2016...the southland

[billybud]

Tennessee....

The Vols are good...chokes last year and inexplicable coaching decisions cost them games...they were ahead of Oklahoma 17-3 in the fourth and somehow choked and let the Sooners get to overtime...same sort of game vs Florida. I would not be surprised to see Tennessee in the SEC Championship.

Alabama....

What's new? Loaded again. One of the countries best defenses, an elite running game and the ability to overcome mediocre quarterback play. NFL caliber athletes all over the field.

LSU....

Fournette will still give them a run game but they need a passing threat and have not yet found a great QB. Hard to compete with Bama playing just the Bama type ground game and great defense. And their secondary will be excellent this year as will the DL.

Texas A&M....

Could Kevin Sumlin be on the hot seat after this year? Three different quarterbacks have transferred and a top ranked QB decommitted last week. After the A&M Receiver Coach tweeted nasty about that, a five star WR recruit decommitted. After losing five games in each of the last two seasons...Sumlin may be looking over his shoulder at Tom Herman.

Clemson....

Clemson will have a great offense, one of the best in the country. And their DL will be very good. They lost a lot in the D secondary and their star corner has blown out a knee, so a great passing team might take some advantage. Still, the team to beat in the ACC.

Louisville...

Lamar Jackson will be a game changing quarterback. This kid will be a star. 17 returning starters. The Cards will win games and be a tough out, especially at home.

Auburn....

Tough year for Mulzhan...brutal schedule of Alabama, LSU, Clemson, and Ole Miss (all of which should field better teams). Plus games with Georgia and Arkansas who might challenge if they get the break.

FSU....

The Noles are a QB away from being a contender. If the new kids can play QB, FSU will play well. And I think that Francois (Frenchy) will start. One of the better secondaries in the south, good DL, good running game.

If they play MaGuire at QB out of loyalty (the kid played three quarters in the bowl throwing off of a broken ankle and missed spring recovering from surgery), it won't be but for a loss against Ole Miss. The youngsters behind him are just better.

[billybud]

Some folks will doubt Alabama based on the Tide losing their RB from last year...

But I have been impressed with the Bama reloading...they will play 5 star Bo Scarbrough and 5 star Damien Harris.

After watching Derrick Henry win the Heisman, Mark Ingram win the Heisman, and Trent Richardson be invited to New York, I know that Bama gets RB;s. Once again, Alabama will not be a top 10 rushing offense but will move the chains...short yardage pick ups and red zone scoring are a proven formula for the Tide.

[Spence]

Alabama is more than a player. That is why they are in it every year. One graduation will not make a difference.

[donovan]

The South is just hardcore football. Small, medium and large schools and everything in between makes no difference. always competitive, always in the hunt. There are some really good football teams outside of the South, but not a geographic block. It doesn't matter the category, on-field statistics, money, off-field good and bad, the South leads the way. There is more national fan interest in the South than geographic conferences. In Oregon, everyone pulls for UO or OSU...but most of them are on a social bandwagon. Nothing wrong with that, its just they don't talk football without the South being mentioned. Maybe it is must my getting old. West Coast football is irrelevant to the national scene.

[billybud]

I wish I could say that I followed West Coast football closely...but I tend to know the eastern teams that play in the eastern time zone or maybe even central.

I have to admit that I like the probable Oregon QB's name...Dakota Prukop. It rolls off of the tongue.

Reminds me of a favorite poem...The love song of J Alfred Prufrock....

"I am no prophet — and here’s no great matter;
I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,
And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,
And in short, I was afraid. "

Oregon will open ranked but is not the Oregon that has been of late. Some pundits actually think that reverse east coast bias may help Oregon in the rankings since voters unfamiliar with the Ducks will remember how they have been.

I suspect that Stanford will be the flag bearer this year....USC opening with Alabama has a chance to make a splash, but I suspect that it will be in the form of a belly flop.

I think that you are right about the West Coast teams and their being removed from the east coast party...music from a farther room. J Alfred again.

"I know the voices dying with a dying fall
Beneath the music from a farther room.
So how should I presume?

[donovan]

ESPN says Stanford is not overrated because no one in the PAC 12 is to be rated very high. It is age, I am sure, but most of my cronies that like football when asked what they think about the National picture reply, "Who cares anymore?' I think that is how the West Coast now thinks.

[billybud]

When UCLA and USC are not contending, the west coast loses a lot of glamour. The Northwest doesn't have the Southern California presence.

But either Oregon and Stanford should play for it this year.

[donovan]

When UCLA and USC are not contending, the west coast loses a lot of glamour. The Northwest doesn't have the Southern California presence.

But either Oregon and Stanford should play for it this year.

And that is by design. In the sixties, Tom McCall was elected governor of the state. That was the start of the Californication of Oregon. McCall made a statement that hung around for years. "Come visit us again and again. This is a state of excitement. But for heaven's sake, don't come here to live!" We were better off in the Northwest then. Somehow that ended and now we are ruled by those too liberal for California and too lazy to do much other than redistribute income. We don't even manage our natural resources well anymore. (If it were not for the timber industry, for example, you could not have forest available for recreation.) But the current smoke-filled rooms...not Havana smoke, just burning weed, runs the place. What does this have to do with the subject? I have no idea.

I wish all could come and visit...just don't move here!

[billybud]

My sentiments about Florida...my sleepy little state, the smallest in population in the southeast when I was 6, has now passed New York as #3 in population. The deserted stretches of beaches along the panhandle now bristle with condos and million dollar homes.

Those darn yankees who move down to the state and whine about how it was done differently in Michigan.

Nobody retires and moves up north.

If only we had back then, a Florida version of Trump or Quin Shi Huang (builder of the Great Wall) who would have walled off the northern border and pushed back the hordes of barbarians for a few generations.

[Derek]

My sentiments about Florida...my sleepy little state, the smallest in population in the southeast when I was 6, has now passed New York as #3 in population. The deserted stretches of beaches along the panhandle now bristle with condos and million dollar homes.

Those darn yankees who move down to the state and whine about how it was done differently in Michigan.

Nobody retires and moves up north.

If only we had back then, a Florida version of Trump or Quin Shi Huang (builder of the Great Wall) who would have walled off the northern border and pushed back the hordes of barbarians for a few generations.

Yeah, I lived in FL for two years in 2002 out to 2004, and the growth even since then is just insane. It's become too crowded, and a burden to go.

I spent the weekend in Orlando with friends, and getting to the airport by way of Semoran Blvd is pure insanity.

[billybud]

Orlando was mainly orange groves when I was in school (before Disney).

[Spence]

Orlando was mainly orange groves when I was in school (before Disney).

We moved from Anna Maria in 1969. They were building Disney but it wasn't completed.