The first edition of the College Football Blitz takes a look at some notable storylines as we enter the 2017 season
It seemed an eternity ago we college football fans were gathered together, watching Deshaun Watson roll to his right and complete a short pass to Hunter Renfrow in the end zone to lead the Clemson Tigers to the late, come-from-behind win over the vaunted Alabama Crimson Tide. That completed pass gave head coach Dabo Swinney’s Tigers a 35-31 win on that night in Tampa, Florida, and the program its first national championship since 1981. The rematch for the ages capped off an incredible 2016 college football season, but also signaled the beginning of a lengthy wait until the 2017 season.
That wait, folks, is over.
After trekking our way through yet another offseason filled with all the drama you come to expect from the down time for college football, it’s time to put the teams back onto the field to begin the quest to ultimately crown a new national champion.
This College Football Blitz column will appear every Tuesday and it will take a look at some of the biggest stories from each week of the season from each Power 5 conference, in addition to a well-talked about fallout topic from one of the Group of 5 schools. And of course, when applicable, I’m quite sure the Notre Dame Fighting Irish will make a few appearances as we navigate through the 2017 college football season.
With no games having taken place yet and everyone still patiently sitting idle as the new season approaches, let’s take a look at some of just the Power 5 topics I myself am interested in as we gear up to take yet another incredible journey through a college football season.
ACC: Are the Miami Hurricanes BACK?!
Isn’t this question just the absolute best? I mean, really, it’s great because, you know, we’ve never heard this inquiry before and it’s something new that we can all talk about heading into a brand new college football season.
Okay, all sarcasm aside, though, while we have heard the topic of one of the most villainous programs in the history of college football potentially making a return to prominence talked about ad nauseam, this year it might actually be something worth discussing.
After going 9-4 in his first season coaching his alma mater, expectations are high for Mark Richt and this 2017 Miami squad entering the new season. Richt does have to replace longtime starting quarterback Brad Kaaya, who left early for the NFL Draft for some inexplicable reason, but redshirt junior Malik Rosier should be up to the task with some experience under his belt, and not to mention, they return one of the best running backs in the conference in Mark Walton, who rushed for 1,117 yards last year and 14 touchdowns. Wide receiver Ahmmon Richards is back for his sophomore year, and after racking up 934 yards last year for the Hurricanes, he’ll be a huge contributor on that side of the ball.
A bevy of key contributors are returning on the defensive side of the ball for Richt this season, a defense that saw tremendous improvement under his watch during his first year at the helm for the ‘Canes.
Should all of these pieces fall into place and mesh the way Richt envisions, then Miami will make their first-ever, long-awaited trip to the ACC Championship Games as the champions of the Coastal Division. And more importantly, “Is Miami back?” won’t be a question that’s simply laughed off any longer.
Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images
Big 12: The new faces of the Red River Rivalry
Not even just last season, but the season prior when he led the Houston Cougars on that incredible run, it seemed inevitable to everyone that Tom Herman was going to be the head coach of the Texas Longhorns. When the Texas administration ultimately did decide to pull the plug on the Charlie Strong experiment, the 42-year-old Herman was named the new head man of one of the most prestigious programs in college football history, and a place where he once spent time as a graduate assistant as he was beginning his coaching venture.
The hire we all saw coming by Texas created an interesting dynamic for one of the most storied battles in all of college football, the Red River Rivalry, Texas’ yearly showdown with the Oklahoma Sooners inside the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. Here’s a young, up-and-coming stud coach in Herman looking to take down one of the best coaches in the history of the Big 12 Conference, Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops.
Then the month of June rolled around and the dynamic within the rivalry didn’t just change slightly — it was turned on its head completely in regards to the two men leading the charge.
To the surprise of virtually everyone within the college football landscape, Stoops decided in June that, after 18 years on the job with one of the most prominent programs in college football and a collection of trophies including one national championship, it was time to hang it up and take a rest at the age of 56. In his place, Oklahoma granted an immediate promotion to offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley. Riley, at just 33 years of age, is now the top man in charge of the Oklahoma Sooners football program.
I, too, am 33 years old, so it’s safe to say Riley is doing somewhat better in life than I am at this point. You know, just slightly.
The retirement of Stoops and the subsequent hiring of Riley makes the Red River Rivalry a little more interesting, though. While the retirement of Stoops was a shock, we knew it was coming eventually. Now, we get to watch two coaches of whom much is expected battle it out every year as they seek to enter the upper echelon of current college football head coaches with two of the most respected programs in the game.
This is gonna be fun.
