In August, when predictions were being finalized and published, you had that moment. At some point, you probably thought to yourself, "man, this dude is out of his mind."

As has been the case for nearly a decade, this column is a Christmas present to you -- the reader who demanded accountability for preseason predictions gone awry (and also a chance for me to gloat a little). What predictions were good, bad and ugly? Let's have some fun:

The Good: SEC preseason predictions as a whole

In our bold predictions for the SEC, not only did I nail the SEC Championship Game matchup and result, I had this gem:

"Auburn, Alabama and Georgia will all be playoff-worthy and have one regular season conference loss each. There will be a legitimate debate about whether the conference deserves two teams in the CFP."

Georgia and Alabama made the College Football Playoff, and Auburn won the SEC West and played for the conference title with a spot on the line.

But wait, it gets better.

In game-by-game SEC predictions posted on Aug. 22, I correctly picked the exact SEC wins and losses for Georgia, Alabama and Auburn. Not just their SEC records, their actual game results.

Sure, I missed Florida State-Alabama and Clemson-Auburn, but from an SEC perspective, it doesn't get much better.

The Bad: USC hype, and Sam Darnold for Heisman

Man, that USC hype got me. It got me big time.

Not only did I pick USC to win the College Football Playoff National Championship (over Georgia), I chose quarterback Sam Darnold as the winner of the 2017 Heisman Trophy.

Granted, those weren't totally outlandish picks and I certainly wasn't alone at the time. The Trojans were ranked No. 4 in the preseason AP Top 25, Darnold was one of the Heisman favorites after a sizzling close to the 2016 season that culminated in the Rose Bowl and USC was set up to build off of that sudden success.

And then the offensive line forgot how to block during the first month of the season, everybody got hurt and the Trojans fell at Washington State on a Friday night in September and again by 35(!) at Notre Dame on Oct. 21. Darnold threw nine interceptions over the first six games of the season, and never gained the confidence he showed as a redshirt freshman in 2016.

Sigh.

The season went sideways for Sam Darnold early on. USATSI

But hey, at least the Trojans made a New Year's Six Bowl and Darnold will be a high draft pick when he decides to bail.

The Ugly: Utah. Utah? UTAH?!?!?

For some strange, inexplicable, bizarre reason, I had Utah finishing 11-1 (8-1 Pac-12), and losing a heads-up tiebreaker with USC for the Pac-12 South championship.

Why?

I have no idea, and I apologize for not having a more concrete reason for something so laughable.

We're talking about a team that, with that record, should be playing a New Year's Six bowl -- perhaps in Dallas at the Cotton Bowl -- and not the Heart of Dallas Bowl, which is played at the actual Cotton Bowl, not Jerry World. The Utes went 6-6 (3-6 Pac-12), lost six of their last eight and one of those wins was a six-point victory over rival BYU -- which went 4-9.

I thought Utah would be solid at the line of scrimmage despite some roster turnover because that was its identity. Now, its identity is as a let down.

Kyle Whittingham has some fixing to do this offseason. USATSI

The Bad: Not buying Memphis

In our AAC predictions, we had to give you our most overrated team. I chose Memphis, and explained this way.

"I'm sorry, but I don't buy into the Memphis hype. The defensive front was atrocious last year with only 11 of the 23 sacks coming from linemen. Pressure is key in every conference, and I'm not sure that Memphis can get it this year. That's something you can work around if you have a talented defensive backfield that knows where to be and how to get on the same page, but attrition in the secondary coupled with the inability to get pressure up front is a recipe for defensive disaster that will make it hard for an offense led by quarterback Riley Ferguson to overcome."

Memphis finished third in the AAC in tackles for loss with 86 and interceptions with 16. I think it's safe to say they got enough pressure and capitalized on forced mistakes in the back end just fine, thank you.

Oh, and the Tigers finished 10-2 (7-1 AAC), won the West division, went toe-to-toe with eventual conference champion UCF in a 62-55, double overtime loss in the AAC Championship Game and finished 20th in the final College Football Playoff rankings.

Definitely NOT overrated.

The Ugly: Nebraska winning the Big Ten West

The Big Ten West is typically a craps shoot, and I rolled the dice with Nebraska in 2017.

That turned up snake eyes.

Instead of winning the division, topping Wisconsin heads up, springing the upset on Penn State in the regular season and losing a rematch in the Big Ten Championship Game, the Cornhuskers sputtered to a 4-8 record, went 3-5 in the Big Ten, fired coach Mike Riley and finished fifth in the division -- one spot below Purdue. Purdue.

But hey, at least Scott Frost is there to save the day now.

Nebraska begins its rebuild now. USATSI

The Good: Michigan's ridiculous hype

Remember this summer when this was supposed to be "the year" for third-year Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh according to some preseason prognosticators? It wasn't, and we tried to tell you in our Big Ten preview.

Four of us (myself, Dennis Dodd, Jerry Palm and Ben Kercheval) pegged the Wolverines as the most overrated team in our Big Ten preview. Here's what I wrote about how the season would play out.

"Harbaugh will face serious questions when his team won't be able to keep up with more dynamic offenses at Penn State and Ohio State. Third place in the division for the third year in a row won't sit well in Ann Arbor."

It was the right idea ... but wrong execution, because the Wolverines finished fourth in the Big Ten East -- one spot below the previous two seasons under Harbaugh.

Meanwhile, Kirby Smart led Georgia to the College Football Playoff and the SEC title in his second year ever as a head coach and Lincoln Riley won the Big 12 and earned a CFP berth after getting the head coaching job -- his first ever -- at Oklahoma in June after Bob Stoops' abrupt retirement.

Yet, for some reason, people in Ann Arbor seem to still be just fine with Harbaugh. Strange.

The Ugly: Florida ... just in general

Speaking of Michigan, I thought they'd lose to Florida in the opener. Yes, that Florida.

"Call me crazy, but Florida coach Jim McElwain is playing coy with his quarterback position," I wrote in the Week 1 pick story. "Franks will hit multiple receivers with big plays, including Josh Hammond, Tyrie Cleveland and Freddie Swain, and force a relatively inexperienced Michigan offense out of its comfort zone in a game that'll be a bit higher scoring than you probably expect."

Final line for Florida: 192 total yards, two quarterbacks and a 33-17 loss. What makes it even worse is that both of the Gators touchdowns were off pick sixes. Those count as "big plays," right?

For the year, I picked Florida to finish second in the SEC East behind Georgia and go 9-3 overall. Instead, they fired head coach Jim McElwain in October, went 4-7 (3-5 SEC) and were the punchline to every bad SEC joke outside of Knoxville, Tennessee.

Close, but no cigar.

It was one of the weirder years in Gainesville. USATSI

So there it is, college football world. The accountability you wanted in August is my gift to you this holiday season. Be safe, enjoy the bowl games and savor the next few weeks. We have a long offseason ahead of us.