Final 2009 College Football Predictions Tracker

With the regular season no longer upon us it is time to reflect on the pre-season projections made here at Stars and Slights.

I finished 17-8 on the year (17-7 excluding the non-existent ACC championship game featuring the Hokies) with a point differential of -102 overall. Not terrible but not great, either.

Justin finished with an identical 17-8 record on the year (17-7 without factoring the ACC championship game) with a point differential of +41. Very solid.

Playing by Price is Right rules I would get the nod as champion but we here at Stars and Slights don't believe in that silly rule. We're taking it up with Mr. Barker as we speak even though we hear he's got a pretty good jab and left hook.

That said, I hereby declare Justin as the 2009 college football predictions winner as a result of the point spread tie-breaker.

Below are the final tabulated results.

Brian vs. Justin - Week 9 CFB Predictions Tracker

For the first time in what seems like an eternity Notre Dame finally put away a team in the first half.

Jimmy Clausen continued to pad his Heisman candidacy stats by completing 22 of 27 passes for 268 yards and two TDs.

Golden Tate also showed why he's worthy of the sought after trophy with an unbelievable Hail Mary grab from Clausen at the end of the first half to give the Irish a 30-7 lead. Prior to that outstanding snag he bounced off of two Washington State defenders, leaving them confused and in his rearview mirror as he coasted to a TD run out of the Wildcat formation.

All in all there were only a few negatives to glean from the game: Ben Turk's 11 yard punt, Nick Tausch's blocked extra point attempt, Dayne Crist's injury, and the lack of ND campus shots as this marked the first in a series of neutral site "home" games for the Irish.

The same cannot be said for the Hokies, who suffered their third loss of the year with a crushing last-second home defeat to the North Carolina Tar Heels who recorded their first ACC victory of the season.

To be fair, the Tar Heels have turned into a talented program under the direction of Butch Davis. Had it not been for the unfortunate Ryan Williams fumble, however, the Hokies would have walked away with an Orange Effect victory. Williams is a tremendous back and I can't help but feel sorry for the guy who has elevated himself while filling in seamlessly for the injured Darren Evans.

Neither Justin nor I correctly picked the outcome of the Hokies' game but, as previously mentioned, we're left playing for pride and point totals as our records and remaining picks are identical.

We both sit at 12-4 for the year but have varying degrees of point differential accuracy. Justin is -50 while I am -93 with only nine regular season games left between the two teams (including the ACC championship).

In related news, prognosticators are projecting a Gator Bowl matchup between the Fighting Irish and the Hokies. If that theory comes to fruition my fiancee claims that "Stars and Slights would explode!" Personally, I would love to meet up against the Hokies in a bowl game especially since the two schools have never played against one another.

As long as both teams keep winning we very well might see that explosion.

Go Hokies, Go Irish!

Brian vs. Justin - Week 7 CFB Predictions Tracker

Judgement week has come and gone and there honestly isn't much to say.

USC's offense easily seeped through the porous Irish defense, particularly in the third quarter, and ultimately put the game out of reach. I'm proud of the grit and fight in the Irish to almost tie it up on the last few plays of the game.

If only Michael Floyd had been healthy or Robby Parris hadn't been nearly decapitated by Taylor Mays... if only the secondary had kept their focus on containing USC's wideouts...

Regardless of the 'what ifs' the fact of the matter is a loss is a loss and, despite what the media tries to tell you, Charlie Weis' job is still safe (for now). A blowout (loss) would have led to his termination at the end of the year along with an outrageously large buyout. Since the Irish showed they could compete on nearly the same level with the Trojans, though, my instincts tell me Weis is safe...for now.

As for the Hokies, I won't go into any details but I am surprised Georgia Tech pulled out the victory last week. Hats off to Paul Johnson as he has shown that the traditional option-based offense is not dead in the modern era.

So what did those two losses mean for the friendly competition between my associate and I? The ultimate swing weekend turned into quite the swing as my poor showing evened up our season records at 10-3 apiece.

Cumulative point differentials are a lousy -101 for myself and a more respectable -50 for Justin.

With no other games picked differently through the close of the season Justin and I will find ourselves battling for the cumulative point differential tie-breaker. Of course, 'winning' this competition is about as meaningful as points in a Whose Line Is It Anyway show.

Virginia Tech has a bye this weekend so the only game I find myself interested in is ND vs. BC. One of the esteemed mutual friends of Stars and Slights, Cassie, is a BC alum so bragging rights are certainly at stake.

Domers often remark that this game means more to BC than it does to ND. While the statement is mostly true it ignores the fact that the Eagles have had ND's number the past six consecutive times the schools have met in the "Holy War."

I mentioned earlier that Charlie Weis' job is safe for now. If he wants some insurance he had best beat the Eagles this weekend.

BC has been a case of Jekyll and Hyde this season with moments of brilliance and others or utter disappointment. They've delivered and received blowouts and, with the Irish secondary reeling from another letdown, I suspect this could be a high scoring game.

In the end I think Clausen will be too much for the Eagles. Their poor pass rush will not be able to put enough pressure on him to force turnovers like they did last year at Chestnut Hill.

On Friday night the Irish and Eagles face-off on the ice at the JACC. Even though the hockey season is young this is a very important game in terms of selection for the NCAA tournament.

Go Irish, beat Eagles!

*Note - our thoughts and prayers go out to former BC linebacker Mark Herzlich who is battling the fiercest opponent of his life: cancer. While we don't cheer for the same athletic teams it's safe to say we cheer for the same medical teams. Go Mark, beat cancer!

Brian vs. Justin - Week 5 CFB Predictions Tracker

Another week of perfection for my associate and I as both the Irish and the Hokies prevailed in bouts that were much closer than either team would have hoped.

