Wasn’t able to put down many of my thoughts on the season, though I did put some things up on Twitter. Ultimately, I expect something looking like this:
ACC Atlantic:
Florida State
Boston College
Clemson
NC State
Wake Forest
Maryland
ACC Coastal:
Miami
UNC (if they get the majority of their suspended players back; otherwise GaTech is here and UNC is 3rd)
Georgia Tech
Virginia Tech (perhaps the most overrated team in the country coming into the year; similar personnel problems to what FSU had last year on defense)
Duke
Virginia (has a legitimate chance to beat Virginia Tech this year)
Championship: FSU over Miami
SEC East
Georgia (I now disagree with my pre-season pick)
Florida (I still like Brantley a lot, but Florida is now likely to be 3rd in their division)
South Carolina (I now think SC will win the SEC East—yes, they break through this year; I had Florida winning it pre-season, but after watching week 1, I think it’s the ‘Cocks)
Kentucky
Tennessee
Vanderbilt
SEC West
Alabama
Auburn
Arkansas
LSU (another highly overrated team that was fortunate to play a decimated UNC team in week 1)
Mississippi State
Mississippi
Championship: Alabama over South Carolina
First week of picks for the year:
ACC:
Ohio St. 27, Miami 20 (this is a game that could definitely go either way, and I see Prior really struggling to throw the football here, but OSU comes out on top)
Florida State 34, Oklahoma 24
Virginia Tech 49, James Madison 14
Ga Tech 42, Kansas 13
USC 35, Virginia 24
Wake 38, Duke 34
Clemson 70, Presbyterian 10
Maryland 30, Morgan St. 3
NC State 35, UCF 31
SEC:
South Carolina 28, Georgia 24 (would pick Georgia with A.J. Green)
Alabama 34, Penn St. 13
Oregon 38, Tenn 20
Florida 27, USF 17
Arkansas 52, LMU 17
LSU 31, Vandy 14
Kentucky 41, Western Kentucky 20
Mississippi 66, Tulane 20
Other Top-25 and Notables
TCU 56, TTU 6
Texas 60, Wyoming 13
Nebraska 38, Idaho 3
Iowa 41, Iowa State 17
Wisconsin 37, SJSU 21
Utah 38, UNLV 31
Stanford 34, UCLA 28
Notre Dame 38, Michigan 31 (ultimately Michigan’s lack of depth in the secondary costs them)
