Big 6 Conference College Football Preview 09 - TheTodd84's Blog

TheTodd84's Blog

Big 6 Conference College Football Preview 09

Posted on July 7, 2009 at 03:55 PM.

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Conference predictions and winners:

SEC: Championship game, Ole Miss vs. Florida. This year's SEC will have some interesting twists and turns. Georgia loses a ton of talent. South Carolina is on the ropes and if Spurrier doesn't get it turned around soon, he never will in Columbia. Is Stephen Garcia the answer? He better be. Lane Kiffin ruffling feathers in Tennessee. The puzzling hire of Gene Chizik at Auburn who then put together a world-class coaching staff and the departure of Florida OC Dan Mullen to try and resurrect Mississippi State. The SEC had arguably the most interesting off-season in college football this season and will be one of the conferences to watch come september.

Ole Miss will be a huge contender feeding off of Ed Orgeron's recruiting and Houston Nutt's outstanding game day coaching. They have one big advantage over LSU. An established QB. That, for me, is the difference. is LSU more talented? You bet. But Ole Miss has a QB. However, Tim Tebow doesn't have a short memory and Ole Miss will be in for a long conference title game come the first saturday in december.

Big 12: Texas vs. Nebraska in the Championship game. This is so disrespect to you Mr. Sanner, but I think texas is the better team this year. No matter what anyone says about last season's controversy, Oklahoma was a better team than Texas even though the horns beat them on a neutral site. Well, Oklahoma returns zero, that's right zero, of their starting offensive linemen from last season that gave Sam Bradford enough to time to drink a six-pack in the pocket. Can Oklahoma block? If they can, watch out again. I just think it will be difficult and they won't be scoring 60+ in 5 straight games like last year.

Nebraska is on the brink. They FINALLY have a good coach to bring them back in Bo Pelini who can recruit and emphasize defense like in the mid-90s with the awesome "black shirts." Nebraska though still has come catching up to do in order to get on the same level as their big-12 south brethren. Texas rolls in this one.

Team on the rise: Baylor
Team on the fall: Tie between Kansas State and Texas A&M

Big 10: Penn State. The advantage here is coaching, believe it or not over Jim Tressel and the Buckeyes. Tressel, for all the great recruiting he does, has stayed stubborn with a vanilla, pro-style offense that is not difficult to scheme against. Ohio State will out-talent you on most saturdays, but when they play a team with equal or better talent, their schemes get exposed. This year will depend on how much of a spread offense Tressel decides to use with Terrelle Pryor. If they go almost exclusively spread with Pryor getting a ton of Freedom, then my pick is the Buckeyes. But, despite all the talent USC lost, it will still be a tough victory for OSU on september 19th in the horseshoe. Right now, Penn State has the coaching advantage. If Tressel changes up his style this year, watch out, it could be OSU in the National Title game AGAIN in 2009 vs. either Texas or Florida.

Team on the rise: Michigan State
Team on the fall: Indiana

Pac-10: USC. I know, this is the boring, vanilla pick here. But let's be honest, when is the last time you picked USC to win this conference and were wrong? It's been awhile. They just continue to reload year in and year out with ridiculous recruiting by Pete Carroll. What SC needs to avoid this year is the annual slip-up they seem to have vs. what seems to be inferior competition. See: Oregon State last year. USC has some problems at QB, which could hurt them and open up the door for either Cal or Oregon, but I just don't see their defense dropping off as much as some say. But, this year more than ever, USC are very beatable. But, until they lose, it is so hard to pick against them. Sorry.

Team on the rise: Tie between UCLA and Oregon State.
Team on the fall: Washington State.

The ACC Championship Game: Virginia Tech vs. Florida State. Frank Beamer showed how good of a coach he was last year, taking a 3-3 VT team halfway through the season with just 10 returning starters and leading them to the ACC title and a BCS bowl victory. Wow. VT returns 16 starters this year and gets to avoid FSU and Clemson. So their schedule is favorable. They are just too talented. Ga. Tech is a year away.

In the other conference, Florida State is the team to beat. Despite the annual suspensions and academic slip-ups, FSU continues to win. Last year their went 9-4 despite a tumultuous season and more untimely mistakes from Ponder, and Richardson. Look for Florida State's offense to be humming this year with a good RB core of Carlton Jones and Jermaine Thomas. Ponder is a year older and will be better. The only issues for FSU, surprisingly are depth. If someone gets hurt in the secondary or in the front seven on defense, they could be in trouble. But the offense should make up for it and FSU is tied with Ga. Tech for the best offensive line in the conference. Watch for a showdown between two of the ACC's most heralded coaches.

Team on the rise: Georgia Tech and NC State
Team on the fall: Boston College and Virginia

Big East: Rutgers. Yes, this is an interesting, and some may say, stupid pick because of all Rutgers lost on offense (QB Teel, two 1,000 yard receivers), but these are not your father's scarlet knights. They have the depth to replace those three eventually. What sets Rutgers apart from the rest of the conference is their schedule. They host the other "big 3" of the conference, Pitt, WVU and USF and get Pitt on a short week. Big advantage there. The rest of the conference, with the exception of the outstanding Cincy bearcats is a joke and if Rutgers can get through those four teams with just one or two losses, they will cruise.

Team on the rise: South Florida
Team on the fall: Connecticut.

Comments

# 1 EtheRed @ Jul 7

I think a lot of your teams on the fall have already fallen off. I like a lot of your picks but I'm still not sure if I'm sold on the hype with Ole Miss or Rutgers.