2016 West Virginia Mountaineers Football Predictions and Season Win Total Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/16/2016

It seems like every fall Dana Holgorsen enters the college football season coaching for his job. He's been able to stay the execution each of the past two years. But Holgorsen hasn't been able to vault WVU into the top tier of the conference since the Mountaineers joined the Big 12 in 2012. At some point you have to wonder when WVU brass and boosters will pull the plug.

2016 Iowa State Cyclones Football Predictions and Season Win Total Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/16/2016

Hey, every conference needs some fodder. And in the Big 12 that is Iowa State. The Cyclones do a great job of being bad enough that none of the top teams in the league ever have to worry about losing to them while also being good enough to steal some nonconference games and play The Big Boys tough every once in awhile. Not that anyone noticed or cares, but Iowa State brought in a new coach, Matt Campbell, from Toledo. Now it is Campbell's turn to steward the program through another few years of servitude.

2016 Kansas Jayhawks Football Predictions and Season Win Total Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/16/2016

I know this might sound crazy, but I actually think Kansas is going to be much better this season. Of course, there is really nowhere to go but up after an 0-12 season, so "better" is relative. But Kansas is a team that might actually be able to compete this year and could even match their highest single-season win total of the decade (three).

2016 UCLA Bruins Football Predictions and Season Win Total Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/12/2016

UCLA entered last season as one of the Pac-12 favorites and a legitimate playoff contender. The Bruins worked their way into the Top 10 early in the season, and the hype on this team was through the roof. But it is as if people have forgotten what I have said for years: Jim Mora Jr. is a bona fide loser.

2016 Washington State Cougars Football Predictions and Season Win Total Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/12/2016

Last year I loved me some Washington State. The Cougars responded with nine wins straight up and an outstanding 10-3 record against the spread. Wazzou closed the season with four of five wins, including a bowl victory over Miami, and as shocking as it is to believe, these guys were really just a few plays away from winning 12 games. They choked away a game to FCS foe Portland State and then took losses from Cal and Stanford in the final seconds.

2016 Utah Utes Football Predictions and Season Win Total Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/12/2016

It took a few years but Utah has finally proven that it can hold its own with the powers of the Pac-12. Three Top 20 wins in 2014 and an all-time blasting of Oregon in Autzen last year proved emphatically that the Utes are something to be reckoned with. And now it is on Kyle Whittingham to display staying power in the top tier of the conference.

2016 USC Trojans Football Predictions and Season Win Total Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/11/2016

The Trojans have to feel like they have finally regained their footing and found some stability in their program. USC is now out of the shadow of their sanctions and withdrawn from the stench of loser Lane Kiffin and the stench of liquor on Steve Sarkisian. Clay Helton had a successful audition as an interim coach last season, and the no-nonsense former coordinator is focused on returning USC to national prominence.

2016 Washington Huskies Football Predictions and Season Win Total Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/11/2016

If you are looking for a big buzz team out West, look no further than the Washington Huskies. Washington enters this season with its most talented team since the 2000 Rose Bowl-winning Huskies squad. Expectations are soaring for this team as major media members from coast to coast are piling onto the bandwagon.

2016 Arizona Wildcats Football Predictions and Season Win Total Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/11/2016

I think that 2016 is an important season in the Rich Rodriguez Era in Tucson. After surging to 10 wins in 2014, the Wildcats raised the bar of expectations coming into last season only to bumble their way to a 7-6 record bolstered by some wins (UTSA and New Mexico in their bowl game) that were nearly as embarrassing as some of the losses.

2016 Oregon Ducks Football Predictions and Season Win Total Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/10/2016

I think the Oregon Ducks are at a crossroads. They spent 20 years gaining credibility and then over the past decade developed into a true college football powerhouse and one of the best programs in the nation. But they had their streak of 10-win seasons snapped at seven last year. And although they are expected to be among a group of teams competing for the Pac-12 title this fall, I think it is clear to everyone that they are no longer the juggernaut that ran roughshod over this league for most of the 2000s.

