Who is the Man of Steele? Is he Irish?

If you haven't been following it yet, Phil Steele's 2009 college football preview PDFs are jam packed with great information. He's been counting down his top 40 teams for 2009 and is currently at number 9 (but if you want a little secret: just change the number and team name and see every PDF, even the rest of the top 10).

Check out his site and top 40 list here at PhilSteele.com.

By the way, I tried to figure out who this "Phil Steele" is by looking him up on Wikipedia, but for some reason it redirects me to this. I hope that's the same guy, I really do.

Oh, and here is his top 40 for 2009:

40- Arizona
39- Tennessee
38- Wisconsin
37- West Virginia
36- Oregon St.
35- Nevada
34- Florida St.
33- Arkansas
32- NC State
31- Troy
30- North Carolina
29- Michigan St.
28- Georgia Tech
27- Southern Miss
26- USF
25- Clemson
24- UCLA
23- Pitt
22- Nebraska
21- Miami
20- Iowa
19- Illinois
18- TCU
17- LSU
16- Rutgers
15- BYU
14- Oklahoma St.
13- Georgia
12- Boise St.
11- Virginia Tech
10- Ohio St
9- Cal
8- Alabama
7- Notre Dame
6- Ole Miss
5- Penn St.
4- Oklahoma
3- USC
2- Texas
1- Florida

I won't say much about this, but a few things stand out to me.

1. I really like the love he gives Georgia (and the fact that we're right above Oklahoma State, and Georgia Tech is way back at #28).

2. Ole Miss at #6? Really?

3. Notre Dame at #7???? Forget about Ole Miss at 6, this is just ridiculous.

4. Where is Utah? They went from being undefeated and ranked #2 to being not even in the top 40?

5. Appears Oregon is completely missing from the top 40 as well. Is it possible that the mysterious Mr. Steele just accidentally forgot about them?

Other than all of that.... not the worst top 40 I've ever seen.

Anyway, check out the PDFs. I'll get your started with Georgia's.
Remember, just change the number and team name.

UGA-Oklahoma State Game Time Announced

Georgia's first football game this season against Oklahoma State on September 5 will be broadcast on ABC at 3:30 PM.

I assume that Coach Richt is going to have the players practicing in some sort of large oven to prepare them for their first task in Stillwater. Unfortunately, such warm (blisteringly hot) weather isn't the best for maintaining a beard, which shatters my earlier argument for allowing the players to have some facial hair.