How my predictions did, short Super Bowl preview, and a few other things

College football is pretty much done for the season (kind of…I will explain this towards the end of the post).  The NFL is almost done for the season.  I have made the decision to not do as many mock drafts this year.  I will do at least one, just before the draft but that may end up being all.  I have no idea when the CFL will begin.  If they are planning a 2021 season then it will begin in late May.  It would be nice to have a season after not having one in 2020.

But let’s get to the main crux of this post: how good or bad my predictions were.  I always assume I did bad so when I do good, I feel good.  Set the bar low and you will always leap over it.  I should be a motivational speaker (a la Matt Foley).  Alright let’s get on with this:

College Football Playoff and New Year’s Six

• I don’t even know if I need to go through this since I did it before the Big Ten and Pac-12 even decided to play:
  • Clemson – Picked them #1 and they ended up #2 and avenged a regular season Trevor Lawrence-less loss against Notre Dame in the ACC Championship.  One for one.
  • Alabama – I figured this was a no-brainer.  I will say I was a bit surprised at how dominant they were though as they rolled to #1 and the national championship.
  • Oklahoma – I had them #3.  Unfortunately the Big XII was trash so the Sooners fell just outside of the Top 4.  And by just outside, I mean WAY outside (even though they were still Top 10).
  • Texas A&M – If the Irish hadn’t beat Clemson earlier in the year, Jimbo would finally get his chance to win the big one in College Station.  #5 ain’t bad, right?
• How about my New Year’s Six picks? Not as good.  But I am taking a pass here.  Having two conferences not in my predictions made it near impossible to match what actually happened.  Saying that, I REALLY whiffed on LSU.  I figured they wouldn’t be as good as last season but that was quite the drop.
• Let’s see, I had Cincinnati ranked….#25.  Damn.  I thought App State would run the table and finally get to a New Year’s Six bowl.  Instead, Coastal Carolina took the conference, and the college football viewing public, on a ride that few will forget.
• I had BYU, Georgia and Virginia Tech being just on the outside of the NY6 looking in but playing in good bowls. BYU was awesome all season, Georgia was also really good despite not winning the SEC East and VaTech wasn’t that bad (but not nearly as good as I thought they would be).  So I did well with these three picks.

Heisman Trophy

• I had Trevor Lawrence and Justin Fields as my #1 and #2.  Hey at least they were in the Top 10 at the end.
• I didn’t have DeVonta Smith on my list.  I had put his teammate, Najee Harris on the list, and he ended up as a finalist.  I have a feeling a lot of experts didn’t have Smith on their list so this non-expert feels just fine.
• My picks were mostly OK but I missed BADLY on some.  I mean Bo Nix at #8?  Myles Brennan and Adrian Martinez in the Honourable Mention section?  Sweet Jesus.  Brutal.  Nothing more to say here.

Just A Bunch of Predictions

Normally I would split the good and the bad and the hot seat stuff into separate sections.  I’m not going to bother here

• So many in the media said the Ivy League cancelling Fall sports would be the catalyst for FBS being entirely cancelled.  Guys like Dan Wolken.  It’s amazing who keeps employed in this day and age but we have all seen sports media go to shit so it’s not surprising.
• I couldn’t figure out which conferences were starting their schedules or when and at one point I had the MAC and Mountain West completely opting out and playing in the Spring.  What a gongshow.
• I have said a few times that the Spring season will not happen.  And now it is starting to look more and more like I will be correct.  As of this point, I believe about 15% of the FCS schools have opted out with a few weeks still to before the season begins.
• I figured Texas A&M would lose two games and they would be close and I was bang on.
• Normally the guys in the Doubtful Shitcanning section of my Coaching Hot Seat list do well.  Let’s see how that went this season.  Dino Babers and Syracuse were awful.  Matt Viator was fired and then Tom Herman was also fired at Texas.  So yeah, not a good time for that list.
• I should apologize to Philip Montgomery though.  Man was Tulsa fun to watch this season and came very close to upsetting Cincinnati in the AAC Championship and putting Coastal Carolina in the New Year’s Six.  I thought Tulsa would win one game.  Yikes.
• I said you would see a lot more Sun Belt football on television this year.  I was right.  Which is good because you got to see a lot of Coastal Carolina.  That’s a good thing.
• One more Coastal Carolina point.  I don’t know if there has been a bigger surprise in college football in a long time.  Jamey Chadwell deserved every accolade he got (and some he didn’t get).  If they repeat this next year, look for another conference to take a closer look at the team from Myrtle Beach (OK they are in Conway, but close enough).
• Somehow, no one picked up Billy Napier to coach at a bigger school.  I am a bit surprised.  But Louisiana is very happy he is staying for at least one more season since the Ragin’ Cajuns have become one of the new standards of the Sun Belt (and the Group of Five to a lesser extent).
• Marshall.  An amazingly hot start that went to shit during their last three games.  And it cost Doc Holliday his job.  They are now hoping another coach from the Nick Saban coaching tree can put this program over the hump.
• I should have gone all-in with Oklahoma in the Big XII.  Yes, Sooner fans.  At least plan out your trip to JerryWorld in December every year for the next few.  Nothing is going to change.
• Can anyone win at Kansas?  I am hoping that I am right that next year is the year that Les Miles can pull them out of the basement but I’m not so sure.
• Notre Dame almost won a conference in their first try!  Good for them.   I guess the ACC doesn’t like that so Notre Dame will not be in a conference again starting in 2021.  Poor Irish.
• I had the top 4 in the ACC correct.  NC State did well as the fifth best team in the conference so I missed on them.  But beyond that?  Ugh.  Again, I fell for the Florida State Koolaid.  Damn it.
• Nice to see BYU do so well.  That game against Coastal Carolina was a fun contest that was set up TWO DAYS IN ADVANCE.  See college football?  It can be done.
• Full disclosure: Liberty did WAY better than I ever thought they could have.  But I think that happened to most people, including Liberty fans.
• I almost nailed the American conference except for Tulsa, which I mentioned above.  Had Navy improving, Tulane getting a bit better, Temple struggling, and USF not being good.  I’ll give myself a pat on the bat and a wee bit of scotch.

