"Steele Stats"

Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes

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My copies of Phil Steele's 2008 "College Football Preview" arrived at my desk today--and as usual, the publication lives up to its reputation as the most information-packed of all the preseason magazines (and as Phil notes every year, his mag is also the most accurate, in terms of prognostications matching actual results).

After a quick perusal, here's a summary of the notes that will be of most interest to BYU fans:

As released earlier, BYU is picked 17th in Phil's "Preseason Top 40," with Utah picked 14th. In the "Power Poll" (a ranking of teams' raw strength, without respect to schedule), BYU is ranked 18th, with Utah 23rd.

Utah is picked to win the MWC, BYU 2nd. TCU is picked 3rd, with the Frogs followed by UNLV, New Mexico, Wyoming, Air Force, SDSU and CSU. Phil's all-MWC selections were released earlier and noted in a previous blog entry.

The following BYU players are nationally ranked at their respective positions:

Max Hall (20th QB)

Harvey Unga (26th RB)

Fui Vakapuna (5th FB)

Dennis Pitta (11th TE)

Tom Sorenson (29th C)

Ray Feinga (28th G)

Dallas Reynolds (8th T)

Jan Jorgensen (33rd DE)

Austin Collie (11th KR)

BYU's position units are ranked nationally as follows:

QB-16th

RB-26th

Receivers-26th

Offensive Line-7th

Defensive Line-14th

The MWC is listed as the 7th "toughest conference," with Wyoming the projected 22nd "most improved team."

Regarding BYU's 2008 Recruiting Class, the Cougars' class is ranked 43rd nationally (best in MWC), with Austin Holt ranked as the 5th best TE, and Jake Murphy the 40th best WR. Among Juco signees, DL Bernard Afutiti is ranked 9th nationally, and OL Jesse Taufi 33rd.

Utah and BYU are listed 1-2 among "non-BCS Teams Who Could Surprise"

BYU is projected to play UCLA in the Poinsettia Bowl. This will not happen. No way BYU plays the same team twice in a season for two straight seasons. Phil messed up on this one. Utah is projected to play Arizona State in the Las Vegas Bowl. The 10 BCS bowl slots are all filled by BCS conference teams, with two teams apiece from the SEC, Big East, Big Ten and Big 12.

Max Hall is listed among 18 Heisman Trophy "possibilities," with Steele listing 8 "favorites" and 11 "contenders" ahead of the Hall group. Utah's Brian Johnson is in the same bunch with Hall.

BYU opponent Washington is listed as having the nation's toughest schedule, with BYU's schedule ranked 86th.

Washington is also ranked 116th nationally in Steele's "Experience Ratings." BYU is 52nd.

Another Washington note--the Huskies led the nation last year in "net close losses," with 5 (net close losses = number of losses by a TD or less subtracted by the number of wins by a TD or less). Teams with a large number of "net close losses" one year tend to do well the next year.

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