I am bored so I decided to look around for a bit and do a pre-preseason rankings that  partially includes the potential players from the 2009 recruiting classes and the returning players for next year.

1.  Florida.  How can you bet against this team for next year?  They return most of their defense that should be pretty nasty, and they added some depth with a few from the class this year.  On offense they still have Tebow and he drives them to win.  They might be able to run the table next year and go undefeated for the season.

2.  USC.  I rank them here because I think they will start and end the season here.  They lose Sanchez at the helm but Mustain will play well.  They play in a weak conference overall, they will lose a game and finish the regular season at 3rd, win the bowl, and bitch because they were left out of the championship, it is just what they do.

3.  Texas.  I know this is starting to look an awful lot like the final rankings but can you argue it now either?  Colt McCoy returning with a ton of weapons and a defense that will play well enough.  The Red River might be a game to play for the championship game again this year.

4.  LSU.  Yep, I am going back on me saying that Alabama will win the West.  LSU looks strong and they had a very good class of kids that can help them.  I think Jefferson will be the clear cut quarterback and will have some hiccups along the road, but they can lean on a run that will win some games.  Solid team on both sides of the ball and might be the only team that will rival Florida for being top to bottom best team.

5.  Oklahoma.  Just good and they return a on of weapons.  They will keep on scoring 45 to 50 a game and lose to the first team to hold them to 20.

6.  Alabama.  I can’t believe that I just said that.  I initially thought they would be about 10 or so due to having no quarterback with experience and replacing the majority of an offensive line, but holy crap has almost every team lost a ton of players.  Alabama’s defense is going to win them games and if they can make it through the first 4 or 5 games unscathed, they might can make a run at it.  I just don’t see them having the talent in place fast enough to play against LSU next year though.  They will have a tough time in their opener against Virginia Tech, but Tech lost a lot of players too.  I think that their first loss will potentially be in week 6 at Ole Miss.

7-25.  It’s a toss up. 
-Georgia could be good but they are replacing their two biggest offensive threat. 
-Ohio State was terrible without Beanie Wells last year so will next year be any different.  -Can Ole Miss play that good again? 
-FSU looks solid but they lost a lot of seniors this year and could go either way. 
-Penn State loses almost their team and Oregon loses that many too. 
-Texas Tech might lost about 35 or 40 players, seriously, look at their roster from last year, they have a ton of seniors.
-Boise State has a horrible schedule and probably will not get any respect until the end of the season.
Utah is in the boat with Boise State.


Man, next year is going to be interesting.  Outside of the top 4 or 5 teams, there are no favorites for next season.  The classes from last year will play a huge role in next season with as many seniors as most of the top teams had last year.  Unfortunately, that brings us to Auburn.

My outlook for Auburn:  Our schedule is rough, but doable.  We will find out week 3 if we are any good or not when West Virginia shows up to town.  I think that if we can fenagle our way through the season with injuries to a minimum, we can do a 9-3 season, but I don’t see us being able to win at LSU or beat Alabama next year.  I certainly think that we can be competitive against Alabama for sure, but right now they are just more talented than us and they have a better line on both sides of the ball, that in the end will lose us that game.  Looking at the schedule, I would say that if our line plays solid and we find a quarterback to play solid, not great, we could be 7-0 going to LSU.  At Tennessee and at Arkansas will will be good games but we can win them.

No matter what, if our offense shows some improvement next year I will enjoy the season much more than I did this year.  Losing is never fun, but we took it to a new level in the way we were losing last year.  But we have promise, they just have to get it together.