I had no predictions for the Big Ten and the Pac-12 because they are stupid and started late and thought everyone would follow them.  Same with the MAC and Mountain West.  God, I hope we don’t have to deal with this again.  So yeah, the amount of predictions that I am looking at is a rather short list but there’s not a whole lot I can do.  Also, I am not even going to bother doing a Stassen score since I didn’t have a full set of predictions.

Am I going to even gauge how well I did?  No.  No point.  It was a mess this season.  Let’s forget about 2020.  I know I am trying to.  Now, we are 211 days away from the 2021 FBS season beginning.  Maybe I should try and improve my life in that time.  We’ll see.

The Pro Bowl would have been this Sunday but somehow we have received some luck and it won’t happen.  The Pro Bowl fucking blows.  I don’t understand why it continues like it does now.  Make it completely different or just abolish it already.  Anyway, there will be some weird Pro Bowl Celebration show airing on ABC, TSN1 and TSN5.  It starts at 3.  Who knows what it is.  I doubt I will watch it.

As for the Super Bowl itself, we have Tampa Bay and Kansas City.  I was hoping for Buffalo but they had a great season nonetheless.  The game will air on CBS, CTV, and TSN 1, 4, and 5 on February 7th.  Right now, KC is the 3 point favourites.  That could (and probably will) change between now and game time).  I am not going into a huge preview.  Instead I will just give my prediction.

Chiefs 35 Bucs 23.

I believe Mahomes and the Chiefs’ offensive weapons will be too much for Tampa’s defense.  The game should be close into the second half but I see KC pulling away, giving the Chiefs their second straight Super Bowl win.  So even though the Buccaneers are the first team ever to play the Super Bowl at their home stadium, I think we will have to wait at least another season before a team wins a Super Bowl at their home stadium.

Alright what do we have to look forward to:

• How my NFL predictions panned out.  I already took a look.  Not good.
• Spring football schedAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.   No.  I can’t see us getting any of those spring games up here and really, I don’t care.  And I don’t mean the normal Spring Games that most of the programs have.  I’m talking about quite a bit of the FCS (and New Mexico State) playing Spring football.  I wouldn’t be surprised if most of it got shut down to be honest with you.
• Conference tournament schedule leading up to March Madness.  This could be very interesting because we know March Madness is different this year.  Will the conference tournaments be different?  I’d be surprised if they weren’t.
• Then a pretty big break until the NFL Draft.  I will have a mock draft close to draft time.  I may have one earlier than that but at this point I haven’t determined if I will do that or not.  If you want mock drafts, there are plenty out there.  My favourite is from the site WalterFootball.com.  A lot of great analysis there.

So not much coming up over the next three months.  As per usual.  Remember, the Senior Bowl and Polynesian Bowl college all-star games are still scheduled for this Saturday.  UPDATE: The Polynesian Bowl will not be shown on Saturday on CBS Sports Network.  However, the Hula Bowl, another college all-star game, will be shown on CBS Sports Network.  This game will be at 9:30 on Sunday.  Then that’s it, that’s all for college football for the 2020 season (kind of…I don’t really count the spring schedule as the 2020 season).  Have a great weekend everyone!