Innholdsfortegnelse for 2021 National College Football i Athlon Sports Football Bundle

26. Utah 27. Ole Miss 28. Oklahoma State 29. Auburn 30. UCF 31. Boise State 32. Michigan 33. West Virginia 34. Missouri 35. Kentucky 36. Minnesota 37. UCLA 38. NC State 39. Liberty 40. Virginia Tech 41. Pittsburgh 42. Boston College 43. Florida State 44. Arkansas 45. Louisville 46. Wake Forest 47. Northwestern 48. Nebraska 49. Mississippi State 50. Nevada 51. BYU 52. San Jose State 53. Kansas State 54. California 55. Appalachian State 56. Tennessee 57. Maryland 58. Baylor 59. Virginia 60. Purdue 61. Houston 62. Colorado 63. Tulsa 64. SMU 65. Tulane 66. Stanford 67. UAB 68. Washington State 69. UTSA 70. Fresno State 71. Texas Tech 72. Memphis 73. Oregon State 74. South Carolina 75. Georgia Tech 76. Rutgers 77. Michigan State 78. Buffalo 79. Army 80.…

ACC AMERICAN BIG 12 BIG TEN CONFERENCE USA MID-AMERICAN MOUNTAIN WEST PAC-12 SEC SUN BELT NATIONAL UNIT RANKINGS Quarterbacks 1. Oklahoma 2. North Carolina 3. Clemson 4. Miami 5. Ole Miss 6. Alabama 7. Georgia 8. Iowa State 9. Ohio State 10. USC Running Backs 1. Alabama 2. Georgia 3. Texas A&M 4. Notre Dame 5. Iowa State 6. Oklahoma 7. Ohio State 8. Texas 9. Clemson 10. Arizona State Receivers 1. Ohio State 2. Alabama 3. Oklahoma 4. USC 5. Georgia 6. Iowa State 7. Florida 8. Texas A&M 9. Ole Miss 10. Nevada Offensive Line 1. Ohio State 2. Alabama 3. Georgia 4. Clemson 5. Washington 6. Oklahoma 7. Iowa State 8. Oregon 9. Boston Coll. 10. Louisiana Defensive Line 1. Clemson 2. Ohio State 3. Georgia 4.…

College football coaches have called it free agency. An open door to cheating. The end of the sport as we know it. And that was before the suddenly player-friendly NCAA announced in April that it would grant all football players one free transfer without having to sit out a season. “It will be the wild, wild West,” one Power 5 coach says. And away we go. There are clearly two sides to this mandate, a dynamic so impactful that it will change the way every coach runs his program and add a new category of potential NCAA rulebreakers to the equation. Players love it; coaches hate it. Players love the flexibility it allows after signing their initial letter of intent and the ability to move immediately one time in four…

On a gorgeous winter night in Tallahassee, Michael Alford imagines the fall. The president of Seminoles Boosters is sitting in a semi-full, socially distanced baseball stadium, with Florida State football head coach Mike Norvell merely shouting distance away. Two runners race across home plate for the Noles, and a wave of cheers goes up. Alford can’t help but watch this scene and think about what Doak Campbell Stadium, FSU’s football home, might feel like in a few months. “It’s gonna be electric,” he says. “We are planning a full stadium.” The word “planning” is doing a lot of work in that sentence, and Alford admits as much. He’s not completely sure how the COVID-19 pandemic will affect the sport over the coming months — no one is — so he’s…

James Madison at Weber State (Sept. 18) The non-conference portion of the FCS regular season needs more superpower matchups like this one. North Dakota State at North Dakota (Oct. 2) Their rivalry meeting in March felt like a steel-cage match. North Dakota State at South Dakota State (Nov. 6) The national rankings surrounding this rivalry weigh more than the 75-pound Dakota Marker trophy. Montana State at Montana (Nov. 20) Hostilities may have built up even more without a 2020 meeting in the “Brawl of the Wild.” SWAC Championship Game (Dec. 4) Up to 12 schools, the SWAC is back, bigger and better. The action’s always hot, but the pageantry is half the fun, too.…

