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Corso: 10 predictions for the upcoming season

Tony Barnhart, Cox News Service

Published July 15, 2006 at midnight

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ATLANTA — ESPN college football personality Lee Corso, set to begin his 53rd college football season as a player, coach or television analyst, spoke to the Atlanta Sports Council’s Kickoff Luncheon on Friday.

Corso, who has spent 15 seasons with ESPN’s award-winning College GameDay, sat down with the Journal-Constitution and made 10 predictions for the 2006 season.

1. Georgia Tech has a very good chance to beat Notre Dame.

That is, if the Yellow Jackets do two things:

Spend the summer figuring out how to get Calvin Johnson the ball in the Notre Dame secondary. He is the best wide receiver in college football — period.

Keep leaning on Jon Tenuta, who is one of the best defensive coordinators I’ve ever seen. I don’t know what they are paying him, but it ain’t enough.

2. It will be a two-man race for the Heisman Trophy.

The contenders: Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn and Oklahoma running back Adrian Peterson. The player who gets his team to the BCS championship game will win the Heisman. If neither gets there, the Notre Dame quarterback always wins the tiebreaker.

3. Texas will lose two games.

There is a lot of talent left in Austin, but you don’t replace a talent like quarterback Vince Young. I’m proud to say I was one of 79 people who voted for Young for the Heisman Trophy. I thought he was the best player on the best team all season and that’s the way it turned out.

4. USC’s dynasty isn’t over yet.

The Trojans lost Reggie Bush and Matt Leinart, but they have had the No. 1 recruiting class three out of the last four years. Two USC quarterbacks 1/8Leinart and Carson Palmer 3/8 have won the Heisman over the past four seasons. Mark Sanchez will be the next great SC quarterback.

5. This is not the year to have a conference championship game.

A great, undefeated team is not going to make the BCS championship game because they are going to lose in their conference title game in December. I think the leagues that don’t have a championship game — the Big Ten, Pac-10 and Big East — have a definite advantage this season.

6. The new, five-game BCS model is not going to catch on.

The presidents wanted a fifth game to give greater access to the non-BCS conferences. I think that just made a farce of the whole system and devalued the other four games. You watch. Those two extra slots are just going to go to second-place teams in the BCS conferences. Then what have you gained?

7. If any non-BCS team has a chance to crash the party, it’s Boise State.

Yes, I said Boise State. I know they got waxed at Georgia last year and they’ve got a new coach. But Chris Petersen, who took over for Dan Hawkins, has been the genius behind that offense. They got a ton of starters 1/818 3/8 coming back. They could go undefeated, and then what will the BCS do?

8. The Ohio State bandwagon won’t be crowded for long.

Everybody’s got them No. 1, but have you seen now many tackles they lost on offense? I don’t count starters. I count the number of tackles, and Ohio State lost their top eight tacklers from a year ago. And a bunch of those guys were three-year starters. Not only do the Buckeyes have to go to Texas 1/8on Sept. 9 3/8, they have to go to Iowa 1/8on Sept. 30 3/8. That will be a very difficult game, because Iowa is going to be really good.

9. Miami will bounce back, because they have to.

Miami’s 40-3 loss to LSU in the Chick-fil-Bowl here in Atlanta was, in my opinion, the lowest point in the football history of the school. Larry Coker is catching heat because he’s coaching at a school that has gotten spoiled with great coaches like Howard Schnellenberger, Jimmy Johnson, Dennis Erickson and Butch Davis. Miami still has a lot of question marks on offense. The 1/8Sept. 4) 3/8game with Florida State will be huge for Coker and his program.

10. College GameDay will become a two-hour show this fall.

We started 20 years ago with a half-hour show in studio. Then, in 1993, we took it on the road for the first time at the Florida State-Notre Dame game. Then, several years ago, we went to 90 minutes on the road every week. Now, the demand for the show is so great that we’re going to two hours (8 a.m.-10 a.m. MT). The College Football Hall of Fame is going to honor the show in December for its contribution to the sport. We are just a bunch of guys sitting around talking about college football. How great is that?