Big Ten: Will Penn State achieve what they believe they deserved last season?
While, at least in my view, the College Football Playoff system has been effective thus far since its birth a few years ago, this is college football after all and nothing comes without controversy. Last year’s end-of-season controversy came to us in the form of the Big Ten Champion Penn State Nittany Lions being left out of the field of four, while the conference was not left out entirely. With just one loss on the year as opposed to Penn State’s two, Urban Meyer and the Ohio State Buckeyes were allowed into the championship VIP party. Penn State was literally peering into the door right there at No. 5, waving their shiny new Big Ten Championship trophy as they screamed their case.
All of that is in the past, though. Now head coach James Franklin — with his fresh new contract extension — and his team have a chance in 2017 to prove themselves as a legitimate national championship threat, and make no mistake about it, they do have the talent to do so.
The obvious key returning starters in this quest to earn a seat at the College Football Playoff table are quarterback Trace McSorley and running back Saquon Barkley. In his first season as the full-time starter last season, McSorley threw for 3,614 yards and 29 touchdowns, while Barkley rushed for 1,496 yards and 18 scores, while adding in four receiving touchdowns as well.
This isn’t even mentioning they may have the best tight end this year coming back in Mike Gesicki, who caught 48 balls last year for 679 yards and five touchdowns.
On the defensive side of the ball, Penn State will have to battle through some inexperience issues, especially on the defensive line, where they have to replace both starting defensive ends; Garrett Sickel declared for the NFL Draft while Evan Schwan ran out of eligibility in State College.
Should Franklin and his staff shore up the defensive side of the ball and if the offense is even scarier than they were at the end of last season, though, then Penn State’s mission to show everyone they belong will be one of the more fun storylines to watch play out this coming season.
That back-to-back slate with Ohio State and Michigan State on the road, though — woof.
Photo by Harry How/Getty Images
Pac-12: Sam Darnold looks to keep the hype train rolling
It’s amazing, especially in the sport of college football, how quickly the perception of a team can change. At the beginning of the 2016 season, the USC Trojans starting quarterback was senior Max Browne, they were throttled in embarrassing fashion by the Alabama Crimson Tide in Week 1 and we all pointed and laughed. That’s what we do when blueblood programs we’re not personally fans of seem to have fallen on hard times and they fall flat on their face.
By the end of the season, however, the Trojans were standing tall as the champions of the Rose Bowl and we were talking about their potential national title aspirations for the 2017 season.
Most of the talk, though, surrounded the USC starting quarterback. No, not Max Browne, but redshirt freshman Sam Darnold.
Things didn’t get better for USC right off the bat last year, as they did start the year out 1-3. But when the trigger was pulled on selecting Darnold as the permanent starting quarterback the rest of the way, we basically saw a new USC team and a rising star in the making. Darnold finished the season with 3,086 yards passing, 31 touchdowns, nine interceptions and a 67 percent completion percentage. He capped off his outstanding year with a Rose Bowl performance for the ages in an epic win over Penn State.
So naturally, as the new face of the USC program, expectations are high for Darnold and this USC team. But just judging by his demeanor this offseason paired with the poise that he showed on the field during his incredible season last year, Darnold seems more than up to this new task. He’s losing his top receiver in JuJu Smith-Schuster, but with the way he can spread the ball around the field, he can figure a way through that situation.
Darnold cemented himself in USC lore with that stellar Rose Bowl performance, but now he has the ultimate goal of a national title on his mind.
SEC: The Ed Orgeron era begins in Baton Rouge
I won’t lie when I say that it truly sucks we have to go through a college football season without Les Miles manning a sideline, but thus is the case after LSU finally decided to move on from the Mad Hatter last season. To that point, though, it did essentially open the door for something fans have been clamoring for — the beloved Ed Orgeron landing himself a permanent head coaching job in the game.
Orgeron is one of the most endearing personalities in all of college football, and ever since USC decided to pass on him following his run after the firing of Lane Kiffin, we’ve wanted to see the Louisiana native step out of the assistant ranks and get back into the head coaching profession. Following the departure of Miles from the Tigers program, LSU decided to pull the trigger on what many consider the smart move by keeping the former Ole Miss head coach around for the foreseeable future.
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Now, though, as much as we are all affectionately drawn to “Coach O,” it’s time for him to justify finally landing another permanent head coaching gig. He’s taking over an LSU program that has been plagued recently by being pretty good, but not reaching the elite level of a national title contender. If Orgeron can’t get the LSU Tigers on that road, then things might go downhill in a hurry with this relationship.