Boston College hasn’t knocked off an AP Top 25 opponent since it upset No. 9 USC in 2014. Steve Addazio’s tenure ended with 16 straight losses to programs ranked in the AP Poll. From 2016-19, ranked opponents drubbed Addazio’s teams by an average of 30 points. BC scrounged together 10.2 points per game in those matchups, scoring a lone touchdown on six occasions. The Eagles were a national afterthought. That changed when Jeff Hafley took over. After turning around Ohio State’s defense in 2019, Hafley revitalized a BC program that was stuck in neutral and projected by many to finish in the ACC’s basement last season. Although the Eagles didn’t earn that coveted ranked win in 2020, they did come closer than they have in years. BC was a two-point…

Louisville head coach Scott Satterfield has slipped into a “prove it” situation in his third season with the Cardinals. Louisville went 8–5 in 2019, then slid to 4–7. Four coaches departed the staff. Two top offensive players left for the NFL without finishing the 2020 season. Satterfield was motivated to write a letter of apology to Louisville season-ticket holders after his bungled effort to be involved with the South Carolina job. The gap between Louisville and Clemson has grown in the Atlantic Division, but the Cards must also climb back over NC State and Boston College while trying to replace their three most dynamic offensive playmakers. The outlook is cloudier than a year ago. OFFENSE After offensive coordinator Dwayne Ledford left for the Atlanta Falcons, Satterfield decided that he would…

Dave Clawson’s work at Wake Forest culminated last season in a fifth straight bowl appearance, which is a new level for a program that still has the worst all-time winning percentage of any Power Five school. However, in those five bowl seasons, Wake Forest is 25–13 before Nov. 3 and 6–12 in the regular season after that, including 1–5 the last two seasons. “(Depth) is a critical issue,” Clawson says. “We have to find a way to stay healthy and maintain our depth if we’re ever going to take the next step. If there’s ever a chance to do that, I think it’s this year.” That’s because the NCAA’s ruling to grant another year of eligibility may help Wake Forest more than any other school. The program relies on “coaching…

Bowl week, even before the Miami Hurricanes took the field for the 2021 Cheez-It Bowl, started off as a celebration. An embarrassing, 36-point loss to the North Carolina Tar Heels in the regular-season finale was a distant memory by Christmas weekend. The day after Christmas, D’Eriq King announced he was coming back to Coral Gables for one more year, taking advantage of the extra season of eligibility granted by the NCAA because of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Run it back” became a rallying cry for Miami — the Hurricanes bring back all but two starters in 2021 — but the Canes need King to be healthy to improve on a breakthrough 2020. OFFENSE Manny Diaz tried to overhaul Miami’s offense in 2019, his first season as Miami head coach, plucking Dan…

The unbroken growth that Virginia football coach Bronco Mendenhall has touted over his five seasons with the Cavaliers was broken in 2020. A year after winning the ACC Coastal Division and playing in the Orange Bowl, Virginia opened the year 1–4, finished 5–5 and ended with a loss to rival Virginia Tech, opting out of a bowl game. It was Mendenhall’s worst record since his second year in Charlottesville. Of course, it came in the midst of a pandemic that led extreme schedule disruption. Virginia looks poised for a do-over in 2021. The story going into this season is all the could-have-been seniors who opted to come back from last year’s team. It’s a group that includes four starting offensive linemen, three starting defensive backs and a do-it-all athlete in…

PREDICTED ORDER OF FINISH 2021 Unit Rankings Recruiting by School 1. Oklahoma 2. Texas 3. Oklahoma State 4. West Virginia 5. Baylor 6. Kansas 7. Kansas State 8. Iowa State 9. TCU 10. Texas Tech 2021 Bowl Projections Alamo Bowl: Oklahoma State vs. Arizona State Cheez-It Bowl: Texas vs. Notre Dame Guaranteed Rate Bowl: Kansas State vs. Nebraska Liberty Bowl: West Virginia vs. Kentucky Texas Bowl: TCU vs. Arkansas Sugar Bowl: Iowa State vs. Georgia Orange Bowl (CFP): Oklahoma vs. Clemson Big 12 Coordinator Carousel Baylor: Offense New: Jeff Grimes Old: Larry Fedora Kansas: Offense New: Mike DeBord Old: Brent Dearmon TCU: Offense New: Doug Meacham Old: Sonny Cumbie Texas: Offense New: Kyle Flood Old: Herb Hand, Mike Yurcich Texas: Defense New: Jeff Choate, Pete Kwiatkowski Old: Chris Ash, Coleman…

