Phil Steele's Bible
The Bible---Phil Steele's 2009 Preview--described as the "Most Accurate Preseason Magazine" is out today.
UM's pre-season national rank is #48, (6th in B10) despite having many of its units ranked in the top 25 (O Line #17, D Backs #17, Special Teams #20--including the #1 ranked punter in the Nation, D Line #24 and Running Backs #24--although Brandon Minor is rated the #31 draft eligible back in the country and #3 back overall in the Big Ten. QBs, LBs and WR units not ranked.
He does have UM as the #4 Most Improved Team for 2009. Where else you gonna go but up?
Amazingly, OSU has no skill position players that are draft eligible (QB, WR & RB) ranked in the Top 60 at their position (other than Ray Small #45 WR).
Weird note: Ryan Mallett is the #7 ranked draft eligible QB in the country.
OSU's only 1st Team All Big Ten on offense? Yep. Justin Boren.
Brandon Graham and the Mesko-nator are 1st Team All Big Ten. Minor, Schilling and Martin are 2nd Team All-Big Ten. Martavious 4th Team WR.
Team Rankings: FLA #1, TX #2, USC #3, OK #4 and PSU #5.
Others: OSU #10, Illinois #19, Iowa #20, MSU #29, Wisky #38.
Notre Dame....wait for it....is pre-season #7. Wow.
Heisman Hopeful Top 3: Gatorade into Wine Tebow Jesus, Colt, Bradford. Juice Box Williams is the #7 hopeful followed by Royster at #8. Pryor mentioned as a contender.
Interesting stuff. Discuss.
Ok, I had it already...
Mallett is #7 and ND is #7? Man, I really hope everybody else thinks ND is that good - that way if we beat 'em we'll look like world beaters! hahaha :)
Steele's rankings aren't a true pre-season ranking. His rankings reflect the final season rankings, taking scheduling into account. So he may have teams that are better, ranked lower due to a harder schedule. Basically, Notre Dame has an easy schedule and he expects them to win 10 games.
You have to read it carefully regarding his preseason rankings. It is his preseason ranking of the post season. So where he predicts the teams will be rated at the end of the year.
Since he doesn't have us in a BCS bowl that means we would be ranked 7th after beating Clemson in the gator bowl. (His predictions)
...at BN last weekend. It's not "out today."
Go part the Red Sea Moses. It was out today (6/9/09) per his web site and wasn't out yesterday at most stores. Congratulations.
I like steele, he fits a lot of info in there, and its nice that he takes scheduling into account when predicting the season. Its always fun to look at during the season and see what he said about the breakouts or letdowns as they go on, and there's so much he puts in there, its hard to find something it doesn't discuss. He's sort of like the ron shandler of college fb, and shandlers book is always excellent.
this mag at my local B/N one week ago. And, the cover is already worn out a bit.
That means its officially football season.
It is a must buy (along with HTTV!!!) for serious CFB fans.
UM is on his 'Most Improved Team' list.
Over the last 3 seasons, 32 teams made the list that had a losing record the season before and 23 of them rebounded to become bowl eligible.
Historically speaking, being on Steele's M.I.T. list means better days are straight ahead.
compared to others. That's decent news for us.
Illinois at #19 and ND #7? That list sucks.
disagree with some of his rankings, but I'm sure he knows what he's doing. Gotta love seeing us on the M.I.T. list.
That is what truly matters.
Denard is 35 and Tate is in the teens.
I will pick it up this evening
that when UM clobbers ND this year, that top ranking they don't deserve will help us. I still can't believe that ND beats up on a bad Hawaii team after going .500 and they are going to win 10 games all of a sudden. Until Charlie Weiss leaves, ND is doomed. Ever since Weiss came to ND, they've had no running game. You can chuck it all day in the NFL, but in college you need to be able to run the ball. Clausen isn't even the best QB on the roster. How many times does that guy throw into double coverage? I think he pre-determines his passes, and that is dangerous. I could be crazy, but UM does not turn the ball over 9 times this year and we win the game.
I'm still convinced that UM will start off 4-0, and have some good experience for our true frosh QB to build on. No one will predict anything much for UM, 'cause they all got burned last year. They need only to look at RR's history to see that year 2 is when his teams start to get it. The combination of actually having a dual threat QB at the helm, solid senior running backs, and this OL's second year at these new blocking schemes will vastly improve this offense. Right now it's all just speculation, but it's Michigan we're talking about. We'll be back sooner than you think. Go Blue!!!
I don't know about their o-line, but they do have talent on offense as well as experience. IIRC they have Jonas Gray, although he might be a freshman or not even play for ND (I forget), so he could be irrelevant. The emu and Tater Tot have another year of experience behind them. So should the defense, and it probably has talent (like America). Plus Jon Tenuta is a very good DC. This is all off the top of my head but I'm going to guess that experience + talent should help. The only thing holding ND back is Charlie Weis.