2014 UNLV Rebels Season Win Total NCAA Football Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 7/22/2014

It is impossible for UNLV to add to that bowl resume because they are banned from postseason play due to poor academic standings. That has to be disappointing for the 12 returning starters back this year. The Rebels lost their quarterback, running back and four of their top five tacklers and overall the feeling around this program has to be negative.

2014 Air Force Falcons Season Win Total NCAA Football Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 7/22/2014

Troy Calhoun’s program has taken a nose dive over the last three years, seeing their win total drop each of those seasons and bottoming out with last year’s 2-10 debacle. Service academies always have a low ceiling. But the Falcons’ is lowering like a lid on Calhoun’s coaching coffin.

2014 Hawaii Warriors Season Win Total NCAA Football Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 7/22/2014

Norm Chow is basically a confused old man and he should not be a head coach, at any level, heading into the 2014 season. But Hawaii has been so desperate for something positive since June Jones left that they will give Chow another year to try to recapture the magic he may or may not have had over a decade ago.

2014 New Mexico Lobos Season Win Total NCAA Football Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 7/22/2014

Bob Davie continues to try to push an extraordinarily large rock up an incredibly steep hill down in Albuquerque. Progress has been slow. But he has won seven games the past two seasons, matching its New Mexico’s seven wins from the previous four years.

2014 Wyoming Cowboys Season Win Total NCAA Football Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 7/22/2014

Dave Christensen couldn’t capitalize on having one of the top quarterbacks in Wyoming history, Brett Smith, and was given his walking paper. New head coach Craig Bohl will try to pick up the pieces and rebuilt a program that has only finished above .500 three times in the last decade.

2014 Alabama Crimson Tide Season Win Total NCAA Football Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 7/21/2014

The dirty little secret about Alabama football and its recent “dynasty” is that they play an embarrassingly easy schedule each and every season. Alabama gets by on reputation rather than actual performance. And if you don’t believe me simply look back at their schedule over the last four years.

2014 Auburn Tigers Season Win Total NCAA Football Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 7/21/2014

Gus Malzahn is a proven master. And his outstanding offensive system has a lot to work with again this year despite the loss of Tre Mason. Quarterback Nick Marshall and a host of skill players, along with four starters along an outstanding offensive line, are all back in the fold. The defense, though, needs to improve. Auburn’s defense finished No. 48 in scoring, No. 100 against the pass, and No. 86 overall.

2014 Florida Gators Season Win Total NCAA Football Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 7/21/2014

The 2013 season must’ve seemed like the nightmare that would never end for the Gators. The team was decimated by injuries and bumbled their way to a 4-8 season that culminated with a humiliating November home loss to FCS foe Georgia Southern. Florida lost its final seven games of the year and missed a bowl game for the first time in almost 30 years.

2014 Georgia Bulldogs Season Win Total NCAA Football Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 7/21/2014

The Georgia Bulldogs were one of the biggest disappointments in college football last year, beginning the season as a consensus Top 5 team only to find themselves unranked by season’s end. They bumbled to an 8-5 overall record that included a 24-19 bowl loss to Nebraska on New Year’s Day.

2014 South Carolina Gamecocks Season Win Total NCAA Football Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 7/21/2014

For all the talk about the SEC powers the past few years it is easy to overlook South Carolina as one of the best programs in the nation. They have gone 33-6 in the last three years and have finished in the Top 10 each of those seasons. In fact, only two of USC’s last 12 losses since 2009 have come against teams outside the Top 25 and this team is a machine.

2014 LSU Tigers Season Win Total NCAA Football Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 7/21/2014

The Tigers have gone 104-27 over the last 10 years, winning nearly 80 percent of all games and posting an obscene 44-3 mark against teams outside the SEC. Les Miles is an idiot coach savant and continues to crank out uber-athletic and highly decorated recruiting classes alongside 10-win seasons.

2014 Texas A&M Aggies Season Win Total NCAA Football Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 7/21/2014

If I didn’t have so much respect for Kevin Sumlin, a brilliant offensive mind and NFL-caliber headman, I would think that A&M was in trouble this year. I don’t care about the loss of Johnny Manziel as much as I do the losses of Jake Matthews and Mike Evans. But altogether those three departures will at least dent one of the Top 5 offenses in the country.

2014 Ole Miss Rebels Season Win Total NCAA Football Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 7/21/2014

Ole Miss is just 6-10 in the SEC over the past two years. But they have scored a host of recruiting victories over the last two offseasons and they are on the verge of seeing those signees pay major dividends. And after an 8-5 effort last year the Rebels are also on the verge of being a team that no one wants to play come October.

2014 Missouri Tigers Season Win Total NCAA Football Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 7/21/2014

The Tigers were one of the most underrated teams in the country last season, as indicated by their outstanding 11-3 record against the spread. Missouri went 12-2 straight up and their losses were in tight games against South Carolina and Auburn in the SEC Title Game (that game was closer than the final suggests).

2014 Tennessee Volunteers Season Win Total NCAA Football Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 7/21/2014

The Volunteers went 5-7 last season – the third straight year they posted that mark – and that means that they are oh so close to bowl eligibility, right? Wrong. Tennessee sucks. And even though I have a load of respect for coach Butch Jones he won’t be able to turn around this train wreck that quickly.

2014 Arkansas Razorbacks Season Win Total NCAA Football Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 7/21/2014

Arkansas did show signs of progress late in the season. The Razorbacks lost at Ole Miss by 10 (covering a 17-point spread), fell in a tough OT game with Mississippi State, and then gave LSU everything it could handle as a 26-point underdog, losing by just four. Arkansas has seven starters back on both sides of the ball and will be much more familiar with Bielema’s program heading into this fall.

2014 Kentucky Wildcats Season Win Total NCAA Football Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 7/21/2014

Kentucky won two games last year in the first season under Mark Stoops. Bumps and bruises with a new coach can be expected. And they are hoping to improve with some time in his system. Kentucky still doesn’t have a quarterback and the defense is a mess. But they do have four of their five starting linemen back and five of their top six receivers back.

2014 Mississippi State Bulldogs Season Win Total NCAA Football Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 7/21/2014

I don’t know that Dan Mullen gets enough credit for what a great job he’s done with Mississippi State. This team was on par with Kentucky and Vanderbilt before Mullen came along. Now they are at least respectable fodder, capable of covering a spread or two, for the top teams in the SEC.

2014 Vanderbilt Commodores Season Win Total NCAA Football Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 7/21/2014

Vandy only has 10 starters back and they don’t have a quarterback or returning starter at receiver. They only have four starters back on defense and the entire secondary is retooled. They are switching to a 3-4 defense and I expect things to be a bloody mess on both sides of the ball early in the season despite new coach Derek Mason’s familiarity with the roster.

2014 Oklahoma Sooners Season Win Total NCAA Football Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 7/16/2014

The Sooners are still dining out on their demolition of Alabama in last year’s Sugar Bowl. And the feeling around Norman is that the win over the SEC power could be just the thing to revitalize a program that has been good, but just not good enough, over the past few seasons.