With the spring practice in the books and summer camps set to start in just about two months, that can only mean one thing — college football preview magazines will be hitting newsstands in short order.
Arguably the most anticipated magazine — at least for me — year in and year out comes from Phil Steele. And, while this year’s edition is not yet available to the public, advanced copies have been shipped to select individuals.
Pat Forde of ESPN.com is one of those individuals and, in a message posted on his Twitter page, he reveals Steele’s somewhat surprising Top-Ten list.
Perhaps the biggest surprise of all comes at the very top of the list, where Steele has placed the Oklahoma Sooners as his preseason No. 1. The Sooners are coming off a season that featured the most losses since Stoops’ first season in Norman, and found themselves outside the Top 25 in both the coaches and Associated Press polls.
Steele has shown in the past that he’s willing to go against the mainstream grain, and tabbing the Sooners as No. 1 certainly continues that outside-the-box line of thinking.
Another more-than-mild surprise is TCU sitting at No. 4 ahead of No. 6 Boise State, the school that toppled the Horned Frogs in January’s Fiesta Bowl and returns 21 of 22 starters from that unbeaten squad.
Alabama, with plenty of new faces on the defensive side of the ball, finds itself at No. 3, just behind No. 2 Ohio State.
Nebraska rounds out Steele’s Top Five at No. 5, while Florida (No. 7), USC (No. 8), Miami (No. 9) and Oregon (No. 10) finishing off the Top Ten.
Texas on the outside? The Trojans and Ducks both on the inside?
If nothing else, it makes for very intriguing offseason fodder. And a diversion from all of the expansion speculation that’s inundated the sport over the past two months..
I’ve been getting PS’s CF Preview Mag for over 12 years and I’ll continue to buy it, but my opinion changed from “he’s a guru to he’s an attention whore”. PS’s out-of-the-box predictions are actually entirely predictable. He proves if you have an opinion, you can always find reasons to back it up. Don’t believe me? Compare the “turnovers equal turnarounds’ section over the last few seasons. Its a scatter-plot of disparite data.
Buyer beware: Phil’s got more Lohan than Lama in him. Aaah, but having said that, I like value Oklahoma offers this season and I’d bet dollars-to-donuts Kirk Herbstreit reads & regurgitates Steele w/o sourcing at least 5 times this September.
Landry Jones? c’mon.
Phil Steele- this is your ass. This is a hole in the ground.
Now learn the difference between the two.
Garrett Gilbert is already one of the top 5 QB’s in college football. Landry Jones of OU isn’t fit to carry his jock. Passing wins these days, Phil.
CleanSlaton–even being a Longhorns fan, I think Jones is good enough to put up enormous numbers against pretty decent teams. I think he’s far from the weak link of an offense that once again will have to patch together a line. Not a good situation.
But yeah, Gilbert’s better. I wouldn’t say he’s a top-five QB, but he’s definitely on an upward trajectory following what almost seemed like a double-digit-turnover 1st half against ‘Bama. Texas should be in the top ten, easily ahead of Miami, Oregon (does Steele not remember Masoli’s been suspended for 2010?), TCU, Nebraska, and possibly Florida and BSU.
FWIW … Here’s PS’s Top 25 predictions vs. actual Final BCS 2009 (pre-bowl game).
PS rank/actual rank/School
1/5/Florida
2/2/Texas
3/24/USC
4/NR/Oklahoma
5/13/Penn St
6/NR/Miss
7/NR/Notre Dame
8/1/Alabama
9/NR/Cal
10/8/Ohio St
11/11/Va Tech
12/6/Boise
13/NR/Georgia
14/19/Ok St
15/NR/BYU
16/NR/Rutgers
17/12/LSU
18/4/TCU
19/NR/Illinois
20/10/Iowa
21/15/Miami-FL
22/22/Nebraska
23/17/Pitt
24/NR/UCLA
25/NR/Clemson
“He proves if you have an opinion, you can always find reasons to back it up.”
I thought the commenters on CFT were the best proof of that maxim.
Alabama is gonna win the national title. First back to back 14-0 seasons in College Football history. That will be 36 straight regular season wins as well. Book it, bank it. Whatever, but it is happening.