Who the hell is this guy? Don't worry, you'll know by season's end. He's number 44 on the list.
Remember when you were a little kid, and you made those Christmas lists that only had about 100 items on them? And, unless you were Sam Walton’s kid, you knew you could really only hope for a smaller amount. That’s what this is, in a way.
Of course, I would have left Kathy Ireland off of my letters to Santa if I were making Christmas morning predictions. Probably would have just gone with a Dino Riders toy. So, this isn’t exactly the same, but there are similarities.
Do I think all 100 of these projections will come true? Yes, actually I do. But I’m smart enough to know that getting lucky on about half of them would be pretty amazing. But where’s the fun in hedging your bets? It’s way too early to be thinking about specifics when it comes to college football, but hey, I made my Christmas wish-lists in June too. So here they are, numbers 1-50, in no particular order, of the 100 events that will transpire during the course of the 2009 NCAA football season. Part two will be out tomorrow, but I think 50 should tide you over for now.
1.) Tim Tebow will become the second two-time Heisman winner in the history of the sport.
2.) Lane Kiffin’s Tennessee Volunteers will win one game they shouldn’t and lose two they shouldn’t.
3.) Kentucky will keep their streak of consecutive bowl wins alive by winning their fourth straight.
4.) North Carolina Quarterback TJ Yates will win the ACC’s Offensive Player of the Year Award.
5.) Virginia Tech will win their third straight ACC Title Game.
6.) The ACC will win another BCS Bowl when they get matched up with another Big East Team.
7.) That Big East team will be South Florida. The Bulls are going to the BCS this year. Mark it down.
8.) Cal will surprise in the Pac 10 by finally beating USC, but it won’t matter since they’ll drop two other conference games that they shouldn’t.
9.) For the first time in BCS history, a one-loss mid-major will crash the party. TCU will drop one of their early road games. BYU and Utah will suffer a conference loss. And ECU won’t be able to pull the upsets at the beginning of the season, though they will be much more consistent down the stretch. One of those teams will be playing on FOX in January.
10.) LSU’s defense will once again be in the top 20 in the nation in every major category. John Chavis had some great talent at Tennessee, but even he has never had skill like this to work with.
11.) Georgia will surprise everyone by winning 10 games, even though they’ve done it 6 of the last seven seasons.
12.) One of the games they’ll steal will be the opener at Oklahoma State.
13.) Todd Reesing will be everyone’s trendy pick to head to New York after the month of September, which could see him toss 20 TDs.
14.) Penn State will win the Big Ten by holding opposing offenses to less than 20 ppg in conference play.
15.) USC will play in yet another Rose Bowl, but the Pac 10 will finally have two teams in the BCS for only the second time.
16.) Cincinnati will take a big step back despite Tony Pike’s return at QB.
17.) Everyone will know who SydQuan Thompson is after he leads the NCAA in interceptions. He plays corner for Cal.
18.) Eric Berry will be the first defensive player to be mentioned as a legit Heisman contender in quite some time, but he still won’t come close to winning the award.
19.) Nearly every NFL Draft analyst, at some point this season, will be forced to utter the phrase, “Maybe Tim Tebow can be a successful NFL quarterback,” after Tebow impresses in his new pro-style sets.
20.) Steve Spurrier will yell at someone on the sidelines and throw his visor.
21.) Pete Carrol will pull some elaborate prank on his team that won’t be quite as funny to anyone outside the program as it is to his players.
22.) Aaron Murray will replace Joe Cox in Georgia’s starting lineup at some point.
23.) West Virginia will give serious consideration to firing Bill Stewart now that Pat White is gone and the offense will struggle like it hasn’t in years.
24.) Auburn’s offense will struggle early on, but Todd Graham will be given the time to install his system, and the Tigers will be a posh pick for the 2010 Top Ten.
25.) Colorado will be one of the most underrated teams in the country, and will have a chance to win the Big 12 North in November. Unfortunately, they’ll come up short.
26.) Colt McCoy will be the best two-time Heisman runner up in college football history.
27.) Texas will once again beat Oklahoma, and this time they’ll actually get to play in the Conference Title Game. Which they’ll win on their way to Pasadena.
28.) Where they’ll lose to Florida.
29.) Ole Miss ATH Dexter McCluster will be compared to Percy Harvin about 100 times. And he’ll be worthy of the comparison.
30.) Steve Sarkisian and Washinton will make a bigger splash in his first year than Rick Neuheisel and UCLA will make in their second year.
31.) Jake Locker will thrive under Sarkisian’s tutelage.
32.) Utah will once again have a great defense, but losing Brian Johnson will hurt this team too much to make another BCS run.
33.) Dan LeFevour will have a season that once again fails to live up the standard he set as a sophomore.
34.) Buffalo’s Turner Gill will accept a coaching opportunity at a BCS school.
35.) Florida Defensive Coordinator Charlie Strong will also be hired as a head coach.
36.) Clemson will find out that Dabo Swinney was better suited as a coordinator. In the same way West Virginia is beginning to see the same about Bill Stewart.
37.) Michigan will return to a bowl game. Before January.
38.) A major event/proposal/strongly-worded letter will have us closer to a playoff by the end of this season than anyone is currently expecting.
39.) Pat Devlin will have a big season at Delaware, causing knee-jerk comparisons to Joe Flacco, which won’t be warranted.
40.) LSU will lead the SEC in rushing offense, barely edging out Florida.
41.) Georgia Tech will grumble about Paul Johnson when he’s unable to match last year’s success.
42.) Texas fans will send me lots of hate mail for picking Tim Tebow to win the Heisman over Colt McCoy. Bring it on.
43.) Greg Paulus will be replaced as the starting quarterback for Syracuse at some point during the season.
44.) Louisville RB Victor Anderson will become a household name, and the Cardinals will get back to a bowl game.
45.) Terrelle Pryor will catch at least one TD pass.
46.) Aaron Corp will hold off Matt Barkley and remain the starter at quarterback for USC all season long.
47.) Notre Dame will be back in the BCS, deserved or not. Their schedule is good for 10 wins.
48.) Florida State’s Bobby Bowden will retire.
49.) Texas’s Mack Brown will not. Though he’ll seriously consider handing the reins to Will Muschamp after a title game loss.
50.) Alabama’s Greg McElroy will throw for more touchdowns than John Parker Wilson did last year.
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