Paper champions: 5 college football teams that will be overhyped all offseason

Your favorite college football team may have convinced you it won the offseason, but these five Power 5 programs are paper champions and will be overhyped.

After watching Joe Burrow and the LSU Tigers dominate Trevor Lawrence and the Clemson Tigers in the second half of the national championship, we’re now all onto 2020. It’s so next season already and we cannot wait for some more college football action. Of course, we’re going to have to wait until Labor Day weekend before any games are played, but let’s buy into the hype!

Or, let’s not!

Unless your favorite team has dominated on the recruiting trails for the last three years, your team isn’t winning a national championship in 2020. That’s fine, but let’s try to keep it real here. Sure, your team can have a great season by playing in a New Year’s Six bowl if you’re lucky. Maybe a 10-win season is a possibility? Or if your team has been bad, let’s go bowling then!

Overall, we know which teams are going to be in the mix for the College Football Playoff. Newsflash: It’s the same teams that are always vying for a playoff berth every year. You know who you are and if you don’t, that’s what we’re trying to accomplish today. Face it, some teams are going to be inflated with so much overhype, failure will indeed be the sincerest form of flattery.

Here are your way-too-early 2020 college football paper champions. To not ruffle any more feathers, these programs are listed in alphabetical order. But still, they’re overhyped heading into 2020 and you know it.

Miami Hurricanes

No, it doesn’t matter former Houston Cougars quarterback D’Eriq King transferred in, the Miami Hurricanes won’t be returning to glory this year. Perhaps if they’re lucky, they can win the worst division in the Power 5 this season, the ACC Coastal. If 2020 can be like 2017, then that will be fantastic for the Canes. However, we need to see more out of head coach Manny Diaz before we buy in here. Diaz might only be one of two coaches in the ACC Coastal that hasn’t won a division title before, with the other being Geoff Collins of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. We get it. This is only Diaz’s second year as a head coach. That being said, he’ll have to outduel Mack Brown, Justin Fuente and Bronco Mendenhall to even get to Charlotte. Miami will be better but is still probably a year away.

Nebraska Cornhuskers

If anybody can make the Nebraska Cornhuskers relevant again, it has to be Scott Frost. The former Nebraska quarterback under the legendary Tom Osborne has the look and the feel of an elite Power 5 coach but hasn’t been even remotely close to having the success he did leading the AAC’s UCF Knights. UCF was a trainwreck when he arrived, far worse than what he got in Lincoln. Frost got an extension to lead his alma mater’s football team last season. However, let’s not get carried away with ourselves. Let’s walk before we run. Nebraska shouldn’t be ranked until the Cornhuskers achieve bowl eligibility next year. This is supposedly a college football blue-blood. Once we can assure ourselves of eight wins annually out of Nebraska, then we can talk.

Texas Longhorns

Is this the year the Texas Longhorns are finally back? Nope. Not happening. It’s a great story Sam Ehlinger decided to return for his senior season. The dirty little secret here is if he went pro, he’d be a day-three pick and nothing more. That’s not to say he can’t lead the Longhorns to a Big 12 Championship or contend for a Heisman Trophy. He’s good. But what this really comes down to is us having to deal with Texas forcing its way into the top-10 in the preseason polls, only to fall out by sometime in mid-September. Beat Oklahoma in Dallas, lose no more than two Big 12 games and play in Jerryworld for the right to go to the Sugar Bowl and lose to an SEC powerhouse. You’re back when you make the playoff and you’re not until that happens.

Texas A&M Aggies

2020 is a critical year for the Texas A&M Aggies. The schedule won’t be as daunting as it was last year. But, does anyone really think they’re better than the fourth-best team in the SEC West? Jimbo Fisher has done a great job recruiting, but he’ll need a huge year out of quarterback Kellen Mond if the Aggies hope to beat Alabama, Auburn or LSU. And that’s about as good as it’s going to get. If Texas A&M hits in 2020, the Aggies will have gone 10-2 (6-2) and might get a New Year’s Six invitation to the Cotton Bowl.

Washington Huskies

Losing Chris Petersen to retirement stings, as does seeing Jacob Eason, the pride of Lake Stevens, Washington declare for the draft. But with the Pac-12 being down, there is a reason the Huskies can at least trick themselves that they’re something close to a contender. New head coach Jimmy Lake will do good things but 2020 isn’t the year. Washington plays in the harder of the two Pac-12 divisions. We know Oregon is a beast and will be the Pac-12 favorite. Sure, Washington State will be worse without Mike Leach and Anthony Gordon, but let’s not sleep on Oregon State and Cal either. Washington might be a top-25 team entering the season, but there are no guarantees the Huskies will be one at the end of the year.

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