Just in case....

GTLiebs

GTLiebs

Dodd-Like
Joined
Jan 2, 2009
Messages
10,589
...someone tries to use Phil Steele's rankings as a source of information, like ESPN.com did today, tell them they are full of ****. These rankings put us behind Miami, so at that point I think this guy might be showing a bit of favoritism. But then I look and see he has Illinois in the top 20!! That team had a 5-7 record last year and only one of the five had a winning record.

I've seen this guy's (Steele) name come up in a couple of places. How the hell do people actually value this crap?
 
GTLiebs said:
I've seen this guy's (Steele) name come up in a couple of places. How the hell do people actually value this crap?
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If I was a Miami or Illinois fan I would probably value it. People love to be told what they want to hear.
 
Some guys on the Falcons message board were trying to say Phil Steele's predictions were as good as gold. I went and looked at his 2008 preseason predictions and he was just as far off as any other magazine.
 
If he had us in the top 10 you would think he is a smart, insightful, journalist.
 
He's an idiot. Seriously, how can you have us at 28? That is totally ignorant. I do not understand that logic what so ever. We go 9-4, beat UGAy, lead the ACC in offense, return the whole damn team minus the d-line, yet were 28? In the college football world teams make the greastest strides in the second yr of a head coach--->Saban etc... Look at CPJ's history during his second year at GSU and Navy. I will bee the first to admit I view things thru yellow shaded glasses but this is absolute stupidity.
 
I always thought Steele was a numbers guy, and he's simply crunching numbers to determine the rankings. Some of his website is very insightful though.

http://www.philsteele.com/FBSInfo/09WINLOSSOPP.html

Notice, that there's a large number of ACC teams in the Top 25, and yet, the mighty SEC is hardly there at all, and the teams that are are the teams that are not powerhouses. I want this to be remembered this season when ESPN busy servicing the SEC on a nightly basis. Hell, Bama is so far down the list, that they're below both the Irish and the Rainbow Warriors. That's playing the best of the best there.

By the way, there will be a lot of preseason love for us, and rightly so. But we could have very easily had a bad season last year. We had four very close wins that could have gone either way. Our awesome 9-3 season doesn't look so good if we lose half of those. We'd be back at CGE. I'm a believer in Paul Johnson, but I'm not going to cast stones at those that aren't yet. In time, they will be.
 
The Champ said:
If he had us in the top 10 you would think he is a smart, insightful, journalist.
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Not really. I see us in the 10 to 20 range depending on the person's opinion on how people will do against the 3O with more game film. In fact I don't see us higher than 13.
 
Allen Koholic said:
By the way, there will be a lot of preseason love for us, and rightly so. But we could have very easily had a bad season last year. We had four very close wins that could have gone either way. Our awesome 9-3 season doesn't look so good if we lose half of those. We'd be back at CGE. I'm a believer in Paul Johnson, but I'm not going to cast stones at those that aren't yet. In time, they will be.
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Really, my beef with Phil Steele's preseason rankings wasn't that we were that low, but there was that Illinois thing. It just seemed completely inexplicable to me and with that in mind the whole starts smellin funny to me.

As for the wins, I think we can also say that the 3 games we lost were ones that could of gone either way. Take out a helmet-to-helmet penalty or a punt turnover and you got a new ball game. Our whole season was that way but I think the sheer strength in which we closed that 9-3 season is what people are going to bring up.
 
GTLiebs said:
As for the wins, I think we can also say that the 3 games we lost were ones that could of gone either way. Take out a helmet-to-helmet penalty or a punt turnover and you got a new ball game. Our whole season was that way but I think the sheer strength in which we closed that 9-3 season is what people are going to bring up.
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If you're going to say our game against UNC could have gone either way, then there's a lot of teams in the country that could say that about every one of their losses. We got manhandled. We weren't exactly close in the UVA game either, even though the score wasn't too bad.
 
gth816f said:
If you're going to say our game against UNC could have gone either way, then there's a lot of teams in the country that could say that about every one of their losses. We got manhandled. We weren't exactly close in the UVA game either, even though the score wasn't too bad.
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While I can concede UNC (though it they led only 7-0 at the start of the fourth), I think UVA was much closer. I believe we lost that game by 4 points and I also remember a fumble on the opposing teams 5 yard line. While that might not be as close to an either-way as FSU was, it still is something.
 
