One thing I like about this about this article, it proves that Bacardi the Wonder Dog and I are better at picking than these so called experts when it comes to pigskin prognostication.

Thursday Thoughts on Alabama Football – Preseason Picks

By Larry Burton

Thanks to all my friends for sending me questions ideas and things that I might not otherwise see. As football fans, everyone likes to take a peek at the preseason magazines and see where their favorite teams are thought to wind up. Well, much to the chagrin of all these publishers, let me save you some money and let you see the picks from all the preseason publications without having to dish out the dollars.

This list was sent to me by my buddy Jon Acker and comes from the folks at Stassen.com. Take a look and see if you agree then we’ll talk again.

 

National Top 25

 

Overall Rank	Team	Total Points	Lindy	Athlon	TSN	USA Today	McIllece Sports	Phil Steele	Media Polls	Cap Heresy	F’Ball Out- siders	Gold Sheet	Coll. F’ball Matrix
1	Florida State	263	1	1	3	1	1	1	–	3	1	–	4
2	Alabama	252	2	2	4	3	2	2	–	8	2	–	2
3	Oregon	242	4	6	2	4	4	6	–	2	3	–	6
4	Oklahoma	237	3	4	1	7	8	4	–	4	6	–	5
5	Ohio State	232	5	3	9	2	3	3	–	13	8	–	1
6	Auburn	222	6	5	5	5	9	9	–	1	9	–	8
7	Georgia	202	12	8	15	8	6	7	–	7	11	–	3
8	UCLA	191	8	7	8	10	7	5	–	15	16	–	12
9	Michigan State	189	7	11	12	6	13	11	–	5	12	–	13
10	South Carolina	188	9	9	10	21	10	10	–	6	5	–	11
11	Baylor	183	10	10	7	12	5	8	–	10	15	–	19
12	Stanford	165	13	12	6	9	12	20	–	16	4	–	22
13	Louisiana State	152	11	19	11	11	15	15	–	–	7	–	7
14	Southern Cal	145	15	14	16	20	18	12	–	14	10	–	15
15	Wisconsin	133	14	15	19	15	14	13	–	20	18	–	18
16	Clemson	100	17	21	–	22	11	23	–	–	14	–	9
17	Notre Dame	93	19	13	14	16	–	17	–	–	22	–	23
18	Mississippi	89	18	18	20	–	22	16	–	11	23	–	–
19	Texas	73	22	17	23	24	–	25	–	19	–	–	14
20	Nebraska	62	21	–	17	14	–	–	–	–	–	–	10
21	Kansas State	58	16	20	–	13	–	–	–	17	–	–	–
22t	Florida	52	25	23	22	25	21	24	–	25	–	–	–
22t	Washington	52	23	24	21	–	–	–	–	22	24	–	20
24	Arizona State	45	–	16	13	–	–	–	–	–	19	–	–
25t	Central Florida	44	–	–	25	–	–	21	–	9	25	–	–
25t	Marshall	44	–	–	–	19	19	19	–	23	–	–	–
25t	Texas A&M	44	–	–	18	18	–	–	–	–	13	–	–

So whether you agree with this or not, you may agree that the top picks look pretty good and after all, these are the folks who are supposed to know much more than the regular guy. Then you see this list, the way they all thought things would turn out last year.

 

National Top 25

 

