Which of these teams will be the biggest surprise of 2008

[GoSooners]

Every year we get at least 1 or 2 teams who come out of nowhere to have a much better than expected season..Kansas was the team last year..They went from 6-6 the year before to post a 12-1 season and an Orange Bowl win...Who will be the team this year? The teams that I consider for surprise teams are the ones who won no more than 7 games or had a losing record the year before... My top 6 prospects this season are:

Alabama....They were 7-6 in 2007.. They have 13 starters returning including their senior QB. And 49 lettermen. And it will be Saban's second year. Will have 3 tough road games against Georgia and LSU and 7 home games. With one neutral site game vs Clemson.

Colorado....6-7 last season with 14 starters returning. 41 lettermen return. Made significant strides last season going from 2-10 in HC Hawkins first year to 6-6 before losing to Bama in the Independence Bowl. They have a very tough schedule that consists of FSU, Texas, Mizzou, West Va. and Kansas.

Maryland....6-7 last season with 13 starters back including 8 on offense..A team that endured an unbelievable amount of injuries last season, with many of these players coming off the injury list to play this season..46 lettermen return. They have a pretty favorable schedule, with only two tough road games against Clemson and Virginia Tech.


South Carolina....6-6 last season. 17 starters return including 10 on defense. And 54 lettermen return. With the exception of their last 2 games of the season at Clemson and Florida, this team has a very favorable schedule. And a legendary coach who is due for a big season..Will they have enough on offense this year? This is the big question.

Michigan State...7-6 last season with 13 starters back. 37 lettermen return. They'll have 3 tough road games that include California, Michigan and Penn State..Otherwise it isn't too bad of a schedule with 7 home games. Should improve in Dantonio's second year..But how much?

Notre Dame...3-9 last season. 16 starters and 37 lettermen return. Can Charlie Weis completely turn this program around? I've seen it happen before..But the question is just how good of a coach is Weis? Did he just lose too many players the year before to have any chance last season against a very tough schedule? Or is this guy a dud of a HC? Lot's of questions with this team..One thing we do know is their schedule isn't all that bad this season with only 2 tough road games at Michigan St. and USC..Otherwise the rest of their schdule looks very winnable. Can they go from 3-9 to 9-3 and a possible BCS game? I say it's at least a possibility.

 

[FairWarning]

Just between us, Mich St is a sleeper. But don't tell anyone.

 

[SoonerBS]

Just between us, Mich St is a sleeper. But don't tell anyone.

I think every year that Dantonio is head coach, MSU will have to be reckoned with. He has a knack for building his talent into a team that can compete and always be in the ballgame. He may not have the most talented team on the field whenever he enters a ballgame, but he will very likely have the most prepared team.

 

[GoSooners]

I think the key here could be schduling..Last year Kansas had an easy 4 game opening strech that was a nice confidence booster for them. I kind of like Maryland's early schedule..Two easy games followed by Cal. And then another easy game before they play Clemson..Beating Cal at home could really jumpstart their season.

 

[GoSooners]

....But on the other hand, Notre Dame's first two games at home are very winnable..SDSU should be an easy win..And then beating a rebuilding Michigan team will probably be perceived as a big win by the national media..It might be a false sense of security for the Irish, but it could give ND that added boost to also jumpstart their season..The next game at Michigan St. will be HUGE for both teams..It could determin which direction either of these teams go the rest of the season.

 

[MIMS]

....But on the other hand, Notre Dame's first two games at home are very winnable..SDSU should be an easy win..And then beating a rebuilding Michigan team will probably be perceived as a big win by the national media..It might be a false sense of security for the Irish, but it could give ND that added boost to also jumpstart their season..The next game at Michigan St. will be HUGE for both teams..It could determin which direction either of these teams go the rest of the season.

Michigan State should win handily

 

[TOOTIGHT]

It's between Maryland and MSU but if I have to choose one I think the Terps are in the best spot.

 

[GoSooners]

I probably should have put Pittsburgh on this list. They definitely qualify after having a 5-7 year and returning 15 starters, along with a managable schedule.....Unfortunatly Dave Wannstadt and Matt Cavanaugh also return.

 

[OTK]

I voted for Colorado. The only teams that I could be convinced will have "surprising" seasons are Colorado or Maryland, and possibly South Carolina. Alabama should be a very good team and so should teams like Notre Dame, and Michigan St. They might not have gotten tons of wins last year, but they had and still do have tons of talent.

 

[MRPOOPS]

Guys PITTSBURGH is suppose to be much much better this year.

They should be on the poll.

 

[GoSooners]

Guys PITTSBURGH is suppose to be much much better this year.

They should be on the poll.

