2022 CFB Preseason Content

Published on Tuesday, 7/26/22, at 8:20 a.m. Eastern.
Updated on Saturday, 8/13/22, at 2:48 p.m. Eastern.

What’s up, everybody?! I hope everyone is enjoying their summer.

I’ve had my Phil Steele magazine for nearly a month now, so I’m ready to talk every Power Five squad, the AAC and the Mountain West. I’m almost there with the Sun Belt and then I’ll just have the MAC left before jumping into the NFL. Week Zero kicks off the college football season on Aug. 27, so we’re getting extremely close.

With that in mind, I’m going to hit you with some links below of some of my recent radio spots and my work over at MajorWager, where you can find all of my by-lines here.

–Fresno St. has brought Jeff Tedford back as head coach after he was forced to resign due to medical reasons after the 2019 campaign. He’s thrilled to have star QB Jake Haener back along with an eliter group of wide receivers led by Jalen Cropper. After going 10-3 straight up and 8-5 against the spread last year, I feel the Bulldogs are poised for another big season. I explained in detail why I’m recommending a three-unit play on Fresno St. to go ‘over’ 8.5 wins right here.

–Ole Miss is off a 10-win season and a trip to the Sugar Bowl in just the seconed season of Lane Kiffin’s tenure. Kiffin masterfully worked the transfer portal to fill holes on the roster, bringing to Oxford the second-best group of transfers per 247Sports. USC transfer Jaxson Dart is set the replace Matt Corral, assuming Dart can hold off Luke Altmyer. The Rebels have a season win total of 7.5, and I explain why I’m bullish on the ‘over’ in my preview for MajorWager.

—My preview of the 2022 Florida Gators, who are off a nightmare 2021 campaign that saw Dan Mullen get fired just one year after pushing Alabama, the eventual national champion, in a 52-46 loss at the SEC Championship Game.

–My new podcast sponsored by VegasInsider is called ‘Bet CFB.’ You can check out the debut edition here, as my featured guest Jay Greeson and I talk all things SEC, Clemson and NC St., whether Utah is good enough to crash the CFP party and how Bo Nix will do at Oregon. Greeson is my former cohort at the Marietta Daily Journal and a long-time columnist for the Chattanooga Times Free Press. Please rate, subscribe and all that good stuff. Thanks!

–And here’s Episode #2 of the ‘Bet CFB’ pod with Brad Powers as the featured guest.

–Pat Narduzzi won’t have QB Kenny Pickett or WR Jordan Addison in 2022, but the Pitt Panthers return three first-team All-ACC selections and a second-team All-ACC pick from a defense that allowed an average of just 23.6 points per game in 2021. Pitt finished last season with an 11-3 SU record and a 10-4 ATS mark, winning the ACC to hook up their betting supporters with a spectacular payout in the 60/1 neighborhood. Kedon Slovis is set to replace Pickett at QB and he’s got three veteran RBs, the ACC’s best offensive line and a transfer WR in Konata Mumpfield, who had 63 catches for 751 receiving yards and eight touchdowns as a true freshman at Akron last year. Here’s my preview of the Panthers with my pick on their win total.

–Geoff Collins has won only three games in each of his three seasons as HC at Ga. Tech. I’ve always liked Collins after he had an outstanding two-year run as defensive coordinator in the first two years of Jim McElwain’s ill-fated tenure at Florida. (The McElwain hire was one of three horrendous football hires by Jeremy Foley during his disastrous run as UF’s AD, but you’ve been listening to my rants about that forever, right?) However, after a successful two-year run as HC at Temple, his time at Ga. Tech has been an unmitigated disaster. Now as far as the offensive side of the ball, Collins deservedly got a bit of a pass in the first two years because he inherited players recruited to run Paul Johnson’s run-oriented flexbone attack. However, the Yellow Jackets’ defenses under Collins have all been worse than the ones fielded by Johnson’s staff. It’s a make-or-break season for Collins on The Flats in midtown Atlanta, and I don’t see it getting turned around. Here’s my take on Ga. Tech’s season win total. Many books had adjusted this number up to four from 3.5 as of early August (even better!).

–I appeared on ‘The Oddsbreakers’ podcast with Kiev O’Neil last week and we previewed the SEC for 90-plus minutes. You can check out that interview here. (A few UFC 277 picks for this Saturday are also discussed in the final 15-20 minutes.)

–For more of my SEC opinions, I was a guest on 3 Man Front in Birmingham two weeks ago.

–Here are my QB Rankings.

–Here are my Preseason Top 50 Power Rankings.

–I made a guest appearances on 107.5 The Game in Columbia, S.C., on Friday morning (7/29). You can check that interview out here. I’ll start appearing on this show weekly again starting in late August and will get back to you on that time and day of the week soon.

–Finally, I chimed in with my thoughts for the UFC 279 main event that was booked last week — Nate Diaz vs. Khamzat Chimaev.

Get signed up for Brian’s 2022 Season Pack now!