19 For '19 Offseason Topics: No. 2 Five Nutty Predictions That Just Might Be Right
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19 for ’19: 19 key offseason topics: No. 2. Five nutty predictions that just might be right
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19 for ’19 Offseason Topics
19: Best Teams To Not Make CFP
18: Teams That Will Rebound Big
17: Every Power 5 Team’s Letdown Game
16. Top 5 Instant Impact New Head Coaches
15. 2nd Year Coaches Who’ll Be Better
14. Power 5 Hot Seat Coach Rankings
13. Key Transfers You Forgot About
12. Five Big Power 5 Upset Alerts
11. Great Players About To Go Nuclear
10. Group of 5 Teams In New Year’s Six Chase
9. Power 5 Sleeper Teams
8. Most Interesting Quarterback Battles
7. Power 5 Potential Disappointments
6. Power 5 Potential Surprises
5. Ranking Group of Five Conferences
4. Ranking The Power Five Conferences
3. Top Heisman Candidates
1. NEXT: The College Football Playoff
It’s the annual three true outcome piece. Each of these five predictions willbe a walk, a strikeout, or a home run.
In last year’s version of the Nutty Predictions That Just Might Be Right, there was one big whiff (Jalen Hurts would start for Alabama), three walks (Buffalo would be a Group of Five big deal, Michigan’s passing game would be good, and Arizona vs. Utah would be for the Pac-12 South title), and one solo shot home run about the new coaches being better than the guys they replaced (like, Sonny Dykes winning more games at SMU than Chad Morris would at Arkansas, and Josh Heupel would win more games at UCF than Scott Frost would at Nebraska).
This year, there’s no getting cheated. Here are five nutty, massive cut, home run swing predictions that will either leave the yard, or be ugly Ks.
And all five of them fit together in the puzzle that will be the 2019 college football season, starting with …
5. Michigan will win the Big Ten Championship
Michigan has been better than you think under Jim Harbaugh.
Really? We’re going to dog Harbaugh for not beating Ohio State? Yeah, it’s valid, but it’s not like his Wolverines can’t beat Rutgers or Maryland.
They’ve had a hard time beating a program that went 48-5 over the last four seasons with two Big Ten championships, a Rose Bowl, a Cotton Bowl, a Fiesta Bowl, and lost to eventual national champion Clemson in the 2016 College Football Playoff.
Of course the Michigan head coach has to beat Ohio State, but lately, criticizing him for not doing that is like some Game of Thrones character not having enough dragon something against some other Game of Thrones guy’s magic potion thingy (sorry … I’ve never seen the show, and any other cultural reference at the moment doesn’t work).
Remember, people, that Michigan won ten games once between 2007 and 2014, going 5-7 in the final year before Harbaugh.
Michigan has won ten games in three of the last four seasons.
Out of the 14 losses, three were in major bowl games, four were against Ohio State, and out of the other seven, only a 14-13 last second loss to Iowa in 2016 was against a team that failed to win at least ten games.
Okay, yeah, whatever … you want a Big Ten Championship out of the guy. This is the year it’s going to happen.
The defense will still be terrific, but it’ll be the offensive side that steps it up. The offense will be faster and with more downfield passing with a strong, veteran receiving corps for Shea Patterson to throw to. Best of all, the schedule works.
CFN Podcast: 2019 Top Sleeper Teams
https://CFN.podbean.com/mf/play/6isr73/ep_3_SLEEPERS.mp3
Going to Wisconsin stinks, but the Wolverines get a week off to prepare, and the Badgers won’t be quite ready yet in mid-September with a murky quarterback situation and four new starters on the offensive front.
The Penn State game is on the road, but Michigan State and Ohio State are at home. There can and will be a two Big Ten losses along the way, but one of them won’t be against the Buckeyes.
The showdown on November 30th is in Ann Arbor, and as Michigan man Gerald Ford once put it, the program’s long national nightmare will be over.
Will it be because Michigan will be that good? Partially, but it’ll also be because Ohio State won’t have the main man at the helm. However …