Obviously I am in the minority here. Phil Steele's magazine is the one I look most forward to every year. Although he can be a little bit off sometimes, the amount of in depth stats and information make up for it. He has a system of 8 different number/power ranking sets that help him determine who ranks where. He even admits that sometimes he does not agree with it, but that is his system and it has been more right than wrong. If you were able to read the pdf file on the day he put it up, he said that Tech has as good of a chance as anyone to secure the ACC Championship and Orange Bowl berth.
 
Ramblinwreck7 said:
Obviously I am in the minority here. Phil Steele's magazine is the one I look most forward to every year. Although he can be a little bit off sometimes, the amount of in depth stats and information make up for it. He has a system of 8 different number/power ranking sets that help him determine who ranks where. He even admits that sometimes he does not agree with it, but that is his system and it has been more right than wrong. If you were able to read the pdf file on the day he put it up, he said that Tech has as good of a chance as anyone to secure the ACC Championship and Orange Bowl berth.
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Well from everything I've heard his info is based off of purely statistical information, the other information was interesting and I wasn't criticizing him because of where he put us. You know the number of pieces he uses in his formula, do you happen to know what they are? I really want to find out how Illinois got in that top 20.
 
gth816f said:
If you're going to say our game against UNC could have gone either way, then there's a lot of teams in the country that could say that about every one of their losses. We got manhandled. We weren't exactly close in the UVA game either, even though the score wasn't too bad.
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Bull. We were within 7 and driving for the tying score when we were stopped by penalties. We stopped them cold and fumbled a punt. Then, turnover after turnover and we were out of it. I'm not saying we should have won, but to suggest that UNC manhandled us is just stupid. Just look at the stats. We stopped ourselves all day long, just as we did in all of our losses.
 
I believe the excitement over Illinois is somewhat justified (though I disagree with them being above Tech). Illinois returns one of the country's most complete players in Arrelious Benn. They also have one of the most experienced quarterbacks (Juice Williams). They have an extreme wealth of talent on the team - a lot of play makers. It is no surprise they are expected to contend in the Big Ten. Although Illinois did struggle at times last year they did manage to compete closely with Missouri, Penn State, and Ohio State.

Again - while I agree it's over hyped in comparison, I do think Illinois could compete with any team Steele has ranked so far.
 
GaTechBuckeye said:
I believe the excitement over Illinois is somewhat justified (though I disagree with them being above Tech). Illinois returns one of the country's most complete players in Arrelious Benn. They also have one of the most experienced quarterbacks (Juice Williams). They have an extreme wealth of talent on the team - a lot of play makers. It is no surprise they are expected to contend in the Big Ten. Although Illinois did struggle at times last year they did manage to compete closely with Missouri, Penn State, and Ohio State.

Again - while I agree it's over hyped in comparison, I do think Illinois could compete with any team Steele has ranked so far.
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Arrelious Benn is SICK, so is Williams. They could be that team that just jumps out at you this year, much like Kansas did in 2007 when they got to the Orange Bowl (they were 6-6 the previous year).

That prediction actually seems to make some sort of sense to me. Teams ranked 20 tend to have a record of 9-3 or so, and they could do that pretty easily, I'd think.
 
ncjacket said:
Bull. We were within 7 and driving for the tying score when we were stopped by penalties. We stopped them cold and fumbled a punt. Then, turnover after turnover and we were out of it. I'm not saying we should have won, but to suggest that UNC manhandled us is just stupid. Just look at the stats. We stopped ourselves all day long, just as we did in all of our losses.
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We never made it inside the 25 against UNC until an 85 yard td when the game was over. We also were one play away from losing 4 more games.
 
In fairness nearly team has games that could go down to 1 play. That was one of the things I feel Paul Johnson's attitude has brought our team. In the past I saw too many games fall at our fingertips. I thought we took a huge step last year in executing on that one play that makes the difference. Thats what makes a good team great imo. And we're getting there :D
 
ncjacket said:
Bull. We were within 7 and driving for the tying score when we were stopped by penalties. We stopped them cold and fumbled a punt. Then, turnover after turnover and we were out of it. I'm not saying we should have won, but to suggest that UNC manhandled us is just stupid. Just look at the stats. We stopped ourselves all day long, just as we did in all of our losses.
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Except in spring games, there's no such thing as stopping yourself. You could say in any of our wins the defenses killed themselves because they didn't stick to their assignments. In that case we didn't win any of our games, the other teams just stopped themselves...it's their fault they weren't disciplined. Football is a game played by two teams; you can't isolate one from the other. There is no turnover to make without a defense breathing down your neck and getting to the ball on the ground before you.
 
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