Yesterday, I shared my conference championship predictions (which, unlike Desmond Howard’s, demonstrated my awareness of the fact that it is no longer 1992), so now the time has come for me to offer a few more random forecasts for the 2010 college football campaign (some of which probably are quite incompatible with one another, so no fair trying to square all of the following statements as though you were working a logic problem):
The lower-ranked of the two contestants will win the SEC Championship Game.
The Rose Bowl will pit a Big Ten champion with two losses against a Pac-10 champion with two losses.
Tavarres King will finish second on the team in receiving yards.
Caleb King will finish second on the team in rushing yards.
Following the season-ending showdown between the Clemson Tigers and the South Carolina Gamecocks, Steve Spurrier and Dabo Swinney will share a postgame handshake for the final time, as one of them will not be back as a Division I-A head coach in the Palmetto State in 2011.
Georgia will produce two 800-yard rushers but no 1,000-yard rusher.
The loser of the season-opening clash between the Boise St. Broncos and the Virginia Tech Hokies will have three losses on January 11, 2011, while the winner of the Labor Day night contest will have one loss as of that same date.
The Southeastern Conference will send two teams to the Bowl Championship Series, but only one of those two teams will emerge victorious from its postseason tilt.
In December, Kirby Smart will accept a Division I-A head coaching position.
The Holiday Bowl will pit brother against brother . . . literally: Bob Stoops’s Oklahoma Sooners and Mike Stoops’s Arizona Wildcats will square off in San Diego.
An eventual SEC division champion will win a game against the eventual runner-up in its own division in which the losing team has the would-be winning touchdown called back on a celebration penalty.
The Florida St. Seminoles will go into the fourth quarter of their game against the Florida Gators facing no more than a seven-point deficit, but the Tribe will come up short in the end.
Eleven of the twelve current SEC head coaches will still have the same job as of 8:00 a.m. Eastern time on January 1, 2011.
The Boston College Eagles, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, and the Utah Utes will have exactly one bowl win between them.
Reports that Rich Rodriguez will not remain as the head coach of the Michigan Wolverines will leak prior to the Maize and Blue’s game against the Ohio St. Buckeyes.
South Carolina will lose in the Georgia Dome during the month of December.
The Georgia Bulldogs will go 8-4 during the regular season.
The Tennessee Volunteers will go 8-4 during the regular season.
The USC Trojans will go 8-4 during the regular season.
Mark Ingram will not be a Heisman Trophy finalist.
The Alabama Crimson Tide will not repeat as national champions.
I will be wrong about at least 50 per cent of the foregoing predictions.
Coming Soon: SEC forecasts for Labor Day weekend.
Go ‘Dawgs!