College Football Handicapping Articles

2015 Texas A&M Aggies Season Win Total Picks and NCAA Football Predictions
by Robert Ferringo - 7/14/2015

Texas A&M made a solid run at beating their season win total in 2014. But, as I predicted, they came up short, winning just seven regular-season games. That was due largely to their 2-5 slide in the last half of the regular season, and the Aggies are looking for a better close this time around.

2015 Auburn Tigers Season Win Total Picks and NCAA Football Predictions
by Robert Ferringo - 7/14/2015

I definitely like Auburn's chances of emerging as a Top 10 team this year. Even in the stacked SEC West. However, while I like the potential with this group I do think that they are a bit overrated heading into the season. Auburn does have the easiest schedule of any team in the division. But just because they have the easiest dance card doesn't mean that they are one of the best teams, making their preseason Top 10 ranking (based on several national magazines) way premature.

2015 Georgia Bulldogs Season Win Total Picks and NCAA Football Predictions
by Robert Ferringo - 7/14/2015

I hit an easy winner with Georgia going 'over' their season win total last year. Aaron Murray and Co. had one of the quietest 10-win seasons you'll ever find, culminated with a blowout win in the Belk Bowl over Louisville. There has been some significant turnover for this year's group. But Georgia is another team in the mix near the top of the SEC East.

2015 LSU Tigers Season Win Total Picks and NCAA Football Predictions
by Robert Ferringo - 7/14/2015

LSU was the rare SEC team whose season win total prediction I couldn't connect on. But a big part of my miss (I predicted that the 8-5 Tigers would win at least nine games) revolves around the fact that LSU lost more than three games for the first time since 2009 and just the third time since 2001.

2015 Florida Gators Season Win Total Picks and NCAA Football Predictions
by Robert Ferringo - 7/14/2015

The Gators finally bottomed out last year under clueless dolt Will Muschamp. But, mercifully, he has moved on and been replaced by former Alabama coordinator Jim McElwain. McElwain had a successful audition at Colorado State the past several seasons. However, it is a massive step up to the SEC, even for someone who knows the lay of the land the way McElwain does.

2015 Ole Miss Rebels Season Win Total Picks and NCAA Football Predictions
by Robert Ferringo - 7/14/2015

The Rebels rolled a 7-0 start into a Top 5 national ranking in 2014 before injuries and some heartbreaking late losses sucked some of the fun out of the campaign. They were also on the wrong end of TCU's war tour in the Peach Bowl, losing 42-3 for a disappointing close to the year.

2015 Missouri Tigers Season Win Total Picks and NCAA Football Predictions
by Robert Ferringo - 7/14/2015

The Tigers have been one of the best bets in the country over the past two seasons, going 20-8 against the spread while winning back-to-back SEC East titles. I have said for years that Missouri's success in the SEC - they were nothing but a middle-tier wannabe in the Big 12 - is one of the greatest indictments of how overrated the SEC actually is. We'll see if they can keep proving me right.

Auburn Tigers Odds to Win the 2016 College Football National Championship
by George Monroy - 7/14/2015

The Auburn Tigers expected to be in the national title hunt last season and seemed on course for another stellar year under coach Gus Malzahn-that is until the Tigers dropped five of their last eight games of the season and ended with a 4-4 SEC mark. Malzahn and his crew did play in the Outback Bowl against No. 19 Wisconsin, but that game was little consolation for a team that made a national title game appearance the year before and was two quarters away from wining the entire thing.

2015 Florida State Seminoles Season Win Total Picks and NCAA Football Predictions
by Robert Ferringo - 7/13/2015

The Florida State football factory cranked out another big season in 2014 as the defending champions cajoled their way to a 13-1 mark and a slot in the national semifinals. Controversial scumbag Jameis Winston has graduated - and he took five offensive line starters with him - but the 'Noles still have a stacked defense and a new wave of talent to toss at opponents.

2015 Loiusville Cardinals Season Win Total Picks and NCAA Football Predictions
by Robert Ferringo - 7/13/2015

Bobby Petrino returned to Louisville with a load of fanfare last fall. And he made good on his prediction that he would raise the Cardinals back to prominence, winning nine games heading into the bowl game. However, with just nine returning starters and a completely overhauled defense, this has the look of a transition season for a program that's gone 20-5 in the last two campaigns.

