Looking Back At My College Football Predictions

I know I haven't made any posts in a month, and I know that my picks have been nonexistent lately, but I wanted to look at some of the picks that I did make. Look at what I picked right and what I picked wrong. Here is the post with the majority of these predictions.
Let's start with the mistakes.

The Bad



I severely overrated Matt Barkley
We all make mistakes, and this was probably my biggest one. He was not nearly as effective as I anticipated and will certainly not win the Heisman. His performance also left the Trojans well short of the National Title Game. I was blinded by the fact that he is a good Christian guy, but I still am a fan. There was no way for me to know that the school would purposefully deflate balls to help Barkley. Shame on USC, but Barkley is still a likeable guy.

Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech are not top 20 teams
If Barkley wasn't my worst pick, this clearly was. However, it looks like Georgia Tech will be playing FSU for the title and they look pretty good lately. Don't be surprised if they give the Georgia Bulldogs a game next week.

Oklahoma is not the top team in the Big 12
Who really saw Kansas State coming though?

Mark Richt will not be Coach of the Year
This one is not Richt's fault though. Even if Kansas State collapses though at this point, Bill Snyder has to be Coach of the year. Well, maybe Notre Dame has something to say about that, but I still go with Snyder.

The Big 10 is not that great a conference
I was expecting the Big 10 to be much better. I especially thought that Michigan would be pretty darn good. Instead, a sanction riddled Penn State team competed with everyone in the conference despite losing to ACC bottom feeder UVA.

UVA was not a contender

Auburn and Arkansas are not very good. In fact the whole SEC is severely overrated this year. Louisiana Lafayette and Louisiana Monroe looked like they belonged this year. Arkansas was an embarrassment. Before the year I had them winning 8 games, but said they would be worse than that due to a poor coaching hire. Even I thought they'd beat Louisiana Monroe though.

Notre Dame is way better than I thought they would be. I didn't even have the Irish in my preseason top 25. Instead, they may end up playing Kansas State in the most surprising title matchup of all-time. Or maybe it gets complicated even more.

The Good

Duke is bowl eligible

This is a prediction that was not made by many, but I was sure it was right. I was positive that Duke would make a bowl appearance and that they were not the worst team in the ACC. I was right on both accounts. Let's not get into that Duke-Stanford prediction though.



Florida State is back!
They may not be in the driver's seat for the National Title like they should be, but FSU is 1 pt away from being there. Even still the Noles look like they are perhaps the best team with one loss in the country. If it weren't for that controversial 1 point loss to NC State, the Noles might be #1 in the country right now.

Georgia is the top team in the SEC East
They may get in that National Championship still too.

Rutgers will be the class of the Big East
It isn't official yet, but Rutgers could easily finish exactly where I had them and win the Big East. They are a legit team.

If Oregon loses it will be to USC
Well turns out I was half right. Because even the Trojans couldn't beat the Ducks. It looks like the Ducks will perhaps be playing for the title still. The loss to Stanford sets them back, but Oregon has looked the most impressive of all the teams in the country. Except for against Stanford.

There is a lot more to be decided especially with Kansas State looking like they could get beat here tonight. College Football is a crazy game, and I think I did a pretty good job all things considered. All I will say is that now I know to never trust a USC QB again haha. Should have known before.
I will try to get back to posting once a week and will post a couple times during my time off this week from school.

-Noland

College Football Predictions

This is just a prediction of the order of finish with two awards picked at the end. Other than that, I predicting how each individual team will do or give team previews. However, if I am asked to do a team preview I will see if I can get one done real quick. An FSU preview will come before the opener. That preview will likely be coming next weekend. For now I can just say that I am excited for a great season and FSU looks to be tough. I wish the playoffs started this year, because I see a lot of controversy once again. Here are my picks.

End of Regular Season Top 25
25. South Carolina (7-5)
24. Kansas State (8-4)
23. BYU (9-3)
22. Arkansas (8-4)
21. Texas (8-4)
20. TCU (9-3)
19. Oklahoma State (9-3)
18. Georgia Tech (9-3)
17. Michigan State (9-3)
16. Auburn (9-3)
15. Nebraska (10-2)
14. Clemson (10-2)
13. Virginia Tech (11-2)
12. West Virginia (10-2)
11. Stanford (10-2)
10. Rutgers (11-1)
9. Wisconsin (12-1)
8. LSU (10-2)
7. Michigan (12-1)
6. Oregon (11-2)
5. Alabama (12-1)
4. Oklahoma (12-0)
3. FSU (13-0)
2. USC (13-0)
1. Georgia (13-0)

Heisman: Matt Barkley QB USC

Coach of the Year: Mark Richt

Rose Bowl: Michigan vs. Oregon
Sugar Bowl: Alabama vs. West Virginia
Fiesta Bowl: Oklahoma vs. Virginia Tech
Orange Bowl: FSU vs. Rutgers
National Championship: Georgia vs. USC
National Champions: Georgia Bulldogs

I could explain the many scenarios I see possibly playing out, and will upon request. However, there are just so many that it takes a lot of space and this is a lot to digest already. Therefore, I just thought I would keep it simple. Should be interesting to see what people have to say about those picks. Let the controversy begin.

-Noland

My Pick for the Heisman

I promised myself I wouldn't write about anything negative today. No more Penn State, no more Greg Reid and apparently no Baltimore Orioles. However, I will say that I am psyched to have Nick Markakis back and he had an awesome game. I will also say that I sure hope Jason Hammel is ok, because the Orioles need him.

Therefore, I wanted to bring your attention to the next great NFL QB. Matt Barkley of the USC Trojans is a blog favorite. He could very well be leading USC to a national title. Barkley also is a good Christian man. Cbssports talked about Barkley last night in an article that I highly recommend.

The article talked about the similarities between Barkley, Peyton Manning, and Andrew Luck. It talks about how he passed up the draft an why. One of the reasons he passed up the draft was to get a Heisman trophy. My early prediction is that Barkley will in fact win the Heisman. I think it is pretty likely that he pulls it off. If USC does go undefeated, then he will certainly pull off the Heisman.

I won't give away too much more, I just wanted to say that you should check out the article. You should also check out Barkley's I Am Second video. The guy is a class act and as I said earlier the next Heisman winner.

-Noland

Matt Barkley: I Am Second

Matt Barkley is the best college quarterback and my favorite college quarterback. I think he will be far better than anybody from this past draft. This guy is something great. If there wasn't a reason to like him before, here is a video of his from I Am Second.
For those of you that don't know, I Am Second is a Christian website with testimonials about people and their faith. I'm not trying to push my views on anyone, but this is a great video and I think a lot of you will like it. Click on the link for the video and you can browse the website for other videos.
Home - I Am Second

-Noland