Last season, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish made their first College Football Playoff in school history. Which teams could make their first playoff this season?
2015 was the first year we were blessed with four teams playing for the National Championship as part of the College Football Playoff. It was wonderful but has felt like more of the same every single season. The College Football Playoff recycles teams more than college programs recycle coaches.
Since it’s inception, Alabama made the playoff all five seasons. The Clemson Tigers are right behind them, making it in all but one year. Oklahoma made the playoff three times, while Ohio State made it twice.
However, every year there seems to be one team that always slips in. Whether it’s the Georgia Bulldogs or Oregon Ducks, who made it to the Championship Game, or Florida State and Michigan State, who got absolutely destroyed in their appearances. Either way, it feels like there’s always one spot for the newcomer.
This season, there could many teams breaking into the fold, but with Jalen Hurts at Oklahoma, and Tua Tagovailoa and Trevor Lawrence at Alabama and Clemson, it’s hard for other teams to break through.
We’ve seen college football turned on its head before. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen it, but maybe that means we’re due.
The thing about college football this season is it’s hard to pick a team to dominate after the two powerhouses Clemson and Alabama. Those two may go undefeated until they meet in the National Championship. However, the two spots outside of them are up for grabs. So, which teams could make it to their first College Football Playoff in 2019?
10. Penn State
Right now, Penn State fans are freaking out because they keep losing recruits for their 2020 class, but at least 2019 is still promising. Two members of the defense were named on Phil Steele’s preseason All-American Team.
Penn State has had one of the craziest decades in college sports history, going from scandal-ridden and doomed for future recruits and bowl eligibility to beating the powerhouses of the Big Ten year in and year out and coming very, very close to the College Football Playoff in the 2016 season. The committee chose Ohio State over them despite the Nittany Lions winning the Big Ten.
This season, with Ohio State surrounded by questions, this could be the year James Franklin leads this team to the promised land. Franklin was just named the best coach in the conference by CBS Sports, a high mark when coaching alongside Jim Harbaugh.
The major issue here is going to be the man under center. The Nittany Lions lost Trace McSorley to the NFL. They thought that it would be an easy transition to Tommy Stevens. However, he unexpectedly left to go to Michigan State, and now they are left with a QB battle. Sean Clifford and Will Levis believe they are ready for the challenge, but we have to see it on the field before they become true contenders.
They don’t have a true test until they take on Iowa in the middle of October (rivalry with Pitt aside). Their schedule is not in their favor this year, taking on the Hawkeyes, Ohio State and Michigan State on the road. However, we’ve seen this coaching staff overcome such odds before.
9. Baylor
This one might seem a little off the reservation, but let’s look at the facts. The Big 12 may be in flux this season with Texas trying to live up to lofty expectations and an Oklahoma team hoping Jalen Hurts fits in immediately. West Virginia won’t be near as good and Iowa State still has question marks. Baylor is on the way up, and getting to the Big 12 Championship Game is a distinct possibility.
Junior quarterback Charlie Brewer returns after throwing for 3,000 yards while racking up more than 400 rushing yards last season. He’s back under center after a productive season in the Big 12.
They are also bringing back 85 percent of their defensive starters. Now, that’s not terribly important in the Big 12, because defense takes a back seat in this conference. However, if a team can at least be competent on the defensive side, it’s important. Clay Johnston is one of the best returning linebackers in the conference. The defense was pretty terrible, but that can turn around quickly when there’s experience on the defense.
Then there’s the wild card; Matt Rhule. He was a candidate for NFL head coaching jobs after getting Baylor back to bowl eligibility this past season. It seems premature at this point, but he might be one of those under-the-radar coaching stars. He was really good at times at Temple, and he showed some interesting game plans at Baylor.
Obviously, this is the longest shot on here, but there are pieces here to make a contender. The schedule has every difficult game in Waco. The team has a good quarterback and coach combination. Baylor is the darkest of horses, but one that’s still running.
8. Florida
To be completely honest, it’s hard to predict another SEC team on the list because of the daunting schedule they always face. However, Florida doesn’t have to face Alabama until a possible SEC Title Game, where if they won they’d almost be a sure bet to make the College Football Playoff.
Florida plays it’s two biggest rivals in Miami and Florida State, and they take on the latter in the last week of their regular season. Even if FSU has another down year, the Gators can dominate them on a national platform. We don’t have to wait long, as the Gators-Hurricanes matchup will kick off the college football season on August 24th.
