Paul Prattles On

Welcome Back! I hope you had a great weekend enjoying the first few games of the college football season!  There were only 2 games, involving 4 FBS teams, so this will be a relatively short TWIF Notes segment. Florida defeated Miami 24-20, but the game was awfully sloppy.  There were numerous missed tackles, wobbly QB play, and even the referees missed several penalties, both calls and non-calls.  The Canes dominated the time of possession, but committed 14 penalties!  Florida had 10, but a crucial flag was picked up.  Miami also had a missed FG, and passed up a FG on a failed 4th-down try.  The Gators had 4 turnovers, one in the red zone, but they also had 10 sacks, but I'm not sure if that had more to do with poor OL play on the part of Miami.  Neither team ran the ball effectively, with Miami averaging 2.4 on 36 attempts and Florida having 27 attempts for a 1.9 ypc average.  While the Gators are now 1-0, they need a lot of improvement ...

Welcome Back! On Thursdays, I will be giving my predictions for the coming weekend, since most weeks have games on Thursday (though this one does not).  This week's slate of games is pretty sparse, but, to be honest, I'm not really sure why we have any at all.  This whole concept of a "Week 0" seems kind of ridiculous to me, but it does recall the days of the kickoff classics.  Anyway, it's here, so let's get to my picks! There are only 2 games this week: Miami vs. Florida (Orlando)- It is so difficult to pick these early-season matchups, as no one really has any idea how good either of these teams will be.  Miami has a "new" coach in Manny Diaz, though he served as Defensive Coordinator there for the last 3 years, so he's not all that new (hence the quotation marks).  The Hurricanes struggled to a 7-6 mark last year, but they're my pick to win the ACC Coastal.  However, I think the Gators, coming off a 10-3 season with a 41-15 past...

Welcome back! Today I start my weekly feature called Odds and Ends.  For most of the season, I will mention interesting facts about the current season.  These may be statistical, anecdotal, or just whimsical.  However, since the season hasn't started, I am going to talk about what I would do to improve college football for the schools, players, and fans.  These will not based on anything I've heard (I have NO inside sources.  Anywhere...), but is just my opinion based on over 40 years of observing college football as a fan.  Oh... and I will also list my pick for this year's College Football Playoff! So let's get started! If I were named "Czar of College Football", here are the things that I would change: First, I would allow student athletes to profit from their name, image, and likeness (known as NIL).  There is no reasonable argument to be made for the school profiting, and not the athlete.  Now, I believe a case could be made for putt...

Welcome back! I know I revealed my power rankings several weeks ago, but that was 10 at a time (and only 5 at a time for the top 20).  Here, I present them to you in a concise fashion.  I will update this on every Tuesday until the season ends.  This is my own formula that I developed.  I have changed it a lot this year to be more comprehensive, and to be more accurate (I hope!). Here are the teams, from 1-130: 1 Alabama 2 Clemson 3 Ohio State 4 Georgia 5 Michigan 6 Oklahoma 7 Florida 8 LSU 9 Notre Dame 10 Washington 11 Texas A&M 12 Utah 13 Auburn 14 Texas 15 Oregon 16 Michigan State 17 Penn State 18 Iowa 18 UCF 20 Wisconsin 21 Washington State 22 Iowa State 23 Stanford 24 TCU 25 Nebraska 26 Miami, FL 27 Miss...

College football is back!  This weekend marks the return of CFB, and no one could be more excited than I am.  This weekend is what is known as Week Zero, as there are only a few games (2), both involving at least one Power Five team.   Today starts my new Monday feature called TWIF Notes.  I bet at least 5 of my 10 regular readers out there can figure out what TWIF stands for, but if you're one of the five that aren't sure, I won't keep it a secret.  TWIF stands for This Week in Football.  Now, to be honest, I'll only be writing about college football, but TWICF doesn't quite roll off the tongue as easily... TWIF Notes will be a recap of the previous weekend: my impressions, who impressed, who flopped, etc.  This will run on each Monday until the season is over, though I may continue it through the offseason if the demand is there.  (OK, you can stop laughing now.)  Obviously, Week 1 has a game on Labor Day, so I won't be able to rev...

Welcome back! Over these two weeks, I will be previewing each of the conference races, one per day, and giving my prediction on how they will finish.  This is based on a formula that I have devised, and has nothing to do with the power rankings I presented over the last three weeks.  While the power rankings are for how strong each team is, we all know that the schedule each team plays has a huge impact on their overall record.  After the season, I will compare my predictions with the actual results to see how I did.  Last year, I outperformed Phil Steele, Lindy's, Athlon, Street & Smith's, and the media predictions, using the formula outlined on pages 6 and 7 of  Phil Steele's 2019 College Football Preview magazine!  The Coach Rankings also use a formula that I devised, so feel free to disagree, because even I disagree with how some of the numbers worked out! Let's get to it! SEC Predicted Order of Finish SEC West 1. Alabama...