Holy shit! College football kicks off the 2011 season tomorrow. But, you already knew that. I did, too. But damn, somehow it snuck up on me. Even though I’ve been reading about fall practices, team projections, and various prognostications for weeks now, I feel like the last week just blipped away and now, here we are, one day away.
Maybe it’s because I cancelled cable over the offseason. After the Super Bowl, I dropped all television until just this past weekend. Consequently, I haven’t had to deal with, well, ESPN’s cavalcade of personalities spouting off every five seconds. It really did help me deal more objectively with all of the scandals over the offseason, having to read long-form articles to get the scoop. It didn’t diminish the impact of Oregon’s WIllie Lyle’s boondoggle (what happened to that, anyway?) or Tressel-gate or the latest Miami scandal (again? yawn…), but it did turn down the high beams enough for me to be able to take it all in.
What did I learn? It was a shitty time for college football. And it ain’t gonna get cleaned up anytime soon. We’re going to be dealing with this and feeling the repercussions for years to come. But it really made me crave the season even more. The way that, if you’re having a really shitty week at work, it feels good to sit down on Friday evening, crack open a beer and forget everything that happened, knowing full well that you’ll have to deal with it sooner or later, just not now.
So here we are, one day away from our very, very, very welcome distraction. Now, to take a deeper look at what to expect from the season at hand with some lists!
Unranked Teams That Will Finish in the Top 25
- Houston
- San Diego State
- Maryland
- Michigan
- Cincinnati
Ranked Teams That Will Finish Unranked
- Virginia Tech
- Missouri
- Texas A&M
- Ohio State
- Stanford
Breakout Freshmen
- Aaron Lynch, DE, Notre Dame
- Jadaveon Clowney, DE, South Carolina
- Jamal Turner, WR, Nebraska
- De’Anthony Thomas, RB/WR, Oregon
- Malcolm Brown, RB, Texas
Breakout Upperclassmen
- Lavasier Tuinei, WR, Oregon
- Brock Osweiler, QB, Arizona State
- Ryan McCants, RB, Oregon State
- James Vandenberg, QB, Iowa
- Brandon Lindsey, LB, Pitt
End-of-Year Top Five
- Oklahoma
- Wisconsin
- Oregon
- West Virginia
- Boise State