Make no mistake about it. After winning last year’s Fiesta Bowl and returning 19 of 22 starters, the 2021 edition of Iowa State football should be the best in school history by a wide margin. In Year Six of the Matt Campbell era, the Cyclones are a legitimate College Football Playoff contender with all eyes set on winning the Big 12. Campbell, a three-time Big 12 Coach of the Year, has led Iowa State to nine wins over ranked teams since 2017, tied for the third most in college football during that span. The only goals for this season involve shattering anything that Iowa State football has done in its 100-plus-year history. OFFENSE Iowa State has two Heisman Trophy contenders on its offense in quarterback Brock Purdy and running back…

Oklahoma’s run of three consecutive College Football Playoff appearances ended in 2020. Still, the Sooners are on a run entering the 2021 season, having won eight straight games — the second-longest streak in the country — including another Big 12 title game and the Cotton Bowl Classic. And they’re a popular choice to keep on winning, with a stacked roster and a growing swagger built down the stretch last fall. OFFENSE Spencer Rattler endured some rough patches during his freshman season, including a three-interception scuffle in an early-season loss to unranked Kansas State. But he enjoyed some spectacular stretches, too. Over the final seven games, Rattler tossed 15 touchdowns with just two interceptions. Overall, he finished with 3,031 yards and 28 TDs and was voted Big 12 Newcomer of the…

Steve Sarkisian got his second chance as a big-time head coach — one day after he helped Alabama win a national title — when he was announced as the successor to Tom Herman at Texas. Longhorn Nation seemed to get more excited about Sarkisian’s hire with each new assistant coach he added to his staff. Six of those assistants have been on staffs that have either won a national title (TE/special teams coach Jeff Banks, offensive coordinator/O-line coach Kyle Flood, QB coach AJ Milwee and D-line coach Bo Davis) or reached the College Football Playoff (defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski and secondary coach Terry Joseph). Players say the vibe under Sarkisian is much more straightforward and transparent than life under Herman, who, like his mentor Urban Meyer, used fear as a…

2021 Unit Rankings Recruiting by School 1. Ohio State 2. Michigan 3. Wisconsin 4. Maryland 5. Nebraska 6. Penn State 7. Iowa 8. Minnesota 9. Rutgers 10. Michigan State 11. Northwestern 12. Indiana 13. Illinois 14. Purdue 2021 Bowl Projections Citrus Bowl: Iowa vs. LSU Guaranteed Rate Bowl: Nebraska vs. Kansas State Las Vegas Bowl: Indiana vs. USC Music City Bowl: Michigan vs. Tennessee Outback Bowl: Penn State vs. Missouri Pinstripe Bowl: Maryland vs. Virginia Quick Lane Bowl: Minnesota vs. Toledo Redbox Bowl: Northwestern vs. California Rose Bowl: Wisconsin vs. Oregon Cotton Bowl (CFP): Ohio State vs. Alabama Big Ten Coordinator Carousel Indiana: Defense New: Charlton Warren Old: Kane Wommack Illinois: Offense New: Tony Petersen Old: Rod Smith Illinois: Defense New: Ryan Walters Old: Lovie Smith Maryland: Offense New: Dan…

Third-year Maryland head coach Mike Locksley has spent a lot of time rebuilding the framework of what he believes can finally be a successful program in College Park. He has some insider information: Locksley was a key part of Ralph Friedgen’s staff in the late ’90s when the “Fridge” chilled out locals with a decade of winning football. And the big offseason story at Maryland, other than another banner recruiting class for Locks & Co., was some notable changes on the coaching staff. Former Cincinnati offensive guru Dan Enos is the new offensive coordinator; Brian Stewart begins a second tour of duty with the Terps as defensive boss; veteran’s veteran Ron Zook takes over the special teams; and former NFL assistant Brian Braswell inherits an offensive line loaded with potential.…

