When it comes to football season, I'm pretty much like a jilted lover. I'll keep driving by the house of my metaphorical ex (here the 2009 season), until my new lover is close enough for me to whisper sweet nothings into her ear. So, this is no slight of you, basketball, my perfectly respectable rebound (sweet Lord, I'm witty). But, I need to swing by this old girl's house one more time. And I'll do it in the form of giving you, the loyal reader, a little taste of everything the cup got wrong in 2009.
Counting down the five dumbest things we said in 2009, after the jump.
5. "Tate Forcier is incredible." - The Ghost of Jay Cutler
After his big introduction against Notre Dame, Forcier was being touted as a potential true freshman Hei$man hopeful. He was only the third true freshman to start a season-opener at Michigan. And he wasn't bad. He completed 58% of his passes, threw for well over 2,000 yards, and had a TD-INT ratio of 13-10. But he got bad enough toward the end of the season that there were rumors of Forcier getting benched and transferring. He never did get benched, but the Wolverines finished 5-7, and Forcier wasn't doing anything too incredible after September.
4. "If you thought the Rebels had a clear shot to a 10-win season, have you checked out Auburn's schedule lately?" - Ivory Tower
Auburn's season was par for the course in the manic depressive SEC of 2009. But when I wrote this, they were 5-1, and the inexplicable revival under Gene Chizik was in full swing. From there, the Rebels were the only team of consequence that Auburn beat.
3. "[Jahvid] Best is pretty unstoppable." - Whiskey Wednesday
Tell that to the concussions.
2. "Here is our aggregated (preseason) Top 25. Comments? I think its pretty good aside from [whiskey language] Pitt. C'mon [Whiskey Wednesday] and [Ivory Tower]." - The Ghost of Jay Cutler
Pitt strolled to a 5-1 start with their only loss coming to N.C. State. I, personally, lost faith in them about mid-season, until I pulled my head out of my ass and noticed Dion Lewis. I won't say that Whiskey and I were right about Pitt, but Ghost was, clearly, very wrong about them.
1. "TCU: You're going to lose to the first non-terrible team you play. Get ready." - Whiskey Wednesday
Nope. They didn't. In fact, they beat plenty of non-terrible teams, were playing lights-out defense in December, and fought a battle against Boise State that made me believe in the Broncos. In fact, they became the first non-automatic qualifier to lose a BCS game in a fashion that made them seem worthy of inclusion.
There it is, a compendium of ridiculous prognostications and henceforth disproven assertions. But it wasn't all bad and wrong for the Cup, I did have this little nugget of prescience:
"What has no legs and no arms, but can outrun Steve Spurrier and beat him silly? The impending South Carolina collapse. Catch all the laughs starting this weekend in Tuscaloosa." - Ivory Tower
Call it wisdom. Call it fate. I call it history - still, inexplicably, the most consistently accurate predictor of this crazy sport we love. 2009, you're a fickle bitch, and you left me just like I knew you would. But I love you. And I'll love you to 2010 starts giving me the time of day.