Three thousand years of beautiful tradition, from Moses to Sandy Koufax

The 2008 College Football season is almost upon us, and it looks to be a great year of football. While I’m not much of a prognosticator, I figured I’d take a stab at making some predictions for the upcoming year. First off are my ACC predictions. I’ve included the predicted finish in each division in reverse order, along with projected W/L records (ACC first, then overall).

Atlantic Division
6. Maryland – (2-6, 6-6). I can’t figure out the Terps. This year could be 8-4, or 4-8. Their biggest obstacle is that they’re stuck in the tougher ACC division this year, and have to play the 2 best teams from the Coastal (VT and UNC). A losing season will probably see Freidgen on his way out.
5. Boston College – (2-6, 6-6). Perhaps this is a bit low for a team that won the division last year, but the Eagles lost a lot of talent (including that jerk Matt Ryan), and their schedule doesn’t help them. Their “swing” games are almost all on the road, and I just don’t see them doing well. Of course, I said the same thing last year.
4. NC State – (3-5, 5-7). The team from Raleigh will be very good again soon, but not this year. Tom O’Brien has shaped up the club, but there’s still some growing pains to get to the next level. (In reality, I have no idea if NC State will be any good, so let’s just put them middle of the road.)
3. Wake Forest – (4-4, 8-4). How could I put Wake at only .500 in the division? I don’t know, to be honest. It could be the fact that I just can’t get over decades of mediocre football from the Demon Deacons to see the talent they have on the field – talent that is probably in the top 5 in the entire conference. I think they’ll lose a couple close road games to Miami and NC State, as well as losses to FSU and Clemson. But I wouldn’t be surprised to see them near the top at the end either.
2. Clemson – (7-1, 10-2). Clemson is most people’s pick to win the conference this year, and I can see why when you look at their talent. However, I look past that and see Tommy Bowden playing Florida St. in Tallahassee this year, in what could be Bobby Bowden’s last game against his son. And I think the old geezer has a trick up his sleeve to pull out the win. Unfortunately that one game will be the Tiger’s downfall.
1. Florida St. – (8-0, 11-1). Wow – I just picked Florida St. to go undefeated in the conference, and undefeated all year until their final game against Florida. Again, looking at the talent this team has, I have a hard time coming up with losses. Their toughest games are Wake (home), VT (home), and Clemson (home). I wouldn’t be surprised for the Seminoles to break out of their sleep walking from the past few years and put together a great season. And that hurts to say.

Coastal Division
6. Duke – (1-7, 3-9). Duke could be the surprise team this year; in fact, I could see them even jumping UVa for 5th place. New coach David Cutcliffe has the pedigree to turn the Blue Devils into a winner, but right now he just doesn’t have the players to do it. As a wise man once said: You can’t make chicken salad out of chicken shit.
5. Virginia – (2-6, 4-8). After having a great year last year (and only 1 game away from going to the ACC championship), UVa will fall off dramitcally in 2008. Why? Because I said so! Considering last year they won 5 games by 2 points or less, it’s not hard to say they overreached their grasp in 2007 – and they lost a lot of talent from that team to the NFL. Mark Sept. 27 on your calendar, when Virginia visits Duke in Durham. A loss there could really send this team down the rabbit hole.
4. Georgia Tech – (3-5, 5-7). New coach Paul Johnson will be instituting his triple option threat that he brings with him from Navy. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem that his predecessor left many players suited to that system in Atlanta. This will be a transition year, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the Yellow Jackets pulled off a couple upsets during the year. (Hopefully not on 9/13 when Sage and I will be in Lane Stadium!)
3. Miami – (4-4, 6-6). I can’t figure out Miami. Talent? Oh yes, they have the talent. Then how could they have lost 48-0 to Virginia last year in the Orange Bowl’s final game? Astounding to me. Who knows how this team will end up this year, so I went straight down the middle.
2. North Carolina – (5-3, 9-3). If any team is going to threaten Virginia Tech for the Coastal championship, it’ll be North Carolina. Butch Davis has put together a couple really good recruiting classes lately, and they have the foundation for a really good looking team. I still think they’re 1-2 years away, but the Tar Heels will be a tough team to beat this year.
1. Virginia Tech – (7-1, 10-2). The Hokies have a ton of question marks. Their most experienced returning Wide Receiver has THREE career receptions. They have 5 running backs, but none who have carried a full load during a season. And they lost 8 players from their defense to the NFL, including 7 starters. So why are they picked first in the Coastal? Three reasons: 1) They play in the weakest division of the ACC; 2) The miss both Clemson and Wake from the Atlantic division; and 3) I view everything through orange and maroon glasses. But in reality, they’re the pick for the Coastal by default; there really isn’t anyone else to choose. That’s not to say the season will be easy. Even the first game, a tricky non-conference game against East Carolina in Charlotte, could be a loss, and they end September by traveling to Lincoln to play Nebraska. And their conference schedule has several tricky road games: @ UNC; @ BC; @FSU; @ Miami. Tricky, but all winnable as well. At the end of the day, I don’t think their youth and inexperience will stop them from winning the division.

ACC Championship Game Prediction: Virginia Tech over Florida St.
Yes, yes, those glasses might be getting in the way again. And if the championship game was Clemson vs. VT, I’d take the Tigers to win. But I think VT will keep getting better as the season goes on, and I just have a feeling that they wouldn’t (couldn’t!) lose to Florida State twice in the same season.

Check back in a week or so for my preseason top 20 and preseason BCS Bowl picks.