It’s sadly time to stop discussing trannies and penixes and instead to focus on da Beavs. Here’s my game by game breakdown.
Boise St – W
Fresno St – W
Montanta St – W
USC – W
Utah – W
Stanford – L
Washington St – L
Colorado – W
Washington – W (and a broken Penix)
Cal – W
Arizona St – L
Oregon – W
So I have the Beavs breaking through this year with a 9-3 record. Last year I was spot on with a 7 win bowl team. Smith of course is the wildcard again this year. If he goes for 4th downs at the same pace, I think he costs us at least one game. Last year that figure was 1 game per the math, but if you watched the games it was at least 2. This year I do think he has slightly better talent so maybe one or two of those 4th downs go our way this year that didn’t last year.
Something else I’m going to be looking for is the Beavs finally winning those “if only he made that catch” and “if only he actually caught that interception instead of batting down the ball” type plays. I feel like we finally have the players in the system to complete plays. Those plays are the difference in games, and thus they become the difference in seasons.
Possible outcomes +/- 2 games due to Smith and the “if only” plays. In other words, I have the range of outcomes as 7-5 to 11-1, so I’m settling at 9-3. The brutal (and key) part of the schedule is Utah, Stanford, Washington St. On the road at Utah = physical game. Then they have to go play Stanford on the road. Physical game. So I think that makes Stanford a definite loss. Same reason I think Washington St is a loss. They likely won’t be recovered from that rough stretch until the following week. It makes winning the first 5 games key to the season. Falter there and again we could be looking at that lower end of 7-5 or so.
Let’s hear your predictions, etc.