Daily Zoot - 9/9/09 - College Football Pre-Zoot pt. 1

The Daily Zoot is all the news you needed to know yesterday, soon

-Welcome Ladies and Gents to the Them Sports College football Preview. I know what you're saying:

"how can this be a preview when there have already been games played?"

I'm a firm believer in not being able to rank the teams until they play at least one game. Its impossible to know what a team will look like until you see them hitting guys with different jerseys on. For example, if I wrote this article two weeks ago I might have picked Oklahoma to win the Chip this year and I would now look foolish (well, more foolish than I'm about to look with my actual picks). Now I know better; Sam Bradford and his favorite target TE Jermaine Gresham are out and I don't have to waste time with that maroon team from Norman. And I don't even have to bother mentioning Lagarette Blount at all (not that I would have), since he won't be joining us for the rest of the season. I also know what else you are saying:

"This is kind of a cop-out. If you're just gonna do it this way why don't you just wait until the end of the season and do the preview then so you can be even more right?"

And to that I say, don't be such a smart-ass. Let's get to the preview!

Teams I Love:

Florida Gators
To be honest, I would have a much easier time writing a list of things I didn't like about the Gators this year than a list of things I do like about them. So here it goes.

-I've always felt that the blue and orange is a tad ostentatious. We see you, you are all enormous men, you don't have to be so flashy for us to notice you.
-Tim Tebow is left-handed, what's that about?
-I think that everyone should have at least one first name. Florida coach Urban Meyer has an adjective first name, and a bologna last name. Maybe he could borrow one from his in-state rival Miami's Randy Shannon.

But that's it, and frankly, none of those things are good enough reasons for me to pick against the Gators this upcoming season (Even though I really hate south-paw QBs). They are my unanimous (amongst a panel of 1) pick for national champion.

USC Trojans
I'm done picking against USC. I've done it in the past for a litany of reasons, and I'm tired of always ending the season with the same Cardinal and Gold colored egg on my face. I know they have a true-freshman starting QB in Matt Barkley; but this isn't a freshman at Northern Iowa, or Jacksonville St. There's a reason this kid got a scholarship to USC; he knows how to play a little football. Barkley was the national player of the year last year at California's Mater Dei High School, and he was the number 1 overall recruit. He should be able to handle the minimal role that Coach Pete Carroll will ask him to play for the Trojans. Barkley will be at his best if he can stay invisible. Let the backs do the work, move the chains when you have to, and don't make the big mistake. I have faith that he can do that, and I think the rest of the team is strong enough to carry him into national title consideration.

Ole Miss Rebels
I like Ole Miss for a few reasons:

-Their quarterback and Heisman candidate Jevan Snead has a name best suited to play the snobby rich kid in every movie about high school angst I've ever seen. I'm sure you remember this guy, "My parents are in Europe for the week again, so big kegger at my house tonight! O wait, You're not invited Losers!" Sick Burn. But we all know the losers end up with the girl that is way out of their league but somehow totally down to earth and cool; and he ends up with the bowl of punch on his head, or drinking something gross that someone had put in his drink. What are we talking about again?
-Ole Miss is a flat-out great name, it just is, there's no two ways about it. And Rebels is almost better. The two together? Dynamite.
-They are the last team to beat Florida, which should say something about their talent. But more importantly they are not scheduled to play the Gators in the regular season (How does that happen? Get it together SEC). They could make the title game from the SEC West, and pray that someone else knocks off Florida before they have the chance to meet in Atlanta.


Those are the teams I love, that's right, just three. Come back tomorrow for the list that no major college coach wants to be on (or probably even knows about), the teams I hate.