In Honor Of My 500th OutKick Article, Here Are My 5 Worst Takes So Far

I recently had my 500th article published with OutKick, which is wild.

I can't believe I've already hit the big 5-0-0, but here we are.

I was thinking of a way to commemorate this momentous occasion, because I'm such a sentimental sucker, and I thought the perfect play would be to look at all the worst takes I've had since coming on board back in May.

For every "Brian Kelly will be fired this season" or "Texas Tech will make the playoffs," there have been plenty of stinkers.

So, today, I decided to take a look at my five worst, most wrong takes I've had in my short career at OutKick.

Feel free to point and laugh at me as necessary.

5. Texas Will Win The National Championship

In fairness to me, a lot of people had Texas penciled in as their national champion, but I'll wear this one all the same.

The Longhorns were my preseason pick to not only win the SEC, but the whole damn thing as well, and that couldn't have been further from the truth.

Not only did Texas fail to make it to the SEC Championship Game, they aren't even going to make the College Football Playoff.

My apologies, Bevo. I let you down, big guy.

4. 2025 Is The Year Of The Interim Coach

Remember back in late October when teams like UCLA and Penn State were looking like worldbeaters (relatively speaking, anyway) with their interim coaches?

Me too!

I got so swept up in the mania that I declared 2025 the "Year of the Interim Coach."

Since I said that, UCLA slid back down to earth, and schools like Florida and Arkansas combined for one win between the two of them with Billy Gonzalez and Bobby Petrino, respectively.

I don't think I could've been more wrong if I tried!

3. Super Freshman Bryce Underwood

Let me preface this by saying Michigan quarterback Bryce Underwood had a fine season for a true freshman.

But with the way I was talking him up this offseason, you would've thought he was the second coming of Andrew Luck.

Underwood was mildly underwhelming when you look at the expectations placed on him.

Be it fair or unfair, Underwood had these expectations placed on him because of his pricetag.

Either way, I swung and missed hard on this one.

2. Ole Miss Will Take A Step Back In 2025

When I was making my SEC predictions in July, I saw everything the Ole Miss Rebels were set to lose going into the 2025 season and thought a regression was a forgone conclusion.

Just a quick glance at the NFL Draft back in April showed that Ole Miss would be replacing a ton of NFL talent, so I used that to inform my opinion.

With that being said, the Rebels are on the way to their first ever College Football Playoff appearance and are the owners of an 11-win season.

I may have underestimated just how good of a coach Lane Kiffin is, with his ability to reload even at a place like Ole Miss being second to none.

I'm kicking myself for not seeing this coming.

1. Clemson Will Win The ACC "Fairly Easily"

At the beginning of this season, if you told me the Clemson Tigers were going to finish 7-5 and be fighting for bowl eligibility, I would have told you that you were crazy.

They returned a veteran, all-conference quarterback, an NFL-level defensive line, and a wide receiver room that would make any team outside of Columbus, Ohio, blush, so what happened?

The ACC isn't exactly a powerhouse of a football conference these days and are in danger of being left out of the CFP entirely, yet the Tigers couldn't even come close to winning the league.

I was so adamant that they would win their conference "easily," so the fact that they didn't even come close makes this prediction even more embarrassing.