It's the holiday season, which means it's time for you -- the reader -- to unpack a gift courtesy of yours truly. Talkin' season, as legendary coach Steve Spurrier calls it, lasts from the moment the season ends until the time toe meets leather in late August. It's a time of hope, joy and countless, never-ending predictions.

Some of those predictions work out great, but others turn out to be awful. Either way, the readers who demand accountability get their wish with my annual tradition of pointing out my good and bad (mostly bad) predictions from talkin' season.

The Ugly: That Ole Miss-Alabama pick

Running the table in the regular season is nearly impossible in this day and age. Yet, four teams did it in the regular season in 2018. One that finished unblemished was Alabama, which enters the College Football Playoff at 13-0 and the No. 1 seed. Even though I thought the Crimson Tide would win the SEC and make the CFP, I thought there would be one stumble along the way ...

Final score: Alabama 62, Ole Miss 7. The Rebels scored on the first play from scrimmage, which was a glorious 15 seconds. And hey, we did some good after the fact and raised money for epilepsy research thanks to my stupidity. 

The Good: Purdue over Ohio State

Full disclosure -- I did not pick Purdue to upset Ohio State the week of the game. With that said, I nailed that one before the season when I posted my game-by-game predictions for the Big Ten.

But by 29 points? I don't think anybody saw that coming.

The Bad: Michigan's struggles -- or lack thereof

As you can see above, I had the Wolverines going 7-5 in 2018 and heat being cranked up on coach Jim Harbaugh. In fact, I had them as the most overrated team in the Big Ten. At the time, I thought Harbaugh would be unable to win games outside of his comfort zone and any team that could have just a bit of success against the defense would make it very hard for Shea Patterson and Co. to go score for score. While that did happen twice, it didn't happen nearly as often as I expected and the Wolverines were in the national title hunt until rivalry weekend.

The Good: UCLA's struggles

Chip Kelly was the talk of the offseason, but once the regular season started, Kelly's Bruins immediately became a non-factor. 

Here's a quote from the preseason Pac-12 preview: "I'm not sure there's a difference-maker at quarterback as of this moment, which makes personnel turnover along the offensive line even more concerning. Kelly has speed and talent on the roster, but the Bruins seem more like a low-floor, high-ceiling team this year that has moments of brilliance followed by moments of ineptitude."

There weren't just a few moments of ineptitude. They littered the season like the sun splashing down in southern California.

The Bad: Ed Orgeron will be fired before the end of the season

In his second year as LSU's full-time coach, Orgeron entered the season on one of the hottest seats in the country and had a daunting schedule in front of him. In fact, I said on CBS Sports HQ that he'd be the first SEC coach fired, and that it would happen before the end of the season.Three weeks after the start of the season, he had signature wins over Miami and Auburn under his belt and his seat was as cold as ice. Granted, wins over the Hurricanes and Tigers don't exactly look as great as they did at the time. But a 9-3 record and berth in the Fiesta Bowl was a tremendous season for LSU and Orgeron.

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The Good: The rise of Northwestern

Wisconsin entered the season with a No. 4 ranking and one of the primary threats to not only come out of the Big Ten West, but perhaps even make the College Football Playoff. While I did have the Badgers claiming the division title, it was clear before the season -- at least to me -- that the Wildcats could roar

From the bold prediction section of our Big Ten preview: "Northwestern will be the primary threat in the Big Ten West, and Wisconsin better not stumble."

The Bad: Florida State -- just in general

I thought Willie Taggart was going to be one of the best hires of the offseason, spark a Seminole offense that had a superstar in running back Cam Akers, finish 10-2, make a New Year's Six Bowl and strike fear into Clemson. Instead, the Seminoles lost the home opener, six more games after that, were as disjointed as any major program we have seen in a long time and ended the streak of 36 consecutive bowl appearances.

The Good: One very important movie take

The majority of you disagree. The majority of you are wrong, though.

Happy holidays, college football fans.