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Prognostication

Stewart Mandel's (SI) pre-preseason projections:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/stewart_mandel/01/09/early-top10/index.html?eref=T1

Mark Schlabach (ESPN) pre-preseason projections:

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/columns/story?columnist=schlabach_mark&id=3818270

 

So it looks like Texas is gonna start around #2 next year in the polls.  This is nice, however preseason rankings never got you anywhere. 

You know looking back at 2008 it's such a good story.  The perseverance, the grit of this team was great to see.  They never backed down or gave in.  They always came to play, the effort was always there. 

As much had been made about "Just wait until 2009", 2008 turned out to be one of the best seasons ever.  Texas started under the radar for the first half of the season, built a lot of confidence, and piggybacked on some senior leadership who's worth we may not yet understand.  They formed a solid core for a winning team and had great chemistry. 

What can we expect next season?  Undoubtably missing a Title game berth would be an absolute heartbreak.  This Texas team faces a new challenge next season; enormous expectations.  This team will probably get the most preseason hype since the 05-06 dream team.  When you think about how special 2008 turned out, you have to wonder if you can just bottle that and recreate it the next season.  Granted VY and co. did it and Mack has been around a long time.  This offseason is of utmost importance and will be a very delicate time.  Between now and September, the legacy of this team will be brewing.

So what are the major concerns facing 2009?  Can you lose Quan "first down" Cosby and be the same team.  Orakpo, Miller, Melton, Lewis are all gone.  We also say farewell to some solid role players Ryan Palmer and Rashad Bobino who weren't the most talented but held down the fort admirably.  No doubt there is some exciting young blood being infused now, but it's hard to say what the results of the turnover will be.

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Interesting tidbit

If Tebow bolts for the NFL, 3 of the QB’s for the top teams in the country in 2009 will have Texas ties – McCoy, Snead and Brantley. And if Perriloser hadn’t been such a…. well, loser…. that number would be 4.

Still a Blaine Irby fan

by patienthornsfan on Jan 10, 2009 4:41 AM CST reply actions   0 recs

Personally...and this is one of many areas that the ncaa needs to address...

No rankings until after week 4.

No awards until after the BCS “championship”

No coaches poll…they are too busy and do not know and/or understand the weekly matchups

No Harris Poll…alliances are manipulated at the expense of honest hard working young kids

Implement a yearly “play what is necessary to establish a true champion”

by Mulliganville on Jan 10, 2009 2:55 PM CST reply actions   0 recs

so I guess Hawaii must have been a real bear...

since defeating them has Schlabach putting the Irish into his top20…

must be nice, eh? If voters were as kind to Texas as they are to ND, we’d have been about 200 points ahead of OU when we needed it…

by Pflash on Jan 11, 2009 12:37 AM CST reply actions   0 recs

Well I don't really care much

about the Domers, but you can’t deny their improvement. If they continue to get better, they might be looking at 8, maybe 9 wins. The Irish are an easy target of disdain but they’re not gonna suck forever.

by owenh on Jan 11, 2009 8:07 PM CST up reply actions   0 recs

perhaps a reevaluation of the conferences would be nessecery...

perhaps having a draft type deal where everyone is independent, then they for clusters of conferences from there. since there is about 119 FBS schools i dont see why that would be so hard and it might make a playoff even easier.

If You See Kay, Oh You

by texfan23 on Jan 12, 2009 10:15 PM CST reply actions   0 recs

Bobino, Palmer

Losing these guys is going to to be a big enough boost to the defense to cover the skill gap between Orakpo and Sam Acho. Humphrey and Randall are also very capable DTs, and Eddie Jones isn’t any worse in my mind than Melton.

Overall, defense should be better than fine- and like this year, will continue to get better as the season progresses. Plus, with Colt coming back, they should get plenty of time resting on the bench with UT’s state of the art liquid cooling systems.

by Tackchevy on Jan 13, 2009 4:12 PM CST reply actions   0 recs

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