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…

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…

Turnovers can have a huge impact on games and on a team’s season. They can also lead to many misleading final scores. During the season I list all of the previous week’s misleading final scores on PhilSteele.com in my Monday Daily Blog. By reading about them each week you can uncover some underrated and overrated teams throughout the season.

Here are a couple of examples from last year. Iowa St benefitted from +8 in TO’s vs Nebraska and pulled out a 9-7 win. Nebraska turned it over 4 times inside the 5 yard line and lost despite a 362-239 yard edge. The next 2 weeks Iowa St was overrated and they lost by a combined 69-18 vs Texas A&M and Oklahoma St despite only being slight underdogs in each.

Florida St appeared to pummel BYU 54-28 on the road but they only had a 512-475 yard edge as they benefitted from +5 in TO’s. The next week FSU entered the Top 25 but lost to USF at home as a 2 TD favorite 17-7 and BYU bounced back with a 42-23 whipping of Colorado St.

Turnovers can not only make a difference in a game but can make the difference between a winning and losing season. Read more…

The TRUCK IS HERE! That signals the “official” start of the College Football season when you have your Phil Steele College Football Preview in your hands.

To all of you who purchased the magazine over the winter and spring, we dropped your magazines in the envelopes today and they were the first ones out the door this morning! Read more…

First of all, I want to wish you and your families a very happy and safe Memorial Day Weekend! Since many of you will be away from your computers this weekend, today’s blog will be posted until Tuesday June 1st. If you do want to get your hands on my 2010 College Football Preview before it officially hits the newsstands on June 8th, you can order it anytime this weekend thru our offices by calling 1-866-918-7711 or just visit the PhilSteele.com store.

In case you missed it yesterday I was on ESPN College Football Live breaking down my Top 25 with Host Eric Kuselias and specifically my surprise #1 pick. It is a short segment but if you get chance, check it out here. Read more…

CUSA has been making huge strides the past couple of years. After going 3-8 in bowls in ’06-’07, they have gone 6-6 the last 2 years. In ’08 both East Carolina and Tulsa were considered possible BCS bowl busters and last year Houston climbed all the way to #12 after big wins against Oklahoma St and Texas Tech.

Until last year there had been a different CUSA league champ for SEVEN straight years with TCU in ’02, SMiss in ’03, L’Ville in ’04, Tulsa in ’05, UCF in ’07 and East Carolina in ’08. The Pirates ended that streak in ‘09 as they repeated with a 38-32 win over Houston in the title game. This year East Carolina loses HC Holtz who left for South Florida and welcome new coach Ruffin McNeil who served as the DC at Texas Tech for the last 3 seasons and was the interim HC in the Red Raiders’ bowl win over Michigan St last year. Can the Pirates 3-peat or will Houston, UTEP or SMU start another streak of different conference champs?

2010 figures to be an exciting year for the conference with record setting players like Houston’s Case Keenum and UTEP’s Donald Buckram back. SMU fresh off their 1st bowl win in 25 years returns QB Kyle Padron and looks to make it to a bowl for the 2nd straight year. Southern Miss is just 1 of 4 teams to have 16 straight winning seasons (Florida, Florida St and Va Tech) and returns their top 2 QBs in Austin Davis and Martevious Young. 

CUSA announced their 2010 football schedules yesterday. Here is a quick breakdown of the schedules for each team… Read more…

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.

Yesterday I had a 5-0 day in my forecasts including three outright upsets! I picked Florida to win big over Cincinnati as they had a 659-246 yard edge and I called for Auburn to win by 3 in the Outback Bowl! I hope to have another great day with today’s forecasts on the five games. Read more…