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
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 total offensive yards.
There are many factors that contribute to a significant change in total offense. First, a team may see a significant improvement if they return a bunch of experienced starters including their quarterback from a team that was relatively inexperienced the year before. Naturally a team that loses a bunch of starters especially their quarterback, running back and receivers from an experienced team will usually see a drop off in total offense. Read more…
Categories: Offseason Notes Tags: college football, Kentucky, Least Improved, Maryland, most improved, Northwestern, phil steele, Pittsburgh, rutgers, Total Offense YPG, Washington St
My 2010 College Football Preview Magazine has so much information in it that it would take months to go thru it all. It is like 120 media guides rolled into one.
Magazine is a loose term for it as the Preview is more like a book with over 100 pages more than any other college football magazine. Not only does it have more pages but the magazine has 2 to 3 times the amount of information on each page! That gives my magazine 3 to 4 times the amount of information of any other magazine!
I mention all of this because there are even parts of the magazine that I myself forget about during the year. Every spring once I have finished my conference write ups, Top 40, All-American and All-Conference Teams I wrap up the “other” pages in the magazine. One of those pages that I find a lot of fun is the projected stats which is on page 324 and 327. Read more…
Categories: Offseason Notes Tags: army, Auburn, Ball St, college football, Florida St, Georgia, Idaho, Maryland, Miami Oh, most improved, Nebraska, New Mexico St, North Texas, Ohio St, Oklahoma, phil steele, Rice South Carolina, San Diego St, San Jose St, Syracuse, Toledo, Tulsa, UAB, Washington St, West Virginia, wisconsin, WKU
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
Last week there were no team’s had a 100 point game rating. This week there are four, meaning more dominant performances even though top teams (Florida, LSU, Alabama) continued to struggle.
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Categories: Top 25 Individual Game Grades Tags: acc, Arizona, Arizona St, big 10, big 12, big east, college football, conference usa, fbs, Georgia Tech, Iowa, mac, MAC confererence, Maryland, Miami, mwc, Penn St, phil steele, SEC, Stanford, Toledo, Utah St, wac
Navy QB Dobbs has a small crack in his kneecap from a prior inj in HS that will have to be repaired, but he is hoping to play thru the injury and have it fixed after the season….
Michigan’s Rich Brooks isn’t hiding his quarterback decision this week. He’s said true frosh Morgan Newton will start….
S Carolina is looking to avenge last year’s loss to Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt is coming off a 34-10 loss to Georgia and South Carolina’s 20-6 loss at Alabama….
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Categories: News & Notes Tags: acc, Akron, Alabama, Arizona, Arizona St, Baylor, Big 12 North Title, Boise St, Boston College, Bowling Green, Buffalo, Central Michigan, Cincinnati, Clemson, college football, Colorado, Connecticut, Dan Marino, Doyt Perry Stadium, Duke, Erickson, Florida Atlantic, gameday, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Hawaii, Houston, Idaho, Indiana, individual game ratings, Iowa, Iowa St, Jasper Howard, Jordan White, Kansas St, Kent State, Louisiana, Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisville, LSU, Maryland, Miami, Michigan, Michigan St, Mike Riley, Mississippi, Missouri, Navy, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico St, Notre Dame, Ohio St, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, Oregon, Oregon St, Penn St, Petersen, phil steele, Pittsburgh, SEC Championship Game, South Carolina, Stanford, Sumlin, Syracuse, Temple, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Toledo, Troy, Tulsa, UAB, UCF, UCLA, ULL, USF, Utah St, Vanderbilt, Vanerbilt, Washington St, West Virginia, Western Michigan