It’s finally here! College football fans can now rejoice as
the new season is upon us. It feels like forever ago when we watched Ohio State
knock off Oregon to win the national title in the 1st ever College
Football Playoff, making it 2 consecutive years that the “mighty” SEC didn’t end
the year holding the trophy causing panic among SEC fans nationwide! So with
this first post to the My Take blog, I thought I’d give out some preseason
picks, which is kind of ironic because I typically don’t like preseason picks.
Why? Because it’s tough to judge what a team will do based off of transfers,
impact freshman, and team and player development…but here goes nothing…
ACC
For the first time in 2 years, Jameis Winston is no longer
behind center at Florida State which makes the ACC a little more wide open the
last couple of years. I look at Clemson to win this league. Getting FSU at home
this year doesn’t hurt, and if Heisman hopeful Deshaun Watson can stay healthy,
Clemson should finally take that next step to prominence.
BIG TEN
Now this is probably the easiest pick of them all. Ohio State
is clearly the most talented, and best coached team in the league, if not the
entire country. If they can get past a tough road game week 1 at Virginia Tech,
the only team to beat them last year, then I see the Buckeyes cruising to a
spot in the playoff.
BIG 12
TCU is my pick here for 2 reasons. 1) They have great talent
coming back on both sides of the ball, including most analysts pick for the
2015 Heisman Trophy in Trevone Boykin returning at quarterback. Coming off a
surprising year where he led the Horned Frogs to a 12-1 record, I’m excited to
see what he can do for a follow up! 2) Let’s face it. TCU was flat out ROBBED
last year of a spot in the playoff. How they could be ranked #3, go out and
beat Iowa State by 50, and then drop to #6 will FOREVER blow my mind! They will
definitely come back with a vengeance.
PAC 12
This was byfar the hardest selection I had to make. I mean
USC, Oregon, UCLA, Stanford, and Arizona State all could make a case. I have my
questions with each team though. If I knew how Vernon Adams, the transfer from
Eastern Washington would transition, I would probably lean towards Oregon. With
that said, I am going to pick Arizona State. That’s definitely a pick that not
many people have so who cares if I’m wrong! With an elite offense and improving
defense, I could see them making a run!
SEC
And now for the SECOND best conference in the nation.
Honestly, I didn’t have a hard time making this pick. I’m going with Auburn.
Jeremy Johnson should quickly show the country how good he is and anytime you
have a Gus Malzahn offense to go along with a Will Muschamp defense, it’s hard
to go against it.
So that’s just a few preseason picks that I will probably
have to revisit in a month but for now, I’ll stand with that! So many questions
heading into the season and with kickoff just one week away, we will finally
get answers! Should be a hell of a year!
This has been “My
Take”
