Phil Steele Responds

Here it is, the long awaited question and answer with Phil Steele. Aside from the fact that my last name is spelled incorrectly, I'll reserve my commentary and let it speak for itself. A huge thank you is in order for Mr. Steele and his staff, which went out of their way to fix an email problem which delayed this message for quite some time.

Mr. Steele,
I want to begin by saying how much I look forward to the publication of your magazine every year, and want to thank you for putting out such an outstanding product every June. As a lifelong fan of the Navy Midshipmen I can appreciate the full and equal coverage of every team in the FBS, as opposed to many other magazines which significantly downgrade their coverage for non-BCS conference teams.

My question pertains to the recent success of the Navy Midshipmen under Head Coach Paul Johnson. Considering the recent success of Navy against the other Service Academies (Johnson is 9-1 against AF and Army in his career) and the ability of Coach Johnson to out-recruit Army and Air Force, do you think the Midshipmen are poised to make a run like Air Force did under Fisher DeBerry in the 1980’s and 1990’s? I also wanted to ask you about the option offense as utilized by the Service Academies. Many Navy fans (including myself) swear by it, and contend that given the limitations and unique mission of the Academies, the option is really the only way to win at Army, Navy, and Air Force. However, Air Force is moving away from an exclusively option-based offense under Troy Calhoun, and as far as I know new Army HC Stan Brock has no plans to utilize option looks with frequency. Can these new Head Coaches win with these offenses, or has Paul Johnson and the Naval Academy confirmed what Fisher DeBerry betted on 25 years ago in Colorado Springs; that the only way to win at a Service Academy is to run an option oriented offense? Once again, thank you for your outstanding magazine and for the continued coverage on your website!

PS: Count me in with the readers who would love to see more FCS coverage!
Best,
Adam Netti
PitchRightSports.com

Adam,
Navy sure does appear to be in the same shape Air Force was during the 1980’s and 1990’s when it was almost a gimmie that Air Force would win the Commander-in-Chief’s trophy every year. I am in full agreement with you that the best way for any service academy to go offensively is the option. This is even more true now with fewer and fewer teams running the bone, it makes preparing for it in one week nearly impossible. Since the service academy teams will always be smaller and usually slower than their opponents, they need to have the option to level out or even tilt the playing field in their favor. Opposing scout teams cannot come anywhere near duplicating the speed and precision that Navy runs the bone.

In the 7 year period from 1993-99 Army won a total of 35 games. When Bob Sutton was let go they brought in Todd Berry who promised a “more aggressive”, wide open offense that would feature the pass. Army football has gone away from the bone and over the last 7 years have won a total of 14 games which is 60% LESS than they won the previous 7. It was that abandonment of the bone that allowed Navy to take control. Navy won 36 games from 1993-1999 but in just the last 4 years have won 35 games using Paul Johnson’s option offense.

I feel Air Force abandoning the bone will result is a similar scenario to what Army went through and this year I have pegged them for last in the MWC. As long as both Army and Air Force try to remain pro style with their offenses, it should be a long productive streak for the Midshipmen to continue winning the CIC trophy each and every year. Also with all of the bowl games coveting any service academy with a winning record, I expect Navy’s bowl streak (4 in a row) to continue to grow each year.

I hope the Mids can keep Paul Johnson as I put him on my list of most coveted non-BCS coaches in this week’s Weekly Notes.

I am a little disappointed in the turnout for the FCS coverage on the website the last week. I am basically giving away what I feel is the best 1AA or FCS coverage in the country for free on the website and we let all of the FCS schools know about this giveaway. There are only about 850 downloads of each conference so far and If I am only going to sell 850 magazines for the FCS than it would not be worth investing the THOUSANDS of man hours and tens of thousands of dollars needed to print a separate FCS guide. I was thinking there would be a lot more people interested in FCS football.

Finally whenever I do a Google Search for 2007 “Phil Steele” College Football magazine, your site comes up in the top 100 searches and I want to thank you for all of the kind comments you have made about my magazine the past couple of years. You have a fine website and for any of my readers who have an interest in Navy football, it is the best website out there!

Thanks for writing,
Phil

UPDATE: Phil Steele was Never Actually Blowing me Off

Wow, you're not gonna believe this. A few days after posting that Phil Steele was blowing me off on a Navy-centric question, I've come to learn that it was a freak email error which caused the question to never actually reach Mr. Steele.

