By Luke Brumm
Before the season started, I asked some of our writers to give us their bold predictions for the 2023 season. I took the best ones and turned them into three articles. I will now be going back and choosing a few to see how we did. Let’s take a look.
The first one, from myself, was that Alabama would lose three games. Safe to say that didn’t happen. Alabama did have that one slip-up vs Texas, but they found their way to another playoff appearance after beating Georgia in the SEC Championship.
Early on, it looked as if this could be a possibility, but Jalen Milroe drastically improved as the season went on and turned into a big weapon for them. The Tide will take on Michigan in one of two New Year’s Day semifinals.
The second bold take, from Cory Lemer is that Michigan will win it all. This hasn’t happened yet, but it is a real possibility. Michigan ran the table, beat Ohio State, and won the Big Ten again this season. As I mentioned earlier, they will take on Alabama in the CFP semifinal at the Rose Bowl.
As we all know, the season did not come without controversy due to the sign-stealing scandal, with coaches fired and Jim Harbaugh missing six games. Still, this is about the bold prediction and it can still happen.
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Going back to myself, the next take is that a quarterback won’t win the Heisman. This technically can happen, but it is very unlikely. Marvin Harrison Jr. has been invited to the New York for Saturday’s Heisman ceremony. He is accompanied by QBs Jayden Daniels, Michael Penix Jr., and Bo Nix. I see one of these quarterbacks winning the award, but the dream is not dead for this prediction.
Alec Nederveld predicted Florida will win two out of their five matchups vs preseason top 15 teams. These matchups were #1 Georgia, #5 LSU, #8 Florida State, #12 Tennessee, and #14 Utah. The Gators ended up going 1-4 vs these teams, with the lone win coming vs Tennessee, a 13-point win.
Besides that, the Gators lost to Utah by 13, Georgia by 23, LSU by 17, and finished the season with a 9 point loss to Florida State. Florida had another below-average season, going 5-7 and missing a bowl game. Safe to say this prediction was not correct, but it was relatively close.
Next, we have the take that Washington will win the Pac 12 from an @mfscollege admin. This was spot on. The Huskies are undefeated, in the CFP, and on their way there they did win the final Pac 12 Championship.
Despite being nine point underdogs, Washington won their rematch vs Oregon to win the last ever Pac 12 Championship. Heisman-finalist QB Michael Penix Jr. has looked solid as well as their receivers. His team will take on Texas in the playoff semi-final on New Year’s Day.
The last one we will take a look at, from Cory is Carson Beck would lead Georgia to two losses. Georgia sits at 12-1 right now after going undefeated in the regular season but falling short vs Alabama last weekend in a massive SEC Championship.
They technically could lose two games as they play 13-0 Florida State in the Orange Bowl. These are two teams that feel like they are too good for this game, so I hope they take it seriously. A Seminole win will prove this prediction right.
