Tag Archives: 2012

2012-13 Gameday Season Preview (Review)

Over the weekend we saw the 2013-14 College Gameday Season Preview where Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard, and Chris Fowler give us bold predictions for the year.  I thought it would be great to review their show from LAST year to see just how things were hyped up and just how they ended up.  Enjoy.

Desmond Howard: 2-7
Biggest question mark in preseason top five: LSU
Louisville to win Big East (RIGHT)
FSU to win ACC (RIGHT)
OU to win Big 12 (WRONG)
Michigan to win Big 10 (shocking development) (also WRONG)
USC to win Pac 12 (WRONG)
LSU to win SEC (WRONG)
FSU over OU for National Championship (WRONG and WRONG)
Denard Robinson to win the Heisman (also incredibly shocking) (also incredibly WRONG)

Kirk Herbstreit: 2-7
Biggest question mark in preseason top five: USC
Pitt to win Big East (WRONG)
FSU to win ACC (RIGHT)
OU to win Big 12 (WRONG)
Michigan St to win Big 10 (WRONG)
USC to win Pac 12 (WRONG)
Bama to win SEC (RIGHT)
FSU over USC for National Championship (WRONG and WRONG)
Matt Barkley to win the Heisman (WRONG)

Lee Corso: 2-9
Biggest question mark in preseason top five: Bama
Bama to lose 2 games (WRONG)
Texas to make a BCS Bowl (WRONG)
Ohio St to win a national championship in 3 years (he said write it down!)
Louisville to win Big East (RIGHT)
FSU to win ACC (RIGHT)
OU to win Big 12 (WRONG)
Mich St to win Big 10 (WRONG)
USC to win Pac 12 (WRONG)
Georgia to win SEC (WRONG)
USC over OU for National Championship (WRONG and WRONG)
Landry Jones to win the Heisman (same for the third year in a row) (Still WRONG)

Jennifer’s Picks:
Pitt to win Big East (WRONG)
Clemson to win ACC (Dabo Swinney don’t give a crap about that) (WRONG)
WVU to win Big 12 (WRONG)
Mich St to win Big 10 (WRONG)
USC to win Pac 12 (WRONG)
LSU to win SEC (WRONG)
WVU to be a sleeper for national championship
USC over LSU for national championship (WRONG and WRONG)
Landry Jones for Heisman (WRONG)

For starters, the guys gave their biggest question in the preseason AP top 5. Herbie nailed it saying USC was his biggest question. Coming in at #1 in the preseason poll, they were incredibly overhyped, and finished a solid 7-6 as well as ending up unranked. Lee Corso had a slight mis-step here saying Bama was his biggest question mark. If I’m not mistaken, they did quite well. Desmond went with LSU, who had a solid season, but maybe not as great as everyone down there had hoped.

Random predictions were all over the place. Coach Corso picked Bama to lose two games, and they lost one. He thought Arkansas would lose to both Bama and LSU, and I guess he nailed that one. Washington State went 3-9, so he was right that they would miss a bowl game. Texas didn’t quite make it to that BCS bowl game that he hoped.

Herbie and Desmond both called for Arkansas to split games against Bama and LSU. Ooops.

As for the real season predictions, I’m just going to point out some of the more shocking predictions.  I’d like to remind everyone, that not only did nobody predict Bama would win the championship, and not only did nobody pick an SEC team to win the championship, but none of our boys even picked an SEC team to play for the national championship.  I bet they’d like a do-over on that one.  There was lots of love for FSU, OU and USC, and unfortunately they forgot that this wasn’t the year 2000.  They weren’t even in the ballpark with USC, but Des and Lee had Louisville winning the Big East which was nicely done.

If you would kindly indulge me for one moment, I would like to take this opportunity to kick Desmond Howard in the crotch briefly.  As the #1 Michigan homer on earth, he started off his trolling early last year by predicting Michigan to win the Big 10 and Denard Robinson to win the Heisman.  Take note of that, and let us move on.

Herbie called for Matt Barkley to win the Heisman, and with USC’s downfall he wasn’t even in the running.  Lee Corso picked Landry Jones for the third straight year to win the Heisman, and he once again did not win (apparently some kid from Texas A&M had a pretty good year).  So to wrap things up, basically nobody was even close when it came to the national championship, the Heisman trophy, or any conference that matters.  Jennifer also struggled as well, so she is ashamed, but let’s not focus on that.  She called for WVU to be a sleeper for the national championship, and for the first half of the season she was spot on.  So what I’ll be doing as a result is giving out participation awards to everyone involved, so Lee, Herbie, and Desmond (if you’re reading this, which I assume you are), keep an eye out in the mail for those certificates and ribbons.  Maybe this year will be a little bit better!

