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Thursday Thoughts on Alabama Football – Preseason Picks

One thing I like about this about this article, it proves that Bacardi the Wonder Dog and I are better at picking than these so called experts when it comes to pigskin prognostication.

Thursday Thoughts on Alabama Football – Preseason Picks

By Larry Burton

Thanks to all my friends for sending me questions ideas and things that I might not otherwise see. As football fans, everyone likes to take a peek at the preseason magazines and see where their favorite teams are thought to wind up. Well, much to the chagrin of all these publishers, let me save you some money and let you see the picks from all the preseason publications without having to dish out the dollars.

This list was sent to me by my buddy Jon Acker and comes from the folks at Stassen.com. Take a look and see if you agree then we’ll talk again.

 

National Top 25

 

Overall Rank Team Total
Points
Lindy Athlon TSN USA
Today
McIllece
Sports
Phil
Steele
Media
Polls
Cap
Heresy
F’Ball
Out-
siders
Gold
Sheet
Coll.
F’ball
Matrix
1 Florida State 263 1 1 3 1 1 1 3 1 4
2 Alabama 252 2 2 4 3 2 2 8 2 2
3 Oregon 242 4 6 2 4 4 6 2 3 6
4 Oklahoma 237 3 4 1 7 8 4 4 6 5
5 Ohio State 232 5 3 9 2 3 3 13 8 1
6 Auburn 222 6 5 5 5 9 9 1 9 8
7 Georgia 202 12 8 15 8 6 7 7 11 3
8 UCLA 191 8 7 8 10 7 5 15 16 12
9 Michigan State 189 7 11 12 6 13 11 5 12 13
10 South Carolina 188 9 9 10 21 10 10 6 5 11
11 Baylor 183 10 10 7 12 5 8 10 15 19
12 Stanford 165 13 12 6 9 12 20 16 4 22
13 Louisiana State 152 11 19 11 11 15 15 7 7
14 Southern Cal 145 15 14 16 20 18 12 14 10 15
15 Wisconsin 133 14 15 19 15 14 13 20 18 18
16 Clemson 100 17 21 22 11 23 14 9
17 Notre Dame 93 19 13 14 16 17 22 23
18 Mississippi 89 18 18 20 22 16 11 23
19 Texas 73 22 17 23 24 25 19 14
20 Nebraska 62 21 17 14 10
21 Kansas State 58 16 20 13 17
22t Florida 52 25 23 22 25 21 24 25
22t Washington 52 23 24 21 22 24 20
24 Arizona State 45 16 13 19
25t Central Florida 44 25 21 9 25
25t Marshall 44 19 19 19 23
25t Texas A&M 44 18 18 13

So whether you agree with this or not, you may agree that the top picks look pretty good and after all, these are the folks who are supposed to know much more than the regular guy. Then you see this list, the way they all thought things would turn out last year.

 

National Top 25

 

Rank Team Total
Points
Lindy Athlon TSN Phil
Steele
USA
Today
(mag.)
McIllece
Sports
F’Ball
Out-
siders
Arena
Fanatic
Gold
Sheet
Pick
Six
Cap
Heresy
Coll.
F’ball
Matrix
CNN/
SI
Coll.
F’ball
News
Coll.
F’ball
Poll
CPA
Rank
1 Alabama 553 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 6 2 1 1 11 1
2 Oregon 515 4 3 8 5 5 2 2 2 1 5 3 9 5 3 6 2
3 Ohio State 510 2 2 5 2 2 6 10 4 3 2 7 1 4 11 8 3
4 Georgia 471 6 4 12 9 4 9 9 3 4 7 1 8 12 7 2 4
5 Stanford 454 3 7 2 11 3 3 5 5 3 4 3 2 8 1 5
6 South Carolina 419 9 5 3 14 11 13 14 6 7 4 12 11 6 15 12 7
7 Texas A&M 410 5 9 7 13 7 4 15 12 11 16 13 17 3 6 14 6
8 Clemson 400 7 6 9 15 8 15 20 8 8 6 2 4 10 14 15 8
9 Texas 377 18 18 14 4 13 11 8 10 12 9 5 20 11 5 3 12
10 Florida State 369 13 15 18 3 17 5 19 14 10 8 10 6 13 2 22 13
11 Louisiana State 367 8 12 16 17 18 4 7 6 15 8 7 14 4 13 10
12 Florida 338 12 13 4 18 10 5 13 16 10 9 12 9 10 11
13 Oklahoma State 337 11 16 6 8 19 3 6 15 18 14 11 15 16 9 14
14 Notre Dame 332 14 8 10 10 14 20 13 20 20 11 19 8 19 4 9
15 Louisville 318 10 10 11 7 12 9 14 12 14 5 7 5 16
16 Oklahoma 256 15 17 19 19 21 24 7 19 21 16 10 19 9 19 15
17 Michigan 245 16 14 13 24 15 12 19 15 18 23 13 18 21 17
18 Nebraska 207 21 21 21 16 9 8 21 11 17 14 23 20
19 Texas Christian 194 22 20 21 16 18 11 17 22 20 16 20 19
20 Boise State 172 17 11 15 6 12 9 25 20 18
21 Southern Cal 145 25 6 10 17 23 16 12 24
22 Wisconsin 128 19 24 20 7 16 25 17 18 23
23 Michigan State 120 20 23 17 18 25 22 15 13 20
24 Northwestern 96 24 20 13 19 22 7 25
25 Baylor 79 19 17 24 17 17 22

