For those of you have followed CFTT over the years, you know that I publish a Top Ten Offseason Stories.  I like top ten lists, and this list has been a fun one to do each year, depending on how the offseason goes.

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The Heisman Trophy is really interesting dynamic.  The trophy is usually set to go to the nations top player at any position, but to win the trophy, it takes a combination of circumstances, hype and performance.  Rarely does a player come from nowhere to win the trophy, but often a player comes from nowhere to compete for the trophy.

In the end, it is always a player which has enough recognition that walks away from the trophy.  Who can forget the year that Sam Bradford won the trophy.  Sitting in the front were the top three candidates, Bradford, Tim Tebow (a previous winner) and Colt McCoy.  All of those players were high profile quarterbacks for high profile schools.

So, with all that said, here are my top ten candidates to win the Heisman Trophy.

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I thought this would be fun. Milkshake is really a misnomer, as any good milkshake is made with ice cream, but ice cream, of course, is made with milk.  So I guess it comes out in the wash.

This list, like so many here at CFTT, is subjective.  Since I have only lived in Arkansas and Texas, well, my milkshake consumption is limited.  Nevertheless, I have an idea of what MY top ten milkshakes are.  So, here goes.

10.  McDonald’s
The restaurant that started the hamburger craze also started the milkshake craze, I suppose.  They do have good milkshakes and they are nice to have on a hot day.

9.  Wendy’s
Few fast food restaurants have the thickness in their shake as the Wendy’s Frosty™.  It really is a creamy soft serve ice cream.  Dave Thomas would be proud.

8.  Jack in the Box
Try their oreo cookie ice cream shake.  Enough said.

7.  Whataburger
A Texas hamburger institution, and they have a great chocolate shake too.

6.  Seattle’s Best Coffee
They announce that they have the “world’s best coffee shake,” and I believe it too.  I’ve never tried anyone else’s, but SBC’s is pretty good.  They use real ice cream.

5.  Dairy Queen
I grew up being treated at DQ.  Great soft serve ice cream, and they are the first place that I realized could mix flavors.  I gained 5 pounds that week.  Peanut butter and chocolate together, wow!

4.  Fuddruckers
At least in our town, they use real Blue Belle ice cream to make their shakes and malts.

3.  Braum’s
Based out of Oklahoma, they have some of the best ice cream around.  A former boss also swore by their milk.  Oh, and they do make a good milkshake using that premium ice cream.

2.  Pappa’s Burger
One of the waitresses recommended a oreo-peanut butter milkshake and I tried it.  It was awesome.  She knew what she was talking about.

1.  Purple Cow
Based out of Central Arkansas (we have a few in the DFW area), they simply have a great milkshake.  I had a peanut butter-chocolate (are you seeing a pattern) and it was outstanding.  I couldn’t even slurp up the peanut butter with my straw as it was so thick.

Where do you get your favorite milkshakes from?

As you know from last year, this is not really a ranking of the bowl games.  I am more interested in possible sponsors this year for bowls and maybe a few suggestions for games.  It seems that several of the games are sponsored by banks and websites.  Of course, as you know, half of the games have already been played.

1.  The Peet’s Coffee Bowl
The game could be played in Berkley, California at Cal’s Memorial Stadium.  Berkley is where Peet’s began, and Peet’s is the best coffee on the shelf.  This bowl game would feature a team from the Pacific 10 Conference and the Western Athletic Conference.

2.  The ESPN.com Bowl
The “mouse ears” as Randy Galloway refers to them already runs  several bowls ( I think 7) so why not go all out and have a bowl sponsored by their website.  It would be great.  It could feature teams from the Big East and the Big Ten since the game would be played in  at Rentschler Field in East Hartford near the ESPN headquarters of Bristol, CT.

3.  The ING Penny Bowl
Several bowls have the backing of financial institutions, but none would be more confusing than a bowl sponsored by ING.  Do you remember the commercials where the guy looking for the rest of the word, but it’s just ing?  They have some of the best deals for online banking, helping you save pennies.  There you have it.  The teams that play in the game can be the highest ranked teams with lions for their mascot.  The game would be played in Denver, CO where one of ING’s affiliates are located.  The match-up would pit a team from the Western Athletic Conference against a Mountain West Conference team.

