Big 12 South Previews - Week 1

• Boone State at Washington State - Washington State has never lost to Boone State, beating them twice in the early 1950s while Boone Pickens was a recent college graduate working at Phillips Petroleum. If the Pokes are not able to beat the Cougars, Pickens has vowed to destroy the economy of another small city in Oklahoma. Pick: Pokes
• Wake Forest at Baylor - This will be the inaugural game of the Art Briles era in Waco, and the game is sponsored by the Southern Baptist Convention. The first four contests between the schools, played between 1949 and 1961, were part of the Baptist Bowl series. Now that the Baptists are trying to reach a larger audience, the clash has been renamed the Post-Modern Protestant Performance. Baptist Press recently featured an in depth article titled, "Baptist Football Resurgence - the Catholics suck at football now, too", which celebrated the downfall of Fisheater Football, WFU's ACC championship and Briles' hiring. WFU is ranked 23rd in the AP, and Baylor is ranked 11th or 12th in the Big 12, depending upon the poll. Baylor is still unsettled at quarterback, with Kirby Freeman, Blake Szymanski, Robert Griffin and Ryan Roberts all vying for the starting position. The Big 12 South hasn't seen such a wide open QB race since 1998, when Jake Sills, Eric Moore, Jarrod Reese and Patrick Fletcher battled it out for the Sooners QB spot. With apologies to my Baylor readers, I think that pretty much sums up the Bears season right there. On the other hand, tell me when the last time was Baylor had the most compelling game of the Big 12. Pick: Demon Deacons, albeit cheering to be wrong.
• Eastern Washington at Dust Pirates- many of you are wondering why TT is playing the Eastern Washington Eagles to open the season. People, this is simple. TT and CU got a 2 for one special, and Colorado gets 'em next week. Pick: Dust Pirates.
• Florida Atlantic at Texas - Schnelly, while at FAU, is 6-0 against teams from Texas. Of course, that's Texas State and North Texas. FAU is 0-5 against teams from the Big 12, getting outscored 36-188. The skills that helped me obtain a CPA certificate tell me that's an average of 7-35. Being that Howie called the Horns soft, I think a 28 point loss would be a moral victory for the Owls. Pick: Longhorns.
• Arkansas State at Cash Machine U - Sooner great Larry Lacewell went 69-58-4 from 79 to 89 at Arkansas State. He's the last coach at ASU to have a winning record. Jorvorskie Lane has a headache, but it shouldn't matter, as the Aggies will ride the emotional boost of the revealing of Reveille VIII to the adoring masses at Kyle Field. On the other hand, ASU gave Texas quite the game last year. Pick: Aggies.

We'll have the official LandThieves analysis of the Sooners-Mocs game by close of Thursday.

Tommie Harris vs Josh Jarboe

Saw this over at Sturminator.blogspot.com.

Week 1 Previews - Big 12 North

Since I don't think you, the reader(s), can handle it all at once, here are my Big 12 North Division previews

• Missouri vs Illinois - this is a huge border rivalry in two flyover states, aptly names the Arch Rivalry, and it's been played in St. Louis all the way back to 2002. The rivalry dates back to 1896 and has been played every year since - 2007. Missouri has won the last three games. Many people think the Arch Rivalry relates to the St. Louis Arch, however, a little known fact is that the winner gets dinner on the Hill, an Italian section of St. Louis with great restaurant, and the loser gets to drive through a Golden Arches on the bus ride back to campus. Pick: Missouri
• Western Michigan at Bugeaters - The Bo Pelini era resumes in Lincoln as Nebraska looks to remain undefeated against directional Michigan schools. Prediction: Bugeaters
• Florida International at Phog U - The Mario Cristobal era begins at Florida International. FIU has never won a non-conference game. I don't see that changing in Lawrence, KS. Prediction: Jayhawks
• North Texas at Willie and Friends - the second season of Todd Dodge ball kicks off in the Little Apple. If you're interested in additional information on this game, please seek medical attention immediately. Prediction: Wildcats
• South Dakota State at Baylor North - South Dakota State is one of the better teams in 1-AA. Iowa State is one of the better Big 12 North teams in the state of Iowa. Pick: South Dakota State
• Colorado vs Colorado State - The Steve Fairchild era begins in Colorado State. Fairchild left the Buffalo Bills as Offensive Coordinator at the end of 07. Rumors are the Bills season ticket holders posted the resume on the CSU website on Fairchild's behalf. Pick: Colorado

We should have the South previews up tomorrow evening.

Linebackers

A little insomnia last night enabled me to watch a replay of the OU-UT game from last October. In case you don't recall, Colt Mccoy passed for something like 4,000 yards in a single game by repeatedly throwing over the linebackers, who couldn't drop deep enough quick enough into pass coverage. The scary part was that Ryan Reynolds was one of the ones repeatedly picked on. I believe he was dinged up last year, but the fact that he's our sole returning LB terrifies me now.

