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Home > Mark Bradley > Archives > 2008 > May > 30
Friday, May 30, 2008
Rage-inducing college football predictions
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia Tech will be better than you think. Clemson will be worse than you think. The Heisman will be won by you know who, and the SEC West will be won on the basis of who plays where. And I have it on good authority that Georgia will again field a team.
Yes, it’s time for our annual long-range look at college football, designed to edify but more apt to enrage. Read on if you care to get as mad as Bama fans are over Tommy Tuberville’s latest hand salute to the Tide.
— Alabama will beat Clemson on Aug. 30 in the Georgia Dome. I’m not as high on the Tide as a year ago — I did, I’ll admit, get carried away on the zephyrs of Sabanmania — but I’m never high on the Tigers. And if Clemson is considered the class of the ACC, it tells us the expanded ACC has failed to evolve into the colossus many foresaw. (Fun fact: Since the league grew to 12 teams, the ACC champ is 0-3 in the Orange Bowl.)
— Speaking of which … the losses of Tashard Choice and Philip Wheeler and a change in coaches and quarterbacks and systems could have doomed Georgia Tech to a fitful season of transition, but Paul Johnson came to the right conference. His spread option will look better than in the spring game — it couldn’t look worse — and there are enough winnable ACC games on the card to lift the Jackets to 7-5 yet again.
— Speaking of the spread option … Auburn will profit from new offensive coordinator Tony Franklin and new quarterback Kodi Burns, but the Tigers will profit mostly from the schedule, which favors them hugely in even-numbered seasons. (Auburn went 13-0 in 2004 and should have won the SEC in 2006.) The Tigers play LSU, Tennessee, Arkansas and Georgia at home; they play Mississippi State, Vanderbilt, Ole Miss and Alabama on the road. Ergo, Auburn wins the SEC West.
— Speaking of the spread option … the most stylistically intriguing nonconference game will come Oct. 23, when Auburn, which has switched to the spread, visits West Virginia, which has run the spread better than any team but has, as you may have heard, lost its coach to Michigan. Give the Tigers a hand for daring to go on the road. Give the Mountaineers the W, though.
— Speaking of nonconference games … the winner of USC-Ohio State on Sept. 13 will play for the BCS title. It’ll be a Trojan conquest. That difference-in-speed thing again.
— Tim Tebow will claim another Heisman because he’s really good and because he either runs it or throws it every down and because there’s an aura around him. This does not, however, mean that Tebow’s team will beat Georgia. The Bulldogs will, for the third time in their history, defeat a Florida team quarterbacked by the eventual Heisman winner. (It happened against Tebow last year and in 1966 against some guy named Spurrier.)
— Some folks believe Texas will be the fifth-best team in the Big 12. Me, I’m not yet sold on Missouri and Kansas and Texas Tech, and I’m starting to wonder about Oklahoma. Me, I see Texas winning the conference.
— Wake Forest will win the ACC Atlantic because Clemson won’t. Virginia Tech will win the Coastal by default. Wake will then beat Tech before a non-crowd of 41,000 in Tampa.
— Have I forgotten anybody? Oh, yeah — that team from Athens. The Bulldogs will go 11-1 — the loss will be at Auburn, not at Arizona State or at LSU — and will win the SEC East. Then they’ll beat the Tigers in the Dome for the conference title. Then they’ll beat USC in Miami for the national championship. Then Michael Adams will say, “You know what? This BCS deal really isn’t so bad.”
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