4.  The Wal-Mart Retail Bowl

Wal-Mart is the retail standard bearer.  Everybody measures themselves based on Wal-Mart.  Their brand is well known, and they could have a great bowl game.  This bowl would be played at Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, AR just down the road from Wal-Mart’s headquarters in Bentonville.  Playing in the game would be teams from the Conference USA and the Sun Belt.

5.  The Collegefootballtopten.com Bowl
Hey, I might as well have a bowl game.  It seems websites get in the act every year.  And while we are at it, I think I want my bowl game to be played at the new Cowboys Stadium.  I really don’t care who plays in the game, but I’ll take a Mountain West Conference team and a Big 12 Conference team.

6.  The Cracker Barrel Apple Butter Bowl
Cracker Barrels are all over the country, and they have the best apple butter around, at least when you add it to their biscuits.  Since there is no real big stadium in Lebanon, TN where Cracker Barrel has its headquarters, they could play the game at Johnny “Red” Floyd Stadium in Murfeesboro.  Teams from the Sun Belt Conference will play a team from the Atlantic Coast Conference.

7.  The Panera Bread Bowl
Sponsored by Panera Bread of St. Louis, the Bread Bowl would be played in St. Louis at the Edward Jones Dome featuring teams from the Mid American Conference and the Big Ten.

8.  The Starbucks Seattle Bowl
I know, I know, we already have a game sponsored by a coffee, but Starbucks is an institution.  It has the brand power behind it already.  And, it is a great opportunity to have a bowl game in Seattle.  The game would be played in Seattle’s Husky Stadium, and it will feature anyone willing to travel to Seattle in December.

9.  The Idaho Potato Humanitarian Bowl
This bowl can be held in Boise at the famous “blue turf,” we just want to replace the sponsor with the potato growers in idaho.  Idaho is, you know, the home of the best potatoes in the world.

10.  The Riceland Foods Rice Bowl
This bowl can be played at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock, AR.  The game would feature teams from the Sun Belt and the Conference USA.

There you have it.  There are suggestions, but mostly additions.  Enjoy the rest of the bowl season.

As I said in a previous post, my top ten will be updated once every three weeks.  Nevertheless, I will post results of the teams in my top ten so that we can follow their body of work.  Therefore, let’s take a look.

1.  Ohio State, 2-0
Ohio State defeated Ohio University 26-14 this week after a 43-0 pounding of Youngstown State. The absence of “Beanie” Wells seemed to hurt the Buckeyes.  They play USC next week in LA.

2.   USC, 1-0
The Trojans throttled Virginia at their place the first weekend, and as a reward, they sat home and got ready for the Buckeyes.  Before the season I would have given the nod to Ohio State in the coming game, but after what I have seen in two weeks, I believe that USC should win.  Never play Pete Carroll when he has time to prepare.  Check out his opening games the last several years.  It’s unbelievable.

3.  Oklahoma, 2-0
The Sooners finally put away Cincinnati winning 52-26.  Next week the Sooners travel to play at Washington who lost a heart-breaker to BYU.  The Sooner offense seems to be explosive again this year.

4.  Florida, 2-0
The Gators struggled against a tenacious Miami team at the Swamp Saturday night.  They took over in the fourth quarter to win 26-3.  The Gators get a week off before traveling to Knoxville to play the Tennessee Vols.

5.  Georgia, 2-0
The Dawgs have opened the season doing exactly what it should, beating two out-manned football teams (Georgia Southern and Central Michigan).  They are at South Carolina next week who was bounced in Nashville to Vanderbilt.

6.  Clemson, 1-1
The Tigers bounced back from their opening season loss to Alabama in Atlanta by beating The Citadel.  Games coming up against North Carolina State and South Carolina State will continue to be soothing to the soul.  They have a showdown at Wake Forest on October 9th.