College Football Pick 'em - 2008

Join the LandThieves College Football Pickem group at espn.com

Here's link to the home page. No password is required to join the group, but you do have to register for espn.com

See you there, and good luck!

Week 1 Game Previews - National Games of Note

The Week 1 games are, for the most part, preseason games. We'll take a weekly look here at the national games of note and get to the Big 12 previews later in the week:

• Alabama at Clemson - There are a lot of questions about these teams headed into the year. Many pundits have big things predicted for the Clemson Tigers. These pundits feel an obligation to pick a team coached by someone with the last name of Bowden to be in the top 10. They forget that Clemson has lost at least four games in all but one of the seasons Tommy Bowden has been coach. Alabama will be improved this year, as Saban signed 80 players to scholarship offers in the spring and setup a cocaine sting to get back under the NCAA imposed scholarship limits. A review of common opponents from 2007 indicates that Clemson beat ULM. Pick: Clemson
• Appalachian State at LSU - Many people are asking the question, "Can Appy State pull the upset two years in a row?" The answer is...No. Pick: LSU
• La-Monroe at Auburn - Louisiana Monroe looks to continue its winning streak against Alabama-based SEC schools. This game is for additional bragging rights in Alabama, as Auburn has already made their "At Least we beat Louisiana-Monroe" bumper stickers to be passed out after the game to all Auburn fans that stay the entire game. Of course, Troy could make the same bumper sticker. Prediction: Auburn
• Tennessee at UCLA - The Vols last travelled to UCLA to play the Bruins in 1997 and beat UCLA 30-24. The Bruins were so upset about this they travelled to Austin the following week and beat Texas 66-3. I love that I was able to work mention of that game into this preview. UCLA now has Slick Rick as HC and Norm Chow as offensive coordinator. Unfortunately, the UCLA QB competition this summer has been sponsored by the Darwin Awards. Pick: Volunteers

We'll have the Big 12 Previews later in the week.

Rankings based on NFL Talent

I've been reading a lot about Georgia as the preseason #1 pick going into the college season, with other options being the Sooners, Trojans and Buckeyes. I decided to go to http://nfldraftsite.com, which has draft projections for the next two years online (and it's free), and see how the players stack up. The site has projected seven rounds of picks and another round of compensatory picks for 2009, and 2010. From that you can assess the level of pro talent on each roster. Admittedly, college and pro games differ (ask John Heupel or Danny Wuerffel for instance), but you gotta have some pro talent to succeed.

I took the 512 picks and assigned them a point value, with a top 8 pick getting 32 points, next eight picks getting, 31 points, and so on. I also went ahead and gave an extra point for a 2009 pick vs 2010, as upperclassmen should count for somethign extra. Without further ado, here is how the teams rate based upon this evaluation, with their USA Today Coaches poll ranking in parenthesis:

1. Ohio State (3)
2. Southern Cal (2)
3. Tennessee (18)
4. Miami FL (no votes)
5. Clemson (9)
6. Wisconsin (12)
7. Texas (10)
8. Oregon (20)
9. LSU (6)
10. Oklahoma (4)
11. Michigan (24)
12. Florida State (30)
13. Florida (5)
14. Arizona State (16)
15. Alabama (26)
16. Virginia (13)
17. Missouri (7)
18. Iowa (no votes)
19. UCLA (47)
20. Purdue (no votes)
21. Auburn (11)
22. Penn State (22)
23. Kentucky (42)
24. Notre Dame (42)
25. Stanford (no votes)

Using this highly unscientific method of rankings, Georgia is ranked 36. Admittedly, the ranking is a bit flawed, as it gives no credit for exceptions freshman and sophomores, so you don't get credit for a Knowshon Moreno, Joe McKnight, or DeMarco Murray. Also, it doesn't factor in the impact coaching has (for every Bill Callahan, there's a Jim Grobe out there). Other elements of interest in the above: a) Miami FL still has talent; b) Notre Dame has more talent than Charlie Weis would have you believe; c) Stanford's upset of USC last year wasn't as far fetched as previously thought.

Here are rankings of other teams in the USA Today preseason top 25 (flawed nfl draft rankings in parenthesis):

• 8th ranked West Virgina (46)
• 13th ranked Kansas (70)
• 14th ranked Texas Tech (40)
• 15th ranked Virginia Tech (31)
• 17th ranked BYU (49)
• 19th ranked Illinois (39)
• 21st ranked South Florida (29)
• 23rd ranked Wake Forest (75)
• 25th ranked Fresno State (66)