There’s no way around it: Ohio State’s unsettled quarterback situation is one of the most intriguing storylines as we plunge into a highly anticipated college football season. All that is apparent so far is that Justin Fields has left a cloud of uncertainty at the position, and head coach Ryan Day eventually will point in the direction of a freshman. Redshirts C.J. Stroud and Jack Miller III have obvious talent, but neither threw a single pass in limited mop-up duty last year. The other candidate is true freshman Kyle McCord, a five-star recruit and threetime state champion who enrolled in January. But high school trophies aren’t going to win the job in Columbus. What will win it: leadership, comfort with the offense and feel for the game. “I think anticipating…

Five years ago, new Illinois athletic director Josh Whitman took a shot on longtime NFL coach Lovie Smith, turning over the program to him. It didn’t work. Away from the college game for more than two decades, Smith never found his footing and went 17–39 with no winning seasons. He was fired after the COVID-19-shortened 2020 campaign. Illinois didn’t wait long to name Smith’s replacement, hiring Bret Bielema off the staff of the NFL’s New York Giants. Why Bielema? Start with his Big Tenheavy background (Prophetstown, Ill., native, former Iowa player, long run of success as Wisconsin head coach.) Bielema said all the right things early in his Illinois tenure, showing a level of competence Illini fans crave. “The overall feeling on this campus is pretty special,” Bielema says. One…

Nebraska drew extensive criticism for being the first school to push the Big Ten to play in 2020, though that criticism subsided when Ohio State joined in the push. The Cornhuskers got their wish and then had to endure a third consecutive losing season under Scott Frost, their fourth overall. Beyond that, the program hasn’t been consistently relevant nationally in 20-plus years. Even so, Frost remains optimistic. Once again, the Huskers have lost their leading receiver, Wan’Dale Robinson, to the transfer portal, after JD Spielman left following the 2019 season. Another wide receiver, Kade Warner, also left during the offseason. Though he caught only five passes, Warner was a co-captain, a reflection of his leadership, not just among receivers but on the team as a whole. That’s a concern. Frost’s…

A disappointing 2020 season has Wisconsin looking to turn the page and climb back to the top of the Big Ten Conference West Division. A bevy of juniors and seniors opted to return to Madison instead of making the leap to the NFL, and those players will be crucial in keeping the Badgers’ defense among the top 10 in the nation in scoring and total yards allowed, as well as improving an offense that averaged its lowest scoring output (25.1 points per game) since 2004. Head coach Paul Chryst improved to 5–1 in bowl games as the Badgers’ top man last season, but he had to overhaul his staff after three assistant coaches left for new gigs. Wisconsin will have new coaches leading the quarterbacks, running backs, defensive linemen and…

1. The Usual Suspects The College Football Playoff was a long-anticipated, hard-won development, and entering its eighth year of existence, you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone in the sport who doesn’t consider the bracket a great leap forward over what came before it. At the same time, as expansion fever reached critical mass last winter, it was harder than ever to deny that the four-team format was already beginning to feel a bit stale. And it’s no wonder why: Year in, year out, it continues to be monopolized by the same four teams. Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State and Oklahoma have thoroughly dominated the Playoff era, accounting for a combined 22 conference championships since 2014, 20 of the 28 available CFP slots and 17 of 21 CFP victories. Since 2015, some…

As college football seeks to get back to normal this season, that’s especially the case on the FCS level, where most schools played their 2020 campaign in the spring semester due to the pandemic and some never got on the field beyond practice. Of course, normalcy in the FCS in the 2010s meant North Dakota State dominance, and later in the decade, James Madison rising up to provide a challenge to the Bison dynasty. Both programs had to replace a number of key players heading into the spring season, so that prospect opened thoughts to a whole new FCS world of … um … parity? OK, maybe, maybe not, but at least a few more of the 127 programs should feel confident with their place in the national picture, and…