7.  LSU, 1-0
The Tigers would just like to play a game.  Damage from Hurricane Gustav at Tiger Stadium postponed their game with Troy until November 15th, and Hurricane Ike is threatening to postpone or relocate their game against North Texas this weekend.

8.  Oregon, 2-0
The Ducks are coming along nicely beating Washington (44-10) and Utah State (66-24).  They go to Purdue next week before returning home for Boise State.

9.  Missouri, 2-0
The Tigers are averaging 52 points a game.  They scored 52 when they outscored Illinois in St. Louis, and they scored, yep you guessed it, 52 while pounding Southeast Missouri State (we called them SEMO when I was a kid).  Mizzou doesn’t leave the state of Missouri until October 4th when they go to Lincoln to play Nebraska.  They only leave the state 3 more times all year (Texas, Baylor and Iowa State).  Up next is Nevada (September 13) and Buffalo (September 20).

10.  South Florida, 2-0
The Bulls put a beat-down Tennessee-Martin (56-7) the first week and survived at UCF (31-24) in OT on Saturday.  Matt Grothe passed for 346 yards as the Bulls won an emotional game in front of the UCF home crowd.  USF gets Kansas at home Friday night.  It should be a good game between two top 20 teams.

I want to explain the philosophy of my poll in 2008.  I decide on this in the offseason after I saw so many upsets last year.  The top ten was like a yo yo, teams descending and ascending at rapid paces.  To start with, my preseason poll is where I think teams are now.  Some polls are merely a prediction of how the season will unfold.  And, I will admit that in the past, my preseason poll looked better at the end of the season than it did at the first of the season with regard to some of the teams.  Nevertheless, when it comes to my preseason poll, my intention is to rank who I think are the ten best teams as the season starts.  That being said, I am kind of the opinion of some who think there should not even be a preseason poll, but not completely.

So, with my poll, I am going to do something that I think is unique (it may not be, but I think it is).  I am going to update my poll every three weeks.  That’s right, I am not going to labor every single week on my poll.  This week’s upset might look like a good loss (if there is such a thing) in a couple of weeks.  For example, take Alabama.  They “upset” Clemson Saturday night in the Chick-fil-a Classic complete with commercial cows.  Alabama isn’t supposed to be a top ten teams the experts say.  Maybe they aren’t.  I surmise this, either Clemson isn’t as good as everyone thought they would be, or Alabama is going to make a significant improvement this year.  As I watched that game, my gut reaction was that they would win 10 games.  That was not me breaking down their schedule or anything, just a gut reaction, a hunch.  Take it for what it’s worth.  They had plenty of Freshmen on the field, but it was Clemson who was making all the rookie mistakes.  Alabama looked mature and seasoned.  Clemson may thump everyone else on their schedule making Alabama’s win look great.  Therefore, for my poll, I want a body of work to look at.  Each team in my poll gets three weeks.

This is my site and my poll, so I can do that.  Other sites, other polls, etc., they can do it every week.  This is my experiement.  At the least, I can be known as the guy who updates his poll every three weeks.  So, Clemson is safe in my poll. . . . . . for now.

I have a hunch.  Call it a hunch because it may not be worth much.  I have a hunch that we will see TCU light it up on offense this year.  Not only that, but I have a hunch that Andy Dalton will pass for 3000 yards.  It’s just a hunch.  I have no real empirical evidence.  The Horned Frogs have always been fairly balanced in the Gary Patterson era, but a little more to the run (See Hobbs, Tomlinson, and Merrill).  Dalton is a good passer, and while we won’t accuse TCU of running a Spread Offense, we just might see it be much more explosive this year.  Therefore, I offer my Top Ten Reasons TCU’s Offense Will Be (More) Explosive in 2008.

10.  Blake Schlueter–For the Frogs, it all starts up front.  Don’t underestimate his importance.  He is the QB of the Offensive Line which returns 4 starters.  He makes all the calls.  And, he is the first guy to touch the ball.  Have you seen this guy?  I wouldn’t want him to be upset with me.

