Way too early 2011 look-ahead

[TheJON]

We don't know who all will be going pro yet, but quite a few players you can assume (Andrew Luck, Cam Newton, etc...).

With the 2010 sports year wrapping up, here are my 2011 CFB predictions (may be fun to come back to this in about 365 days):

1.LaMichael James will win the Heisman, beating out former winner Mark Ingram by the slimmest of margins.

2.Oklahoma will beat Oregon for the national title.

3.Texas will again struggle, but improve a bit. Their offense will still be mediocre but they will finish 7-5 and get back to a bowl game.

4.DickRod will survive the speculation that he will be fired after their bowl game on January. He will not survive next year, however, because they will again finish 7-5 thanks to another poor Greg Robinson defense. The offense will be very good again. Denard Robinson will fail to make a trip to New York for the Heisman ceremony because he will miss 3 games with an injury. Tate Forcier will do what he normally does- play pretty solid, but not spectacular- in D-Rob's absences. DickRod will be fired and Brady Hoke will be hired prior to Michigan's Insight Bowl matchup with Kansas State.

5.Florida will struggle with changing to the pro-style offense. They will finish very similar to what they did this year- in the 7-5 range.

6.The University of Illinois at Iowa City will get back to form and win 9-11 games because this is what they do when expectations aren't sky high. They will be ranked at the bottom of the Top 25 in the preseason and that's where this program is comfortable. They will continue to be the ONLY program in the country to have not lost a game by more than a touchdown since 2007. They will, however, pull out a few close ones (law of averages) and lose a couple too.

7.Jim Harbaugh will still be the head coach at Stanford, but it will be his last year there. He will NOT be going to Michigan. Instead, he will be going to the NFL to replace the fired Mike Singletary in San Francisco.

8.Mark Richt will get Georgia back to winning 10+ games and will have them in a BCS bowl for the 3rd or 4th time in his career.

9.Nebraska's first year in the Big-10 will be similar to their last one in the Big-12. 9-3/10-2 is likely, with a worst case scenario of 8-4.

10.The 1st year of the "new" Big-10 won't be as difficult in the Leaders Division as expected because both Wisconsin and Ohio State will be taking major steps backwards. For Ohio State, it will be their worst season since Tressel's 1st year and they will be the most disappointing team in the country. Pryor, if he isn't dumb enough to go pro after this year, will go down as one of the most disappointing Buckeye players over the last decade. He will cry about how the system is the problem, but fail to realize that he had the option of playing in a more favorable offense coming into college (Oregon and Michigan were offering). Both Ohio State and Wisconsin will be 7-5 teams.

11.As hard to believe as this may be- the Big East will actually be worse next year. UCONN will win the conference again at 8-4.

12.Oklahoma will go into the national title game as possibly the first team in many years to not have an All-American or Heisman finalist at any offensive skill position, but they will be arguably the most well rounded football team in the country. They will not have many weaknesses at all. Similar to the Patriots when they were winning Super Bowls.

13.Colorado and Utah will have rocky 1st years in the Pac-12. Neither team will finish above .500 on the season.

14.Urban Meyer will get sick of "family time". His competitive juices will start flowing again and his arrogance will get the best of him. His people will begin contacting different schools' people to express interest in their potential job openings. Michigan will be the 1st to call him, but he will turn them down. He will choose to stay further south and take the North Carolina job after Butch Davis is canned for losing control of the program (actually, it will be losses, but this will be the excuse).

15.Illinois will finally quit being stupid and fire Ron Zook after another 6-6 or 5-7 campaign. They will then try to lure Urban Meyer out of retirement (like every team with a job opening will do), but Urban will laugh in their face.

No need to even play the 2011 season, I have already told you what is going to happen.

[Carson]

He just can't stop posting, can he?

Yet another early morning essay.

No life here, move along now.

[Screw_Michigan]

Nobody fucking cares. I find it highly improbable any woman on the face of the earth would let you penetrate her, nevertheless impregnate her.

[L45B]

For Ohio State, it will be their worst season since Tressel's 1st year and they will be the most disappointing team in the country. Pryor, if he isn't dumb enough to go pro after this year, will go down as one of the most disappointing Buckeye players over the last decade. He will cry about how the system is the problem, but fail to realize that he had the option of playing in a more favorable offense coming into college (Oregon and Michigan were offering). Both Ohio State and Wisconsin will be 7-5 teams.