ND squandered countless opportunities to put 7 on the board and instead settled for five field goals, which gave freshman kicker Nick Tausch a tie for the school record for most field goals in a game and most consecutive fields goals made (10) since 1995.

Jimmy Clausen had another outstanding game along with a little help from Golden Tate (second most receiving yards in school history with 244 yards). The real star(s) of the day was Jon Tenuta's defensive unit during three huge goaline stands in the second half with the Huskies threatening to put the game out of reach.

Robert Hughes scored the go-ahead game winner in OT to give Head Coach Charlie Weis his first OT victory in four attempts.

Virginia Tech's clash with Duke did not have nearly as exciting of a finish but the Blue Devils certainly kept things interesting by putting more points on the board (26) than the Hokies' prior two opponents, Nebraska and Miami (Fla), combined (21). While there a no moral victories it is safe to say the Dukies were pleasantly surprised to put so many points on the board against the Bud Foster led stout Hokies' defense.

For the season, Justin improved his record to 7-3 while I improved mine to 9-1. Justin took over the point differential lead as my lack of faith in the Blue Devils (go figure) caused me to undershoot by a wide margin.

The Fighting Irish are off this weekend as they gear up for the much anticipated matchup at home against USCl while the Hokies take on the Boston College Eagles, who are fresh off of a surprising win against the Florida State Seminoles.

You would know this if you checked out the tabs in the Google Doc below but my money is on VT in this one.

Brian vs. Justin - Week 4 CFB Predictions Tracker

Another week passed us by and the only movement was on the point differential side of the competition.

Both Justin and I improved our records this past weekend. He advanced to 5-3 while I am sitting at 7-1 and a comfortable (for the time being) lead.

In terms of point differential we both narrowed our margins from the previous weeks. Justin improved to a+11 point differential while I somehow sit at only +2 points differential for the young year. A lot can obviously change in just one week as we were both around +20 last week.

As stated last week there is not much opportunity for separation in overall records until a few weekends from now. At the moment we're just waiting to see if we both made the right picks or completely missed the mark.

It's not likely that Duke will upset VT this weekend but hey, anything is possible. Not since the days of Steve Spurrier have the Devils been a threat to anyone. Will this weekend be any different? No. But the Blue Devils have something going for them: it's almost basketball season.

Notre Dame takes on a talented Washington Huskies team still struggling to define its identity. Which Huskies team will show up: the one that beat USC two weekends ago or the one that suffered a letdown vs. Stanford last weekend?

I'm hoping for the latter.

Brian vs. Justin - Week 3 CFB Predictions Tracker, Superman Edition

Justin was right: it was a funny week. Although my beloved Irish got the win and further distanced myself from Justin in the W-L column Michael Floyd is likely out for the year with a broken collarbone.

I'm not sure why but someone forgot to tell Mark Dantonio that Floyd was out in the second half. Tate should have been doubled on for the rest of the game with the other half to the Dynamic Duo out, but thankfully that was not the case as Tate caught the game-winning touchdown. He then proceeded to Superman the Michigan State Spartans band. See for yourself:

Not sure how Armando Allen received an excessive celebration penalty last week in Ann Arbor while "shushing" the Wolverine crowd and Tate got away with this one. Perhaps because it was the coolest touchdown celebration in the history of football?

I would have gladly swapped the penalty in favor of this weekend because MSU has a history of late game meltdowns while Michigan does not. Our defense still might have collapsed in both games but maybe we would be 3-0 now instead of 2-1... I degress. C'est la vie.

With the ND victory this week I moved further ahead of Justin in the competition, sitting at 5-1 and a differential of 19 points while my associate is at 4-2 and a differential of 29 points.

There won't be much more movement until the middle of October with potential swing games of ND vs. USC and VT vs. GT.

I'll be surprised if either Justin or myself can keep the point differential below 50 points for the season. So far I am trending to a closer finish to that mark than Justin but we're only three games deep so there will be ample opportunities to climb up and down that ladder.

Brian vs. Justin - Week 2 CFB Predictions Tracker

Perfection is no longer an option for myself or Justin as the Michigan Wolverines pulled out the surprising upset against Notre Dame. With the ND loss, I moved to a 3-1 season record with a combined point differential of +34 points while Justin has a 2-2 season record with a combined point differential of +25 points.

Next week will add more separation between Justin and I as he has MSU favored to beat the Irish while I have the Irish over the Spartans. There honestly won't be many opportunities for movement the rest of the year as Justin and I have very similar forecasts for each program.

I will do my part next weekend as I will be in South Bend hopefully willing the Irish to a victory and two-game lead over Justin. Time will tell...

Brian vs. Justin - Week 1 CFB Predictions Tracker

Forgive me for not posting this sooner but I actually just spent the past five minutes figuring out how to create, publish, and embed a Google Docs Spreadsheet onto the blog.

At the beginning of each new week I will send out an updated post with this spreadsheet embedded in it.

The spreadsheet houses our pre-season predictions and actual weekly results. If you would like to see more statistics tracked within the spreadsheet itself just leave a comment and I will consider adding more information.

For the tens of you who read the blog you probably already knew I was at the ND vs. Nevada game this past weekend. As a home opener I was very pleased with the performance of the team and can only hope Jimmy Clausen continues his hot streak (more touchdowns than incompletions in his past two games).

Tough loss for the Hokies this past weekend yet I am still optimistic about their prospects of finishing the season strongly. After all, I did predict an opening game loss.

Week 1 Recap - Justin was 1-1 with a total point differential of +1 while I was 2-0 with a total point differential of -7.

If you have trouble or feedback with respect to the ease of use of the spreadsheet below please leave a comment to this post.