The “official” start of the College Football season is when you have your Phil Steele College Football Preview Magazine in your hands and TODAY the 2011 Preview hits newsstands and bookstores nationwide!

The magazine is packed cover to cover with two full pages on all 120 FBS schools and is the most complete college football preview magazine on the market! Pick up a copy today at your local bookstore or newsstand for just $8.95 or order it online for $13.70 (includes shipping) at the PhilSteele.com Store and choose from 11 different covers! You can also order it thru our offices by calling us at 1-866-918-7711. Read more…

Schools have a lot of different methods in determining returning starters. I personally look at the individual starters for all 120 FBS teams. I determine only 11 starters from the previous year. Some schools have the criteria of 5 or more starts and therefore list 14 starters returning (as an example: 9 starters returning, 5 starters lost). I look at each position and determine my starters. Sometimes my criteria is not just 6 or more starts. As an example: at Nebraska a couple years ago year RB Marlon Lucky had 11 starts at the I-back position. His “backup” Roy Helu had 2 starts and Quentin Castille had 1. Determining the Nebraska RB position on the start basis would have a starter lost from the RB position. I look at the fact that Helu led the team in ’08 with 803 yds rush while Lucky was a distant second at 517. Castille almost topped Lucky’s numbers with 467. Each of the 3 had almost identical carries. With the top rusher back and 1,373 of the teams 1,910 RB yds (72%) I graded that unit as a starter returning. Read more…