Young pups are a year older - Mississippi State went through a youth movement of sorts a year ago, having to play true freshman Will Rogers at quarterback and give way to Jo’quavious Marks and Dillon Johnson in the backfield.
Freshman Jaden Walley led all pass catchers and the Bulldogs got two other ball catchers this offseason via the transfer portal. To say this offense should be much improved is an understatement.
Momentum. Momentum is a beautiful thing and Cincinnati under Luke Fickell has been straight hot! After a 4-8 season in 2017, Fickell’s club has reeled off 10 wins a season on average, the last three seasons.
The Bearcats return quarterback Desmond Ridder, who should be one of the best in the country and garner high interest from teams in the NFL for 2022.
It’s hard not to like everything about Alabama. They recruit better than most everyone on a given year, and just raked in the number one recruiting class in the country.
Nick Saban has won seven national titles, and is the best college football coach of all time. They are the poster boy of college football and they don’t look to be going anywhere anytime soon.
While the first few years were a struggle, what Kyle Whittingham has done with this program since 2004 has been remarkable.
Like all PAC 12 teams, lets toss out 2020 with the bath water - this team inherits quarterback Charlie Brewer via the transfer portal from Baylor to give them another ace at signal caller, Ty Jordan is still a baby at running back and can get you seven yards per carry and there’s a certain swagger around Utah football.
The Canes averaged 34 points per game and D’Eriq King looked flawless at times, tossing 23 touchdowns to only five interceptions. Miami brings in several transfers that look to contribute in 2021 and have a golden opportunity in week one against Alabama to show they are truly a force to be reckoned with in the ACC.
Cade McNamara was named the starter this spring by new quarterbacks coach Matt Weiss and the Wolverines like the QB room with five star JJ McCarthy.
The Wolverines need to get more out of the most important position in football.
Also, despite all the criticism, throw out 2020 and Michigan is still winning 9.4 games per year. The Wolverines recruit well and should stay in the BIG10 picture annually.
The Matt Campbell affect. Year six of the Matt Campbell era is expected to be a good one, as the Cyclones return a ton of talent off last years team that went 9-3, losing to Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State by an average of 4.5 points. Iowa State returns Breece Hall at running back, who was a 1,500 yard back and quarterback Brock Purdy, who tossed 19 touchdowns to only nine interceptions.
The Rebs scored a ton of points, scared the daylights out of Alabama and Florida, won the Egg Bowl and carried a ton of momentum into 2021.
Ole Miss returns our top quarterback in the SEC for 2021 in Matt Corral, a ton of talent on the offensive side of the ball and folks are excited about Ole Miss football again.
Stability - Oregon has positioned itself as the premiere program out west.
The Ducks have upped their recruiting profile, have thrown players into the NFL and shown they are a force to be reckoned with down the road.
The biggest question is can they become now what Clemson did and has become a decade ago?
Momentum - let’s just throw out last year for the BIG 10. Minnesota played seven ball games and we will assume last year’s 3-4 record was a mulligan.
Prior to last year, the Gophers improved every year under PJ Fleck and beat Auburn in a big time bowl game. Fleck has improved the roster, bred new life into the program and returns our number one BIG 10 quarterback in Tanner Morgan.
Morgan will have a shot at the NFL next year and this offense should be clicking back on all cylinders in 2021.
Stability - Mack Brown has created stability back into the program for a second time and he has made North Carolina relevant again in ACC football.
Carolina returns arguably the best quarterback in the country in Sam Howell. Howell ranks as our number one quarterback in our power five quarterback rankings and is a front runner for the Heisman Trophy.
A new beginning. The Steve Sarkisian era officially begins at Texas as the Longhorns hope to bottle some of that play calling magic that made Sark a house hold name the last two years.
The Longhorns have our ninth best roster talent in the country and Sark has a lot to work with in year one - starting with running back Bijan Robinson. Robinson averaged 8.2 yards per clip as a freshman last year.
If the quarterback position pans out, this team could “be back” sooner rather than later.
LSU comes in with the third best roster talent in the country on our three year talent metric and return one of the best secondary’s in the country, led by Eli Ricks and Jay Ward.
The Tigers are deep at quarterback and should have a really good one, two punch in Myles Brennan and Max Johnson.
Kayshon Bouttle leads a talented group of young wide receivers for LSU and the Tigers return most of their running back production - one that saw 1217 yards and nine touchdowns a year ago.
As you read this piece on the 22nd day of April, we have 134 days until we kick off college football on Labor Day. Lots to do, cover and unpack as we head towards September.
We have already dropped power rankings, a National Champion and win totals for all 129 teams. Team and conference previews to come, but today, we tell you what matchups we think will be in every conference title game, with an established gaming line and a winner. So let’s get to it. All conferences below - Power Five and Group of five predictions.
As we march on towards summer and media days, we will begin dropping conference previews, team previews, articles on coaching, recruiting, quarterbacks and more.
Today we wanted to drop records for all 129 teams. After careful analysis of all 129 team schedules, we like to put our money where our mouth is and predict every teams record almost five months out.
Since 2017, we have pegged all teams within two games of their final outcome 77 percent of the time. Sure we have some misses, and some duds, but we have hit the mark on most days.
t’s been 21 years since the Oklahoma Sooners won the National Championship in college football and a lot has changed since the year 2000. The iPhone wasn’t a thing the last time OU won a national title, neither was social media or Elon Musk - as we know him today.
Oklahoma has been close over the years, with various Heisman Trophy winners, several College Football Playoff appearances, but those have not always been kind.
The Sooners were dusted by Alabama in 2018, 45-34 in the semifinals and suffered the worse loss ever in the short history of the playoff, to the hands of LSU by the tune of 63-28.
There has also been heartbreak like in 2017 in a classic against Georgia at the Rose Bowl - a double overtime loss, 54-48.
2020 was unlike anything any of us had ever seen and hopefully never will again. And for the sports world the same can be said, however, Alabama took a very weird year and turned it into arguably the greatest year for a college football team maybe ever.
The Crimson Tide ran through a 10 game SEC schedule, won a Southeastern Conference Championship and dominated Notre Dame and Ohio State to claim the National Title.
We love to rank college football teams and we love to compare teams in different eras; compare programs as they pertain to decades and more. Who is the best? Is it Alabama of today, or Nebraska of 1995? Who had the better run in college football? Bobby Bowden’s Florida State teams or Pete Carrol’s USC teams?
Today we continue our journey to look at the 66 Power Five Programs and where their “Respective Program” ranks and stacks up against the rest.
Today we continue our journey to look at the 66 Power Five Programs and where their “Respective Program” ranks and stacks up against the rest.
We will look over the last forty years (from 1980 to 2020), and based on multiple criteria we will place every team in different tiers.
The tiers are as follows: Super Elite, First Rate, Top Flight, Passable, Strange, Tolerable, Mediocre, Not good enough, Damaged, Weak, Unsettling and Disturbing.
We look over the last forty years (from 1980 to 2020), and based on multiple criteria we will place every team in different tiers.
The tiers are as follows: Super Elite, First Rate, Top Flight, Passable, Strange, Tolerable, Mediocre, Not good enough, Damaged, Weak, Unsettling and Disturbing.
The criteria we will use is multiple, to give each team a final score in our simple program formula. Number of 6 win seasons, 10 win seasons, Conference Titles, Bowl appearances, Bowl wins, National Championship Appearances, National Championships and Losing Seasons.
