SMU in Phil Steele's rankings

[GrapevineMustang]

Not sure how many of you all read Phil Steel's preseason football mag. He is without question an egocentric blowhard who is constantly reminding readers how freakin' smart he is ("I said last year" ... "as I pointed out in 2009" ... etc.), but he also loads up his mag with more stats than any other the others like Athlon's or Street & Smith's, etc. And as much as it hurts to admit, the guy gets more predictions right than a lot of others out there.

With that said, SMU (or SMU players) made some of his national rankings:

He lists draft-eligible players going into the 2013 season. Once you get past the clear All-America types, I expect there's a lot of guesswork involved, because there's no way this guy watched enough games to justifiably rank Buffalo WR Alex Neutz (51) five spots ahead of Murray State's Walter Powell (56). Everyone knows Neutz is seven or eight players ahead of Powell. (In other words, these rankings are another of the inexact sciences of sports ... but it's cool to see our guys ranked among the nation's best.)

CORNERBACK
#41 Kenneth Acker

QUARTERBACK
#34 Garrett Gilbert

STRONG SAFETY
#20 Jay Scott

PUNTER
#19 Mike Loftus

He also ranked position groups:

DEFENSIVE BACKS
#45 SMU

SPECIAL TEAMS
#27 SMU