By Staff
It has been quite a year in college football to say the least.
And we still have two weeks left in the regular season.
As a member of the Football Forecasters in the Dowagiac Daily News, it has been a tough year.
I cannot remember having so many upsets throughout the season and I have been here since the creation of the panel.
Each Saturday night I cringe as I start to watch the scores scroll across the bottom of my television set, or if I am at the game, across the top of my computer screen.
Almost without fail, one or more of the favorites fell by the wayside each week.
There were a couple of good weeks where most all of the favorites won and I had a good record.
The good thing about there being a lot of upsets is that you don't loose that much ground to anyone else because they have picked the same teams.
Of the three teams we keep a close eye on – Notre Dame, Michigan State and Michigan – two of those three teams did not meet expectations.
The Fighting Irish by most accounts were expected to be at least competitive this season.
The first eight games on Notre Dame's schedule were challenging to say the least, but most of us, myself included, felt that they would compete against the likes of the Wolverines, Spartans, Purdue, USC and the other teams.
Not in my wildest dreams did I think the Irish would go 1-7 over that stretch.
In fact, I told anyone who would listen, that if Notre Dame could go 4-4 in those first eight games it would be a successful season.
On the other end of the spectrum, there were a lot of people who thought Michigan would win the Big Ten Conference outright and challenge for a national championship.
With back-to-back losses to Appalachian State and Oregon, the dream of a national title was out the window.
All that was left was a run at the Big Ten title, which to their credit, the Wolverines did.
Unfortunately, injuries to senior standouts Chad Henne and Mike Hart left Wolverine fans praying they could somehow knock off Ohio State last Saturday to win the title.
It just wasn't meant to be for Michigan I guess.
We now get to the Michigan State Spartans, who after another fast start under first-year head coach Mark Dantonio, cooled off in the middle of the season, but finished with a flurry to become bowl eligible.
I am sure Dantonio and his staff, including former Dowagiac standout Mark Staten, felt that the Spartans should have a better record than 7-5.
But it was a good first year for the new Michigan State coaching staff and it gives the team plenty to build on for the 2008 season.
Notre Dame will wrap up its season on Saturday at Stanford and I expect the Irish to take care of business against the Cardinal.
For the Spartans and Wolverines, it is time to sit and wait, as the bowl assignments won't come out for another couple of weeks.
No matter what happens from here, it's been an interesting season.