Jonsense at its best. If tOSU has a disappointing season next year (e.g. 10-2), it will be because of the turnover on defense.

You're out of your element here, Jon, stick to what you know best-- what nobody else cares about.

[King Crimson]

i guess this means Oklahoma will go 5-6.

haven't been to the OU homer boards in a few days, but if he comes back (which is seeming like a real possibility from people in Norman) Ryan Broyles will most certainly be an All-American type player.

[TheJON]

i guess this means Oklahoma will go 5-6.

haven't been to the OU homer boards in a few days, but if he comes back (which is seeming like a real possibility from people in Norman) Ryan Broyles will most certainly be an All-American type player.

I was counting on Broyles going pro. If he comes back, yeah.......best WR in the country.

[TheJON]

Do you mind telling me which of the following games on Ohio State's 2011 schedule are wins and which games are losses?

Sat. Sept. 3 AKRON
Sat. Sept. 10 TOLEDO
Sat. Sept. 17 at Miami, Fla.
Sat. Sept. 24 COLORADO
Sat. Oct. 1 MICHIGAN STATE
Sat. Oct. 8 at Nebraska
Sat. Oct. 15 at Illinois
Sat. Oct. 29 WISCONSIN
Sat. Nov. 5 INDIANA
Sat. Nov. 12 at Purdue
Sat. Nov. 19 PENN STATE
Sat. Nov. 26 at Michigan

Good lord, never mind. They're gonna win 9 games with that schedule. I could see losses to Miami, Michigan State, Nebraska and Michigan. If they just go 1-3 in those 4 games they will finish 9-3. My bad, for some reason I thought Iowa was on the schedule and they were facing a top team out of conference.

Like I said, these are way too early predictions. I haven't looked at anyone's schedule. I don't think the Big-10 will be that good next year. I expect the Iowa/Nebraska winner to be the Western Division (fuck the Big-10 with their gay names, I will use my own names) champ (with the edge going to NU because of homefield advantage in that game. Looks like Ohio State should come out of the other division.

So I think 9-4 or 10-3 is likely for them. I take back the 7-5 prediction.

Man, you people get all offended if someone doesn't predict your team to win it all! Easy there L45B!

[Killian]

Man, you people get all offended if someone doesn't predict your team to win it all! Easy there L45B!

Usually, predictions are based on something besides "Ohio State has 12 games and I hate Terrelle Pryor, so 7-5."

[TheJON]

Man, you people get all offended if someone doesn't predict your team to win it all! Easy there L45B!

Usually, predictions are based on something besides "Ohio State has 12 games and I hate Terrelle Pryor, so 7-5."

Oh, come on........say what you want about me, but I ALMOST always give my reasoning behind my predictions (whether you agree with them or not).

Again, it's early predictions that mean absolutely nothing. When I actually take the time to think about it and get my 2011 CFB mags in the summer, many of these will change. Right now, I was just going straight off the top of my head based on who I expect to go pro early and who is graduating.

And I don't hate Pryor at all. I just don't think he's in the right system. In fact, I agree with him when he said he would be dominating CFB in a system like Auburn or Oregon's. Problem is, he had an opportunity to play in those systems but chose Ohio State because he thought it was his best road to the NFL.

[L45B]

Man, you people get all offended if someone doesn't predict your team to win it all!

Not really offended, there just wasn't any merit to your prediction. It didn't even qualify as an educated guess!

I'm willing to admit that we could very well drop a 2-3 games next season, but even with Nebraska joining the conference we are still the most loaded team as far as talent goes. And though he could be criticized for not using all the talent in his back pocket, Tressel has consistently churned out conference championships (6 in a row now) and BCS appearances.

If we were losing half our team to graduation/NFL, you might have a point. But we're not losing much.

And you could point to what happened to Texas this year and say that's Ohio State next year. But you could say that about any of the top 25, so that doesn't say much either. Until Tressel proves otherwise, I expect another "B10" title and top bowl appearance next year.

[TheJON]

But we're not losing much.

Obviously, Ohio State normally just reloads. I'm sure your backups have all kinds of talent, but there are a lot of losses. 7 starters on defense are seniors. Your back-7 returns only 2 starters.

