CyberZahm

Fearless Football Predictions

Here ye here ye, one and all.

Announcing Fox's 5th annual ND season prediction contest.

Are you man enough to enter? .. confident in your prognostication prowess? ..

So, don't be strangled by complacency, just send, by noon September 3rd, directly to me, a single paragraph of no more than 300 words with your prediction for the upcoming season. I'll post them for all to admire on the CZ News Site.

Come the end of the season a set of impartial judges will evaluate all the entries based on a weighted scale that includes entertainment value ("Gabes will be calling for the coaches ass by the end of September"), accuracy ("they will lose badly to Mich State, lose a squeaker to USC, and win the rest of the games by an average of 4 points"), grammar and spelling ([not] "season be it good and vary happy winnings"), boldness ([not] "they will win every game in which they score more points than the other team") and just how all around good they are or should I say were. The winner will get a really amazing, yet so far undetermined, prize and will be featured on CyberZahm News!

Fox won last year and enjoyed a week in Vegas this past summer!

Thanks.

Fox

PS: I already have entries from Gabes, Bill, Dave, and maybe Mags.

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With the college football season almost upon us, here is my prediction for the 2011 Irish:

Let me start by saying it's a relatively soft schedule, and nowhere near what the SEC and PAC 10 teams have to contend with, not even close!

-USF at home- A coming out party massacre. Keep the women and children away!

-At Michigan- A good game, but ND wins by 10-14. Ann Arbor is our bitch!

-Michigan State at home- The deciding game on just how far the Irish have come. I predict a close game, but Sparty will win, and you will all hate me even more!

-At Pitt- A dead cat! ND rolls!

-At Purdue- Sorry Joey Old & New, but I see a blowout here! I'll be drinking boilermakers by half time!

-Air Force at home- Poultry for dinner!

-USC at home- Trojans burst under pressure!

-Navy at home- Not this year!

-At Wake Forest- A Forest wake; there's whiskey in the jar!

-Maryland at home- Puhleese!! Turtle soup!

-BC at home- ND returns to being the premier Catholic football college in the country! A blow out!

-At Stanford- A good game, but Irish don't have Luck!

So there you have it! ND will go 10-2 in Kelly's second year, and will play in a BCS bowl game. That's where it could get very ugly, boys. Kelly has ND on the upswing, but if we get a game against Bama, Oklahoma, LSU, or Oregon, then look for another old fashioned ass kickin' on national TV as the Irish begin the 2012 season. Kelly is making progress, but this team will still be way short of a NC contender!

Sparty

P.S. Bleep Fox and his bleeped up prediction pool! He bleeps Charlie Weis!!!!!!!!!!!

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All right, Fox, here are some random thoughts and my predictions--

I don't think our schedule is soft this year, contrary to some reports. SEC maybe THE conference, but they don't really travel outside the southeast enough. Go coast to coast like ND, USC, and other major schools and see what happens. I think the time zone travel wears on these kids and coachs, one way or another.

U of Miami Convicts has a mess going on down there, and thoughts around here are that they may get the death penalty. Lots of talk in the STL newspapers about their old basketball coach having close ties to the guy involved in this scandal, coach is now at Mizzou.

Columnist in the STL paper thinks the big 12 should go hard after ND for the conference, especially if A & M bolts to the SEC in a year or two. Personally, don't see ND going to the big 12. I still haven't figured out how the Big 12 let TCU escape to the big east unless they just didn't want the best team in Texas over the last few years in their league. Patterson was my first choice for ND's coach over Kelly, but don't know if he'd have stepped down a level to coach us. Yes, they've been that good and we've been that bad.

Question for group discussion--Do you think ND would be interested in joining a SUPERconference in a few years if the NCAA and BCS blow themselves up? As Fox knows, $$$$ talks, bullshit walks.

OK, on with the show.

Prediction is 9-3, with losses to scUM, MSU, and standford.

D will be beasty, but the O won't be yeasty--it won't 'rise' to occasion often enough to win em all.

Hope I'm wrong and we go undefeated. Got DVR on my satellite last winter, love it, now I'll never miss another ND game on tv. Plus I can record all my favorite cooking shows!

Peace, love, and ND wins to all this fall.

Fox,

Who won the trip to Vegas last year?