The schedule, in general, is in the Gators’ favor. Their hardest away game is against the LSU Tigers in early October. They have a couple of other high-profile road games against the Missouri Tigers and South Carolina. Even on the road, those are winnable games for Florida.
The Gators find themselves in the top ten in just about every preseason poll. Dan Mullen’s first season put the team back on track, winning 10 games after a disastrous 4-7 campaign in 2017. It didn’t take long for Mullen to right the ship.
Florida is returning eight starters on the defensive side of the ball. That’s huge for them, especially after retaining defensive coordinator Todd Grantham.
As with most of these teams, the quarterback position is one to watch. Feleipe Franks returns to hopefully lead the Gators to another great season. He got better as the year goes on. If he gets even better with a good offseason workout program, then he could be another quarterback to get into national conversations.
7. UCF
Look who we have here. The University of Central Florida makes the list. How many years can this team go undefeated in the regular season before they actually get legitimate title hype?
Well, it sure helps that the Knights have Stanford on their schedule this season. They can look back at that game at the end of the season and say they played a legit contender. This is something that’s usually missing from their resume.
They play Temple, Cincinnati and Pitt on the road. For most teams, it isn’t good to play your tough matchups on the road, but the teams facing UCF have never been their biggest opponent. It’s always been the committee and their strength of schedule.
This is a sort of transition year for UCF. They lost McKenzie Milton to one of the worst knee injuries we’ve ever seen. Right now, he hasn’t been ruled out for next season, but he spent weeks in the hospital and he attended spring practices still on crutches.
Darriel Mack Jr. will likely step into his place for the time being. However, he has competition from Notre Dame transfer Brandon Wimbush. However, unlike most teams, the talent at the quarterback position may not be the most important.
The Knights have a three-headed monster in Greg McCrae, Adrian Killins Jr. and Otis Anderson. Then they have Gabriel Davis making tough catches from the wide receiver position. As long as the quarterbacks can avoid throwing their team out of the game with major mistakes, the skill positions can carry this offense.
Again, it’s going to take some impressive wins to gain national notoriety this season. UCF needs to prove itself a powerhouse after the Milton injury to gain national title buzz. However, many of these players could easily be on Power 5 programs, and that might be enough for the committee to finally give them a chance.
6. Syracuse
The Syracuse Orange are ranked in the late teens and 20’s in most post-spring rankings, so it’s an uphill battle to make the College Football Playoff, especially with Clemson in their conference.
But, Syracuse has played the reigning national champions as tough as anyone not named Alabama in recent seasons. Last season, Syracuse went into halftime with a 16-7 lead on the road against the eventual National Champions. They went into the fourth quarter with the lead. Then, Clemson did Clemson things and came out with a 27-23 win.
This season, they play Clemson at home in September. They could catch Clemson by surprise while they are still trying to replace some of their best players, especially on the defensive line where multiple players left to go play in the NFL.
New quarterback Tommy DeVito looked really good in the spring game.
Syracuse is still a long shot, but with a great quarterback with very little tape to scout, a coach that has the program going in the right direction, and an early-season matchup to build confidence through the rest of the season, Syracuse could be one of the biggest surprises this decade.
5. Stanford
Stanford is putting it all on the line this season. They have an incredibly hard schedule outside the Pac-12. They take on UCF in September, then rekindle an old rivalry with Notre Dame, who themselves made their College Football Playoff debuts last season. That matchup comes at the end of November. The Fighting Irish haven’t beaten Stanford on the road in the last five tries.
The end of season poll had Stanford just outside the top 25, but everything can change very quickly in college football. A post-spring top 25 from USA Today has them sitting at 18th in the nation, and if questions surrounding the offense persist then it could be a problem.
They are returning starting quarterback KJ Costello, but he’s really the only significant one of the four returning offensive starters. He’s going to have to shoulder much of the offensive loads. They lost Bryce Love at running back, JJ Arcega-Whiteside at wide receiver and Kaden Smith at tight end. That’s a lot to replace.
The Cardinal will need to live off their defense, which brings back almost their entire defensive line and secondary from last season. They have a few playmakers that can grow into something great, and with them playing one of the hardest out of conference schedules of the season, they’ll need to be great sooner rather than later. However, it could happen. With the Pac 12 wide open, they could win the division with one loss, and since they’d have great wins across the board, it could propel them to the Playoff.
4. Michigan
Michigan may be the most likely team on this entire list. They came so close last year before completely blowing it at the end of the year against Ohio State. Their top-ranked defense allowed 62 points against their most-hated rival. When the lights shined brightest, the Wolverines just didn’t show up.