Offensively, there are only 4 senior starters but between Pryor (if he's dumb enough), Posey, and Herron......I wouldn't be surprised if 1 of them left early.

That's some pretty hefty losses, even for a program like Ohio State. I'm not saying you will be Texas bad, or even close to that, but I think there will be a step back much like Oklahoma had last year when quite a few of their key players were injured.

[Goober McTuber]

Another dose of JONsense. When your team sucks as badly as Iowa did this year I suppose all you can do is think about 2011. I will continue to enjoy the success of the 2010 Wisconsin Badgers and look forward to a fitting conclusion in the Rose Bowl with Bucky winding up at #3 in the country.

[King Crimson]

I mean, Nick Saban thinks you're an arrogant prick. That's when you start reexamining your life.

Sam, you should sig that up.

[SoCalTrjn]

Sept. 3 Minnesota W
Sept. 10 Utah L
Sept. 17 Syracuse W
Sept. 24 at Arizona State L
Oct. 1 Arizona W
Oct. 13 at California L
Oct. 22 at Notre Dame L
Oct. 29 Stanford L
Nov. 5 at Colorado W
Nov. 12 Washington W
Nov. 19 at Oregon L
Nov. 26 UCLA W

6-6 USC continues to suck

[Carson]

6-6 USC continues to suffer from their bogus NCAA penalties

Does this ftfy make you feel any better?

[SoCalTrjn]

6-6 USC continues to suffer from their bogus NCAA penalties

Does this ftfy make you feel any better?

ask me in 5 years.

[SunCoastSooner]

i guess this means Oklahoma will go 5-6.

haven't been to the OU homer boards in a few days, but if he comes back (which is seeming like a real possibility from people in Norman) Ryan Broyles will most certainly be an All-American type player.

I was counting on Broyles going pro. If he comes back, yeah.......best WR in the country.

Ryan Broyles will likely win almost every award for best receiver in the country if he returns. He is going to submit his draft evaluation papers and if he isn't projected as a first rounder (which isn't likely because of his size) it's almost a certainty that he returns for his senior year because of the labor agreement issue. A seasoned and experienced offensive line, a healthy Heywood at TE, Broyles in the slot, Kenny Stills with a season under his belt at one wideout, and a healthy DeJuan "Beast Mode" Miller at the other, Roy Finch at RB with a stable of back ups, and Landry Jones tossing the ball... opposing defenses are going to get smashed.

JON failed to explain how Oklahoma and/or Oregon will get to the MNC game ahead of Alabama.

An at worst one-loss Tide will finish ahead of either the Ducks or the Sooners who will each have 1 loss.

The Tide's extremely young defense will have a year under its belt and the offense shouldn't miss a beat...especially if Julio returns. If Ingram leaves, Bama has a stable of talented RBs to take up the slack. At QB, A.J. McCarron has a rifle arm and is accurate as hell, Philip Sims figures he can take the job, and a freshman from Tampa Plant, Philip Ely, is enrolling in school early.

Counting on the NFL imploding...maybe the spectre of that possibility will keep Ingram and Jones in Tuscaloosa.

I'll take my chances with a team who has 19 returning starters from an 11-2 team, won its conference, and competing in a BCS bowl over the third place team in the SEC West, returning 15 starters, who played in an "also ran" Bowl every day of the week and twice on Sunday but that's just me.

[King Crimson]

outside of the roadie at Florida State, the RRS, and having to play Pokie State in Stillwater (for the second year in a row)....OU gets Mizzou (in week 3) and ATM in Norman.

schedule sets up pretty nice.

[Moby Dick]

having to play Pokie State in Stillwater (for the second year in a row)

What gives with THAT bullshit??

[Mace]

You guys can talk all you want about an OU-Bama championship game next year but I think you're neglecting to acknowledge the fact that, next season, Iowa will be successful with those 5 plays that kept them out of this year's NC game. Just remember that you heard it here first.

[King Crimson]

Considering our relative success in Lubbock

huh? what? between bad calls, Sam Bradford concussions, and Leach....not a lot of W's for OU at Jones Stadium.

