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This is the official thread for discussion about and related to the 2019 college football season.
Coaches poll comes out at beginning of August, AP won't be out until later in the month.
For those of you who can't wait until late August for football to come back, there's always NFL preseason to fill you in until then.
What do i wish for Texas football to do this season? Well, aside beating Oklahoma again, give me less heart attacks than last season, and end up in the Playoff four. That's what i hope for, although let's see.
Here's my preseason Top 25 going into the season.
#1: Clemson
#2: Alabama
#3: Georgia
#4: Oklahoma
#5: Ohio State
#6: Michigan
#7: Florida
#8: LSU
#9: Texas
#10: Oregon
#11: Notre Dame
#12: Washington
#13: Penn State
#14: Syracuse
#15: Fresno State
#16: Utah
#17: Northwestern
#18: Iowa State
#19: Wisconsin
#20: Boise State
#21: Texas A&M
#22: UCF
#23: Auburn
#24: Missouri
#25: Stanford
Honorable Mentions
Army
North Texas
Washington State
Cincinnati
Kentucky
Iowa
Virginia
Virginia Tech
Purdue
TCU
Nebraska has much more to prove to me before i rank them, and until Michigan State starts getting better on offense, even with a good defense, i'm done with giving them preseason hype.
Florida and Texas are too high. Both should be around 15.
Syracuse's new QB may be a better passer than Dungey.
It is going to be crazy if Clemson ends up the natty 3 out of 4 seasons. Some of the SEC fans like Paul Finebaum are going to have a meltown if that happens.
As it stands, the ACC has won more national titles in the last 6 years than the SEC has. Clemson and Alabama have split the last four, but people seem to forget that the two prior years saw Ohio State and Florida State win it all.
Clemson is dominating the rankings. But do they have a reliable backup if the starting quarterback gets injured? Last season, Clemson almost lost when he had a concussion. But the 3rd stringer actually won the game (albeit just barely).
Alabama lost its great "backup" who transferred to OU. So, if Tua is injured, then can the backup win the game? I feel leery of these early season rankings. Recall the UCF quarterback's injury late last season.
Clemson's Chase Brice might be the second-best QB in the ACC. Bama's Mac Jones is also progressing nicely (so they say), and he was a legit 4* prospect to begin with. Bama fans seem to think he may be as good as or better than the QBs they won their recent titles with, though there's still a big gap between him and Tua.
Florida and Texas are too high. Both should be around 15.
Auburn is too low. Should be around no. 8 to 10.
When I look at preseason polls, I always think of this quote by Hunter S. Thompson.
"With a few rare exceptions like Bob Lypstye of The New York Times and Tom Quinn of the (now-defunct) Washington Daily News, sportswriters are a kind of rude and brainless subculture of fascist drunks whose only real function is to publicize & sell whatever the sports editor sends them out to cover…
Which is a nice way to make a living, because it keeps a man busy and requires no thought at all. The two keys to success as a sportswriter are: (1) A blind willingness to believe anything you’re told by the coaches, flacks, hustlers, and other “official spokesmen” for the team-owners who provide the free booze… and: (2) A Roget’s Thesaurus, in order to avoid using the same verbs and adjectives twice in the same paragraph."
That's why preseason polls are stupid. They are nothing more than bait by lazy sportswriters to get people amped up for the season. There's no analysis. There's no insight. It's just little more than retyping the press releases of the SID and perhaps sticking one's finger in the wind to see if there's a rumor that no one else has reported.
What's more, polls create some weird disparities due to the fact that a team that's killer might have to fight their way up the polls due to a terrible initial ranking.
To me, the first poll should come out in late September and be based on actual performance.
A lot of these home and home series tend to fall apart at the last minute. LSU had scheduled home and home with NC State last year and the year before but someone backed out. Ohio State had a home and home scheduled with North Carolina about 3 years ago that was cancelled at the last minute and UNC settled for Illinois, the Buckeyes also once had a series with Vanderbilt that got nixed. There's been a lot of decent early season meetings between power 5 conference teams that end up going to waste, sometimes schools like ECU, Southern Miss, Marshall, Memphis, USF and UCF might get a call but usually we get P5 schools calling up the likes of U of Phoenix and SW Arkansas Tech to take their place.
Some of them fall apart because when they're scheduled, it's a tough game.. But by the time gametime comes around, one of the teams kinda sucks.
