College football: 5 teams that won’t be as good as you think in 2021

Losing Kellen Mond moves them to the middle of tight SEC West pack

The Texas A&M Aggies are coming off their best season since 2012. Texas A&M went 9-1 overall, including 8-1 in the SEC and an Orange Bowl victory over the North Carolina Tar Heels. As many people projected it would happen, the Aggies finally popped under head coach Jimbo Fisher in year three. However, they will lose more games than to just the Alabama Crimson Tide in 2021.

The big key here is the Aggies will not have Kellen Mond at quarterback. Had he have returned to school instead of enter the 2021 NFL Draft, he would be First-Team All-SEC and Texas A&M would have a realistic shot of stunning Alabama at Kyle Field. However, potential quarterbacking uncertainty knocks them down to a very tight SEC West hierarchy after Alabama firmly at No. 1.

Even with a new coaching staff, the Auburn Tigers should be better in 2021. Do we really expect the LSU Tigers to be as bad as they were a season ago? If they are, head coach Ed Orgeron will be run out of town faster than Auburn once did Gene Chizik. The Mississippi schools are trending in the right direction and Arkansas is exponentially better under Sam Pittman than we expected.

Simply put, Texas A&M playing in the tougher of the two SEC divisions severely hurts its chances of getting to Atlanta, even if it draws Missouri and South Carolina out of the East this year. Having to play former Big 12 foe Colorado in Denver will not be an easy non-conference game. While Texas A&M will be New Year’s Six-caliber, they will not be the first team out in the playoff picture.

So there you have it, five teams who are poised to pull back in 2021. The biggest thing hurting the top three teams on this list is that they have lost their starting quarterback from a season ago. Miami still has theirs, but D’Eriq King’s injury is no joke. Graham Mertz could be a revelation at Wisconsin, but the Big Ten West has never been this good since coming into existence.

What college football teams do you expect to pull back in 2021?

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