BB

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Fox,

I say we go 12-0 this year. Much will depend on qb play and injuries and we'll need some lucky breaks along the way, of course, but I don't see any sure losses on the schedule. We''ll beat South Florida by about 10, win at Michigan in a game that's closer than it should be, and pound MSU, as we gain momentum in the 4th qtr. We beat Stanford in a close game by returning a turnover for a late TD to add to our slim lead and seal the win.

And Prep get laid by a wealthy, uber conservative bombshell named Inge. Wait, I think I'm going over the top now.

D.D.

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I predict we will go 11-1, losing to Stanford, and Prep will get laid, but not by Inge.

Mags

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The over and under in Las Vegas for ND is 9 and 1/2 . I'm an optimist, so I predict 10-2 even though it seems we have 12 road games. JoeyO

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13-0, beat Oklahoma for the unanimous National Championship.

Crist wins the Heisman. He, Manti, Floyd, and Smith are first team All-Americans. Eifert, Martin, Riddick and Ruffer are 2nd team. Too many others to count make 3rd team or honorable mention. Kelly is Coach of the year.

Gabes is no where to be heard from.

Sobo

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I predict we will go 11-1, losing to Stanford, and Prep will get laid, but not by Inge.

Mags

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"I would say quite frankly and quite honestly, [Crist] is the kind of guy I want to coach," Kelly said. "He's tougher mentally. He handles himself in that leadership position in the way I want our quarterbacks to handle it. We have great confidence in his ability to lead our football team to a championship."

Well, that settles it for me.

Kelly said so.

ND goes to the NC game undefeated......BUT ......... Crist injures his knee in the first half and Rees isn't able to take the team further. Gabes will immediately call for Kelly's resignation for being so stupid as not to have given Rees more exposure.

My prediction is made. When do I see the Vegas tickets?

Mazins

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I forget if I gave you mine or not.

If not: I think ND will be fun to watch all season and I will really enjoy the games no matter what.

If I did: whatever I said.

Andy

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We win vs South Florida easily.

Lose a heartbreaker at Michigan. Games turns on a couple fluke plays.

Come back with a vengeance against Michigan State showing great character.

Pittsburgh is a close one. Hmmm. We win a hard fought contest. Offense is beinning to find its rhythm.

Beat Purdue and Air Force with games never in doubt.

Beat USC at home and the campus is really hopping. the game is not close but not a run away either.

Win the next 4 vs Navy, WF, Md, and BC.

Stanford game is hugely hypped. Clash of the brainy football schools. Stanford prevails due to some questionable calls.

10 and 2 and a major bowl appearance. We win a bruising drop down kick ass bar brawl of a bowl game and shake down the echoes holding heads high after a very successful season.

Fox

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ND beats South Florida without much Labor in a game South Florida’s coach wishes he could have SKIPped

ND loses at Michigan in a high scoring game on a couple of HOKEy calls

Back home, ND plays hard but the Spartans MARK up another win

Traveling to the Steel City, ND wins as easily as eatin’ GRAHAM crackers

ND travels downstate and wins easily as the Boilermakers give up HOPE early

Two weeks before the Men of Troy arrive, ND beats TROY’s Falcons

USC starts off in the wrong LANE as the Irish prevail at home

Navy comes to town and the Irish actually win – Holy #@%*&##LOLO!

ND travels to Wake Forest and HATCHes a win

A home game with crab cakes instead of hot dogs is a win as this EDSALL flops as well

Back to the real home ground ND prevails as BC SPAZes

Travelling to the West Coast ND is slain by DAVID and a lot of LUCK

9-3 and headed to TONY (Orlando)

Jack

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Fox - here is what you and everyone else has been waiting for - ND's results in advance so you can go to your favorite bookie and win lots of cash.

South Florida - ND is favored, wins and covers

Michigan - ND is favored, but loses

Michigan State - ND is favored and covers

Pitt - ND is favored and covers

Purdue - ND is favored and covers

Air Force - ND is favored and covers

USC - ND is favored, wins, but does not cover

Navy - ND is favored, wins, but does not cover

Wake Forest - ND is favored and covers

Maryland - ND is favored and covers

Boston College - ND is favored, wins but does not cover

Stanford - ND is the dog, loses, but wins with the points

10-2 Bowl somewhere. ND is favored but loses.