9.  Aaron Brown–If Brown is healthy, he has the ability to have over 1500 all purpose yards.  As a

Keith Robinson Photography

Sophomore he had 1256 yards.  Brown is not just a great back on the edge, he is a great receiver out of the backfield.  All you have to do with Brown is get him the ball in space and he can make plays.  I can envision Brown lining up in the slot with Joseph Turner in the backfield along with And Dalton.  Who would the defense focus on?

8.  Young Receivers–The receivers are young, but they are fast.  They also are carrying a little bit of a swagger into fall practice.  These receivers did play last year even though they were not starters.  Walter Bryant, Jimmy Young, and Jeremy Kerley will be looking to make a big impact.  Also pay attention to Bart Johnson, John Brown and Antoine Hicks.

7.  Marshall Newhouse–If Dalton is to pass for 3000 yards, it will be up to Newhouse to keep him upright.  Newhouse led TCU in Knockdowns last year.  He also will be Dalton’s first line of defense at the Left Tackle spot.

6.  Jason Phillips–If I practiced against a Jason Phillips led defense in practice every day, I’d probably get better too, and faster.  There is another plus too.  The TCU defense has the ability to get lots of turnovers.  In fact, in the Spring practices, the defense focused on that (see Dave Campbell’s Texas Football).  If they aren’t getting turnovers, then they will surely be getting stops giving the TCU offense plenty of opportunities.

5.  Randy Galloway–What other sports journalist could inspire that kind of success?  Galloway is a legend.  If Coach Patterson needs tips, all he has to do is call Galloway and he will lend him a hand.  He is always thinking about ways to improve each local team with his brilliant mind.  Who else would I list, Dale Hanson?

4.  Marcus Jackson–During the Gary Patterson era, TCU has always needed a second QB.  First it was Tye Gunn, then it was Brandon Hassell, and then it was Jeff Ballard.  Jackson doesn’t just represent that good second QB, but he also represents a change of pace.  Jackson is a better runner, and TCU can line up and run the option with him in the game.  Jackson has also been a fairly accurate passer.

3.  Shae Reagan–At 6-4 261 lbs., Reagan provides a big target for Dalton and Jackson.  If Reagan can remain healthy, he should be a mismatch in almost every situation.  Reagan has a TCU high of 19 yards per catch.

2.  Coach Mike Schultz–Coach Schultz has been a great Offensive Coordinator for TCU.  His offenses have been among the best in TCU history.  Coach Schultz offenses do not remain ineffective, and Schultz seems to have the players to work with to make this year’s offense explosive.

1.  Andy Dalton–Dalton set all kinds of records for TCU freshmen, and he is poised to become even better.  He had over 2400 yards passing, and became increasingly effective as a passer later in the season.  Many of the INT’s Dalton suffered were during the first half of the season, and Dalton had a great game at Stanford when he passed for 344 yards, 2 TD’s and 0 INT’s.  If TCU’s offense is to be explosive, Dalton will have to be the catalyst.

I am trying to have a little reader participation.  I am calling out to the readers of CFTT to help me with some content.  First, I launched a Favorite College Football Preseason Magazine poll.  The possible choices are Phil Steele, Athlon, Lindy’s, and Sporting News.  So far it has been overwhelmingly in favor of Phil Steele which has 80% of the votes and Lindy’s with 20%, but there are no votes for Athlon and Sporting News.  Take the opportunity to express your opinion by voting here.

Next, I am planning on doing my Top Ten Off-Season Stories Segment again this year.  Email me your vote at offseason[AT]collegefootballtopten[dot]com.

And finally, I want to do a Top Ten Returning QB’s.  I would like to get CFTT Readers’ input.  Therefore, email me at todd(at)collegefootballtopten(dot)com with your pick for top returning QB.

Sporting News has its magazine out now, and in case you haven’t heard, Street & Smith’s has partnered with them.  So, Street & Smith’s annual magazine has been merged into Sporting News’ and the magazine is issued with the Sporting News name.  You can pick one up at your local Borders.  Now for the top ten.

1. Georgia
2. Ohio State
3. USC
4. Oklahoma
5. LSU
6. Missouri
7. Clemson
8. West Virginia
9. Florida
10. Illinois