Crazy, I know. Shortly after returning to my home following the Navy football fan fest, I received an email from Debbie Corrigan, a member of Phil's staff. She explained that she had been on vacation during the time my email was sent, and that for some technical error that I'm not even gonna try to understand, it was never delivered.

I immediately emailed Debbie to let her know that the post on Friday was more of a good-hearted joke on a slow day than anything else, and that I remain a devoted customer of Phil Steele magazine. She said to expect a answer to my question this Thursday at PhilSteele.com. If this isn't proof enough that Phil and his staff take care of their readers and fans, I don't know what is.

Phil Steele Continues to Blow Me Off

I know what you're thinking. Phil Steele? Again?



Well, yes, sorta. But not in the overtly man-crushing style I have been known for in the past. Yes, it may be true that I carry a picture of the man on the side of this weblog proudly proclaiming it to be "Phil Steele Approved" (completely made up by the way,) and it's no coincidence that for several months a google search of "Phil Steele" would often lead visitors to the single most viewed post on this blog. In short, I’ve lauded his work, I’ve proclaimed the infallibility of his predictions, and I’ve given him a new a growing fan base which to sell his abbreviations of VHT and YPP with. And this is how he repays me?

Where does this new found angst come from you ask? Well, it all started June 30th, as the email below shows. Being a daily visitor to PhilSteele.com and a frequent reader of his Question and Answer segment, I decided to write the man, the myth, and the legend an email regarding the Navy Midshipmen. Mind you, this wasn't a "how many gamz will navy win next season" kind of question, but an intuitive and well articulated double pronged question that encompassed all three service academy football teams. To be completely objective in my own analysis, it was the perfect question.


PhilSteele.com does clarify that Mr. Steele won't post all the questions and answers on the website, and being as busy as he his (the dude takes like two vacation days a year) I, at the time, didn't expect much. However, I received an email later that day saying the following:


So that was that. Phil will respond within 48 hours. Not "Phil might respond within 48 hours" or "Phil said he hates your question so forget about it," but a simple and direct "Phil will respond within 48 hours." As you may expect, I was more than a little excited at the prospect of receiving that email, to the point where I was counting down the hours two days later.

The email has yet to come.

Today is July 26th. ETA on the Phil Steele email was July 2nd. Considering it was the week of a holiday, I shrugged it off and and gave him another week. Nothing. I checked the website, including the newly updated questions and answers from other college football fans around the web. Nothing. I waited another week and checked it again. Nothing. Heck, I even checked the my regular mail to see if maybe he sent it via the Post Office. Nothing. And now, 24 days after the answer to the greatest college football question on the planet was due to arrive, the latest question and answer segment reveals a familiar tune. Nothing.

The ball is in your court Mr. Steele, the ball is in your court!

More Phil Steel Madness, Dammit

I'm not even going to bore you all with the excessive compliments of the man, the myth, and the legend. PhilSteele.com is offering six pages of regional magazine coverage for download every day from today to July 31st. He's counting down his Top 20 and today's regional magazine pages feature Texas A&M. Each preview is available for only one day so be sure to check it out.

Also, I'm adding a new blog to the blogroll. I've just come across the Mountain West Conference Podcast/Blog, which is an awesome site that features one of my favorite college football conferences. Be sure to check out their Air Force review podcast.

I'll have a Fullback preview up tomorrow in continuation of our Ultimate Navy Preview.

That is all.

Phil Steele Website Updated

In addition to publishing one of, if not the best, preseason college football previews in the country, Phil Steele has recently branched out and created quite a website. While it had sat more or less untouched for a year, it has recently been updated, and not just with the usual sales promotions.

There are, in fact, many things to do over at PhilSteele.com, which has become one of my daily visits. Like his analysis or feel smothered by his cult like following of bloggers, one can't help but admire the sheer amount of college football coverage generated by the man, including the many free previews posted on his site. Mr. Steele recently uploaded his entire preview of the Colonial Athletic Conference in PDF format, and has added an entire section on injuries and transfers for the 2007 season (I like to call this the Rhett Bomar effect.) There is also a poll on the website asking which is the best college football rivalry, so feel free to stop by and vote for Army-Navy.

That is all.

Reggie Campbell and Jeff Deliz named Team Captains

Well, it's finally official. Slotback Reggie Campbell and free safety Jeff Deliz have been named team captains for the upcoming 2007 season. Congratulations to both of these players, who figure to play key roles for the Mids next season.