There you go. Print this out. Make your bets every week and let me know how much you win. I'll take my 10% for giving this accurate advice in advance. you're welcome. Hans

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ND beats USF, but Skip beats the spread

ND harbors ill will at Ann Arbor, W by 3

Hey, ND--MSU no match for you, Irish by 10

Pitt, 'nuff said, Irish 4-0

Purdue, or would you like coffee with that creme puff? Irish 5-0

Air Force, uh oh. Irish 5-1

Trojans are leaky, Irish 6-1

Navy, Wake, Terrapins.....you kidding me? 9-1

BC can eat me. 10-1

Stanford is Harbaugh-less.

Stanford Band keeps the Thunderchickens in the game, but still lose. 11-1

--Facetiously yours, PF (terry)

The End

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Fearless Football Predictions Winner

Almost forgot about this .. I mean .. after weeks of careful judging I am ready to announce the winner of Fox's 5th Annual ND season prediction poll.

Let's look at this in decreasing order of predicted number of wins (not including bowl game since many participants didn't include it .. the actual number of wins was 8 in case you've lost track):

12-0: Sobo, Andy, and DD
I think we can eliminate these guys from consideration although we must give DD credit as he said "much will depend on qb play" although then again I guess that is not really going out on thin ice. I suppose if it could be demonstrated that Prep had indeed gotten "laid by a wealthy, uber conservative bombshell named Inge" as Dave predicted we might reopen the judging and give Dave his due.

11-1: Mags and Terry
These two old roomies can also be eliminated from consideration although must give a tip of the hat to Terry since he was the only one who indicated that USF might not be a pushover.

10-2: Gabes, JoeyO, Fox, Hans
Hmmm .. getting closer, lets look at the details. Gabes says we will "massacre" USF and he has the Michigan/Mich State results reversed. He even says that MSU will win "and you will all hate me even more!" which was a stupid prediction because it is almost impossible. So Gabes is toast.

JoeyO didn't really provide much detail other than to say it looked like we have "12 road games". Toast.

Fox had an interesting early season .. got USF wrong like everyone else but then for the next three games predicted "Lose a heartbreaker at Michigan [check]. Games turns on a couple fluke plays [check .. sorta]. Come back with a vengeance against Michigan State showing great character [check]. Pittsburgh is a close one. Hmmm. We win a hard fought contest [check]." Yowsa. He also said things like Purdue and Air Force games never in doubt [check]. His only W/L blemish besides USF was predicting a win over USC. So Fox truly only had two games wrong in his W/L game by game predictions. He is in the running for the overall prize.

Hans on the other hand had four games wrong, predicting a win over Michigan and a loss to Mich State. He did provide detail about who would win with point spreads but I don't remember point spreads and besides, gambling is naughty. Hmmmmm. Toast.

9-3: Jack and Bill
These two scotch drinkers made identical game by game predictions, predicting losses to Mich, Mich State, and Stanford. So although their final W/L record prediction was "better" than Fox's they actually had more games wrong than he did (3 wrong vs 2 wrong for Fox). We will have to look at the details ...

Jack did a nice job but bottom line is didn't provide much deatil other than to say correctly that Mich game would be high scoring and incorrectly that the Pitt win would be easy. Whereas Billy ...

Billy said blah blah fast cars blah blah old whiskey blah blah [insert booby picture here] etc and then finally got to his predictions which did not really include much detail although he did say, very much to his credit, "D will be beasty, but the O won't be yeasty" ..

Between these two gotta give the nod to Billy so it comes down to Bill vs Fox.

Actual final record was 8-4. Bill predicted 9-3 and Fox predicted 10-2. Nod to Bill.

In the game by game W/L predictions though, Fox had 2 incorrect and Bill had 3 incorrect. Nod to Fox. Tiebreaker will have to be in the detailed predictions.

Bill did say D would play great and O would be iffy .. but come to think of it everyone was saying that (except those guys who predicted 12-0). Fox on the other hand made some amazingly accurate predictions about specific games. Gonna have to give the prize this year to Fox.

Prize is an all expense paid trip to Argentina, which Fox enjoyed last Fall. Photos are here:

Iguazu

and here:

Recoleta

Congratulations Fox and thanks to all who participated. Don't forget to look for next year's contest in the late summer.

Adios,

Fox