In my 2009 College Preview Magazine on pgs 324 and 327 I included my computer's projected stats in 2009 for all 120 FBS teams. There were several different categories including rush offense/defense, pass offense/defense, offensive pts and defensive pts.

On the right hand side of the page I listed the teams that my computer projected to be most improved in '09 compared to '08 season in 6 different categories. I had them ranked in order from Most Improved all the way down to the Least Improved and included the top 15 in each category along with the bottom 5.

In today's blog I have included my projections of the teams I thought would be most improved in pass defense heading into the 2009 season and how they finished in the final NCAA rankings.

In the coming days I will feature a different category in each blog and I think you will be impressed with the results of the accuracy of my projections.

As you can see my projections were fairly accurate. I nailed 5 of the top 10 most improved teams and 10 of my top 15 teams finished #30 or better! 11 of my 15 teams (73.3%) saw their pass defense ypg decrease and on avg my top 15 improved by 25.7 ypg in '09!

4 of my projected bottom 5 teams in pass defense saw their ypg increase in '09 and overall the 5 teams had a pass defense increase of 20.3 ypg in '09!

Coming into the season North Texas had 4 returning starters in the secondary and the backups were experienced as well. I thought the Mean Green would make tremendous strides as HC Dodge thought his secondary "was so much more athletic." My projection turned to be accurate as North Texas finished as the 7th most improved pass defense with a 58.8 ypg improvement.

In '08 Texas had to replace 3 starters in the secondary and they went on to allow 259 pass ypg. Last season the Longhorns only lost CB Ryan Palmer and returned six players back with starting experience (3 others with 12+ games). With so much experience returning I called for the Longhorns to have the 2nd most improved pass defense in the country and they didn't disappoint finishing #1 by allowing nearly 80 ypg less in 09!

Last year Central Michigan returned an amazing 10 players with starting experience in the secondary and I expected a big jump in my pass D rankings as I had them the 3rd most improved team. Again my projection turned out to be nearly right on as the Chippewas finished #4 allowing 66 ypg less in 09!

Overall 15 of the 20 teams (75%) that were featured in my magazine finished with either a higher ypg or lower ypg just as I projected!

Here is a complete list of all 120 teams and how they fared from 2008 to 2009. The teams highlighted in yellow were the teams I had projected in my top 15 and the teams highlighted in green are those I projected to be in the bottom 5.

Most Improved Pass Defense 2009