Group of Five season preview: Who is this year’s Cinderella?
Sun Belt
Unlike the MAC, it is apparent who the contenders are in the Sun Belt as there are only five teams with serious hopes of making a bowl game.
It starts with Appalachian State, whose biggest lost is on the sideline as Scott Satterfield has moved on to coach Louisville. However, don’t expect the Mountaineers to fall off in year one post-Satterfield as they return 16 starters including quarterback Zac Thomas. They are as well balanced as any team in the country, so double-digit wins is still a strong possibility.
Troy and Georgia Southern are the other two competitive teams in the east and are not going to let Appalachian State skate by with the division crown. The Trojans will be looking to win double-digit games for the fourth consecutive season. However, they face the same issue as App State having to replace their tremendous coach Neal Brown who is now at West Virginia. They have pieces to do it like B.J. Smith, but a healthy Kaleb Barker at quarterback will be critical.
Georgia Southern made a massive turnaround in 2018 and return enough pieces (14 returning starters) to keep it going into 2019. Things were looking a bit bleak with the arrest of Shia Werts, but with that mistaken arrest now behind him look for a Werts to have a great season. Bob Debesse’s shotgun pistol option is one of the fascinating schemes in college football and is definitely worth a watch.
On the other side, Arkansas State and Louisiana are going to be the only viable teams to come out the west so their game on October 4 will be huge.