Now things jump out a lot don’t they? Ok, Florida State was at least in the top ten, (at number 10), but Auburn, the other team in the championship game, didn’t even make the list of the top 50! So obviously these folks don’t know everything.

As Saban told the SEC media assembled at SEC Media Days, (who all picked Alabama), they hadn’t got their picks right very often, neither do these consensus preseason magazine picks.

And though as a rule, I tend to only write about college football and college football players. In fact, I was once asked by Terrence (Mt.) Cody why I quit writing about him and I told him the last time I interviewed him that once he took off that Crimson jersey, I was through with him. Of course I was laughing when I said that but it is generally true. So since it’s not football season let me just catch you up on what’s going on with some former players.

Cody Mandell is still trying to land a spot on the Dallas Cowboys as a free agent and he’s doing a good job. He may just make it. Also in Dallas, Rolando McClain has come out of his second retirement between legal problems to finally look like the player he was at Alabama. Jerry Jones, owner of the Cowboys, thinks he going to wind up getting a steal getting McClain for virtual peanuts after all his troubles because he’s looking very sharp in practices.

Out in Jacksonville, De’Quan Menzie hoped the third time would be the charm as Carolina was his third stop in the pros since helping to win the 2011 BCS Championship Game for Alabama. His other stops were a Kansas City, who picked him in the fifth round of the draft and then Detroit in 2013. He was hoping that reuniting with two other Alabama secondary players with the Panthers, Roman Harper and Robert Lester, would help him catch on and get the old juices going again, but it was not to be. Roman Harper is a veteran assured of a position and Robert Lester is doing well and impressing his coaches and looks to have a future with the team.

Meanwhile at the Ravens, C.J. Mosley looks like an old salt in camp with the Ravens and coaches are saying that there seems to be no “Rookie Blues” when it comes to early season workouts. He may even push for some starts this season since the main man in the Raven’s group at his position is going  to out with injury. And since I’m talking about the Ravens, I’ll go back on what I once said and write something about Terrence (Mt.) Cody. He was recently placed on the “Unable to Perform” list with the Ravens after recovering from a hip operation.

Though Cody was one of the best interviewees I ever enjoyed, his play in the NFL has not lived up to his days at Alabama. He’s had problems with keeping the weight down and had some injuries as well, such as his recent hip and elbow injuries from last season. In four years he’s not started a lot of games and has only had 87 tackles and 2 pass deflections, but no sacks or fumbles caused or recovered.

His latest contract was a one year, $730,000 salary with nothing guaranteed. This will be a year that Cody has to prove he can both stay healthy and be productive to stay in the league.

Lastly, here’s one you may not have heard about, but Kenny Bell didn’t make it in the NFL, but is happy to coaching high school wide receivers at Monroe. Bell is pumped about his new job and we at Touchdown Alabama Magazine hope that this is just the first step in his continuing life in football.

                             Larry is an award winning writer whose work has appeared in almost every college football venue. Now he primarily writes for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/LBSportswriter

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Larry Burton is a member of the Football Writers of America Association (FWAA) and was the most read SEC and Alabama football writer during his time at Bleacher Report. He has been credentialed by all the major bowls and the University of Alabama. Larry provides some of the best insight in the business through his "Larry's Lowdown" segment with TDA.

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