<p>Since this is the opening weekend for college football, let's try to predict the number of (regular season) wins for the following US News top 30 schools.</p>
<p>Here are my guesses:</p>
<p>Stanford 7
Duke 4
Northwestern 8
Rice 8
Vanderbilt 5
Notre Dame 10
Cal 10
UCLA 5
USC 10
Michigan 6
UNC 8
Wake Forest 8</p>
<p>What are your predictions? Feel free to include your own schools.</p>
<p>I will only post the schools I am familiar with:</p>
<p>Duke-4, Thaddeus Lewis is a great QB and Duke is an underrated squad, but will not be bowling this year</p>
<p>Notre Dame-8, they will make strives and due to their reputation will earn a berth to the Gator Bowl</p>
<p>USC-12, USC is a great team, I think the best last year and one of the best this year. OSU will not pose a threat to the Trojans.</p>
<p>UNC-7, UNC is a sexy pick, but I do not see them winning the ACC or finishing in the top 25. They lost some important pieces last year.</p>
<p>Wake Forest-9, I am biased, because the Demon Deacons are my team, but we have the best QB in the ACC–Riley Skinner, an underrated defense, an OL that will be our greatest strength, a great stable of RB’s, and the best coach in the country. Orange Bowl repeat I think :)</p>
<p>^ interestingguy, that’s an interesting list…</p>
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<p>Does Cal top USC and get to the Rose Bowl this year? ;)</p>
<p>^ This is Cal’s best shot in a long time. USC’s ripe for the picking (due to a new QB, injuries, academic ineligibilities, NFL defections, etc.) </p>
<p>Then again, your Golden Bears have a strong tendency to “choke.” :(</p>
<p>^ Yep. Hopefully we can get through our non-conference games OK to build momentum/confidence…we got Maryland and Minnesota. Oregon ruined any semblance of Pac-10 respect last night.</p>
<p>Northwestern 7
Notre Dame 7 – Charlie Weis’s swan song
Michigan 8</p>
<p>Michigan’s going to surprise a lot of people. Rich Rodriquez suddenly has the athletes at the QB, RB, and WR positions he needs to run his high-octane spread offense, and he’s got an experienced returning OL that has finally figured out the blocking schemes. Lots of inexperience up the middle on defense but again a ton of athleticism. DE Brandon Graham and CB Donovan Warren have All-American potential. I predict they upset Notre Dame at home on Sept. 12 and quickly become the comeback team of the year, while the calls for Charlie Weis’s head start in earnest in South Bend.</p>
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I hope you’re right…but if it’s a bad season I think Rich Rodriguez will go the way of Nebraska’s Callahan. The Michigan faithful doesn’t seem to have a lot of patience with this guy…moreso in light of recent allegations.</p>
<p>Notre Dame 10 wins? Cal 10 wins? Wow you’re a ■■■■■</p>
<p>Ummm, Cal is expected to finish #1 or #2 in conference by media/college football pundits…that translates to ~10 wins, ■■■■■. ;)</p>
<p>^^^ Actually I think the recent allegations have rallied a lot of the Michigan faithful into supporting RR. The reaction has been pretty overwhelmingly in that direction, from what I’ve seen. I personally don’t think the charge of overworking student athletes beyond what NCAA rules permit should be taken lightly, but a lot of Michigan football fans don’t see it that way; to many, criticizing the coach of a big-time football program for overworking his players borders on the ludicrous, like criticizing the chair of the math department for putting hard courses in the curriculum. And the fact that most of the “anonymous” sources for the newspaper report that broke the story appear to have been disgruntled ex-players who quit the program didn’t sit well with Michigan football fans, either; many saw it as an unwarranted cheap shot by sources and reporters with an agenda. I don’t necessarily agree with that, but I think Rodriguez’s standing with Michigan football fans is stronger now than it’s been since he arrived. I don’t much care about that, though. I just want to see them out on the football field, scoring touchdowns.</p>
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<p>ND has a relatively easy schedule and should be favored in all but the USC game. It returns an intact offense as well.</p>
<p>Cal has a very strong defense and running game, including (albeit unlikely) Heisman candidate Jahvid Best.</p>
<p>If you disagree with my predictions, feel free to offer your own!</p>
<p>P.S. Perhaps ND is equally likely to win 9 as well as 10. Actually, I went back and forth on this one. Still, it isn’t an unreasonable prediction, I think?</p>
<p>ND will win 11, losing only to USC in a close game.</p>
<p>Look at their schedule; they don’t have any other challenging opponents. The only team that can stop ND from winning 11 is ND.</p>
<p>ND always seems to have trouble beating MSU in South Bend.</p>
<p>University of Texas 12 regular season wins. OK, they are outside the top 30 but why not include the team which is going to win the national title this year?</p>
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<p>Seems to happen frequently nowadays. <em>cough</em>Syracuse<em>cough</em></p>
<p>rjkovnovi: MSU is not as strong as usual this year after losing Hoyer; they do usually struggle with MSU, but I don’t think they’ll have any trouble this year. BC will be tough though.</p>
<p>Notre Dame can win 11 games and literally not be in the top 25 at year end because its schedule is so weak. It is amazing to see Notre Dame with only one opponent in the top 25. </p>
<p>Historically, ND played everyone and was the Catholic standard bearer against the Alabamas, Oklahomas, Texases, Florida States and Miamis. And because it played the best, it got the best potential recruits trying to get their futrue NFL careerr onto the fast track. With the schedule it plays now, a future pro would be ill-advised to go there anymore. As a fan, I think the way the Irish are doing their schedule is self defeating.</p>