Looking back at my Preseason Top 25: Disappointments

I continue on with my look back at a number of teams I had pegged to see a good chunk of success this year. Only to see them crash and burn...

Missouri by and large had a pretty successful year, winning the Big 12 North and facing the Sooners for the Big 12 Title with their 9-3 record. It looks a bit worse on me though when I had picked them to go 12-0 and wind up in the National Title Game.

Ouch.

When writing my preseason Poll, there was a little voice in my head that told me that the Tigers didn’t have enough playmakers on defense to make it through unbeaten in the Big 12. That voice also raised the point of whether the Tigers would be good enough to knock off a rolling Oklahoma or Texas.

Well I told that voice to F off, and greedily whored my number one spot to the Tigers. Now, I feel so used. I’m sorry voice, I should have listened.

Clemson might be up for the biggest disappointment of the year award, disappointing nearly everyone and their mothers. The Tigers finished with a decent 7-5 record, but it’s a far cry from the Top 10 rankings that pundits had attached to the presumed ACC champions. The season was a nightmare from the getgo, after getting throttled by Alabama in the season opener, the Tigers lost 4 of 5 from October to mid-November, which led to the dismissal of head coach Tommy Bowden. Yours Truly had the Tigers pegged 7th and thought this would be the year that Bowden would finally take Clemson to a BCS Bowl with their 11-1 record. Whoops.

There appears to be a theme with Tigers and disappointment. The Auburn Tigers outdid Clemson in that department, going 5-7 on the season in Tommy Tuberville’s worst season since taking over the Auburn team in 1999. Tuberville was also dismissed or quit (a lot of he said, she said with this) at the end of the season, after falling completely short of challenging for the SEC West Title as some had predicted prior to the season.


Another dishonorable mention for SEC-powerhouse-that-stumbles-after-high-preseason-expectations is Tennessee. While the Volunteers weren’t necessarily favorites to win the SEC East, none would have predicted that Tenn would see a 5-7 record with losses to lowly Wyoming and UCLA. Another SEC coach bit the dust with longtime coach Phil Fulmer resigning at the end of the season to pave the way for new coach Lane Kiffin. Have fun with that one Lane. (I actually think he will.)

(Not so much of this this year)

I also thought that West Virginia would handle the loss of its head coach Rich Rodriguez to Michigan a bit better than they did. I had predicted the Mountaineers would edge out South Florida in the Big East race and go on to another BCS Bowl bid as dark horse national title contenders. The Mountaineers would instead stumble early and late in the season to go 8-4, and watch Cincinnati go on to represent the Big East in the Orange Bowl.

Alrite, stay tuned in the next day or so as I finish off this feature with the teams I was pretty much on the money with. Can't wait.