Like I said, I probably should have put Pitt on the poll, because if they ever do anything constructive under Wanny it will truely be a surprise.

 

[SoonerBS]

Like I said, I probably should have put Pitt on the poll, because if they ever do anything constructive under Wanny it will truely be a surprise.

 

[Jetplane]

Jetplane says Bama creepin on a come up

 

[cashflow50]

mich st...dantonio coached team made me money last year. team come in prepared.

 

[Conan]

GoSooners,

Check your Blue Ribbon and tell me what you think about Cal this year. From all the talk (or lack of it) I think most everyone has written them off. We are going to hear the same mantra over and over again about their collapse in 2007. For that they've been condemned to a repeat of their 7th place conference performance.

True that their collapse has been a mystery to me but I think I'm finally beginning to understand what happened. In the Oregon St. game where Kevin Riley blew the play and tried running the ball with time running out, I have a clear image in my mind of Jeff Tedford slamming his clipboard to the ground. I never saw that side of him before. I'd hate to be someone sitting in the locker room afterwards and as the "play caller" in addition to HC, I'd hate to be the guy standing anywhere near him when someone made a mistake afterwards. Players take that kind of thing to heart, especially coming from a kind of storied HC as Jeff Tedford was at Cal.

My guess is that this attitude spread throughout the team. Players on his side vs. players who were not etc... fights breaking out in the clubhouse. ZERO morale and camaraderie ensued and after starting out whuppin Tennesseee and going 6-0 with a #2 ranking, a single play from being #1 in the country, they finished 2-6 and a 7th place finish in the Pac-10.

But guess what, they are reasonably in tact from being that #2 ranked team with most everyone returning except many of the skill players on offense and a few vacancies on the OL. (Their biggest weakness.) But they return 9 on defense and only need to settle the QB issue, find a couple of guys who can play catch, groom a couple of good safeties and I think they may be back in the hunt once again. They've switched over to a 3-4 defense because they are a little thin on the DL but rich in good LB's... so be it. But the final reason why I CAN'T just write them off is their easy schedule this year traveling only to USC to play the top P-10 contenders on the road in conference play.

They appear to be over the morale issue as something clicked in the 2nd half of their bowl game vs AF and they went on not only to win the game from being behind in the first half to covering the number too.

Tedford has removed himself from the "caustic" realities of play calling on the sidelines handing the job off to his OC. He's done his soul searching, so I'd watch out for these guys. They are going to get a generous number when they play their opener at Michigan and I'm on the Bears ASAP in that one. With ASU and UCLA garnering all this new attention, Tedford is no longer on the hot seat with high expectations. That's another advantage they have over last season. I think I'm right about this and if so, they may be one of the surprises in '08.

I'll probably copy most of this over to the P-10 thread when I get some time.

 

[GoSooners]

Conan...As a rule I don't rate teams very high who lost this many skill players on offense, and coming off a 7-6 year..As for the rest of the offense, I actually think the CAL offensive line will be okay..They have just enough experience on both side of center to where I think the chemistry will be good..Plus they have the best center in the nation back for his senior year..This is a HUGE plus for this line as far as leadership and confidence goes. Tedford is also going to have to pick a starting QB and stick with him. Once he does that, I don't think he'll have a problem at that position. The bigger questions will be how well his new WR's perform. Along with the RB position. It's a very tough call on offense. If these new skill players were highly touted coming out of highschool, and they have a fearless streak entering college, then they could end up being very good and surprise us all.. I've seen it happen before when a few years ago West Virginia had a bunch of diaper dandiies freshmen starters that played like they had been there before, and then topped the year off beating Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. But the difference is those WV freshmen were VHT players coming out of highschool. And nobody expected WV to do much that year. And they played in a weaker league. Surprises like this with young players don't happen very often. But we do get one or two teams every year that perform better than expected. CAL could possibly be one of those teams..With the emphasis on "possibly".

The CAL defense should be very good this season..I really don't see any big weaknesses on this unit. Their biggest problem in years before has been a lack of depth on the defensive line. They appear to have plenty of warm bodies to fill those positions this year..Plus they lose only 20 lettermen. So this team does look to have more positives on defense this season than they've had in recent years..The offense is the big question with this team..

A good friend of mine lives out in the Bay Area..He tells me year in and year out that CAL is the team to play when expectations are low..He said when they start making the headlines everyday in the sports and start getting rated too high in the polls, this is when they are going to break your heart. It seems to happen this way every year with CAL..The last time they beat USC was when they were flying under the radar. If we can get them to fly under the radar a little then I think we can get some good value out of this team.

