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!) Read more…
Categories: Offseason Notes, Phil Steele News Tags: 2011, blog, Boise St, BYU, college football, Houston, Ohio, phil steele, Southern Miss, TCU, Top Non-AQ Team
Reminder: Join Phil Steele’s 2010 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.
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NEW MEXICO BOWL
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UTEP (6-6) vs BYU (6-6)
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Rushing
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Passing
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Points
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TO’s
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ST
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| UTEP |
112 |
190
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16
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2.5
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••
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| BYU |
250
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135
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30
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1.4
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-
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UTEP is thrilled to be back in a bowl after a 4 year hiatus and HC Price called this a snake-bit season with inj’s. The New Mexico Bowl really wanted them here and it is the 2nd time this year that they will be playing in Albuquerque (beat NM Oct 2nd). They are led by RB Buckram who LY had 1,600 yds and should now be healthy as well as QB Vittatoe (avg 209 ypg, 54.5%, 19-10) who battled an ankle injury late in the year. BYU finished the season winning 4 of 5 gms after Mendenhall took over the DC duties and in fact had shutout the L/4 opps at the half. On offense BYU frosh QB Heaps had a 9-1 ratio in his L/4 gms and BYU has a huge schedule edge (#61 vs #117). The Cougars put a cap on a great 2H of the season.
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Categories: Bowl Confidence Contest, Bowl Projections Tags: blog, Bowl Confidence Contest, bowls, BYU, college football, Fresno St, Humanitarian, New Mexico, New Orleans, Northern Illinois, Ohio, phil steele, Troy, UTEP
Today’s blog will continue with my series of analyzing the most/least improved units over the last 20 years. Each day this week I will have a new offensive or defensive statistical category to examine and today I will breakdown offensive ppg.
There are many factors that contribute to a significant change in offensive ppg. First, a team may see a significant improvement if they return a bunch of experienced starters from a team that was relatively inexperienced the year before. Naturally a team that loses a bunch of starters especially their quarterback from an experienced team will usually see a drop off in offensive ppg. Read more…
Categories: Offseason Notes Tags: blog, BYU, college football, Least Improved, most improved, Northwestern, Offensive PPG, Oklahoma, phil steele, rice, Washington St
For the next two weeks, I will be taking a look at the conference teams of the decade for 2000-2009. Factored into my analysis will be conference win %, conference and division titles, bowl games and bowl wins. I will also include BCS bowl wins, final AP rankings and number of national championships for the major conferences. There have been several teams who have changed conferences during that time and I will include them in the analysis for any season(s) they were affiliated with that certain conference. I will also be doing a breakdown of how the conference did in bowl games during the decade and I will emphasis the overall win/loss record, the number of BCS bowl wins, and the records against Non-BCS and ranked bowl teams.
While some conferences may have no-brainers as the top team, other conferences were very competitive over the past decade. Here is the schedule for the upcoming week with the conferences I will be analyzing on each date. Read more…
Categories: Team of the Decade Tags: Air Force, BYU, college football, Colorado St, Eastern Illinois, mwc, New Mexico, phil steele, TCU, Team of the Decade, Utah
For more than 7 years I have published an “Experience Chart” in my National College Football Preview. The old version of this chart just took into account the overall experience from the 2 deep for each squad. Last year I revised the Experience Chart and created a New and Improved version. The new chart uses 20% of the experience grade from the old chart, 20% from the % of lettermen returning, 20% from the % of tackles returning, 20% from the % of yards returning and 20% from the career starts of the offensive line.
The most experienced teams when using the old chart were usually the service academies which play a lot of seniors and juniors. Using the old method (which is listed below) the top 5 most experienced teams in terms of upperclassmen in the two deep are: 1. Hawaii 2. Navy 2. Army 4. UAB and 5. Air Force. Iowa St ranks the highest among BCS teams coming in at #10. Read more…
Categories: Offseason Notes Tags: Air Force, army, Auburn, BYU, college football, experience chart, Hawaii, Iowa, Juniors, LSU, Magazine, Maryland, Navy, New Mexico, phil steele, Pittsburgh, Seniors, UAB, UCLA, Vanderbilt
The NCAA has granted a 6th year of eligibility for Kent St RB Eugene Jarvis exactly 5 months to the day after he suffered a season-ending injury at Boston College.
In 2007 Jarvis tied a school record with 5 straight yard games (old record Don Fitzgerald in ’66). He went on to break Eric Wilkerson’s 1988 school record of 1,325 in a season with 1,669 (6.0!) while also leading Kent St in receiving yards (306, 13.3). Jarvis was the first Kent St RB to lead the MAC in rushing since Wilkerson did it in ’88. In 2008, he was the leading returning FBS rusher and missed 3.5 games with injury (missed just one prior) but he still rushed for 801 (4.9) and was the #2 rec with 273 (10.9). Last year before the injury he rushed for 158 yards (4.3).
Obviously this is good news for Kent St and there is no kid more deserving than him. Knowing Eugene like I do, he will come back this season strong and play with a lot of passion.
Read more…
Categories: News & Notes Tags: 2010 Frosh, big 10, BYU, college football, Colorado, Eugene Jarvis, Expansion, Future Schedules, Kent St, NFL Draft, pac 10, phil steele, Spring Guide, Super Conferences, Texas, Utah
Each day during bowl season in my daily blog, I will give you my forecasts on the bowl games taking place that day. My forecasts will include a detailed write-up with my computer’s projected box score including rushing and passing yards, points and turnovers along with a detailed write-up on each game.
Also check out the bowl matchup section to get the latest and greatest information on all the upcoming bowl games including, game by game stats, 2009 recaps, and checklists for every position and intangible.
