Pre-Pre-Season Prediction

Long time no talk.

As some of you have happily known, this blog has been without the services of Sir Alex Brinkhater for the better part of two months now. And, not surprisingly, the blog has absolutely taken off ever since.

So, me and the other Blogfathers have decided that its time for me to resume my blog routine to try to slow the traffic down a little.

Or maybe a lot.

But first, for my fan club of one (and yes, that means you, Cougar Jen), the reason for my absence…

While some of you sent some really kind e-mails wondering if I was in bad health, the truth of the matter was that I received a fairly substantial job offer for bringing Brinkhater commentary (albeit under a different auspice) to a major sports website. As a result of this offer, I had to shut down my blogging in the same way that a radio or TV personality goes off the air when they take a job offer.

In all honestly, it was a tough decision about whether or not I should switch careers. On one hand, I had put tons of work into my current job and doctoral work. On the other hand, when I look in the mirror, both my visage and midsection look increasingly like my main man, the evil Vince Grippi.

“I could be a PERFECT sports columnist,” I remarked at the time.

But in the end, the slew of Brinkhater-hater comments that I’ve received over the past year convinced me that trying to make a career out of this stuff would result in a career that would wind up being shorter than a New York minute. So, I turned em down and now am back to continue to turn you all off from frequenting this blog.

That all said, it was hard to try to figure out what to write about given my long sabbatical. But, given Sedihawks MASTERFUL Pac-10 previews (did he kick Athlon’s ass or what?), I thought I’d give you my pre-camp predictions of this team’s fortunes.

And since, this pre- pre-view will be entirely devoid of any real information or fact, please join in by giving us your takes on the upcoming tilt.

1) Our first three games

2) Rogers play at QB

3) The health of our Defensive Line.

Where the last point is concerned, I honestly believe that the return of Mullenix for his 8th season might have actually won us two games. Its not that M is any good, but the addition of his presence may make us JUST deep enough to be able to keep teams under 30 and in games as a result.

But the real key to the season is the play and development of Gary Rogers.

As I’ve told Sedihawk over and over again, there has been nearly an entire generation of Cougar football fans that have forgotten what a spread offense looks like with a strong armed quarterback.

And, when you look at the arsenal of talent we have at the skilled positions, there is a real threat for this new offense to be an absolute tour de force this year.

So, if Tardy is healthy and Ivory eligible, our backfield will be poised for at least 1,200 yards + rushing combined. With Woodard and Freikenschiltheisen at TE we will be suitable up the middle. And then you have burners Gibson, Anderson, and the snake-in-the-grass pounder Willis as wideouts for Rogers to spread the ball to. Honestly Cougar Nation, the sky is the limit for this group. This really could be one of the better offenses that we’ve had in a while if Rogers can execute it. And, when you factor in that every team will be seeing us for the first time this year, and you have a recipe for a team that may really get on a roll.

The key will be how quickly Rogers picks up the offense generally, and how well he does establishing the middle of the field with his passing game–which as Cougar fans know is ALWAYS the struggle with first year quarterbacks.

With that in mind, expect that most teams will try to funnel the action to the middle of the field early to try to entice Rogers to hit a number 53 or 55 straight in the numbers early and often.

However, IF Rogers can hit the short slant AND if we can establish a running game early, this offense is really, really, really going to fly. I can’t wait to see what a 75 yard out and down looks like again. I really can’t wait.

So, how do I see the season in total?

In a nutshell, Brinkhater forsees a surprisingly successful season that will end with us bowling.

The key “swing game” on the slate will be our tilt with the Baylor Bears. Win that game and I think we will be bowl eligible. Lose that game, and it could be a long season since I think that will put us at 0-3.

My nimble predictions:

OSU-L

CAL-L

Baylor-W

PSU-W

Ore-L

UCLA-W

OSU-W

USC-L

Stanford-W

Arizona-L

ASU-L

UW- W

Hawaii-W

That’s 7-6 in Brinkhater math. Don’t know about you all, but I am gearing up to really enjoy it since 2009-10 is shaping up nicely to be a really special two win campaign.

But, this is going to be a surprising year for the Cougar Nation if we can avoid the early and pre-season injury bug that plagued the Doba years.

Give us your thoughts on the upcoming season and have a great week.