Rank	Team	Total Points	Lindy	Athlon	TSN	Phil Steele	USA Today (mag.)	McIllece Sports	F’Ball Out- siders	Arena Fanatic	Gold Sheet			Pick Six	Cap Heresy	Coll. F’ball Matrix	CNN/ SI	Coll. F’ball News			Coll. F’ball Poll	CPA Rank
1	Alabama	553	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	2			1	6	2	1	1			11	1
2	Oregon	515	4	3	8	5	5	2	2	2	1			5	3	9	5	3			6	2
3	Ohio State	510	2	2	5	2	2	6	10	4	3			2	7	1	4	11			8	3
4	Georgia	471	6	4	12	9	4	9	9	3	4			7	1	8	12	7			2	4
5	Stanford	454	3	7	2	11	3	–	3	5	5			3	4	3	2	8			1	5
6	South Carolina	419	9	5	3	14	11	13	14	6	7			4	12	11	6	15			12	7
7	Texas A&M	410	5	9	7	13	7	4	15	12	11			16	13	17	3	6			14	6
8	Clemson	400	7	6	9	15	8	15	20	8	8			6	2	4	10	14			15	8
9	Texas	377	18	18	14	4	13	11	8	10	12			9	5	20	11	5			3	12
10	Florida State	369	13	15	18	3	17	5	19	14	10			8	10	6	13	2			22	13
11	Louisiana State	367	8	12	16	17	18	–	4	7	6			15	8	7	14	4			13	10
12	Florida	338	12	13	4	18	10	–	5	13	16			10	9	12	9	10			–	11
13	Oklahoma State	337	11	16	6	8	19	3	6	15	18			14	11	15	–	16			9	14
14	Notre Dame	332	14	8	10	10	14	20	13	20	20			11	–	19	8	19			4	9
15	Louisville	318	10	10	11	7	12	–	–	9	14			12	14	5	7	–			5	16
16	Oklahoma	256	15	17	19	19	21	24	7	–	19			21	16	10	19	9			19	15
17	Michigan	245	16	14	13	24	15	12	–	19	15			18	23	13	18	21			–	17
18	Nebraska	207	21	21	21	16	9	8	21	11	–			17	–	14	–	23			–	20
19	Texas Christian	194	22	20	–	21	16	18	11	17	22			20	–	–	16	20			–	19
20	Boise State	172	17	11	15	–	6	–	12	–	9			–	25	–	20	–			–	18
21	Southern Cal	145	25	–	–	6	–	10	17	–	–			23	–	16	–	12			–	24
22	Wisconsin	128	–	19	24	20	–	7	16	25	17			–	–	–	–	18			–	23
23	Michigan State	120	20	–	–	23	–	17	18	–	–			25	–	22	15	13			20	–
24	Northwestern	96	–	24	–	–	20	–	–	–	13			–	19	–	22	–			7	25
25	Baylor	79	19	–	17	–	–	–	–	–	24			–	17	–	17	–			–	22

Now things jump out a lot don’t they? Ok, Florida State was at least in the top ten, (at number 10), but Auburn, the other team in the championship game, didn’t even make the list of the top 50! So obviously these folks don’t know everything.

As Saban told the SEC media assembled at SEC Media Days, (who all picked Alabama), they hadn’t got their picks right very often, neither do these consensus preseason magazine picks.

And though as a rule, I tend to only write about college football and college football players. In fact, I was once asked by Terrence (Mt.) Cody why I quit writing about him and I told him the last time I interviewed him that once he took off that Crimson jersey, I was through with him. Of course I was laughing when I said that but it is generally true. So since it’s not football season let me just catch you up on what’s going on with some former players.

Cody Mandell is still trying to land a spot on the Dallas Cowboys as a free agent and he’s doing a good job. He may just make it. Also in Dallas, Rolando McClain has come out of his second retirement between legal problems to finally look like the player he was at Alabama. Jerry Jones, owner of the Cowboys, thinks he going to wind up getting a steal getting McClain for virtual peanuts after all his troubles because he’s looking very sharp in practices.

Out in Jacksonville, De’Quan Menzie hoped the third time would be the charm as Carolina was his third stop in the pros since helping to win the 2011 BCS Championship Game for Alabama. His other stops were a Kansas City, who picked him in the fifth round of the draft and then Detroit in 2013. He was hoping that reuniting with two other Alabama secondary players with the Panthers, Roman Harper and Robert Lester, would help him catch on and get the old juices going again, but it was not to be. Roman Harper is a veteran assured of a position and Robert Lester is doing well and impressing his coaches and looks to have a future with the team.

Meanwhile at the Ravens, C.J. Mosley looks like an old salt in camp with the Ravens and coaches are saying that there seems to be no “Rookie Blues” when it comes to early season workouts. He may even push for some starts this season since the main man in the Raven’s group at his position is going  to out with injury. And since I’m talking about the Ravens, I’ll go back on what I once said and write something about Terrence (Mt.) Cody. He was recently placed on the “Unable to Perform” list with the Ravens after recovering from a hip operation.

Though Cody was one of the best interviewees I ever enjoyed, his play in the NFL has not lived up to his days at Alabama. He’s had problems with keeping the weight down and had some injuries as well, such as his recent hip and elbow injuries from last season. In four years he’s not started a lot of games and has only had 87 tackles and 2 pass deflections, but no sacks or fumbles caused or recovered.

His latest contract was a one year, $730,000 salary with nothing guaranteed. This will be a year that Cody has to prove he can both stay healthy and be productive to stay in the league.

Lastly, here’s one you may not have heard about, but Kenny Bell didn’t make it in the NFL, but is happy to coaching high school wide receivers at Monroe. Bell is pumped about his new job and we at Touchdown Alabama Magazine hope that this is just the first step in his continuing life in football.

                             Larry is an award winning writer whose work has appeared in almost every college football venue. Now he primarily writes for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/LBSportswriter