“Dear Residents of Harbor Square:
As we have once again reached that strange and magical time of the year known as college football season, I feel it incumbent upon me to once again remind you to kindly disregard any yelling, clapping, cursing, throwing of things, stomping, or cheering you hear coming from my apartment. Nothing is wrong, I am simply watching my beloved Sooners play.
Should the noise become too loud, please let me know so I can pretend to be sorry and lie about trying to keep it down. As always though, your best bet is to just ride it out for a few hours, knowing it will all be over soon.
Best,
Dustin
P.S. ~ This warning goes out to all those foolish enough call me during said games as well”
I am opening this post again this year w/ the annual message given to all neighbors on the floor of my apartment building. Most of us have been together long enough to know Im (sorta) joking, while a few newbies are in for a bumpy couple months worth of Saturday afternoons. Ah well…
That being said here I am offering my extremely biased, quasi educated picks for what promises to be another crazy season. (And no…it doesn’t count as cheating by waiting until after the first week…I had a draft manuscript to get finished last week). The fact that we now have a playoff to debate all year should only make this more fun…
Heisman ~ Marcus Mariota, Oregon. This one could go a number of ways, but I don’t see Kenny Hill from A&M overcoming youngster mistakes or Todd Gurley from Georgia staying healthy enough to steal it. (Yes, I’m ignoring Jameis Winston, for a myriad of reasons.
Offensive POY ~ Todd Gurley, Georgia. Despite my reasoning above on the Heisman, which is cumulative stat driven, when this guy IS healthy, there’s nobody more fun to watch in college football.
Defensive POY ~ Eric Striker, Oklahoma. Okay fine, this is a quasi-homer pick that could have EASILY gone to tackling machine Ramik Wilson of Georgia, but have you seen Striker pass rush off the edge. Go back and cue up Sugar Bowl highlights to see him straight harass AJ McCarron into submission.
Rookie of the Year ~ Leonard Fournette, LSU. To be fair, this kid has no chance of living up to the early hype, but it should be entertaining to watch.
Lineman of the Year ~ Cedric Ogbuehi, Texas A&M. As much as I hate to say it, these guys are fast becoming Lineman U, having churned out top-6 picks Luke Joeckel and Jake Matthews in consecutive years. This should be no different.
Coach of the Year ~
ACC Champ ~ Florida State. They won’t be near as good as last year, but in a conference this weak, they won’t have to be.
Big Ten Champ ~ Michigan State. The preseason injury of Braxton Miller made this one of the easier picks in the country.
Big Twelve Champ ~ Oklahoma. This one suddenly looks much tougher, w/ WVU and Okie State both further along than expected and Baylor still very, very dangerous.
Pac Twelve Champ ~ Oregon. This is the year they get past Stanford, and UCLA and USC just aren’t there yet.
SEC Champ ~ Alabama/Texas A&M/Georgia. Ima be honest…this one is as wide open as we’ve ever seen. All of these teams have potential fatal flaws, all of them also have enough talent to hide them.
National Semifinal Teams – Florida State, Oregon, Oklahoma, SEC Champ (see above)
National Championship ~ SEC Champ over Florida State. There’s a reason this conference won 7 chippers in a row before last season. They’ll right the ship this year, they just have to survive their own backyard first.
Biggest Surprise ~ Texas A&M. Everybody is about to realize Manziel was a system quarterback, not the campus savior everyone previously thought.
Biggest Disappointment ~ South Carolina. I thought the Ol’ Ballcoach’s bunch was overrated even before last week’s drubbing. Did they even have a secondary?! A close second for this is UCLA, who I look to amass three or more losses, easily.
As we have once again reached that strange and magical time of the year known as college football season, I feel it incumbent upon me to once again remind you to kindly disregard any yelling, clapping, cursing, throwing of things, stomping, or cheering you hear coming from my apartment. Nothing is wrong, I am simply watching my beloved Sooners play.
Should the noise become too loud, please let me know so I can pretend to be sorry and lie about trying to keep it down. As always though, your best bet is to just ride it out for a few hours, knowing it will all be over soon.
Best,
Dustin
P.S. ~ This warning goes out to all those foolish enough call me during said games as well”
I am opening this post again this year w/ the annual message given to all neighbors on the floor of my apartment building. Most of us have been together long enough to know Im (sorta) joking, while a few newbies are in for a bumpy couple months worth of Saturday afternoons. Ah well…
That being said here I am offering my extremely biased, quasi educated picks for what promises to be another crazy season. (And no…it doesn’t count as cheating by waiting until after the first week…I had a draft manuscript to get finished last week). The fact that we now have a playoff to debate all year should only make this more fun…
Heisman ~ Marcus Mariota, Oregon. This one could go a number of ways, but I don’t see Kenny Hill from A&M overcoming youngster mistakes or Todd Gurley from Georgia staying healthy enough to steal it. (Yes, I’m ignoring Jameis Winston, for a myriad of reasons.
Offensive POY ~ Todd Gurley, Georgia. Despite my reasoning above on the Heisman, which is cumulative stat driven, when this guy IS healthy, there’s nobody more fun to watch in college football.
Defensive POY ~ Eric Striker, Oklahoma. Okay fine, this is a quasi-homer pick that could have EASILY gone to tackling machine Ramik Wilson of Georgia, but have you seen Striker pass rush off the edge. Go back and cue up Sugar Bowl highlights to see him straight harass AJ McCarron into submission.
Rookie of the Year ~ Leonard Fournette, LSU. To be fair, this kid has no chance of living up to the early hype, but it should be entertaining to watch.
Lineman of the Year ~ Cedric Ogbuehi, Texas A&M. As much as I hate to say it, these guys are fast becoming Lineman U, having churned out top-6 picks Luke Joeckel and Jake Matthews in consecutive years. This should be no different.
Coach of the Year ~
ACC Champ ~ Florida State. They won’t be near as good as last year, but in a conference this weak, they won’t have to be.
Big Ten Champ ~ Michigan State. The preseason injury of Braxton Miller made this one of the easier picks in the country.
Big Twelve Champ ~ Oklahoma. This one suddenly looks much tougher, w/ WVU and Okie State both further along than expected and Baylor still very, very dangerous.
Pac Twelve Champ ~ Oregon. This is the year they get past Stanford, and UCLA and USC just aren’t there yet.
SEC Champ ~ Alabama/Texas A&M/Georgia. Ima be honest…this one is as wide open as we’ve ever seen. All of these teams have potential fatal flaws, all of them also have enough talent to hide them.
National Semifinal Teams – Florida State, Oregon, Oklahoma, SEC Champ (see above)
National Championship ~ SEC Champ over Florida State. There’s a reason this conference won 7 chippers in a row before last season. They’ll right the ship this year, they just have to survive their own backyard first.
Biggest Surprise ~ Texas A&M. Everybody is about to realize Manziel was a system quarterback, not the campus savior everyone previously thought.
Biggest Disappointment ~ South Carolina. I thought the Ol’ Ballcoach’s bunch was overrated even before last week’s drubbing. Did they even have a secondary?! A close second for this is UCLA, who I look to amass three or more losses, easily.
