Daily Blog - Friday August 14th

Every Friday I will go thru some individual notes that I have taken during the week and put in some random thoughts. I hope you enjoyed last Friday’s blog.

Looking for a Fantasy Football sleeper or two?

Since WR Josh Smith left Colorado they are in need of a go to WR. Former Buff George Hypolite feels that Markques Simas is the guy and that he will “break some kind of record in the Big 12”. Simas is a PS#20 rFr that should have a major impact.

A solid sleeper pick for Fantasy leagues would be Army RB Alfred McDaniel. He is a 2 time Patriot League champ in the 100 meters. He did not even make my magazine this year which means he will not be listed anywhere. He has started out having a very productive August and if you are having a Fantasy draft he is worth a late round pick.

Dan Hawkins says that Darrell Scott who was my PS#1 RB in 2008 (reported out of shape in ‘08 and had injury plagued year and only 343 rush yards) “He’s miles ahead of where he was last year.” This is a PS#1 RB that will not be taken early in many fantasy drafts.

Another sleeper could be David Shinskie who is a QB at Boston College. He is 25 years old and spent 6 years playing professional baseball. He is currently #1 on the depth chart and their offensive coordinator Gary Tranquill says that he feels good about every other position on the offense. Shinskie committed to BC in early June after my magazine went to press.

Some notes about the preseason coaches poll released last week.

This is the first time in the BCS era that 3 teams from a non-BCS conference were ranked in the USA today coaches top 25. TCU is #17, Utah #18 and BYU is #24.

Ole Miss has not been ranked in the Preseason Top Ten since 1970 when they were #5 in the preseason poll. That year they were led by ARCHIE Manning who was a senior and John Vaught was the head coach.

As you know I am trying to see what kind of interest there is in FCS football (1AA). I would like to thank “AnyGivenSaturday.com” for their support. CLICK HERE.

When I wrote the magazine UL-Monroe had two question marks in WR Darrell McNeal and S Greg James. They were two of the key returnees and both were suspended indefinitely in the spring and were big question marks for the fall. Good news, both are in good graces with the coaches and back practicing with solid attitudes.

This is the first time ever that Oklahoma St is ranked in the Top 15 and hosts another Top 15 school when they play Georgia in the opener. That makes this arguably the biggest home game ever for the Pokes.

Over the last two years Nebraska has only forced a total of 28 turnovers with only Fresno St (26) and Marshall (25) forcing fewer turnovers. Wake Forest has forced 72 turnovers the last two years which is the most!

Todd Dodge of North Texas says he will incorporate TE’s into the offense more this season and moved WR Greg Brown to TE.

Utah is in a preseason poll (#19 coaches poll) for just the 2nd time in their history. They were ranked in 2004 at #20 and finished that year 12-0 and #4 in the polls.

I do actually go to my Fans of Phil Steele Facebook page at least twice a day. I answer all the questions within a 7 day span. Here are some questions of the week from the Fans page CLICK HERE TO GO TO FANS PAGE

Kevin Smolkowicz wrote - “Phil, does VaTech losing Evans drop them out of top 10/BCS contention? I know it is only one player...but this is a huge loss.”

MY Reply - Evans is a big loss and had he been out prior to the end of spring I would not have ranked VT as my #19 RB corps. With that said, keep in mind Evans had 0 career rush yards into last year. They do have a pair of VHT’s ready to step in. RFr Ryan Williams (PS#11) did not play last year as he was slow to pick up on the blocking schemes but is better in that area. True frosh David Wilson (PS#8) is 200 lbs, runs a 4.33 and won the Triple jump in the Nike Nationals. He is also a solid blocker. Bottom Line Evans had 1265 yards but only 4.4 ypc and these two could combine for a stronger ypc.

Ivan Baygold wrote - 2 quick questions here: Where can I find the ‘Past History’ for Bowl games? They don’t seem to be on the ‘Team Pages’ ; If a player is to miss the whole season (think Mark Herzlich from BC), do you count that as ‘Starter lost..

My reply - Two solid questions. I will have the bowl past histories up in two places in the next few weeks. We will put each on the team pages but we are also going to have a bowl section and they will be in each individual bowl pages as well. I also past histories of the last 5 bowls for each team in Phil Steele’s Regional magazines. If a player was expected to start out of the spring and then was lost I do count that as 13 starts lost to injury if the player started 13 games last year.

Tomorrow I will be breaking down 3 early games for the 2009 season and football kicks off in less than 3 weeks!