2021 Unit Rankings Recruiting by School 1. Clemson 2. Miami 3. North Carolina 4. Florida State 5. Pittsburgh 6. Virginia 7. NC State 8. Boston College 9. Louisville 10. Virginia Tech 11. Georgia Tech 12. Syracuse 13. Duke 14. Wake Forest 2021 Bowl Projections Birmingham Bowl: Louisville vs. Mississippi State Duke’s Mayo Bowl: NC State vs. Auburn Fenway Bowl: Boston College vs. Memphis Gasparilla Bowl: Pittsburgh vs. UCF Gator Bowl: Miami vs. Ole Miss Holiday Bowl: Florida State vs. Washington Military Bowl: Wake Forest vs. Tulsa PInstripe Bowl: Virginia vs. Maryland Sun Bowl: Virginia Tech vs. Utah Peach Bowl: North Carolina vs. Florida Orange Bowl (CFP): Clemson vs. Oklahoma ACC Coordinator Carousel Duke: Offense New: Re’quan Boyette, Jeff Faris Old: Zac Roper Louisville: Offense New: Scott Satterfield Old: Dwayne Ledford…

Clemson will have a new-look team in 2021 with Trevor Lawrence and Travis Etienne off to the NFL. But the expectations remain the same — win and win big. It obviously won’t be easy to replace the production of Lawrence and Etienne. The two are arguably the top players at their position in school history. Nor will it be easy to replace the production of receivers Amari Rodgers and Cornell Powell. But there is plenty of talent still remaining at Clemson on both sides of the ball. The Tigers have won six consecutive ACC titles, reached the College Football Playoff in six consecutive years and have won two of the past five national titles. The expectation is that Clemson will be back competing for a national championship again in 2021.…

The difference between coming off of a 4–8 season and an 8–4 season is obvious. “There’s a lot of positivity here right now,” NC State coach Dave Doeren said. And for good reason. The Wolfpack exceeded all expectations last year in reversing their 4–8 record from 2019. Doeren now gets a chance to reap the rewards of his two best recruiting classes (from 2018 and ’19), who enter their third and fourth years in the program. The Wolfpack will be deep and experienced — and overlooked again, with neighbor North Carolina getting all of the attention. Doeren believes the team can apply the lessons it learned from the pandemic last year and build off of last year’s 7–3 record in ACC play. “The guys are in a really good frame…

David Cutcliffe’s Duke tenure came full circle during the pandemic-altered 2020 college football season. In 2008, Cutcliffe took over one of the worst programs in Division I, a team that had won just 10 games over the previous eight years. It took him five seasons before reaching a bowl game and six before posting a winning season, but Cutcliffe took Duke to an ACC Championship Game and six bowl appearances in seven seasons from 2012-18. That progress halted with a 5–7 season in 2019 and reversed dramatically in 2020 when the Blue Devils went 2–9, the fewest wins in any of Cutcliffe’s 13 seasons as their coach. Now Cutcliffe, at 66, sets about reversing that trend again and making Duke competitive in the ACC. It won’t be easy. The Blue…

North Carolina’s resurgence during Mack Brown’s second stint at the school has been swift. The Tar Heels were 5–18 in 2017-18, but they’ve tripled that win total in the last two seasons with two bowl trips since Brown returned. UNC capped last season by playing in the Orange Bowl, its first major bowl game since 1950. Although that game was a 41–27 loss to Texas A&M, it did little to detract from a season that served notice of UNC’s return to relevance. The question now is whether the Tar Heels can take the next step and become legitimate ACC title contenders. UNC returns 21 of the 22 players who started in the Orange Bowl, including star quarterback Sam Howell, and welcomes the nation’s No. 14 recruiting class. Hopes are high…

Patience is wearing thin at Virginia Tech, where the Hokies had their second losing record in five years under Justin Fuente — after the program had not suffered a single sub-.500 season since 1992. It’s never a good thing when your athletic director has to hold a press conference to explain why he didn’t fire you. Once again, the Hokies can be OK — if they stay healthy. But it’s going to take more offensive consistency and a big leap on defense, where Tech bottomed out in what was a rough first year as coordinator for Justin Hamilton, whose defense allowed 32.1 points per game — the program’s most since 1973. “When things don’t go well, what kind of person are you?” Fuente says. “Are you the kind of person…

Following an 0–9 campaign and an offseason of turmoil, the Kansas football team’s main goal should be stability in 2021. KU football coach Les Miles agreed to part ways with the school in March following allegations against him of sexual harassment during his previous tenure at LSU. A few days later, KU athletic director Jeff Long left Lawrence as part of a settlement agreement as well. Though those two men hired in 2018 primarily to fix the football program are gone, the Jayhawks must now do all they can to ensure that Miles’ recruiting efforts weren’t wasted. Miles went just 3–18 during his two seasons at KU, but one area where he did thrive was in talent acquisition, as the school brought in two highly rated classes — completely from…

