On the first College GameDay of the season, the crew of Desmond Howard, Lee Corso, David Pollack, and Kirk Herbstreit made their College Football Playoff Picks. The short of it is that their picks were horrible. A lot of them weren’t even close. I’ll cut them a little slack for the fact that this year has been wildly unconventional, but their top four picks were really bad.
Desmond Howard
I didn’t know if I should start or end with this one, but it’s so bad that I wanted to get it out of the way. Howard picked the Texas A&M Aggies to be number one in the nation this year. At the start of the year, this pick was clowned because A&M was 8-4 the year prior with losses to Mississippi State and Arkansas. Now, it looks even worse as the Aggies are 5-7 and dead last in the SEC West. They’ve lost to Appalachian State, South Carolina, Florida, and only beat UMass by seventeen.
His pick as the nation’s number two pick was another squad from Texas. At number two, Howard picked Baylor, which I actually didn’t hate. Dave Aranda got them to a 10-2 record and they won the Big 12 and Sugar Bowl. I just find it very risky to pick a Big 12 team because it’s an unpredictable conference. Let’s be real, no one expected TCU to be what they are. Howard’s one good pick was taking Michigan as the number three team in his playoff. All they have to do right now is win the Big Ten, and they’re in.
Howard’s fourth and final team was Pittsburgh. Why he picked them is beside me. They lost a Heisman finalist quarterback in Kenny Pickett, and the nation’s best wideout Jordan Addison transferred to USC. All signs pointed to a decline from Pitt in the ACC. Maybe Howard was trolling the nation, but this predicted bracket is the worst of the four without a doubt.
Lee Corso
Let’s face it, we may all love Lee Corso as the whacky old guy, but he’s been completely senile this season. With that said, his playoff prediction still wasn’t as bad as Desmond Howard. Corso actually played it relatively safe. The long-time analyst picked Alabama as his number one team. While they may have two losses, I don’t hate this preseason pick because they had the returning Heisman winner in Bryce Young, and the best defender in college with Will Anderson. There’s still an outside shot that they make the playoff, so this isn’t the worst selection.
This is where things start to get whacky from ole Lee Corso. He picked Georgia as his number two team. Makes sense at first, right? Well, that would mean that two SEC teams would hold the top two spots and one of them would have a loss seeing that they’d play each other in the SEC Championship. It’s not outrageous to think that Alabama and Georgia would make the playoff, but it’s crazy for them to be one and two. Corso’s number three team was Ohio State. Again, I don’t hate this pick because we all had an inclination that the winner of the Big Ten was going to be Ohio State or Michigan. Not an awful pick.
Corso’s fourth and final team was Utah coming out of the Pac-12. Before the season, I thought that maybe Utah could make the playoffs. Then, they lost to Florida in week one. That game completely dismantled Corso’s bracket and made him look even more like a kook. As of right now, it looks like he’s only got one team in the playoff, like Howard.
Kirk Herbstreit
When it comes to the College GameDay crew, I enjoy watching Corso and Howard because they’re eccentric personalties, but I find Herbstreit to be the best when it comes to analysis. Well, much like his two aforementioned colleagues, he’s also 1-3 on his playoff picks. His one and two seeds were Ohio State and Alabama. Again, I don’t hate that. Coming into the season, both teams had awfully high expectations surrounding them and could still make the playoffs.
His third pick is where things go off the rails. Similar to Howard, Herbstreit selected Baylor as his third team. Again, at the start of the season, this wasn’t bad. They were the next hot commodity coming out of the Big 12. Then, they proceeded to go 6-6 and lose the final three games of the season. What’s weird is I really liked Herbstreit’s playoff picks before the season because he also took Georgia as his fourth team. Now, he only has one team in the top four and two prowling outside of it.
David Pollack
Then there was David Pollack, who maybe played it too safe. He predicted that each conference champ from each P5 school would make it, excluding the Big 12. He had Ohio State as his one and Alabama as his two. I’ve already gone over why both of those aren’t bad picks.
His third pick was Clemson. Before the season, I knew that was a bad pick as long as DJ Uiagalelei was at quarterback for the Tigers. He’s inconsistent and just an all-around detriment to their offense. He proved that to America this season. Pollack’s fourth pick was Utah who was shaky, but a solid pick in the Pac-12 who had their hopes killed by Florida.
Current Records:
Howard: 1-3
Corso: 1-3
Herbstreit: 1-3
Pollack: 0-4