Ohio State football: We are not smart men - a look back at our preseason predictions

Question: Who would be Ohio State's leading rusher this season?

Actual Answer: Braxton Miller, with 1271 rushing yards and 13 TDs. Actual running back Carlos Hyde was 2nd with 970 yards.

What we thought: 5 votes for Braxton, 3 votes for Carlos Hyde. I was going to brag about my excellent football prediction skills since I called this, until I read my actual email to the staff that said I'm not saying Braxton Miller is going to rush for 1200 yards. Welp.

Question: The under the radar player that will surprise fans this year will be:

What we thought: There was a lot of energy around wideout Michael Thomas based on his excellent spring game, but he didn't end up getting much burn this season. Chip said Jeff Heuerman, and he did have his moments. I think I can once again claim the "winner" for this question by mentioning Zach Boren, although I'm not going to pretend that I could predict his contributions would come primarily on defense.

Question: What is Ohio State's final record going to be?

What we thought: Let's pour one out for our departed DJ, who submitted a completely troll-tastic response to this survey that we didn't really take seriously, and naturally, was the most accurate. DJ was the only writer to predict Ohio State's undefeated run. 9-10 wins was closer to the consensus from the rest of us.

Q: What Big Ten team is most likely to be a disappointment?

What we thought: First, an eerily accurate quote from Luke, our fearless leader:

"Illinois. I *gulp* wanted Beckman to be the guy for OSU assuming Urban was playing them for his ego's sake and Dantonio wasn't interested and/or the athletic department wanted a clean break from the Tressel era. Can't be more glad that didn't come to fruition."

Geez, could you imagine if Beckman was the coach of the Buckeyes? You'd be able to see the fires in Columbus FROM SPACE.

On totally unrelated note, this is what I wrote about Illinois, the team I thought would be most likely to OVERachieve

I guess you pick Illinois, which still figures to have a great defense, and now has a smart guy calling the plays at least.

This is why Luke is the editor, and why I can't have nice things. The other popular pick as a disappointment was Nebraska. Sure, they won their division, but they gave up 70 points to Wisconsin in the Title Game. That's pretty disappointing.

What Big Ten team is most likely to overachieve?

What we said. Let's kick it back to Luke.

. ""Iowa. For what little is expected, much is given. That's what they say in the Bible, right?""

I take back everything I said. LET'S ALL HAVE A LAUGH AT LUKE'S EXPENSE EVERYBODY!

Iowa, Illinois and Purdue all got a smattering of votes, but the correct answer, of course, came from DJ. .

Ohio State. I don't think the B1G is ready for the Urbicane and Mickey Marotti's newly mutated brand of football.

Indeed sir. Indeed.

Q: Who will be the B1G champs?

What we thought: 3 votes for Michigan State, 2 for Wisconsin. Every single writer except for DJ thought Michigan State would beat Ohio State. Welp.

Q: What team outside the top 20 do you think has the best chance to make some noise?

What we thought: Actually, our writers did really well on this question. Chip successfully nailed the Florida Gators being a legitimate top 10 team, and we also had writers predict the rise of Kansas State and Texas A&M. I was the idiot of the group, as I thought Utah would ride a dominant defensive front to a top 20 finish, although Luke's Virginia Tech pick doesn't look that much better.

Q: What team currently ranked in the top 20 is most likely to end up being a huge disappointment?

What we said: Florida State was the most popular choice. Would you guys consider FSU to have been a huge disappointment this year? DJ's pick of USC and my West Virginia picks look pretty good at this point. Georgia also got a vote, which just goes to show that Mark Richt has lost control of the Land-Grant Holy Land staff.

Which team has the best chance of being CFB's "mid major sleeper" this year?

What we said: We mostly wiffed here. You could make arguments for NIU, Kent State, Utah State, San Jose State, Ohio...we missed them all. Two of us correctly called Louisiana Tech, others went for Boise (meh). Navy (ugh), and BYU (WHICH WASN'T ME YOU GUYS HONEST).

Who is winning the Heisman?

What we said: Yup, we're dumb. Everybody said Matt Barkley, except for one lone Geno Smith vote. The September Heisman is a fickle mistress, and not somebody you should settle down with.

Who is winning the national title?

What we said: Chip is the only one who has a chance of getting this right, as he picked Alabama to beat USC. Chris K. and Luke has Arkansas in their title game, and Luke had them losing to Texas. Somebody even voted for Clemson.

In conclusion: Braxton Miller is awesome, USC and Michigan State aren't, and next season, trust the trolls a little more.