A lot of people ask me if I have a favorite team. I was born and raised and still live in Cleveland, Ohio. I was a fan of many teams as a child but now that I put out a National magazine, I cannot afford to be a fan of any team. I have to pick the teams where I think they will finish each year. I was doing a radio show last week and I was asked if I have a favorite team or teams. My response was a strong YES! The interviewer was surprised by that answer and also eager to hear which team I would pick. My answer was my favorite team each year is the team I pick #1 in the magazine and my favorite teams are the ones I have picked higher than all the other major magazines out there. I then said that each year I establish a list of my favorite teams for that year. I then give this list to my wife. I wear a shirt and tie to work every day during the week and my tie is always a college team. I wear polo shirts during the weekend and when not at work and they are always different college teams. The list I give my wife is the ones to buy that I will be wearing for the upcoming year as these are the teams I will be the biggest fan of for the upcoming season. I was then asked “What teams will your wife be buying ties and shirts of this year? That was a great question and I thought I would answer it in a blog. Read more…
Categories: Offseason Notes Tags: Arizona, Auburn, Ball St, Baylor, blog, California, college football, Colorado, Favorite Teams, Fresno St, Kent St, Maryland, Miami Fl, Michigan, North Texas, Oklahoma, Penn St, phil steele, San Diego St, UAB, USF, West Virginia, Western Michigan
First, I hope you and your families are having a very happy and safe 4th of July weekend!
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…
The official on sale date for my 2010 College Football Preview was yesterday and if you do not already have a copy, head out to the bookstores and newsstands today. The magazine is available nationwide at Wal-Mart, Barnes & Noble, Waldenbooks, Borders, Hastings, Media Play, Target, Books-A-Million, K-Mart and Circle K. There are other locations where we shipped to, so check the magazine section at stores near you. The cost is just $8.95 in the stores but they tend to fly off the shelves. If you’re having trouble finding a copy visit our store or call 1-866-918-7711 and order your copy thru the office (plus shipping).
The past few weeks I have been giving you some advanced articles from the magazine to wet your appetite for the upcoming year. Today I will give you the results of the Draft Day Party Hangover, which is on page 308.
After several years of research I have found that almost 7 out of every 10 teams that rank among the top in the NCAA in players drafted struggle the next year and have a weaker record. I call it the Draft Day Party Hangover Effect. Read more…
Categories: Offseason Notes Tags: Alabama, California, Clemson, college football, Draft Day Party Hangover, florida, Georgia Tech, Iowa, LSU, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Oklahoma St, Penn St, phil steele, rutgers, TCU, Tennessee, Texas, USF, Utah
In Today’s blog I will start releasing my Preseason All Conference teams with the PAC-10 and Independent teams.
The Pac-10 is very balanced this year as nine of the ten teams (Washington St) have a player on my 1st Team. Washington leads the way with five players led by QB Jake Locker. USC and Arizona both have four players on my 1st Team while Oregon, Oregon St, UCLA and Stanford each have 3 players.
Oregon St RB Jacquizz Rodgers and WR James Rodgers both appear on my preseason 1st Team for the 2nd year in a row as well as USC OC Kristofer O’Dowd, California LB Mike Mohamed, UCLA K Kai Forbath and California P Bryan Anger.
Read more…
Categories: Phil Steele News Tags: All Conference Teams, Arizona, Arizona St, Armando Allen, army, California, college football, Darrin Walls, independent, Jacquizz Rodgers, Jake Locker, James Rodgers, Navy, Notre Dame, Oregon, Oregon St, pac 10, phil steele, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Washington, Washington St, Wyatt Middleton
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.
When we receive a recruiting magazine, we translate each player’s ranking into a points system from 1-100 and then log each and every player into the computer and give them a point total from each source. Naturally, the more they are mentioned and the higher they are rated by each publication, the more total points they accrue. After months of entering all of this information, I sort the list by position and by total points and then rank the players from most points to least.
In today’s blog I have included the top incoming freshman LBs and DBs for 2010. Each one of these players is ranked in the Top 500 prospects regardless of position and will appear in my preseason magazine. I have also posted the top individual classes for each position. Since we want the college preview to continue to be the most in-depth and accurate magazine out there, if you find any information that is wrong or if you are questioning a player’s ranking please contact brandon@philsteele.com. I will be back on Wednesday with my top Kickers and my top 75 incoming Jucos. On Friday I will post the top 75 overall classes and give you my conference by conference recruiting ratings. Read more…
Categories: Recruiting Tags: Alabama, Baylor, California, college football, DBs, florida, Florida St, Incoming Freshman, Jordan Hicks, LBs, Matt Elam, Michigan, Penn St, phil steele, Texas, Top Recruits
Each day during bowl season on 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.
Read more…
Categories: College Bowl Notes Tags: bowl, California, college football, conference, contest, leaderboard, mwc, pac 10, phil steele, poinsettia bowl, Utah
There were very few games this week so it wasn’t as tough to earn a Top 20 spot from my computer’s average individual grades as there was only 34 performances to grade. Therefore, I will cut it off at the Top 14 this week.
Read more…
Categories: News & Notes Tags: 2 point conversion, Arizona, Boise St, bowl confidence poll, cal, California, Cincinnati, college football, Connecticut, Fresno St, fresno st 2 point, Hawaii, Illinois, New Mexico St, Oregon, Oregon St, phil steele, philsteele.com, pitt, Pittsburgh, rutgers, South Florida, uconn, USC, USF, Washington, West Virginia, wisconsin
The BCS Busters are down to two as Houston lost to UTEP, so only Boise St and TCU have a shot at being a BCS Buster this year. Boise’s toughest foe appears to be Tulsa who they have to play on the road and TCU has to play BYU on the road.
Let’s take a look at this week’s top performances:
USC’s demolition of California on the road got them the top grade for this week at 103.4 per my computer. USC is a prime contender for the National Title and should they end up with just one loss, would probably get my vote if they continue to play this impressively. They have been in the Top 25 Performances of the Week every week this year.
Read more…
Categories: Phil Steele News, Top 25 Individual Game Grades Tags: California, Clausen, Clayton, college football, computer ratings, Georgia, Houston, Illinois, Indiana, individual game grades, Louisville, LSU, Miami, Mississippi, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio St, Oklahoma, Penn St, phil steele, Pittsburgh, rankings, top 25, UNLV, upsets, USC, UTEP, Vanderbilt, Virginia
