The annual college football preview magazines are starting to hit the newsstands. All these publications do a great job of previewing the upcoming college football season and whetting the appetite of rabid college football fans who are chomping at the bit for two-a-days to get started.
Phil Steele’s 2009 College Football Preview arrived in my mailbox a couple days ago. I’ve had the opportunity to peruse the 328-page publication over the past few days. But it amazes me how much information is crammed into Steele’s magazine. Every time I pick it up, I find something new.
We had information on Steele releasing his All-Big Ten and All-America teams here on GopherSports.com recently. But today I ran across Steele’s ranking of the top players in the nation at each position. A handful of Gophers were recognized on those lists as well.
The top-ranked Gopher among the position rankings was wide receiver Eric Decker, who Steele ranked as the No. 4 wideout in the nation. The guy throwing the ball to Decker was pretty highly-regarded as well. Quarterback Adam Weber gets a nod as the No. 20 signal-caller in the country.
Along the offensive line, Steele ranked D.J. Burris and Ned Tavale Nos. 36 and 50, respectively at the guard position.
On the defensive side of the ball, linebacker Lee Campbell was ranked as the No. 68 outside linebacker in the nation. Campbell will most likely be Minnesota’s starting inside/middle linebacker, but we’ll give Steele a pass on the minor error. Traye Simmons was ranked as the No. 68 cornerback as well.
On the special teams, Troy Stoudermire was rated by Steele as the No. 15 kickoff return man in the country.
On a related note, here’s a website to check out if you want to see where the Gophers are ranked by all the major preseason magazines. It has a consensus national ranking and a consensus ranking for every Football Bowl Subdivision conference, based on the preseason publications.
This website doesn’t have a ton of bells and whistles or pretty graphics. But there is a lot of information and it gets updated throughout the summer as more and more magazines roll off the presses.
Just 81 days until the season opener at Syracuse and a short 88 days until the debut of the Gophers at TCF Bank Stadium vs. Air Force.
-Andy Seeley
Courtesy: University of Minnesota