The Cowboys sought a special season in 2020, with premium players in place to back up high hopes. Anybody for a redo? The biggest names — Tylan Wallace and Chuba Hubbard — are gone, yet Oklahoma State returns a deep and talented roster equipped to challenge in the Big 12. “Stay healthy, get good quarterback play and limit big plays on defense, and you’ve got a chance,” head coach Mike Gundy says. The Cowboys were rarely healthy a year ago, dealt with inconsistent quarterback play and in their losses committed too many defensive breakdowns. Still, they finished 8–3, third in the Big 12 and closed with a solid win over Miami in the Cheez-It Bowl, offering promise for 2021. OFFENSE Much of Oklahoma State’s optimism hinges on continued growth from…

Texas Tech entered the 2020 campaign having lost a lot of close games the season before and with hopes of finishing out those games this time around. The second year of the Matt Wells era was supposed to be the year that Texas Tech took a step forward. Instead, due to COVID-19 and lackluster play, it was pretty much more of the same for the Red Raiders. Looking ahead, Tech has some holes to fill in the starting lineup. The Red Raiders lost starting quarterback Alan Bowman to the transfer portal, and they also bid farewell to some other key players, including receiver Ke-Sean Carter (transfer) and defensive lineman Eli Howard (graduation). Tech is now in a position to turn a new page offensively, with a new quarterback set to…

After a season marred by mistakes and bad football, Michigan has endured significant turnover from a player and coaching standpoint. While questions remain on the offensive side of the ball, the focus now shifts to the defense with the departure of longtime coordinator Don Brown. First-year defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald has arrived from the Baltimore Ravens and will be implementing a new scheme with a young and inexperienced group that saw its fair share of struggles. Not void of talent by any means, the defensive side of the ball is looking to be vastly different from 2020. OFFENSE Another year, another quarterback controversy boiling through spring football in Ann Arbor. The Wolverines went through something of a quarterback roulette last season between Joe Milton and Cade McNamara. While both suffered…

For a guy who is coming off his first losing season at Penn State, James Franklin sounds pretty upbeat these days. Maybe that’s because the Nittany Lions were better at the end of the 2020 season than they were at the beginning, winning their last four after starting 0–5. Maybe it’s because he pulled off a recruiting coup in January when he fired offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarrocca and brought aboard Mike Yurcich following a coaching purge at Texas. Maybe it’s because the run of spectacularly bad luck that contributed to Penn State’s 0–5 start — injuries, turnovers and a crucial opt-out — seems unlikely to recur in 2021. Whatever the reason, Franklin has turned the page. “There were tremendous lessons to be learned,” he says. “I look forward to taking…

At an age when many plan for retirement, Kirk Ferentz is planning for his 23rd season as the Iowa head coach. Ferentz will be 66 when the 2021 season starts, but he hasn’t given even the slightest indication that he is considering retiring. Ferentz, who is the longest-tenured coach in the country, made it through the global pandemic after testing positive for the coronavirus and showing some symptoms. His team also made it through the pandemic last season, winning its final six games after an 0–2 start and building momentum for this season. Ferentz also has had to endure the shame and embarrassment that came when multiple former Iowa players last summer accused the program of racial discrimination. Long-time strength and conditioning coach Chris Doyle was relieved of his duties…

Many Big Ten teams ended 2020 wanting to press delete and start over. Northwestern emerged from a delayed and difficult season feeling revitalized and emboldened. The Wildcats won their second division title in three years, made overdue changes to spark a dormant offense and wiped away a 3–9 clunker in 2019 — a clear outlier for a program with four Top 25 finishes since 2015. They finished No. 10 in both polls under Pat Fitzgerald, who again spurned NFL interest and signed a new 10-year contract with his alma mater. “We’re in an amazing place as a program,” Fitzgerald says. “We just have to eliminate the step backward like we had in ’19.” Northwestern is facing pressing personnel challenges after key departures. Arguably the best defense in team history (15.9…

