Home School Fans Episode 1: Preseason Predictions - 2022 Pt.1

Home School Fans Episode 1: Preseason Predictions - 2022 Part 1 of a Few

    Hello Home School fans! Last year my smaller and more exclusive target audience and I were living in a desert, so it was for "Desert Fans" in 2021. Now, I find myself in more homier circumstances, so I am going with the "Home School" theme. The format is that I will follow seven FBS (Football Bowl Series) teams every week, including this preseason speculation time, anticipating the upcoming blockbuster of a year in top tiered college football. I think it will be very cool, and some traditional powers will fall. I hope.

    Last year I lauded the hardest worker in college football analysis, Phil Steele, but I think he came up short, especially with picking Clemson to finish on top. He picked them number two, I think to Alabama, or maybe Georgia, and the Tigers lost the smash up matchup with the Georgia Bulldogs in September, and then lost twice more. The Tigers fell. And, gratefully, the Crimson Tide did too. Georgia prevailed, and Michigan and surprising Cincinnati made the four-team college championship. Not Clemson, not Oklahoma. And Texas was down. The Buckeyes were usurped.

    This year I have Lindy's and Athlon's magazines; I am not going by Phil Steele's ratings much. I have considered those two sources that I purchased in local grocery stories, plus some USA Today and CBSSports; I will use the latter to track my seven chosen teams, some of them rated pretty high (low) in the total of 131 teams. Like the newbie, James Madison Dukes. One mag rates them 110 out of 131.

    Here are the seven teams in order of which I think they will finish: Utah, Texas A&M, BYU, Fresno State, Virginia, Indiana, and James Madison. I will predict what may happen to each team below. Some picks will be surprising, hopeful, and non-conforming to the traditional powers of Alabama, Clemson, Oklahoma... I want different, so that is how I am shaping these results for the future. Vivre la difference! But, these things could happen. We shall see. Survive the season, all of us.

    1) Utah Utes. I predict: ... (drum roll) ... That Utah sweeps the table and wins the national championship! It is going to be their year, finally. They should have been given better respect a few years ago when they crushed Alabama in the regular season game, and then Florida and Tebow ended up winning the whole thing, despite losing to Mississippi, if memory serves. Karma may catch up in 2022-3. It would be quite a story. Starting with the same Gators that were favored over da Utes.    

    I am a Brigham Young alum, and I love the Cougars, but I do root for all Utah schools when I can. I want both the Utah squad and the PAC-12 to have a tremendous run shock the world. And if BYU happens to be in that proximate area, of course, go BYU Blue. It's just I think the Running Utes have a few more tools. We shall see.

    Early hurdle for the first game in the SEC's Florida Gators, at the Swamp.  Then some San Diego State Aztecs, and on and on to the PAC-12 gauntlet, without Washington or the Cal Bears. Tough outs? USC, Oregon, possibly ULCA or Stanford. The Ducks of Oregon are ranked at 11, the Trojans are rated in the low 20s, then UCLA at 30 (close to the Gators), Oregon State at 42, ASU 58, Stanford 65, SDSU 69, WSU 70, Arizona and Colorado 82 and 83.

    Not too hard. Not like the Big Ten, or Big 12, or SEC. If the Utes stay healthy and have a few bounces go their way, turnovers and kicks, instead of against, I see Utah matching up with... Alabama? Oklahoma? Ohio State? Not Michigan in the Rose Bowl, as most pundits have posited.

        The year of the Utes, and the Aggies. I don't mean Utah State, who may play well in the Mountain West, but I mean...

    2) Texas A&M Aggies.

More on them in the next segment.