EARLY IN MY writing career, I was geeked to land a small piece in a preseason mag. I’d grown up buying stacks of them, sitting on the beach and poring over every page. So to get a byline in one, it was kind of a big deal. Then reality set in when a crusty old scribe growled at me in a press box in late August: “Congrats, kid. Now gather as many copies as you can and burn ’em. Because I guaran-damn-tee all that stuff you wrote will be wrong.”
Sure enough, he was right. Not all of my predictions were wrong, only enough to make me want to quietly ignite a backyard bonfire. That first bunch of whiffs hurt like losing to BYU on a Hail Mary thrown by the backup QB in his first college game. (Amirite, Nebraska?) But we get used to it. Yep, we still boldly state our August picks (Auburn? Georgia? Title contenders!) and still lamely try to figure out how we could be so off in December—like 10-teams-that-started-in-the-Top-25 but-disappeared off. But hey, at least Bama didn’t let us down. What a guy, that Nick Saban. (Amirite, Les?)
So what else did we nail and what did we completely miss? Here are 25 things we thought we knew entering 2015. While you read, I’ll grab the lighter fluid.
1. Urban Meyer and his three QBs will cruise to the College Football Playoff.
Braxton Miller became a receiver, put a Labor Day B-button spin move on VaTech ... and vanished. Cardale Jones won the starting job, got lost somewhere in the red zone ... and vanished. J.T. Barrett took over, got the Bucks moving ... and vanished for a week after an OVI. With Jones and Miller headed to the NFL, I’m sure we’ll all think OSU is somehow better off.
This story is from the January 04,2016 edition of ESPN The Magazine.
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This story is from the January 04,2016 edition of ESPN The Magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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