Looking back at my Preseason Top 25: Sleepers

It’s been another crazy year in college football, although we certainly had fewer wild upsets as we did in some years prior. There were plenty of surprises that virtually no one saw coming, both in ways disappointing and wildly exciting for those involved teams and their respective fan bases.

Back in August I put my proverbial ballot in for my preseason Top 25. Keep in mind, my list was a prediction of how I thought teams would finish the regular season, and where they’d be slotted.
You can check out the list here.

Over the next few days I’ll go over my hits and my misses. The picks I kind of got right, and the ones I nailed. It takes a real man to look back at one’s mistakes and own up to them. And I’m all man, baby.

Today, I’ll start with the sleepers. I’ll look at those I didn’t include in my Top 25, despite numerous other “experts” pegging as one of the top teams in the nation. I’ll also look at the teams I didn’t even include in my poll, and watched on in shock as they proceeded to kick ass and take names.

Glad I Didn’t Pick Em (Didn’t Drink any Hype Kool-Aid)
Prior to the beginning of the season, I found myself shocked at some of the schools that were appearing in some preseason polls. The so-called “experts” spouted reasons sane college fans should believe these schools were contenders for conference titles, when I didn’t even think these schools would finish ranked.

When talking about teams I knew weren’t deserving of the preseason hype, you have to start with the Arizona State Sun Devils. Dennis Erickson was hailed as ASU’s savior after leading his team to a 10-3 2008 record, and the Sun Devils were the near unanimous choice by preseason polls to finish second in the Pac-10 and challenge USC for the top spot.

The Sun Devils weren’t even in the freaking ball park. They weren’t even on the same street. ASU finished 5-7 on the season, marked by a mid-season 6 game losing streak sparked by lowly UNLV.

It appeared that the pundits had forgotten that an offensive line that had given up 55 sacks the year prior was suddenly going to improve, or discover a running game. Or that ASU’s schedule last year was largely inflated by the benefit of playing most of the conference’s top teams at home, and having its toughest non-conference team being Colorado.

Looking at ASU’s schedule early on, I thought it was very well possible the Sun Devils could finish 6-6 on the season, with their brutal mid-game stretch. No way ASU was finishing ranked. Didn’t expect ASU to one up me with their 5-7 however.

("This is how many wins we'll have by Week 12.")

Many thought Kansas might come close to matching their breakthrough 2007 campaign and challenge Missouri for the Big 12 North title. No way Jose. Like Arizona State, Kansas benefitted from a soft schedule last year, and would see major struggles against some typical Big 12 powerhouses they didn’t have to face last season. The Jayhawks managed to go 7-5 on the season and have settled a bit back into reality. At least Coach Mangino has created a winning culture at the once laughable Kansas program.

Oh and Michigan. Yes Michigan. Believe it or not, some preseason polls had Michigan in the top 25. This despite a new coach installing a completely different offensive system, with a new coaching staff, and losing a plethora of talent particularly on offense (Jake Long, Chad Henne, Mike Hart, etc..) to the NFL. I didn’t think Michigan would be ranked by season’s end, but I didn’t think it would be as bad as it turn out to be.

The same can be said about Notre Dame. Some predicted that Notre Dame would have a major bounce back season, and perhaps even slide into a January Bowl game. Uh huh. Weis and the Domers will take their 6-6 record and see if they can end their bowl losing streak to Hawaii on their Turf in the Hawaii Bowl.


Should Have Picked ‘Em (Sleepers I Slept On)
Boise State. You got to hand it Chris Peterson. The guy leads his team two undefeated seasons in the last three years. I don’t care what conference you’re in, that’s impressive. And normally, that would have been good enough for an at-large BCS Bowl bid, had it not been for an equally impressive undefeated season for Utah. Peterson has establish Boise State as one of the premier non-BCS conference squads, and one that most BCS teams would steer clear of playing out pure fear.

Similar things can be said about Utah and TCU, as well as their respective coaches. The Mountain West as a whole stepped up its game big time has seated itself squarely as the strongest non-BCS conference out there. The voters have been most impressed with Utah, prompting its at-large bid, but I for one would have gone with the Broncos who have looked like the year’s strongest non-BCS team.

Most had presumed Alabama would have challenged for an SEC title by 2009 or 2010. I mean, it was just a matter of time with the way Nick Saban had been recruiting, bringing in the nation’s top class last year. Few, if any though, thought they would be ready to do so this year. Alabama became the talk of college football town by remaining perched at the top spot in the rankings, going undefeated through the regular season before falling short of the national championship game by falling to Florida in the SEC Title Game. It’s got to be a bitter taste for ‘Bama fans, but at least encouraging that Saban will have this team in consideration for the national title a few years sooner than anyone had hoped.

I don’t think anyone thought Ball St. would roll through their schedule the way they did. And I don’t think any had predicted anyone would actually care. But Ball St. looked to turn in a Cinderella (ella-ella-ey-ey) performance by going undefeated through the regular season. Their season ended on a bit of sour note however, with the Cardinals turning down a Humanitarian Bowl bid which would have matched up them with another unbeaten in Boise St., and losing the Mid-American Championship Game to Buffalo (don’t even get me started on them).

Brian Kelly’s Cincinatti team was also a bit of surprise, but I’m not going to make as big of a fuss over their Big East title as I think it was more of an indication of how disappointing West Virginia and South Florida were this year. Still credit has to be given.

Finally, who would have thought that Ole Miss would have go 8-4, be ranked and end up being the second best team in the SEC West this year? I sure didn’t. But the Rebels inched out enough upsets (over Florida and LSU) and showed enough consistency to prove the nay sayers wrong.