I believe that's how the Clemson/Texas A&M series came about. A&M did a home and home against Oregon.. Oregon kinda went to hell. So, they rescheduled it with Clemson.
Florida and Texas are too high. Both should be around 15.
Auburn is too low. Should be around no. 8 to 10.
Auburn is ranked 16 in the most recent (too soon to predict) AP poll and plays six teams ahead of them. If they jell behind of the two freshman quarterbacks, it could be a great year. I'm always hopeful!
When I look at preseason polls, I always think of this quote by Hunter S. Thompson.
"With a few rare exceptions like Bob Lypstye of The New York Times and Tom Quinn of the (now-defunct) Washington Daily News, sportswriters are a kind of rude and brainless subculture of fascist drunks whose only real function is to publicize & sell whatever the sports editor sends them out to cover…
Which is a nice way to make a living, because it keeps a man busy and requires no thought at all. The two keys to success as a sportswriter are: (1) A blind willingness to believe anything you’re told by the coaches, flacks, hustlers, and other “official spokesmen” for the team-owners who provide the free booze… and: (2) A Roget’s Thesaurus, in order to avoid using the same verbs and adjectives twice in the same paragraph."
That's why preseason polls are stupid. They are nothing more than bait by lazy sportswriters to get people amped up for the season. There's no analysis. There's no insight. It's just little more than retyping the press releases of the SID and perhaps sticking one's finger in the wind to see if there's a rumor that no one else has reported.
What's more, polls create some weird disparities due to the fact that a team that's killer might have to fight their way up the polls due to a terrible initial ranking.
To me, the first poll should come out in late September and be based on actual performance.
It's funny that even after 13 games (the last four years), we've seen Alabama and Clemson ranked #1 by the playoff selection committee twice each, and each time that those two met the lower seed beat the #1.
Auburn is ranked 16 in the most recent (too soon to predict) AP poll and plays six teams ahead of them. If they jell behind of the two freshman quarterbacks, it could be a great year. I'm always hopeful!
Auburn is strong (even by SEC West standards) on the OL and the DL. Bo Nix seems to have plenty of potential.
People forget that JUST TWO YEARS AGO Auburn was a damn good team that went 2-2 against playoff teams, with wins over both the national champ and the runner-up. Couldn't beat Clemson, though. And that loss to LSU was a killer.
I've always pulled for Auburn over UGA and Alabama, and this year will be no exception.
Well, here's the first picks of the year for all four Week 0 games on the 24th.
Villanova vs. Colgate
Samford vs. Youngstown State
(7) Florida vs. Miami
Arizona vs. Hawaii
Here are my picks.
Villanova vs. Colgate (Don't know much about either team, although Colgate had a scary defense last year and looks to be great again, while Villanova seems to be on a downslide. I'll take Colgate in this one.) Samford vs. Youngstown State (I just took a guess here.) (7) Florida vs. Miami (I expect the Gators to win. However, while many things seem to go in Florida's favor for this one, there are two things i could see in Miami's favor - One; Another offseason of off-the-field distractions for Florida. Two; All the pressure is on Florida, while Miami has little to none. There's not a whole lot of expectations, at least on a national scale, for Miami this year. This is Manny Diaz's first game, so Miami losing would be expected. While on the other hand, if Florida loses, there's going to be a lot of questions asked, and the good chance that Florida may be one of 2019's biggest disappointments. Miami's players love Diaz, and they have been preparing for this game, i expect, since the beginning of the offseason. However good Miami can be, we're gonna see that against Florida. They're gonna go out there and give everything they have in this game, as they have just about nothing to lose. But i just don't think it'll be enough.) Arizona vs. Hawaii (I think this will be a surprisingly good game, considering that trips to Hawaii can sometimes mess a team up and cause them to catch a loss you wouldn't expect. But i'll give the Wildcats the benefit of the doubt here, and take them in a close matchup.)
Well, here's the first picks of the year for all four Week 0 games on the 24th.
Villanova vs. Colgate
Samford vs. Youngstown State
(7) Florida vs. Miami
Arizona vs. Hawaii
I am always late to the game on the weekly predictions, so I'm glad I'm able to play along this season!
Villanova vs. Colgate // I have no earthy idea on this one
Samford vs. Youngstown State // Youngstown is always competitive (7) Florida vs. Miami // The U in not back
Arizona vs. Hawaii // upset?
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And that loss to LSU was a killer. 
