BOULDER, CO – SEPTEMBER 16: Head coach Jay Norvell of the Colorado State Rams watches in the first quarter against the Colorado Buffaloes at Folsom Field on September 16, 2023 in Boulder, Colorado. (Photo by Dustin Bradford//Keynote USA/Getty Images)
NCAA football nerds, unite! The last page of Phil Steele’s College Football Preview 2024 magazine went to press last Friday night. Steele said on his social media that the print magazine should be available via direct mail order in the middle of this month and on newsstands around the third week of June.
And the timing couldn’t be better. With the Broncos preparing to take a nap as they conclude their three-day spring minicamp on Thursday, the loneliest four-week stretch of the Front Range sports calendar, from mid-June to mid-July, aka Grading The Week . The team likes to call it “holiday season,” it’s almost here.
Additionally, for the first time in three years, Denver will not host a championship parade in June. So forgive us for looking a little ahead. Worth a lot.
Look, the kids in the GTW offices upstairs are some serious old-school college football junkies. For them, the unofficial start of the football season is not the time they open preseason camp in Dove Valley. Oh no. It’s the first time they walk into Barnes & Noble this month and see Phil Steele’s magazine sitting on a shelf next to its slimmer cousins from Lindy’s and Athlon, waiting for our money.
However, until that day comes, Team GTW will be busy saving our pennies and playing the WL game in our heads, over and over and over again.
And well, speaking of which, FanDuel recently updated its over-under projection for 2024 college football win totals for FBS schools. While it is largely rooted in science, keep in mind that over-unders on wins are also 100% based on getting as much action as possible (money, scratch, moolah) from potential bettors.
FanDuel set the bar for CU wins at 5.5 and CSU’s at 6.5, the same as Air Force (6.5) and Wyoming (6.5). Far be it from Team GTW to tell you how to spend your money on the futures front. But we’re very happy to tell you where we wouldn’t.
Taking control of CU with 5.5 wins – A-minus
Do we believe in DC for the first time Robert Livingston? A bit. Do we believe in the return of OC Pat Shurmur? Oh hell no. Do we believe in starting a true freshman at left tackle in a Power 4 league? Not precisely.
But we believe in Travis Hunter, damn it. And we believe in Shedeur Sanders. We believe that even if Deion Sanders is not interested in developing or combining talent, he is a genius at recruiting and acquiring them.
Assuming the Buffs pull off at least two or three wins in that September challenger at home against NDSU, at Nebraska and CSU, there’s probably enough quality line play to keep Shedeur in one piece and enough quality depth to survive the marathon of the big 12 that is coming. Nine wins sounds optimistic. Talking about playoffs seems frankly crazy. But anything less than six wins, even if you’re not drinking the Prime Kool-Aid, should seem like a disappointment.
Taking over CSU with 6.5 wins – C
The GTW team begs you, Jay Norvell. Prove us wrong. Give us a reason to believe that a turn has finally been made at FoCo. That the lowest performing players in the Mountain West return to the postseason for the first time in seven years. Seven long, long, long years.
The Rams’ six-season bowl drought is the program’s longest since 1989, when Earle Bruce came along and laid the groundwork for Sonny Lubick to become a beast. If Tory Horton can stay healthy and Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi can tone down his hero moments, the pieces are there. But facing Texas’ Quinn Ewers in Week 1 and Shedeur in Week 3 means asking for those pieces to be ready and hungry from the start.
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