First Look: Phil Steele Magazine

It's a bright and sunny Saturday here in central Maryland. By all accounts I should be outside cutting the grass or grilling up some thick cut of red meat while blaring a Kenny Chesney song in the background. But I'm not doing any of those things. In fact, I'm currently in a dimly lit room of my basement staring back and forth between my computer screen and a much too difficult to read, will-surely-destroy-my-eyesite-by-the-time-I'm-30 magazine page informing me about the correlation between yards per point and offensive success. It can only mean one thing.

That's right college football fans. Call it Christmas in May, because today Phil Steele Magazine arrived in good old West Friendship, Maryland. Needless to say, this makes Adam a very happy young man. Brian and I will of course have much more in lead-up to our interview with Phil Steele next week (to be posted here at the ITB website and on Itunes on Monday, June 8^th), but for now I thought I'd drop some initial first impressions. Your ridiculously obsessive and personal questions are of course welcomed to these otherwise random notes. Enjoy!

• Texas and Florida in the National Title. I know: Phil really went out on a limb here, didn't he?
• Notre Dame is Phil's pick to make it to the Gator Bowl, to face off against Clemson (!?!)
• Bradford, Tebow, and McCoy are Phil's top three quarterbacks. CMU's Dan LeFevour, Ole Miss' Jevan Snead, Nevada's Colin Kaepernick, and (here's the shocker) Arkansas' Ryan Mallet round out the top seven.
• For the first time in which I can ever remember, Phil has included FCS players in his player rankings.
• Phil's Conference Rankings based on last year (in descending order): SEC, Big 12, Pac-10, MWC, ACC, Big 10, Big East, CUSA, IND, WAC, MAC, Sun Belt.
• Phil says Illinois will be the most improved team in the country this year.
• Surprise Team Top Five: 1) Penn State 2) Rutgers 3) Cal 4) Notre Dame 5) Illinois.
• Preseason Top 10 you ask? Here we go: 1) Florida 2) Texas 3) USC 4) Oklahoma 5) Penn State 6) Mississippi 7) Notre Dame 8 ) Alabama 9) Cal 10) Ohio State.
• Phil likes BYU to win the MWC, UTEP and Southern Miss in CUSA, Boise in the WAC (seven of his nine power rankings call for Boise to go undefeated), CMU and Ohio in the MAC, and Troy in the Sun Belt.
• Florida has Phil's highest +/- rating at 140.00. NMSU has his lowest at 90.80.
• Phil has revised his experienced charts. Army and Navy and Air Force are no longer at the top on a yearly basis. This year's most experienced team is Minnesota. Missouri is his least experienced team.
• From the Turnover=Turnaround charts. Oklahoma, Florida, Buffalo, Wake, and Ohio State "going down?". Washington St, Wyoming, Washington, North Texas, and Army "going up?"
• Same two girls as always modeling bikinis. How old are those ads?
• Lettermen Returning Indicator: Toldeo, UAB, and Stanford have an 89% chance of improved record. Navy, Missouri, and South Carolina have 82% chance of weaker or the same record.
• Phil picks Georgia Tech to outrush Navy in 2009. Dammit.
• Phil likes Tebow for the Heisman.

I need oxygen. Keep those questions coming!