For the four months when there aren't any actual games to be played, college football pundits (and bloggers) occupy themselves crafting countless predictions for the upcoming season. Rarely is any prognosticator more prescient than a lever-pulling monkey, but, hey, that's part of why it's fun.
Now that we've reached the midpoint of the 2012 season, what is your most-cringeworthy preseason prediction – your one call that you wish you could have back?
Allen Kenney: Back in July, I gave my best bets for the over/under on season win totals. I actually think I did pretty well here, but check out No. 8. Damn.
Washington State currently sits at 2-5 on the season, with the Cougars' only wins coming in squeakers over Eastern Washington and UNLV. They somehow managed to lose to lowly Colorado in Pullman. To get to at least six wins as I predicted, Wazzu will have to win four of its remaining five games: at Stanford, at Utah, UCLA, at Arizona State, Washington.
If you're holding that ticket, you can go ahead and set it on fire. Terrible.
Brandon Cavanaugh: I played it pretty safe, to be honest.
I bought into Phil Steele's idea that Florida State may, in fact, have a national championship caliber team. Then they went all Florida State, so that one counts.
Kevin McGuire: I said multiple times Pittsburgh was going to be a team to keep a watchful eye on in the Big East before the season started. Then this and this happened, and I wished nobody had heard or read any of my previous thoughts on the Panthers. I should have stuck to what others were saying all along, which is that Louisville and Rutgers are the two best teams in the Big East. Pitt has also lost to Syracuse and Louisville and I am here to say today to the American people I was wrong, and I am open for your ridicule. I'll bet few will have blown a prediction quite of this magnitude.
Michael Felder: I honestly feel great about every single thing that came out of my mouth preseason. Even though I was wrong about Texas, it was a glorious wrong that was more about "won't" than "can't" and for that I still am right, even though they are totally doing it wrong; which isn't my fault.
If I have to take a hit, which I do under protest, I'll take the Texas hit. The Longhorns flat out stink, and I thought they'd have a shot at competing for a Big 12 Championship. Instead, their staunch refusal to either not tackle OR not teach tackling is horrifying to watch. Bryan Harsin and his dedication to an offense that just doesn't work is absolutely pathetic. Instead of balling their fists up and punching teams in the mouth, they want to go play cat and mouse, cute football and then wonder why they have 45-second, three-and-out drives.
Texas should have listened to me. Florida did and look at them now; curb-stomping opponents with fists of fury, not sitting around moping about getting their behinds whipped by Oklahoma.
Aaron Torres: Oh man, you guys are weak. Go big, or go home.
In my case, I went big… really big and called the Florida Gators "the most overrated team in college football." Now, halfway through their season, the Gators are undefeated, ranked No. 2 in the BCS standings and a real player for a national championship. Not to mention they also have the most impressive trio of wins of anyone in college football, with second-half comebacks at Texas A&M, at Tennessee and against LSU in the Swamp.
At this point, whether Florida wins or not Saturday against South Carolina is irrelevant. They're one of the great surprises of the entire 2012 college football season.
So, to Will Muschamp, I am sorry. To Brent Pease, I think you're in line for the Frank Broyles Award (as top assistant in college football). And to the Gators, well, make me proud, and get to Miami this January, will ya?
Michael Felder: You should be sorry. Florida's awesome. Playing manball.
Aaron Torres: The ironic thing of course, is that Florida's offensive coordinator, Mr. Brent Pease, comes from the same coaching tree as your boy Bryan Harsin.
Michael Felder: Harsin sucks and Pease is awesome. One guy is all filler. The other? All killer.
Andrew Coppens: Just like Aaron, I went big with one of my predictions and that was the SEC would be knocked off its perch as the best league from top to bottom. I was way off.
My argument stemmed from the fact that Florida looked like it would have trouble scoring points and that the top of the conference beats up on the rest of the league and a bunch of mediocre teams out of conference.
That last part is completely true, but the first part wasn't. Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, LSU and Mississippi State are all very good football teams. A team like Tennessee that's last in the SEC East would be a very competitive team in any other conference. Stupid me!
I'd also submit just about our whole staff's Heisman Trophy picks back in June. Only one name that was mentioned even has a legit shot right now and that's Geno Smith.
Finally, my bold prediction for the ACC was to watch out for Virginia. Ya, that ship has sailed after an 0-3 start to the season… Oops. Not exactly a stellar first season on the prediction front here at CBR for me.
But, in the words of the illustrious losers known as the Chicago Cubs, There's always next year, right?
