Daily Blog • July 14, 2010

We are only 50 days away from the start of college football season and today I want to talk about a couple of new features on PhilSteele.com.

First, for the past few weeks on Facebook I have been taking requests for some of my early forecasts for 2010’s top games. Today I featured the top 5 most requested games from the past two weeks. Here are my early forecasts for those games.

Facebook Early Forecasts

1. Penn State at Alabama Sept 11. Penn St has 6 units that rank in my top units of the front of the magazine and Bama does have just 2 returning starters on D. The key here is Penn St has a QB making his first road start vs a Top 10 D with in front of a loud home crowd. Alabama 30-20.

2. LSU vs North Carolina (Atlanta) Sept 11. Great battle SEC vs ACC. LSU was actually outgained last year 305-328 despite their 9 wins. NC for example was 8-5 but had a 308-270 yd edge on the year. NC has 19 ret sts and thier defense is LOADED with NFL prospects (could have 5 picks in 1st or 2nd round). LSU only has 10 ret sts so are less exp'd. I will call for the upset. NC 17-13.

3. Miami Fla at Ohio St Sept 11. Miami only had one unit not in my top units in the front of the magazine and that was Oline but they just added Henderson from USC. Two exciting QB's and top 6 defenses. My picks to win the ACC and the Big Ten. Shannon is 4-7 vs ranked teams and Tressell is 31-14 and Ohio St is at home for this. OHIO STATE 30-20.

4. Georgia at South Carolina Sept 11. Key battle for the SEC East and the winner is a legitimate challenger to Florida. Georgia has won 4 straight in Columbia by an avg of 16-8. Both teams were inexp LY and are veteran groups in '10. I rate this a tossup with GA #12 in my Power Poll and SC #19 but SC is at home. Richt is 33-6 on the road. I would say E but since I have to pick SCAR 21-20.

5. Florida St at Oklahoma Sept 11. Both teams have explosive offenses but OU has a huge edge on defense as they allowed just 273 ypg in '09 and lose 11 lett with 5 sts back and FSU allowed 435 ypg and lose 12 lett (6 sts bk). FSU was out gained 421-435 LY while OU even in an 8-5 year had a 424-273 yd edge. OU is 61-2 at home this past decade and FSt is on a 4-9 run vs ranked tms. OKLAHOMA 37-27.

So far I have done 20 forecasts and you can find them by clicking here or just go on the PhilSteele.com homepage in the middle and look for “Facebook Forecasts”. I will continue to update this page multiple times during the week and make sure you get your requests in early by visiting my Facebook Fan page. If you are not a fan of mine already on Facebook make sure you select “like this” as currently I have nearly 5,800 fans and it continues to grow daily.

Also newly added today is a complete week-by-week schedule for every single FCS game this year complete with current TV Times.  This is a great way to look at all the big matchups that maybe taking place on a specific week and you can start preparing your TV schedule and DVR to make sure you don’t miss a single game.

For example September 11 looks like it is going to be a big Saturday featuring several critical non-conference games. At 3:30 alone there is three huge matchups featuring traditional powers Michigan at Notre Dame, Florida St takes on Oklahoma and Miami, Fl travels north to face Ohio St in the Horseshoe. At 7:00 there are two more big games featuring Oregon at Tennessee and Penn St at Alabama. Naturally all these games will be on one of my 12 TV sets on September 11! We will continue to update this page on a weekly basis when new TV times are announced as we get closer to the season.

Recently we have received in a shipment of our three regional magazines which we changed a little this year. First we have a Big Ten/Big 12 Preview, which features four full pages on every Big Ten/Big 12 team (and Notre Dame) and also includes four full pages on every CUSA and MAC Team. Our second regional is our Western regional which features four full pages on every Pac-10, MWC and WAC team. 

Finally, I am pleased to announce that we now have devoted a full page each on all of the 124 teams in the FCS and expanded our coverage to 175 pages strictly on the FCS! Every team has a full page with the last 6 years results, 2009 statistical leaders that are bold and un-bold showing which players are coming back, the last 6 years statistics, this year’s schedule and a complete position by position breakdown which we expanded this year (roughly 1000 to 1500 words on each team)!