2012: Bowl Mania, Todd McShay and more!

Ladies and gentlemen, here is everything you came here to see.  Below you will find Todd McShay’s official bowl picks from the ESPN Bowl Mania special last night.  Along for the ride were Robert Smith and bowl expert Ed Cunningham who chimed in for some of the picks as well.  They do things by confidence points, so take note gamblers.  Ed Cunningham’s theme of the night was blindly picking the SEC over Big Ten in any matchup, while Robert Smith’s theme was shockingly high confidence one some big games that will likely be very close.  Todd McShay’s theme of the night was reminding everyone that he won the Bowl Mania contest between the three of them last year.  McShay didn’t have an official upset special, but his upset picks are pretty much towards the low confidence area for anyone who cares (and as a former Bowl Pick’em champion, I would say that the upsets are where you rack up the points).  Things will likely change before the kickoff of all of these games (they did last year), so if McShay, Smith or Cunningham change their minds, I will have them posted here.  Good luck bowling everyone.

McShay's bowl picks

McShay’s bowl picks

 

Todd McShay (ESPN Bowl Mania Special 12/9):
35. Okla St over Purdue
34. TTU over Minnesota
33. Utah St over Toledo
32. Oregon over KState
31. Fresno St over SMU
30. Stanford over Wisconsin
29. S.Carolina over Michigan
28. Vanderbilt over NC St
27. Florida over Louisville
26. FSU over NIU
25. Ark St over Kent St
24. SJSU over BGSU
23. Arizona over Nevada
22. Bama over Notre Dame
21. Lafayette over ECU
20. WVU over Syracuse
19. TAMU over OU
18. Georgia over Nebraska
17. Ole Miss over Pitt
16. USC over GaTech
15. Ariz St over Navy
14. LaMonroe over Ohio
13. Rice over AF
12. Boise St over Washington
11. LSU over Clemson
10. Baylor over UCLA
9. Ball St over UCF
8. WKU over C.Michigan
7. BYU over SDSU
6. TCU over Mich St
5. Iowa St over Tulsa
4. Oregon St over Texas
3. Rutgers over VaTech
2. Duke over Cinci
1. NW over Miss St

Robert Smith (ESPN Bowl Mania Special 12/9):
35. Georgia over Nebraska
34. Florida over Louisville
31. FSU over NIU
30. S.Carolina over Michigan
28. Stanford over Wisconsin
27. TCU over Mich St
26. LSU over Clemson
25. Bama over Notre Dame
20. TAMU over OU
16. Oregon over KState
8. USC over GaTech
6. Baylor over UCLA
3. NW over Miss ST

Ed Cunningham: (ESPN Bowl Mania special 12/9):
35. Oregon over KState
33. Florida over Louisville
30. FSU over NIU
14. UCLA over Baylor
12. Mich St over TCU
10. S.Carolina over Michigan
9. Bama over Notre Dame
7. GaTech over USC
3. Miss St over NW
2. Georgia over Nebraska
1. Stanford over Wisconsin

2012 Bowl Season: First picks are in!

The first bowl picks for 2012-13 are slowly starting to come in.  Later tonight we I will have a full recap posted of Todd McShay’s big board of bowl picks, and updates will come throughout the week as others like Pat Forde post their full slate of picks.  For each pick, I’ll also add when and where I saw it, that way if somebody changes their mind on a pick three weeks from now, you will know which one is going in the official record.

David Pollack:
Oregon St over Texas (Twitter 12/5)

Ivan Maisel:
Oregon over KState (espn.com preview 12/4)
LSU over Clemson (espn.com preview 12/4)
FSU over NIU (espn.com preview 12/4)

Jesse Palmer:
FSU over NIU (CFB Live 12/3)

Lou Holtz:
Notre Dame over Bama (Final Verdict 12/3)

Mark May:
Bama over Notre Dame (Final Verdict 12/3)

Mark Schlabach:
Oregon over KState (espn.com preview 12/4)
LSU over Clemson (espn.com preview 12/4)
FSU over NIU (espn.com preview 12/4)

Matt Stinchcomb:
Notre Dame over Bama (Final Verdict 12/3)

Mike Bellotti:
Bama over Notre Dame (Final Verdict 12/3)
Oregon St over Texas (The Experts 12/4)
Florida over Louisville (The Experts 12/4)