1H with a concussion and did not return. In the 1H, BU had 31 points and 294 yards. You would expect with a backup QB that BU would have been fighting a possible upset and of course, have much less production. But, in Art Briles QB-friendly offense, Nick Florence actually outdid Griffin (7-11-106) in his half. Florence hit 9-12-151 yds. BU scored 35 pts with Florence to 31 with Griffin vs Texas Tech’s feeble D and BU also gained 323 yards under Florence and just 294 under Griffin. There is no doubt that Griffin is among the best players in the country and deserves to get invited to New York, but no longer do I think he is the most valuable player in America which has him dropping on my ballot.

5. Matt Barkley, USC-Anytime you are setting school records on almost a weekly basis at a program like USC you deserve mention. Barkley had a fantastic junior campaign while leading the probation-stricken Trojans to a 10-2 record with not much to play for other than pride. Barkley has thrown for an avg of 294 ypg (69%) with a great 39-7 ratio (school-record TD passes). What’s more impressive is that he averaged an outstanding 314 pass ypg (72%) with a 16-2 ratio in USC’s four biggest games this season (ND, Stanford, Oregon and UCLA). Barkley has played himself into being a surefire Top 10 NFL pick and deserves to be among the top 5 in the Heisman.

The NFL Magazine was sent off to the press and we expect to start shipping the magazines on August 16th. Naturally the NFL lockout this year delayed the release of the magazine but I do believe it will be the most accurate and in-depth NFL magazine on the market as we have included all the recent free agent moves.

You should be able to find my NFL Magazine on the newsstands in late August. However, with this being just the 3rd year I have put the magazine on the newsstands it will only have about half of the distribution that my College Magazine has. If you cannot find my Pro Football Preview anywhere near you, try ordering thru the PhilSteele.com store or call our offices at 1-866-918-7711. The cost is just $12.70 (includes priority shipping) and we will ship it out of our offices within 24 hours unless ordered on the weekend and in that case it will get shipped 1st thing on Monday.

Two years ago, I decided to put out a full color NFL Preview Magazine and I could not have been more pleased with the results. I correctly predicted 7 out of 8 division winners which was more than any other preview magazine and I was the only magazine to predict the Super Bowl Champion New Orleans Saints to win the NFC South!

Unlike the College magazine where I write each of the 120 team previews myself, the NFL magazine was written by others including a special fantasy writer from a popular Emmy-Award winning web based show. I did do the forecast for each team using my 5 sets of Power ratings that I have for the NFL (I use 9 different sets for the colleges).

This year’s magazine is 288 pages which is considerably thicker than most NFL magazines out there. Here on the blog today I thought I would put the six pages of the defending Super Bowl Champion Green Bay Packers. Below you can see how the pages look and click here to download the pdf version from this years magazine and this will show you all the information on each of the 32 teams that we produce. I will not go into great detail as to what is on the pages as you can see for yourself and I think you will agree that it is more information than any other NFL preview.

Since this is the third year of the NFL magazine on the newsstands, it will NOT be in all the places that the college magazine is at.  Right now I distribute about 7 times that amount of college magazines that I put out the first year (1994, 15 years ago) and it will take a year or two for the NFL magazine to reach the same levels and availability as the colleges.

I always prefer that you buy my magazines on the newsstands but you may not see the NFL version nor the FCS Preview (240 pages) on the newsstands. Your best bet for these two valuable magazines which have more information on the NFL than any other magazine and about 20 times the information on the FCS (1AA) than anyone else is to order on the website.

Only 24 Days Until the First College Football Game!!!!

Download PDF version