Phil Steele's bowl projections...

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I'm fairly certain that once national analysts get past the marquee schools, they just cut last years standings and paste them in this years predictions.
Can't really blame them.
 

I've always purchased the Athlon preview mag as my preseason reading material. This year I deviated and grabbed Steele's rag. It's full of information and he does have some good information in there, but it's really hard to read. A lot of it is written with abbreviations and sentences that seemingly have no end or beginning.
 

i don't think NW, Purdue or Illinois will be better teams than us this year. but you have to somewhat understand where they are coming from on this "list". not saying i agree with it, but they are just playing a mathematical numbers game here. they see that leaders division team ohio state is banned from post-season play this coming season and the fact that the leaders division is the overall weaker division of the two in the big ten. what with purdue, indiana, illinois and penn state all being in it. and that is where you get a list with illinois and purdue being listed ahead of us as far a bowl projections for 2012. not because they are necessarily going to be better in a head to head match up with us when we play each other. but because they each get to play considerably easier division schedules than the teams from the legends division.

don't agree with the NW pick though. NW does get to play both indiana and illinois from the leaders this season. and those are both in evanston. and their other opponent is a downtrodden and embarrassed penn state team from the leaders division. meanwhile, we get wisconsin, purdue and illinois. with the becky badger and illinois games being on the road at their places.
 

As far as I am concerned any "authority" that thinks the SEC will be totally shut out of the BCS championship game by two teams from two conferences well documented for late season swoons is completely out to lunch, therefore, anything else that follows down stream in predictions is likely as worthless.
 


Who does Phil Steele think he is? I mean these predictions are wacky? Clemson in the Chick Fil-A bowl?

I mean seriously? They have a shot for a title this year. This offense is explosive and now they have a very good DC.

Dabo has done wonders in a few years.
 

Wouldn't be so quick to say Steele's stuff is worhtless. He has had the Gophers pretty much pegged the last few years. Steele had the Gopher's as a possible bowl team in Brewster's 2nd year. Which I doubt many had after the 1-11 the previous year. Overall I think the guy does a decent job with with his analysis and not just copy and paste from last year once past the helmet schools as has been suggested.
 

Purple Gator said:
Who does Phil Steele think he is? I mean these predictions are wacky? Clemson in the Chick Fil-A bowl?

I mean seriously? They have a shot for a title this year. This offense is explosive and now they have a very good DC.

Dabo has done wonders in a few years.
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He seems the think rather highly of Clemson. This is directly out of the magazine regarding Clemson on his ACC forecast page:

2. Clemson-The Tigers are an even stonger team TY than the 2011 squad which came out of nowhere to get to 8-0 and #6 AP before losing 4 of their last 6. They are the defending ACC champs and are loaded at the offensive skill positions and the back 7 on D as well as on ST. My 2 main sets of power ratings have them going 11-1 as they will be favored in their only 3 true road gms besides FSU (BC, WF, Duke). This is a dangerous Clemson team and an upset of FSU (Sept 22) would put them in the National Title contenders role.
 

supadupafly said:
i don't think NW, Purdue or Illinois will be better teams than us this year. but you have to somewhat understand where they are coming from on this "list". not saying i agree with it, but they are just playing a mathematical numbers game here. they see that leaders division team ohio state is banned from post-season play this coming season and the fact that the leaders division is the overall weaker division of the two in the big ten. what with purdue, indiana, illinois and penn state all being in it. and that is where you get a list with illinois and purdue being listed ahead of us as far a bowl projections for 2012. not because they are necessarily going to be better in a head to head match up with us when we play each other. but because they each get to play considerably easier division schedules than the teams from the legends division.

don't agree with the NW pick though. NW does get to play both indiana and illinois from the leaders this season. and those are both in evanston. and their other opponent is a downtrodden and embarrassed penn state team from the leaders division. meanwhile, we get wisconsin, purdue and illinois. with the becky badger and illinois games being on the road at their places.
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Purdue is a darkhorse to play in the Big Ten title game this year. Not saying it's gonna happen, but the stars have aligned themselves with OSU ineligible and PSU reeling from the Sandusky fallout. That leaves Wisconsin and Purdue gets them at home. Not really concerned about Illinois or IU. Crossover games with Iowa and Michigan are a b!tch along with a trip to TCF that is extremely winnable. Purdue returns a lot of talent and will sneak up people. I'm not sure how you think the Gophers are better given that the Boilers could've scored 70 points last year, but called off the dogs at 45-3 in the 3rd quarter - and both teams will have a lot of the same players this season while the Boilers added the Big Ten's 4th best recruiting class for depth.
 