Pokes will get us in Stillwater one of these days....but, remember, OU rode bad Big 8 scheduling to beat Nebraska in Lincoln back to back in 86 and 87. outside 95 and bradhuskers stealing your steak, those were two of Dr. Tom's best teams.

before BtH's time, though.

[BlindRef]

I think this prediction...

4.DickRod will survive the speculation that he will be fired after their bowl game on January. He will not survive next year, however, because they will again finish 7-5 thanks to another poor Greg Robinson defense. The offense will be very good again. Denard Robinson will fail to make a trip to New York for the Heisman ceremony because he will miss 3 games with an injury. Tate Forcier will do what he normally does- play pretty solid, but not spectacular- in D-Rob's absences.


Will be proven wrong in the next seven days.

Harbaugh to Michigan is looking more and more real.

[BlindRef]

Rich Rod will have fun in Maryland though. Maybe you'll be right and he'll go 7-5 there.

[King Crimson]

Considering our relative success in Lubbock

huh? what? between bad calls, Sam Bradford concussions, and Leach....not a lot of W's for OU at Jones Stadium.

Pokes will get us in Stillwater one of these days....but, remember, OU rode bad Big 8 scheduling to beat Nebraska in Lincoln back to back in 86 and 87. outside 95 and bradhuskers stealing your steak, those were two of Dr. Tom's best teams.

before BtH's time, though.

Read it again. The point I was making was that the tradeoff of two against Tech in Norman for two in Stillwater is a good deal for us.

fair enough, i stand corrected and my bad. one reads "relative" as double inclusive and not making a distinction between the two....here. dig?

tip o' the cap. i had a burger at O'Connell's just yesterday lunch and thought of Sooners out there, holding it down, out of state.

[Mace]

I think this prediction...

4.DickRod will survive the speculation that he will be fired after their bowl game on January. He will not survive next year, however, because they will again finish 7-5 thanks to another poor Greg Robinson defense. The offense will be very good again. Denard Robinson will fail to make a trip to New York for the Heisman ceremony because he will miss 3 games with an injury. Tate Forcier will do what he normally does- play pretty solid, but not spectacular- in D-Rob's absences.


Will be proven wrong in the next seven days.

Harbaugh to Michigan is looking more and more real.

We were discussing this last night during the Iowa game. The college kids that were at my house thought he'd keep his job and I disagreed. I asked them if they wanted to start a pool on what day he loses his job, and what day Michigan announced Harbaugh as the new coach. I don't think they'll fire him before Jan 4 and will let Harbaugh coach Stanford on their Jan 3 date without having the distraction of dealing with all of the speculation and media attention DickRod's firing will bring to Harbaugh and his team. It's probably a done deal anyway, so no need to ruin Harbaugh's day in the sun on Jan 3.

[SunCoastSooner]

having to play Pokie State in Stillwater (for the second year in a row)

What gives with THAT bullshit??

One of the scheduling concessions that had to be made to accomodate the round robin format. Otherwise we would have gotten too many home games one year and not enough the next. On the bright side, we get Tech at home two years in a row. Considering our relative success in Lubbock and Stillwater, I'm down with it.

The last time the conference switched the schedule Okie State had to come to Norman twice. Late 80s.

[Mace]

Would Harbaugh choose to go to UM over a pro offer?

Stay tuned, Sam, because we should probably find out soon, but there's no way for anyone other than Harbaugh to answer that question. Of course there is always option #3 that he is perfectly happy at Stanford and ain't going anywhere (the option Mikey is hoping for). My opinion is that he'll head to Ann Arbor if they fire RichRod next week. As an outsider looking in, I think a "Michigan man" would consider being the head coach at his alma mater to be a bigger deal than the NFL. I'm guessing that he'd like to someday be referred to in the same reverent tones as a guy named Bo, and that it would mean more to him than coaching in the NFL. Of course, like I said, I have no idea what Harbaugh is thinking (other than he is focusing on his bowl game right now), so I could be way off base, but Harbaugh would be the perfect fit at Michigan, imo, and he would immediately energize a fanbase that has been waiting to be energized. He plays Big 10 football in the PAC and would return that Big Ten style of play to the Big House.

[Mace]

Isn't he from Cali?

He was born in Ohio, I think, and then grew up in Michigan before his family moved to California. He attended high school in both states. Sounds like the 49ers are interested in him too, so we'll find out soon.