2016 Stanford Cardinal Football Predictions and Season Win Total Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/10/2016

David Shaw has done more than enough in his five years at the head of the Stanford program to be considered far outside Jim Harbaugh's shadow. Shaw has gone 54-14 straight up and 42-26 against the spread with the Cardinal over the past five seasons, both among the best records in the country, and I don't see any reason to doubt his ability to reload after the graduation of Kevin Hogan.

2016 Arizona State Sun Devils Football Predictions and Season Win Total Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/10/2016

Arizona State's 2015 campaign began in the Top 15 and finished below .500. Despite a host of returning talent, the Sun Devils couldn't build on back-to-back 10-win seasons and now enter Todd Graham's fifth season with a lot more questions than answers.

2016 Cal Golden Bears Football Predictions and Season Win Total Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/10/2016

I was driving the Cal bandwagon last season, and I feel like I got my money's worth. The Golden Bears started 5-0 and worked their way into the Top 25 for the first time in years, won eight games - compared to just nine wins the three prior seasons- and blew out Air Force in a bowl game.

2016 Colorado Buffaloes Football Predictions and Season Win Total Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/10/2016

Colorado has endured a gruesome decade of football, and it is hard to remember that for a solid two-decade stretch the Buffs were a perennial Top 15 team. They've gone just 35-88 straight up and 53-68 against the spread over the last 10 seasons and have been a laughingstock since shifting to the Pac-12 in 2011 (5-40 league record).

2016 Oregon State Beavers Football Predictions and Season Win Total Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/10/2016

Mike Riley was underrated as the Oregon State coach. He kept the Beavers competitive and relevant, and Corvallis was one of the toughest places in the Pac-12 to get a late-season victory. But Oregon State bottomed out in 2015 under first-year coach Gary Anderson. Now the Beavers have to scrape themselves off the deck and really start rebuilding what is, right now, the worst team in the league.

2016 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Football Predictions and Season Win Total Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/8/2016

Brian Kelly may be a bit of a maniac, but he is the best coach that Notre Dame has had in a quarter century, and Kelly continues to do a fantastic job at one of college football's flagship programs. The Irish have gone 39-13 over the past four seasons and enter this year in the Top 10. Kelly continues to stockpile talent in South Bend, and Notre Dame is in a great position for continued success.

2016 BYU Cougars Football Predictions and Season Win Total Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/8/2016

The Cougars bid adieu to Bronco Mendenhall this offseason, as their long-time coach surprisingly took a job at Virginia. Rookie head coach Kalani Sitake will be charged with guiding a very talented BYU team through the gauntlet of another tough independent schedule. Sitake, a former Cougars player, has a wealth of experience as a defensive coordinator, primarily at Utah, and has injected new life into a program that could be headed back into a conference as soon as next season.

2016 Army Black Knights Football Predictions and Season Win Total Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/8/2016

The Black Knights are routinely one of the worst college football teams in the country. Army is just 35-86 over the last decade and has enjoyed just one winning season during that stretch. In fact, Army's 2010 bowl appearance was their first since 1996. Considering there are about 1,000 bowl games each winter, that's a pretty sorry mark.

2016 LSU Tigers Football Predictions and Season Win Total Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/7/2016

Over the last 10 years Les Miles has won 101 games as the head coach of the LSU Tigers. Most programs would kill for that level of success. But you get the feeling that this might be a now-or-never year for Miles, who has been facing increasing calls for his ouster from Baton Rouge over the past several seasons. LSU is one of the most talented, most experienced teams in the country, and Miles will try to get them back in the national title picture for the first time since 2011.

2016 Alabama Crimson Tide Football Predictions and Season Win Total Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/7/2016

I have said, and I still believe, that Alabama was extraordinarily lucky to get two of their three previous National Championships. I still think the fact that they were placed in the 2011-12 BCS Championship Game is the biggest sham - in one of the most corrupt, nonsensical sports in this country - so far this century in college football. But there was absolutely nothing fluky about Alabama's title run last season.