In other news, I just picked up this year's Phil Steele magazine, and will have a full report early next week. There are however some key points I will quickly touch on. Fullback Adam Ballard was named the 6th best fullback in the nation, while Navy's backfield was named the 6th best backfield in the country. As usual, Phil Steele seems high on the Midshipmen, giving his famous yet ambiguous prediction. This year he gives Navy a shot to win nine games, which seems to be the mark many preview magazines are hovering around. Navy is ranked as the second most experienced team based on Phil's projection system, which centers around the amount of upper class men featured on the three deep of the depth chart (Service Academies are almost always in his top ten, including this year, in which Air Force is first and Army is third.) He picks the Midshipmen to match off against the BYU Cougars in next year's Poinsettia Bowl.

I'll be more or less of the Internet for the next few days, but I should be able to up the content next week, including a return to our Non-BCS question edition as well as further previews of Navy's 2007 campaign.

Scouting the Previews: Athlon Regional

So I stopped off at the magazine store today and was a little disappointed to see that most of the college football previews had yet to come in. I knew for sure that only Lindy's would be out already, but for some reason I felt I might get lucky and find some other previews. Unfortunately it was mostly just leftover NFL draft magazines, but there were several 2007 Athlon Regional (ACC) magazines available, so I picked one up. There were also Lindy's National and Lindy's Regional (SEC) available, but I'm not a fan of Lindy's so I passed. A quick word on Lindy's; The magazine has a nice design and feel and the regional coverage isn't bad, but the National magazine devotes very little space to non-BCS teams and only about a half a page to the Midshipmen. It's been like this every year and despite thinking it might change it really doesn't, and since I buy enough National magazines as it is I didn't need another one telling me what I already knew lying around the house. The Lindy's regionals, like I said, are not bad, but for some reason the store I was in received SEC previews (in Maryland of all places), and as some of you know I'm not terribly interested in the SEC conference.

As for the Athlon Regional I bought, I've found it really to be one of the better preview magazines out there. Of course I'm an unabashed Phil Steele enthusiast, but getting four pages on Navy coverage (albeit nothing new for me) out of Athlon is not half bad. There are some cool features that are standard to all the regional magazines, including rundowns on preseason Top 25 predictions, recruiting class rankings, and just general listmania of anything and everything. Since this is a Navy preview I won't bore you with all the details, but I'd suggest checking one of these out if you get the chance.

First things first. Navy's own Paul Johnson was ranked as the best"underrated coach" in the country out of six coaches listed. Here's what the blurb said...

Few coaches have been to the White House as often as Johnson, who has made visits each of the past four seasons after Navy's has won the Commander in Chief Trophy. Navy is 8-0 the past four years against the Service Academies.

Nothing new there for Navy fans, but it's good to see Johnson get some recognition. Another interesting note is that the magazine listed Air Force as one of it's five "programs in decline." The Midshipmen are ranked 48th in the Nation by Athlon for the projected rankings, which is 16 spots higher than Lindy's, which ranked the Midshipmen at 64th in the country. Navy's 2007 opponents are projected as followed, with a little commentary by yours truly...

Rutgers #10 (Too High)
Wake Forest #32 (Sounds Right)
Notre Dame #38 (Sounds Right)
Pitt #55 (Sounds Right)
Air Force #87 (A bit low, based on strength of MWC)
Ball State #93 (Much too low)
Northern Illinois #96 (maybe a little low)
Duke #98 (sounds right)
Army #111 (a little low)
North Texas #114 (a little low)
Temple #115 (sounds right)

Because Delaware is a FCS team, they were not projected in the rankings. Athlon predicts eight wins and three loses for the Midshipmen, with what they call a "crucial game" against Pitt (a game that could go either way.) I'm not going to pick apart the analysis, but it's more or less what I'd predict if I were made to predict how the 2007 season would shake down. The projected loses are to (no shock here) Notre Dame, Rutgers, and Wake. For what it's worth, I think the Mids can be competitive against all of those teams, in particular Wake Forest, which does not tend to blow people out. More on that later this summer...

Some other random points. Wide receiver Tyree Barnes is listed as the "rising star" while a lot of credit is given to not only to Paul Johnson, but his staff. Sometimes as fans we overlook the staff, and I think its important to remember just how good of a job the position coaches do in this system. Other than that, the preview is pretty standard, and it's nothing we haven't heard before. I'll have an update sometime next week on further previews that should begin to come out, including, well, you know.

B+ for Navy coverage, A- for ACC coverage. Love the love for Wake for what it's worth.