I thought about putting CAL in as one of my surprise teams.They certainly qualified..But the fact that Phil Steele rated them so high (2nd) in the PAC-10, kind of made me ease off of them a little. It is a big surprise to me to see the Blue Ribbon rating them so low. Especially considering how well Tedford has recruited in the last few years, and the fact that CAL got at least as good or better overall grades than some of the teams picked above them..Kind of a head scratcher..It's becoming pretty obvious to me that the staff of Blue Ribbon puts more emphasis on returning skill players, and the staff at Phil Steele put more emphasis on things like turnover margin from last season, along with scheduling and a few other intangibles. They're all important in themselves..But should be taken as a whole..That's why I get both issues.

Something else about CAL from a betting persepctive: If the poll up above represents the general consensus of the public, then CAL's first game with Michigan St. will be interesting, seeing as how MSU has the lead in the poll as the most surprising team. Even though they're playing at home, we might be getting more value on CAL than expected.

 

[Conan]

GoSooners,

If all goes as expected, we should see a pretty good number in Michigan. Beating AF will be the last thing people will remember but put that with remembering CAL's collapse last season, I think the Spartans may even end up laying a point or 2 at home and if so I think CAL will win it outright.

I've read some pretty good things about their new WR's though they are untested of course. They still have Jahvid (the jet) Best who will add a particular type of absurd speed to their rushing game.

The QB issue doesn't worry me but I hope Longshore gets his head straight, and if he doesn't, Riley is pushing to take the job and he wins games. But you're right about the WR issue and a lot depends on that above everything else in terms of skill on offense. There will be plenty of experience at QB no matter what happens. I just can't imagine Riley with a weak offense. Remember he got Oregon off on the right foot offensively and consistently when he coached there.

I still see the CAL FB program as one of the better on the WC being that it's been groomed pretty well over the past few years. There's a lot of experience on the team and it only needs a few to step forward and fill some important shoes... specifically the WR's. So we'll see what develops.

I can see them slipping a notch from their star studded backfield and receiver corps and powerful offense in recent years, but not very much more than that. I like narrowing things down at this point so we know exactly what to watch for when fall camp starts. It's nice when you can count a team's problems to fix with the fingers on one hand and have a just finger or 2 left. It's a lot simpler to gauge a program when it works out that way.

Yes there's potential here... quite possibly.

 

[GoSooners]

GoSooners,

If all goes as expected, we should see a pretty good number in Michigan. Beating AF will be the last thing people will remember but put that with remembering CAL's collapse last season, I think the Spartans may even end up laying a point or 2 at home and if so I think CAL will win it outright.

Conan...I would be very surprised to see Michigan St. laying any points in this game..In fact I'll be surprised if Cal is any less than a 4 point favorite..And I expect the line to be closer to 5 or 6. Although Blue Ribbon didn't have a high opinion of CAL, some of the major football issues like Steele has them at 2nd and Lindy's has CAL in 4th place. And I haven't seen Michigan St. in any position lower than 6th in any of these issues..For the majority of the public betting, these are all they have to go by in the first game of the year. With CAL being the home team, it should be worth 3 points in the line. There's no doubt that MSU will be an improved team under Danantonio. CAL is still a question mark. Both teams will have something to prove..CAL after the second half season collapse..And MSU, who didn't beat one ranked team last year..That should change this season..Like the Tennessee game last year, this will be a hard game to cap..Maybe even harder since this won't be any kind of a revenge game for CAL. And CAL will have many more question marks on offense than they did with Tennessee. Or for the past few years under Tedford.. MSU will also be trying out some new players on offense..It will be interesting to see what kind of totals they make for this game..Anything in the mid 50's or over and I would have to consider taking the UNDER.

 

[Conan]

Oops... I thought I saw a @ in front of Michigan. Must have been thinking about their trip east to MD. That should also be an interesting one too.

I'd lay up to 5, maybe 6 here vs. the Spartans. HFA et. al. I think they'll be up to it and take this one fairly comfortably... but I'll hold off until I can see if anyone can catch the ball in August camp. They are nearly assured of having a QB that can help the young receivers out a lot... (unless it's Longshore, then all bets are off until I see him win a couple games first.)

 

[trentmoney]

Oops... I thought I saw a @ in front of Michigan. Must have been thinking about their trip east to MD. That should also be an interesting one too.

I'd lay up to 5, maybe 6 here vs. the Spartans. HFA et. al. I think they'll be up to it and take this one fairly comfortably... but I'll hold off until I can see if anyone can catch the ball in August camp. They are nearly assured of having a QB that can help the young receivers out a lot... (unless it's Longshore, then all bets are off until I see him win a couple games first.)

keep an eye out for wr boateng... he was a high recruit out of nyc for uf for both football and basketball... he played freshman year but transferred during his sophmore season and sat out last year... he's got tons of athletic ability but hasn't seen game action in 2 years