College Football 2025 – Post Mortem

Back in August, I did my annual “look-ahead” to the upcoming football season for college football and the NFL.  Lots of other folks do that; the difference between me and most others is that when January/February rolls around, I go back and review my foresight and present it to the world in the same fashion as the original “look-ahead”.  Today, I’ll deal with the college football preview; here is the link should you want to verify my evaluation.

I identified 6 coaches on a hot seat:

1. Luke Fickell – Wisconsin:  He survived despite a 4-8 overall record.
2. Hugh Freeze – Auburn:  He was fired in mid-November.
3. Mike Gundy – Oklahoma St.:  He was fired after only 3 games in the 2025 season.
4. Brian Kelly – LSU:  He was fired in October.
5. Mike Norvell – Florida St.:  He survived despite a 5-7 record (2-6 in conference).
6. Brent Venables – Oklahoma:  The Sooners were 10-3 last year; Venables easily survived.

            I am not ashamed of that list; three entries there did not make it to the end of the season, and two others had losing seasons but avoided the executioner.  On the other hand, I was nowhere near foreseeing the departure of James Franklin from Penn State.

I did highlight two other “coaching questions” in August:

• Rich Rogriguez:  He returned to West Virginia where he had success from 2000 to 2007; I asked if he could “go home again”.  Well, the Mountaineers’ record in 2025 was only 4-8 (2-7 in conference) which is not going to warrant a parade in Morgantown, WV, but he will be back to coach again next season.
• Sherrone Moore:  I wondered if there would be “another shoe to drop” regarding the Michigan sign-stealing incidents.  Well, a bunch of shoes dropped on Coach Moore that got him fired including an arrest and a court appearance for things much worse than sign-stealing.

            I said I would be interested to see how UNC did in its first year with Bill Belichick on the sideline.  The Tar Heels were 6-7 before Belichick arrived; last year they went 4-8; let me be polite and say it was an inauspicious season in Chapel Hill, NC.

I wondered how Deion Sanders and the Colorado Buffaloes would do in the wake of Travis Hunter and Shedeur Sanders leaving for the NFL.  In 2024, Colorado was 9-4 for the season and 7-2 in Big 12 Conference games.  As is to be expected, the loss of two talented players like Hunter and Sanders had a significant negative effect on team success; in 2025, Colorado was 3-9 overall and 1-8 in Big 12 Conference games.

            My sleeper team for the season was Georgia Tech; they finished with a record of 9-4 (6-2 in conference) and got themselves a bowl bid.  I would say that I hit on that one.

I made 8 predictions on OVER/UNDER total wins for the season:

1. BC UNDER 6 wins – – BD won 2 games in 2025.  Win!
2. Ga Tech OVER 7 wins – – Tech won 9 games in 2025.  Win!
3. Purdue UNDER 3.5 wins – – Purdue won 2 games in 2025.  Win!
4. Stanford UNDER 4 wins – – Stanford won exactly 4 games in 2025.  Push!
5. Texas OVER 9.5 wins – – Texas won 10 games in 2025.  Win!
6. Texas Tech OVER 8.5 wins – – Tech won 12 games in 2025.  Win!
7. UMass UNDER 3.5 wins – – UMass won ZERO games in 2025.  Win!
8. UNLV OVER 8.5 wins – – UNLV won 10 games in 2025.  Win!

Let me take a bow here; those predictions came out 7 wins, no losses and one push; I would be happy to take that record to the bank every season!

This is not a normal “performance review” for one of my football “look-ahead” rants; in fact, it might be the best one ever for me.  So, I’ll bask in the glory of this one and grit my teeth as I look forward to tomorrow and the NFL predictions.  I have not peeked, but I doubt that tomorrow’s review will be nearly as positive.

Finally, let me close with this question posed by Will Rogers:

“If Stupidity got us into this mess, then why can’t it get us out?”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………