2021 Unit Rankings Recruiting by School 1. UTSA 2. North Texas 3. Florida Atlantic 4. FIU 5. Rice 6. Old Dominion 7. Charlotte 8. UAB 9. Louisiana Tech 10. Middle Tennessee 11. Southern Miss 12. Marshall 13. UTEP 14. WKU 2021 Bowl Projections Armed Forces Bowl: UTSA vs. Baylor Bahamas Bowl: Florida Atlantic vs. Ball State Boca Raton Bowl: UAB vs. Coastal Carolina First Responder Bowl: WKU vs. San Diego State Independence Bowl: Louisiana Tech vs. BYU LendingTree Bowl: Charlotte vs. Troy New Orleans Bowl: Marshall vs. Louisiana C-USA Coordinator Carousel Florida Atlantic: Offense New: Michael Johnson Old: Drew Mehringer, Clint Trickett Florida Atlantic: Defense New: Mike Stoops Old: Jim Leavitt FIU: Offense New: Andrew Breiner Old: Rich Skrosky FIU: Defense New: Everett Withers Old: Jeff Copp, Jerod Kruse Marshall:…

Technically, Mike Norvell is entering his second season as Florida State’s head coach. In a lot of ways, though, it feels an awful lot like Year One. In 2021, for the first time, Norvell was able to lead the Seminoles through a full month of spring practice in March and April. The strength coaches were able to guide FSU’s players through their first full offseason conditioning program. And the coordinators got to implement their offensive and defensive systems in person, instead of in virtual meetings. While every college football program was adversely impacted by the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, the toll was greater on firstyear coaches such as Norvell, who barely had a chance to see what their players could do before being forced to send them home for several…

Syracuse heads into Year Six of the Dino Babers era in a precarious position. The 10–3 campaign that Babers and the administration hoped would spark a jump from the Orange’s status in the cellar of the ACC is more than two years old. SU followed a 5–7 campaign in 2019 by posting its second one-win season since 1948. The pandemic cut into a pivotal offseason of installation after Babers hired two new coordinators last winter. Then a string of preseason offensive line injuries forced Syracuse to start its fullback at left guard. This fall marks a chance for Syracuse to take a step forward, but improved line play will be needed for the team to get back into postseason play and for Babers to solidify his long-term vision. OFFENSE Recognizing…

For Geoff Collins, overhauling Georgia Tech’s program has taken a twopronged track. The first was upgrading the overall talent level and stocking the roster with more players who fit a modern system of offensive football after so many years running the triple option. The second has been about setting a standard of energy, effort and pace that most of the players he inherited simply didn’t understand. But as he heads into his third season, Collins’ focus has shifted to putting a more detail-oriented team on the field. Georgia Tech finished last season ranked 121st in penalties among FBS teams, with 41 of the 89 penalties that were accepted by opponents coming before the snap. Beyond some of their other issues, including inexperience at quarterback and a defense that struggled to…

Enthusiasm was palpable and realistic for Pittsburgh entering the 2020 season. Yet, despite a roster dotted with NFL hopefuls, the Panthers managed only a 6–5 record, their 11th consecutive season with five losses or more, including all eight seasons since moving to the ACC. This left the fanbase lukewarm. Pat Narduzzi enters his seventh season as the third-longest-tenured Pittsburgh head coach in more than 50 years. And with a contract that runs through the 2024 season, he provides stability. The question is: Can he provide a Top 25 finish and/or a double-digit win total? He’s achieved neither. In 2020, the Panthers started 3–0, lost their next four but salvaged a winning record with three victories in their last four games. With quarterback Kenny Pickett back for a fifth season and…

PREDICTED ORDER OF FINISH 2021 Unit Rankings Recruiting by School 1. Cincinnati 2. Memphis 3. SMU 4. UCF 5. USF 6. Tulane 7. Houston 8. East Carolina 9. Navy 10. Temple 11. Tulsa 2021 Bowl Projections Cure Bowl: Tulane vs. Army Fenway Bowl: Memphis vs. Boston College Fiesta Bowl: Cincinnati vs. Texas A&M Frisco Bowl: SMU vs. Air Force Gasparilla Bowl: UCF vs. Pittsburgh Hawaii Bowl: Houston vs. San Jose State Military Bowl: Tulsa vs. Wake Forest AAC Coordinator Carousel Incinnati: Defense New: Mike Tressel Old: Marcus Freeman Houston: Defense New: Doug Belk Old: Doug Belk, Joe Cauthen SMU: Defense New: Jim Leavitt Old: Kevin Kane Tulane: Offense New: Chip Long Old: Will Hall Tulane: Defense New: Chris Hampton Old: Jack Curtis UCF: Offense New: Tim Harris Jr., G.J. Kinne…

