Making my Most Improved List has generally been a blessing for teams, as they usually make big turnarounds. In 1999, the #1 most improved team in my Preseason Rankings was Hawaii and they had the NCAA’s largest turnaround on record, going from a winless season in 1998 (0-12) to 9-4 and a bowl victory one year later!!!
The year 2000 was a VERY successful season as well for my Most Improved Teams. Of the top 14 Most Improved Teams that year, TEN went from a losing season to being bowl eligible!!! In 2001 and 2002, nine of the 20 teams on my Most Improved List list each year went from having a non-winning season to making a bowl and in 2003, 8 of the top 20 teams went from a .500 or losing seasons to being bowl eligible.
There was a total of TEN teams that did not have winning records in 2003 who improved to a winning record in ’04. NINE (90%) of them were on my list! In 2005, my top 16 Most Improved Teams made incredible strides. The top 16 Most Improved Teams on my list in 2005 had a combined record of 66-111 (37%) in 2004 and improved to 102-84 (55%) in 2005. Read more…
From 2005-’08 I published an article titled Coaching Changes in my College Football Preview magazine. Each year I try to make the magazine a little bit bigger and a little bit better but we’re capped out at 328 pages so Coaching Changes does not appear in my 2010 magazine. We have had a lot of requests for this article and since the website has an unlimited amount of room, PhilSteele.com is a great vehicle to continue publishing this article and I will do so each year. Read more…
Categories: Offseason Notes Tags: 2010, Akron, blog, Bobby Hauck, Brian Kelly, Buffalo, Butch Jones, Central Michigan, Charlie Strong, Cincinnati, Coaching Changes, college football, Dan Enos, Derek Dooley, Doc Holliday, East Carolina, Florida St, Jeff Quinn, Jimbo Fisher, Joker Phillips, Kansas, Kentucky, Lane Kiffin, Larry Porter, Louisiana Tech, Louisville, Marshall, Memphis, Mike London, Mike MacIntyre, Notre Dame, phil steele, Rob Ianello, Robbie Caldwell, Ruffin McNeill, San Jose St, Skip Holtz, Sonny Dykes, Tennessee, Texas Tech, Todd Berry, Tommy Tuberville, Turner Gill, ULM, UNLV, USC, USF, Vanderbilt, Virginia, Willie Taggart, WKU
As you know I’ve always spent about 90% of my time on college football but I am very excited about our NFL Magazine. I have the same desire to mirror my success of being college footballs “most accurate” magazine by becoming the most accurate NFL Magazine as well. In this years magazine (which is now available) I project each of the division races with records. I want to share just how much work and research goes into making these forecasts.
I’ve posted several articles on my blog including: repeating as a division champ and slipping and sliding can help you analyze a teams fortunes. These are just part of the research I do annually to make my predictions. The schedule is of course an important part of analyzing the upcoming season. Read more…
Categories: nfl Tags: Arizona, Atlanta, Baltimore, blog, Buffalo, Carolina, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, college football, dallas, Denver, Detroit, Green Bay, Houston, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Miami, Minnesota, New England, New Orleans, nfl, NY Giants, NY Jets, Oakland, phil steele, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, St Louis, Tampa Bay, Tennessee, Toughest Schedules, Washington
Today’s blog will complete my series of analyzing the most/least improved units over the last 20 years. Each day for the past week I have had a new offensive or defensive statistical category to examine and today I will breakdown defensive ppg.
There are many factors that contribute to a significant change in defensive 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 from an experienced team will usually see a drop off in defensive ppg. Read more…
Categories: Offseason Notes Tags: Arizona, blog, Central Michigan, Cincinnati, college football, Defensive PPG, Least Improved, most improved, phil steele, Stanford, Tulane
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 defensive rush yards.
There are many factors that contribute to a significant change in rush defense. First, a team may see a significant improvement if they return a bunch of experienced starters especially on the front 7. Naturally a team that loses a bunch of starters especially their defensive line and linebackers could see a significant drop in rush defense. Read more…
Categories: Offseason Notes Tags: Arizona, Baylor, blog, Cincinnati, college football, Least Improved, most improved, New Mexico, Northwestern, phil steele, Rush Defense, Wake Forest
First, I want to wish you and your families 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.
Monday Sun Belt
Tuesday MAC
Wednesday WAC
Thursday CUSA
Yesterday MWC
Today Big East
Monday, July 5th Pac-10
Tuesday, July 6th ACC
Wednesday, July 7th Big 12
Thursday, July 8th Big 10
Friday, July 9th SEC Read more…
Categories: Team of the Decade Tags: big east, Boston College, Cincinnati, college football, Miami Fl, phil steele, Pittsburgh, South Dakota St, Team of the Decade, Virginia Tech, West Virginia
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: Cincinnati, college football, CUSA, East Carolina, Houston, Louisville, Montana St, phil steele, Southern Miss, TCU, Team of the Decade, Tulsa, UCF
The NFL magazine deadline is quickly approaching. Last year the Pro Preview expanded to SIX FULL PAGES on each NFL team jampacked with the “Phil Steele” quality information you’re used to seeing in my College Preview. Today I wanted to give you an article that I included in 2009’s preview and updated it for this year.
In my college magazine each year I devise different formulas which look at teams that had good or bad fortune the previous year. The charts show those teams generally do not have the same fortune the following season. I call this method “Slipping and Sliding”. As I noted the last few years in the Turnovers=Turnaround June 14th blog, results have been even stronger for the NFL than they have for college football. I imagine one reason for that is there is far more parity in the NFL and teams are more competitive from the strongest team to the weakest team than in college football. Read more…
Categories: Offseason Notes Tags: Carolina, Cincinnati, Green Bay, Miami, New Orleans Tennessee, nfl, NFL Mag, NY Giants, phil steele, San Diego, Sliding, Slipping, Tampa Bay, Washington
