Bought my 2015 Steele this past Friday. It remains one of the unalloyed pleasures of my CFB offseason. I follow a certain ritual once I get home with it: read the Georgia preview first, then look at the individual unit ratings, then the statistical ratings/analysis, then, gradually, the rest of the team reviews (starting with the SEC, of course).
My favorite thing from the magazine are the little factoids he spices throughout the read. I’ll share a few of those with you today. But I want to start with what I think is the most remarkable aspect of this year’s model. I’ve bought his preview for over a decade, and I can’t recall a year where he’s been so overwhelmingly positive about a school’s prospects as he is about Ohio State’s this season. Check out these national unit ratings:
- Quarterbacks. 1st
- Running backs. 2nd
- Receivers. 8th
- Offensive line. 4th
- Defensive line. 3rd
- Linebackers. 2nd
- Defensive backs. 3rd.
The only OSU group which doesn’t crack his top ten is special teams. There, the Buckeyes rank 12th. That’s ridiculous. (For comparison purposes, Georgia ranks in the top ten in three categories, running backs (#1!), offensive line and linebackers, and doesn’t even crack Steele’s top 45 in quarterbacks.)
Throw in the 45th-ranked schedule, and you can see why Steele’s basically telling everyone in Columbus to go ahead and book hotel rooms in Glendale.
Get The Picture 
Well, Meyer got that low stress schedule he was looking for and will take advantage of it. I would normally say ‘good for him’ at this moment but I honestly don’t wish any good on that a-hole.
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We all badmouth Irvin Meyers (and he deserves it ’cause he’s such a douchebag) but the guy is a really good college football head coach. Who else in CFB has gotten the upper hand on Nick Saban? He recruits really well, puts together championship caliber teams and doesn’t make in-game coaching screw-ups. That said, I think the guy is crazy. He certainly looks and acts the part.
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I wonder if Ohio State is kinda looking like FSU in the 90’s. Loaded with talent, well coached and weak schedule.
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^This. Urban has found the perfect situation. It’s a can’t lose job. They only play about 2 serious regular season games per year. Win those and they are undefeated. Most of the time the opponent is an Indiana or Illinois with a Minnesota and a a Purdue thrown in for good measure. Even an occasional screw-up has no consequences (see Va Tech). Make it to the Big 10 Championship game with little or no stress, win it and then you are in a playoff.The Bucks have been in the playoffs so much that sooner or later they eventually are guaranteed to win the thing. How many BCSNCGs did they play and lose? And before that, they were constantly in bowl games where if they won they would be declared national champs (and lost a lot of those, too).
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I’m not sure one win qualifies as the “upper hand”, but Meyer is a great coach. He’s a nutjob and an asshole, but he is 100% focused on winning football games.
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It is tedious to work through but I honestly don’t know how a CFB fan doesn’t buy it. I don’t go through every team’s write-up but scan most major teams and all conference and unit articles.
I keep the magazine handy all season long as a reference and sometimes look back to see if his analysis of certain teams was on-point. When I think about how much time I spend on CFB, I am blown away by what he can do and still have a life.
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Mac, if you follow Steele on social media, you find he doesn’t have a life other than his previews. Also, he does a lot of radio all over the country and some TV with the WWL during football season. I’ll have to give him this – he got it right on us in 2008. I believe he said the schedule was too tough for us to win the division or a championship regardless of our talent level.
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PS was my FAV to win BPSM in 2013 after publ 217PG in 2012 upsetting ATHL and LINDY on the way to a 15M selling PS. PS has my #1 STATS edging out SpNws for the honor. I was only PSME to predict sales of ALL PSMs since no others predict OBSC STATS but me. PS has my #2 PAP + BIND but slips to #5 CHEEZ BETTNG LN ADS. Also LOST MY I-SIGHT trying to RD SM PR and INTERP WrD ACRONs.
KEY: BPSM=Best Preseason Mag. PSME=Best Preseason Mag Editor. PS=Phil Steele. CHEEZ BETTNG LN ADS=Cheesy Betting Line Ads. I-SIGHT=eyesight. RE SM PR=read small print. INTERP WrD ACRONs=interpret weird acronyms. PP+BIND=paper and binding.
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Saxon, you have to put it in about 7.5 font, so it’s barely readable without a magnifying glass. Well played, regardless.
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I got my copy yesterday…I need longer arms.
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Couldn’t find my font size control. Had that precise thought. Only problem was I didn’t pat myself on the back enough in the entry.
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Yeah, his life isn’t much outside of football, but that ain’t the worst way to go. Never understood why he didn’t learn to delegate some of those write-ups on teams, especially the lower levels. It isn’t like he can’t override something that he has issues with.
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Oops, meant for ee above but Saxon is right, the self back patting is unnecessary, his performance is on the record for all to see without his continual referrals. But my bigger issue is the font, about force to buy a magnifying glass.
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PS is the original guy in the basement in his underwear with a computer. The guy is smart, but he seems to think he needs to remind people like the bookies with their guaranteed winners.
I think he really enjoys the research and the squinting at the 7.5 font on his computer. Can you imagine being his editor?
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FWIW, as good as he is at collecting data and projecting the political results of ranking teams, he is just flat awful at picking winners against the spread. I have subscribed to his Pressbox for college games and post season NFL games and he gets killed. I won’t waste the money this year although his updated compilation of facts regarding matchups was useful.
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