Analysts are already predicting Michigan as one of the four teams left at the end of the season. Shea Patterson is returning to play quarterback, and as long as Jim Harbaugh is leading the pack this defense will be one of the better units in football.
Michigan’s schedule finally works out in their favor to make the jump to the Playoff. They have Notre Dame, Iowa, Michigan State and, most importantly, Ohio State playing in The Big House. Those games being at home is crucial to their season finally going well. They will have to do it this year because it could be a decade before the schedule works out this perfectly.
With Urban Meyer heading to other pastures, the Buckeyes might be in a transition year. Michigan is head and shoulders the team to beat in the Big 10. Patterson is going to throw all over this conference, and with a stingy defense behind him, the only thing that could stop the Wolverines are the Wolverines.
They have a great recruiting class coming in, all the hype in the world and the right talent-to-luck ratio to finally make this work.
3. LSU
The LSU Tigers were once a powerhouse under head coach Les Miles, but times have sure changed in a few years. Now, Ed Orgeron is leading the Tigers after they won 10 games for the first time since 2013. They beat an injury-riddled UCF in the Fiesta Bowl to reach double-digit wins.
Now, they go into this season ranked 10th in the country. They are primed to make a move this season, as long as they win the games they need to and steal one or two as an underdog. They have a huge matchup with Texas week two. If they win that game, it puts them on the map going into their SEC schedule.
They play Alabama on the road, so they will likely lose that game, but they play Texas A&M, Auburn, and the Florida Gators at home. To make the Playoff, they can only afford to lose one game, and since they play the Crimson Tide on the road, they need to make sure that’s the only game they lose.
Since they play in the SEC West, they can watch Alabama go undefeated, but would still have a gripe to make it into the final four even if they don’t make it to the SEC Championship Game.
LSU returns 15 starters and will move their offense to a run-pass option with senior quarterback Joe Burrow. They welcome the nation’s second-best running back prospect in John Emery Jr. He should get playing time right away and will help them have a leg up on other players across the country.
2. Texas A&M
This could be the year that Jimbo Fisher finally makes up for that massive contract Texas A&M gave him in December 2017. He’s a $75 million dollar man who went 9-4 in his first season. This season, the Aggies can really move forward with the Jimbo Fisher game plan.
Quarterback Kellen Mond is set to become one of the better quarterbacks in college football. He took major steps in his first season, and we expect him to take another step forward in his Junior year. He’ll have a chance to show how much he’s grown against the very best teams in college football.
The Aggies are the only team in the entire country playing both Alabama and Clemson during the regular season. Can you imagine if they win both games? It’s like a guaranteed ticket to the College Football Playoff. That’s going to be close to impossible, but we’ve seen crazier things happen from worse teams. The Aggies are very good this season, and with Fisher’s leadership, they could take their next step towards true contention.
Jashaun Corbin could become one of the best running backs in college football. He’s just a sophomore, but he was running over defenses in 2018. He will do more of the same in 2019.
This season could go either way for Texas A&M. It’s all based on how they deal with this monster schedule. If they find a way to lose only one game going into the SEC Championship Game (if they make it), how could the committee leave them out? They absolutely can’t.
1. Texas
The Texas Longhorns are the biggest threats to the Oklahoma Sooners winning another Big 12 Title. WVU is expected to have a down year after losing its head coach and star quarterback. Iowa State has the talent to play spoiler, but it’s hard to imagine they win eight Big 12 games. The rest of the conference went under .500 in conference play last season. Texas, meanwhile, was the only team that took down Oklahoma in conference play.
The Sooners lost superstar Kyler Murray to the NFL Draft. Meanwhile, the Longhorns are riding high after beating the Georgia Bulldogs in the Sugar Bowl this past season. This puts some serious hype around the program. The thing about hype is some teams get better with hype and some shrink under the pressure. What will this Longhorns team do?
With head coach Tom Herman, this team always has a chance. He was a great hire by the Longhorns.
There are some issues. They have to replace most of their starters on the defensive side, only bringing back three players. The depth of this team is lacking, but this coaching staff gets the best out of its talent.
Sam Ehlinger is the key to the Longhorns’ season. It all rides on his shoulders. He enters his junior season as a legit dual-threat quarterback who led the Longhorns to greatness in his sophomore season. If he can actually grow this season, he could be in the Heisman conversation while leading the Longhorns to their first College Football Playoff berth.