FREE THOUGHT FRIDAY

BEAN-BLOG EARLY EDITION: With the Vols getting a jump-start on the opening weekend of College Football season I thought I would do the same. I will try to post a condensed version late Thursday night or early Friday morning with some thoughts on the Appalachian State game. Like many early recruiting commitments however consider this a verbal-only.

2016 VOL FOOTBALL FORECAST

SEPT 1- TENNESSEE 47 APPY STATE 17-Great respect for the Mountaineer program but this ain’t 07.

SEPT 10- TENNESSEE 34 VA TECH 20- Vols overcome months of Bud Foster preparation and the program’s tendency to stumble versus first-year coaches

SEPT 17- TENNESSEE 50 OHIO U 17- Butch’s MAC Pride has team ready for sandwich game

SEPT 24- TENNESSEE 37 FLORIDA 13- You end streaks with blowouts

OCT 1- TENNESSEE 24 GEORGIA 23- Two straight Dawg-whoopins

OCT 8- TEXAS A&M 27 TENNESSEE 24- Aggies take advantage of perfect spot on schedule

OCT 15 ALABAMA 24 TENNESSEE 20- Guess we’ll have to settle for one streak stopped

OCT 29 TENNESSEE 38 SOUTH CAROLINA 17- No Muschamp magic in Columbia

NOV 5 TENNESSEE 61 TENNESSEE TECH 10- Freddy Bowl goes to the Vols

NOV 12 TENNESSEE 42 KENTUCKY 13- Stoops era just about over

NOV 19 TENNESSEE 45 MISSOURI 20- Tigers back where we thought in SEC

NOV 26 TENNESSEE 51 VANDY 13- Derek Mason era IS over.

DEC 3 SECCG: TENNESSEE 27 LSU 20 Vols knock Tigers out of playoffs

JAN 2 SUGAR BOWL: TENNESSEE 24 OHIO STATE 21 Why not beat Urban to end a great season?

BEANO FROM RENO’S PLAYOFF PICKS:

ALABAMA-Tide backdoors into the playoffs as the only one loss SEC team without winning the West

FLORIDA STATE-Seminoles beat Clemson in Tallahassee on October 29 and win the ACC Championship

TCU-Texas A&M transfer Kenny Hill proves to be a solid QB and the Horned Frog Defense is Gary Patterson-like.

CLEMSON-With the only loss being to #1-Rated Florida State Clemson makes the ACC the first conference to have two playoff entries.

WHAT WE’LL LEARN IN WEEK 1

KEYS TO THE CELLER: I’ve gotten on the SEC for failure to build drama as the season progresses. On the other hand, I give the schedulers credit for getting arguably the worst SEC game of the year out of the way before most realize the season has even started. South Carolina travels to Vandy on Thursday and when the dust clears we’ll have a clear cut favorite for the worst team in the SEC

CAN THE CARDINAL TAKE THE FIRST STEP? Though they recovered quite nicely thank you winning 13 of their last 14 games -including the PAC-12 Championship Game and the Rose Bowl- Stanford stumbled out of the gate with a loss to Northwestern in last season’s opener. This season they host a Kansas State team uncharacteristically projected to finish in the bottom half of the Big-12 on a Friday night. Two of the better coaches in America have had an entire offseason to prepare so don’t expect either team to run off and hide.

AUDITIONING FOR THE BIG TIME? Houston is one of the multitude of universities being considered for Big-12 expansion and the Cougars are looking to add a second consecutive power program scalp -after taking down Florida State in last year’s Peach Bowl- when Oklahoma comes calling at NRG Stadium. Houston appears to have a big-time coach in Tom Herman and their chances of keeping him increase if they can secure a Power-5 conference affiliation. Beating one of the great programs in history that’s a member of the league they long to join sure wouldn’t hurt their chances.

CAN THE ACC HOLD SERVE? The ACC has what appears to be a wonderful opportunity to wobble the powerful SEC’s legs in Week 1 contests. Though two of the three contests are veritable road games -with Clemson traveling to Auburn and UNC playing Georgia in Atlanta- the matchups suggest the football-underling ACC could sweep with FSU facing Ole Miss in Orlando to complete the triumvirate. The odds-makers aren’t very confidant however tabbing Georgia as a 2- point favorite while Clemson and FSU will lay only 7- and 4- points respectively. With the top-2 teams from their league facing SEC squads projected no better than third in their division fans of the Atlantic Coast better hope it’s a celebratory day.

WHERE’S SAM “THE BAM”? In 1970 Sam “The Bam” Cunningham ran for 135 yards and 2 TDs as he his fellow USC Trojans defeated Alabama 42-21 in Birmingham. Legend has it that his performance gave Bear Bryant all the ammunition he needed to integrate the Tide’s roster the following season. 46 seasons later talent is all that matters and Alabama isn’t lagging behind anyone when it comes to stockpiling players. We’ve heard from several fronts that the Trojans feel like they have something for the Tide when they meet in Jerry’s World on Saturday night. I say best of luck to Clay Helton but you probably aren’t going to enjoy your first official day on the job.

STRONG START? Charlie Strong begins his third season on one of America’s toastiest seats but has a clear chance to turn down the thermostat in Week 1. The Longhorns return 7 starters on offense and 8 on defense from a team that’s last impression was a win against #12 Baylor in Waco. The Horns surely remember the 38-3 thrashing the Irish laid on them in last season’s opener in South Bend and will be facing a team trying to decide between DeShone Kizer and Malik Zaire at QB. You know what they say about having two QBs…. , not to mention a recent crime wave that swept up 7 players.

FINAL FRIDAY THOUGHT: Happy Football Season everyone. Enjoy every second of it.

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