As we draw closer to the beginning of the season, previews have all been leading up to the beginning of the season. Now that we’ve pretty much previewed the team in its entirety, it’s time to take a look at what the FTRS staff thinks about the upcoming season. We start this today by looking at all the scorching #hot #takes the FTRS staff has..

Days to Kickoff: 10 Days

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FTRS Staff Bold Predictions

Andrew Chau

Bloodbath McGrath leads Tech specialists to sweeps of Ray Guy and Lou Groza. Casey Wilson declares for the draft.

Stephen Murphey

Pressely Harvin III has an average of 45.3 ypp, with a return avg of just under 5 yards, earning him hype for the Ray Guy award, which will go to the eventual Heisman winner, Zach Sinor, Punter, Oklahoma State.

Aside from that, I'd venture to say that Auburn-LSU will be the game of the year. Week 1 Troy @ Boise State will be your G5 game of the year.

Teams to watch:

• For those who think the 70's and 80's were a better time: Wisconsin
• For those who want to be different for the sake of being different: Washington State
• For those who also hate Mike Leach: Georgia Tech
• For those who need a charismatic leader and have an aversion to Orange and/or spelling: Minnesota
• If you want the football embodiment of a Sunday afternoon golf nap: Kansas State
• If you bandwagon like no other: Penn State/USC/LSU
• If you want the Vegas odds to win it all: 'Bama
• If you want to root for an underdog: UTSA
• If you need a second team outside of Tech to watch: Western Kentucky
• If your guilty pleasure is Pac-12 after dark: Oregon
• But if you're also a nerd: Stanford
• If you've never followed college football (shame on you), but want to start now: Texas/Florida State/Ohio State

National Champion: The Field over Bama.

uga record: last year's 8-5 team returns the same talent that got them there a year earlier. 9-4 for marginal improvement that makes the entirety of Sanford stadium growl out of fear of turning into post-Fulmer Tennessee.

Conner Knapp

TaQuon Marshall is Georgia Tech's starting quarterback against Tennessee. Paul Johnson has said he likely knows who the starter will be, but has not exactly given a vote of confidence to any of the guys vying for the job. I think it will be the speedy junior taking the field for the Jackets' first series of 2017.

Jake Grant

Everything is going to be fine. Take a deep breath. We're going to be okay. Maybe not perfect. Things will still go wrong. But what's done is done. And we've got a solid team. We'll win some games and it'll wind up being a good year. We'll look back and wonder what could have been; it's inevitable. But it could always be worse, and we'll look back at the end of the year, enjoying what actually did happen.

Josh Brundage

Georgia Tech goes 2-0 against the SEC this season, bringing their record against them since the start of 2014 to 7-1 because it just means more.

Danny Duncanson

I'm not sure if this qualifies as bold, given the perceived tightness of the QB competition, but I'm predicting that multiple quarterbacks start for Georgia Tech this season but not due to injury. Lucas Johnson is the QB that intrigues me the most so, to get specific, I'll say at some point this season, Lucas Johnson unseats Matthew Jordan as the starting QB.

I really wanted to predict that Clinton Lynch would top 1,000 yards from scrimmage, a feat I believe only one other AB has accomplished under Paul Johnson (Robert Godhigh in 2013). His injury situation scares me but this is supposed to be bold predictions, right? So, let's do it. Clinton Lynch gains 1,000 yards from scrimmage even after missing the Tennessee game with an injury.

Step Durham makes All-ACC and is the highest drafted Yellow Jacket in the 2018 NFL Draft. Durham really doesn't get the credit he deserves. He doesn't pile up tackles like AJ Gray, Corey Griffin, or Lawrence Austin, and doesn't pile up pass deflections like Lance Austin. He's just a solid cover corner. QBs don't throw his way often, which should be a testament to his abilities but it just causes him to be overlooked. I don't want to take anything away from Lance but the fact that he got 5 points in preseason All-ACC voting and Step got none is kind of ridiculous. I think Step has a big year and gets his turn in the spotlight.

Rane Martin

Lucas Johnson will start the majority of the games at QB for Tech this season. I will say he will be starting at the very least by game 4.

Ricky Jeune will have a breakout year that will seriously boost his draft pick status.

Anree Saint-Amour will take a step up to become one of the premier DE's in the ACC.

Georgia Tech beats Georgia at home.