2015 North Carolina Tar Heels Season Win Total Picks and NCAA Football Predictions
by Robert Ferringo - 7/13/2015

The Heels have been projected as a "sleeper team" and a "team to watch" for the past three seasons. Instead they have been a dud, watching their season win total drop the past two seasons while going just 21-17 so far under Larry Fedora. The pieces are in place for a big year in 2015, though (stop me if you've heard that one), and this is a crucial season for Fedora's regime.

2015 Virginia Tech Hokies Season Win Total Picks and NCAA Football Predictions
by Robert Ferringo - 7/13/2015

The Hokies have fallen off the national radar after producing just a 15-11 record over the past two seasons. There are even grumblings in Blacksburg that Frank Beamer's 28-year tenure as Hokies coach could be coming to an end. All of that makes 2015 a huge season for Tech, and we will see if they can vault back to national prominence.

2015 Clemson Tigers Season Win Total Picks and NCAA Football Predictions
by Robert Ferringo - 7/13/2015

Over the past half-decade the Tigers have really gone a long way to shedding the "perpetual underachievers" label that seemed to tail them for the previous two decades. (I'd say North Carolina has slid into that role in the ACC now.) Clemson has gone 42-11 the past four seasons, have won three straight bowl games, and have been in the Top 10 in two of the last three years. They are a model program in the watered-down ACC.

2015 NC State Wolfpack Season Win Total Picks and NCAA Football Predictions
by Robert Ferringo - 7/13/2015

Dave Doeren's second season was night-and-day different from his first as transfer quarterback Jacoby Brissett was a revelation while helping the Wolfpack win eight games for just the third time in 11 seasons. This year's Pack faces a tricky schedule. But there is enough talent on this team for N.C. State to be a sleeper team in the Atlantic Division.

2015 Virginia Cavaliers Season Win Total Picks and NCAA Football Predictions
by Robert Ferringo - 7/13/2015

Not even God knows what Mike London is doing in Virginia. London - who I never thought was a bad coach - has gone 23-38 in his five years in Charlottesville and is coming off his third straight losing season. Virginia has made it to just one bowl game in the past seven years, and if the returning talent is any indication then things could get worse before they get better.

2015 Duke Blue Devils Season Win Total Picks and NCAA Football Predictions
by Robert Ferringo - 7/13/2015

I have to hand it to coach David Cutcliffe. The guy has made Duke football relevant in the ACC, something that no one thought possible as recently as five years ago. But Duke's success - they are 19-8 the last two seasons - is as much a product of comically easy schedules as it has been some significant bump in their talent and scheme.

2015 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets Season Win Total Picks and NCAA Football Predictions
by Robert Ferringo - 7/13/2015

Paul Johnson's group busted out for 11 wins and a blowout Orange Bowl win last year as one of the biggest surprises in college football. In fact, Tech was just two touchdowns away from an undefeated season, losing each of their three games by six points or less. They did benefit from a +11 turnover margin, one of the tops in the country, but if the defense improves they could be a major factor in the ACC again.

2015 Miami Hurricanes Season Win Total Picks and NCAA Football Predictions
by Robert Ferringo - 7/13/2015

At this point I think it is time to let go of the idea of Miami coming "back" and becoming a major player on the national level like they were in the 1980s and early 2000s. Miami hasn't won 10 or more games in 11 years and haven't won a bowl game since 2006. This absolutely won't be the year in which they snap either streak.

2015 Pittsburgh Panthers Season Win Total Picks and NCAA Football Predictions
by Robert Ferringo - 7/13/2015

Quick: name the Pittsburgh Panthers head coach. Can't do it? Don't feel badly. If you count interim coaches then new headman Pat Narduzzi is the sixth coach of the Panthers since the start of the 2010 season. That lack of cohesion and consistency is the main reason why they have been a .500 program over the last five seasons.

2015 Boston College Eagles Season Win Total Picks and NCAA Football Predictions
by Robert Ferringo - 7/13/2015

Steve Addazio produced one of the best coaching efforts in the country last year, guiding a rebuilding B.C. team to a 7-6 record with a huge upset win over USC and two near-miss upsets against Florida State (20-17) and Penn State (31-30). Somehow the Eagles have even fewer returning starters (seven) this season than last. But after watching Addazio work last year, I'm not in a hurry to doubt him.