MinnesotaBoiler99 said:
Purdue is a darkhorse to play in the Big Ten title game this year. Not saying it's gonna happen, but the stars have aligned themselves with OSU ineligible and PSU reeling from the Sandusky fallout. That leaves Wisconsin and Purdue gets them at home. Not really concerned about Illinois or IU. Crossover games with Iowa and Michigan are a b!tch along with a trip to TCF that is extremely winnable. Purdue returns a lot of talent and will sneak up people. I'm not sure how you think the Gophers are better given that the Boilers could've scored 70 points last year, but called off the dogs at 45-3 in the 3rd quarter - and both teams will have a lot of the same players this season while the Boilers added the Big Ten's 4th best recruiting class for depth.
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LOL at this whole post.

The only thing ? is a "dark horse" for is people finding out that they exist.
 

I don't get the love for WI. New coaches all over the staff(especially at OC) and another transfer QB(albeit a pretty good one). I imagine it has more to do with new coaching staffs at tOSU and PSU, more than anything. MI over WI in the B1G title game.

Phil Steele is usually pretty good though. Like someone else said, he's not the type to just look at last year and just write a team off for the next. He uses stats and formulas more than most of the rags.
 

Purdue is a dark horse to go 6-6 this year. Do not understand the Purdue love.
 

Stan The Caddy said:
Purdue is a dark horse to go 6-6 this year. Do not understand the Purdue love.
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Most of the Purdue love in this thread came from a Purdue fan, so it's not that surprising. And while most of us, me included, probably consider our home game against Purdue as one of our easier games this season, they actually did manage to go 4-4 and finish in the top half of their division last year, which is a better conference record than we've had in quite some time, though Brewster came very very close in 2008 and 2009. With Ohio State out of contention, Wisconsin has a cakewalk to the conference championship game this year, though Purdue could have a shot if they overachieve a bit and Wisconsin slips up a few times (preferably against Minnesota!). I don't really think Penn State is as down and out as MinnesotaBoiler thinks they are. The Sandusky scandal is a big deal for sure, but I don't know that it will greatly affect the football program other than having a new coach this year. Penn State managed the same conference record as Wisconsin last year of 6-2.

Not entirely sure where I'm going with this, but in conclusion, Purdue is not a bad team, they could potentially win their division, but I don't think Wisconsin or Penn State will allow it, and I think this year's matchup between Minnesota and Purdue will be much, much less lopsided than last year's.
 



You never know. Purdue has some well thought of players, but have been hampered by injuries last two years. Hope has made some progress. I think the bowl win, the second upset of Ohio St and the sorry state of tOSU and PSU have given the Boilermaker fans some reason for optimism.
 

Steele does this stuff for a living so I figure he'll be correct again. I am prepared for a 4 win season for the Gophs.
 

Purdue will go 3-1 in the NC. They then open up BT play hosting Michigan, hosting Wisconsin and going to tOSU. Yikes. They very well could be 0-3 in the conference headed into TCF Bank Stadium. I think Coach Kill will remind the boys more than a few times that week what Purdue did to them last year...

Eastern Kentucky
@ Notre Dame
Eastern Michigan
BYE
Marshall
Michigan
Wisconsin
@ Ohio State
@ Minnesota
Penn State
@ Iowa
@ Illinois
Indiana
 


It was just awful. The low point of the season for me. We were starting a true frosh QB and he appeared to be scared out of his mind and tackling appeared optional for most of the game...
 

GopherInPittsburgh said:
That Purdue game was a total dumpster fire. How did that even happen?
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Ridiculous turnovers in terrible field positions. It was 24-0 at the end of the first, and 31-0 until just before the half. It was actually a 14-14 game in the 2nd half, but the turnovers destroyed any chance we had.
 

dpodoll68 said:
Ridiculous turnovers in terrible field positions. It was 24-0 at the end of the first, and 31-0 until just before the half. It was actually a 14-14 game in the 2nd half, but the turnovers destroyed any chance we had.
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It went so bad so fast.
 

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