The Georgia Tech defense finishes in the top 10 in the country in takeaways.

MagnaCarterGT

(Ed. Note: When these were originally submitted, they were done so with fire emojis being used at bullet points. Unfortunately, I was unable to bring those over into this article, so just imagine all of the fire emojis that should naturally go with these scorching takes.)

The college football world trembles in fear as an Alabama team leaves the broken bodies of its non-conference foes in its wake and runs roughshod through its conference schedule. I am, of course, talking about the UAB Blazers. UAB football is back, baby! #BlazeIt

Speaking of college football teams in Alabama, yeah, the Tide are going to roll through the SEC again, y'all. Last year they finished the regular season 12-0 while no other team finished with more than 8 wins. This year, the SEC will better themselves.... and by that, I mean they'll have no team (Bama excluded) finish with more than 7 wins. We'll then witness a once in history event: a single conference firing thirteen head coaches in the same year.

Georgia State enjoys a successful year in its new stadium. Immediately after season's end, however, they demand public funding for a new stadium. When Fulton County does not comply, the university decides to build a new one in Peachtree City instead.

The Big 12, having instituted a conference championship game for some reason despite only having ten members, runs into a snag when there is a three-way tie for first place. Foiled again, Bob Bowlsby! The conference moves to instituting an eight-team playoff for the conference championship starting in 2018.

Washington State opens the season with a lost to Montana State, then runs the table the rest of the way, winning the Pac-12 Championship against Utah and making the playoff, because seriously, losing to an FCS team and then having an amazing season is some weird Wazzu thing.

Rutgers continues to exist.

Lane Kiffin leaves his position as head coach at FAU to announce he is accepting the same job at Oklahoma. This comes as a shock to everyone.... especially Oklahoma, who has not held any interviews with Kiffin.

This is finally the year Paul Johnson walks across the field and chokes an opposing coach out. My money's on Bronco Mendenhall, but I could easily it seeing Butch Jones in week 1.

SB Nation writer Ryan Nanni comes close to achieving his goal of serving as the Bloomin' Onion mascot at the next Outback Bowl, but is picked to serve as the Coconut Shrimp mascot instead. Enraged, Nanni declares himself a "Bennigan's man for life" and begins a life-long blood feud against Outback Steakhouse.

Cade Lawson

I was going to predict north of 1,000 yards for Dedrick Mills, but now I suppose I need something new. I personally think that Georgia Tech can be among the top-15 in the nation in pass defense this season given how much depth and talent we have in the secondary. A.J. Gray is a truly gifted athlete and he is flanked by some other immensely talented guys like Lawrence Austin, Step Durham, and Corey Griffin; they will create a nice no-fly zone if all goes according to plan. I'd feel even better about this prediction if the defensive line was a bit stronger, but I'm willing to risk it based purely on the guys in the secondary.

Robert Pensa

Tech ends the season with two players gaining over 1,000 yards from scrimmage.

Tyler Duke

Tech wins at Clemson, but loses the next week to Virginia.

Drew Gordon

1. No Georgia Tech player hits 5 sacks on the season.

2. Jerry Howard is taking most of the B-Back carries by the end of the season.

3. Ricky Jeune will spend much of his time bailing out the QB, but he will do a very good job getting over 500 yards receiving.

4. AJ Gray will be a First-team All-ACC player. Step Durham should be up there, but he never gets thrown at, so nobody notices him.

Benjamin Tankersley

- Lucas Johnson will be the starting QB by the end of the season, and by the end of the season, if you take his stats and spread them out over a full season, it would results in a season of 1000 rushing yards and 1500 passing yards (at least).

- Clinton Lynch averages at least 15 yards per touch again this season.

- Jalen Camp surpasses Brad Stewart as the No. 2 receiver.

- By the end of the season, we will have a true freshman starter on the offensive line (no idea as to where)

- Antonio Simmons and Anree Saint-Amour produce a much better pass rush this year, combining for somewhere between 15 and 17 sacks between the two of them.

- Bruce Jordan-Swilling will be the starter by the end of the season.

- Georgia Tech will have one of the best secondaries in the ACC with Step Durham, Lance Austin, and AJ Gray all making All-ACC.

- Pressley Harvin III averages at least 42 yards per punt this season, and Brenton King hits 80 percent of his field goals.