The FCS coverage can be found in this year’s SEC/ACC/Big East regional magazine, which also has 4 pages on every SEC/ACC/Big East team and 328 pages overall (same as national FBS mag)! This regional should be appearing on newsstands right now in the Southeast/Coastal/ Northeastern regions. If you can’t find one near year, you can always purchase it through our offices for $13.70 (includes priority shipping) and it will be shipped out within 24 hours (excluding weekend orders which will be shipped 1st thing Monday).

If you are interested in all three of our regional magazines we are offering a great Buy Two, Get One absolutely FREE deal! For just $25.95, you will receive all three of these great magazines (more than 700 pages jampacked with information). Call our offices at 1-866-918-7711 or visit the philsteele.com store today to get your copies!

Also Josh Buchanan who runs JBScouting.com does a great job following FCS football and he contributes significantly to my FCS preview. Josh also has scouted for the Texas vs. Nation Game and East Coast Bowl the last few years and has interned with the Carolina Panthers. He has great knowledge of all the draft prospects and top players in the FCS and has recently updated his top players at each position. Here are his Top 5 players for all the offensive positions for FCS and you can find much more at JBScouting.com

QUARTERBACKS

  1. Michael Herrick, Northern Arizona, Sr.
  2. Pat Devlin, Delaware, Sr.
  3. Scott Riddle, Elon, Sr.
  4. Jeremy Moses, Stephen F. Austin, Sr.
  5. Cameron Higgins, Weber State, Sr.

RUNNING BACKS

  1. Taiwan Jones, Eastern Washington, Jr.
  2. Chase Reynolds, Montana, Sr.
  3. Jonathan Grimes, William & Mary, Jr.
  4. Kyle Minett, South Dakota State, Sr.
  5. Chris Evans, Samford, Sr.

FULLBACKS

  1. John Goode, Southern Illinois Jr.
  2. Eric Breitenstein, Wofford, Jr.
  3. Tersoo Uhaa, Furman, Jr.
  4. Ryan Mahaffey, Northern Iowa, Sr.
  5. Kendall Gaskins, Richmond, Soph.

WIDE RECEIVERS

  1. Tysson Poots, Southern Utah, Sr.
  2. Jason Caldwell, Fordham, Sr.
  3. Simmie Yarborough, Southeastern Louisiana, Jr.
  4. Matt Szczur, Villanova, Sr.
  5. Mark Layton, Lafayette, Sr.

TIGHT ENDS

  1. Stephen Skelton, Fordham, Sr.
  2. Ben Jorden, Appalachian State, Jr.
  3. Schuylar Oordt, Northern Iowa, Sr.
  4. Colin Cochart, South Dakota State, Sr.
  5. Alex Sellars, The Citadel, Sr.

OFFENSIVE TACKLES

  1. Ben Ijalana, Villanova, Sr.
  2. Will Rackley, Lehigh, Sr.
  3. David Pickard, Southern Illinois, Jr.
  4. Johnny Culbreath, South Carolina State, Sr.
  5. Mark Tos, UC Davis, Sr.

OFFENSIVE GUARDS
1.      David Arkin, Missouri State, Sr.
2.      Corey O’Daniel, Gardner-Webb, Sr.
3.      DJ Hall, Texas State, Jr.
4.      J.C. Oram, Weber State, Jr.
5.      Pat Illig, Wofford, Sr.

CENTERS

  1. Ryan McKnight, South Dakota State, Sr.
  2. Alex Verlanic, Montana, Sr.
  3. Drew Lachenmayer, Richmond, Sr.
  4. Austin Richard, North Dakota State, Jr.
  5. Joe D’Orazio, Penn, Sr.

I will be back tomorrow with a look at this year’s coaches on the hot seat! 

Only 50 Days Until the First College Football Game!!!