Jeff Grimes can’t imagine trying to install a new offense without spring ball. “We lost most of our spring at BYU last year, but that was my third year there. It was different,” says Grimes, who left BYU in January to join head coach Dave Aranda at Baylor as offensive coordinator. Talk about your perfect storm. As a firsttime head coach, Aranda was trying to implement new offensive and defensive systems last year during a pandemic and didn’t get one day of spring ball. The end result was a 2–7 finish just a year after playing in the Big 12 Championship Game and Sugar Bowl with current Carolina Panthers head coach Matt Rhule. His confidence not shaken, Aranda says the Baylor men’s basketball team’s national championship provided a blueprint of…

Chris Klieman’s tenure as Kansas State’s head football coach can be divided into two distinct parts. His first 18 games with the Wildcats were a big-time success that featured 12 victories, a bowl appearance and a contract extension. But the final five games of the 2020 season were all losses, including some shield-your-eyes beatdowns against West Virginia (37–10), Iowa State (45–0) and Texas (69–31) that sent the team tumbling from first to seventh in the Big 12 standings. That late swoon makes it difficult to predict what will happen this season. Can Klieman guide the Wildcats back to where he had them in those first 18 games? Or will K-State’s problems persist even after the challenges of playing during a pandemic fade? Time will tell, but with key seniors returning…

The Horned Frogs practice with a song in their heart. The tune depends on how the season is going. In 2020, everything changed in the middle of the year because TCU was out of sync, out of step and writhing and tilting like Elaine from “Seinfeld” at an office party. Something had to be done. In an instant, the players’ playlist was out. The head coach’s was in. “We weren’t playing very well,” Gary Patterson says. “So we went back to my soundtrack, just like we’ve always had it, and we won five out of six.” Coaching is about finding an edge anywhere, and in the latter half of the COVID-challenged year, Patterson and the Frogs found theirs. Winning five of six to finish at 6–4, they led the Big…

West Virginia head coach Neal Brown went into an odd 2020 season with the expectation that the Mountaineers would be one of the most improved teams in the nation. A 6–4 finish (4–4 in the Big 12) with some solid stats to back up that record allowed Brown to say he had met his goal. Now, in Brown’s third season in Morgantown, the next step for his program is to compete at the top of the Big 12, and key returners across the board could make that goal a reality. The offense will be a veteran group that shows flashes in both the pass and run game but still needs to find consistency. Defensively, the Mountaineers finished No. 1 nationally in pass defense and in the top five in total…

After going 6–2 and defeating Penn State, Michigan and Michigan State in the same season for the first time in program history, Indiana still won’t have to search for skeptics. The Hoosiers will be required to deliver proof with a schedule that opens at Iowa and features a visit by Cincinnati before IU enters the Big Ten East grind. The return of 17 starters, including dynamic quarterback Michael Penix Jr. and third-team All-America linebacker Micah McFadden, will make the journey fascinating. Head coach Tom Allen created a national buzz last season with his emotional interactions with players — and IU has gone all-in with Allen, increasing his salary to nearly $5 million through 2027. Allen has preached that IU can shake up the Big Ten East. He has the roster…

Mel Tucker was not the first choice of Michigan State athletic director Bill Beekman to take over the Spartans football program after Mark Dantonio left. But Tucker is intent on proving that he was the right choice. Tucker inherited a depleted Spartan program that had suffered under Dantonio’s last several years of poor recruiting. To his credit, the Spartans’ new man hit the ground running and went to work. The Spartans didn’t have a great 2020 season, finishing 2–5 in the abbreviated campaign. However, despite significant talent shortcomings, they still beat Michigan, and Tucker was able to show Spartan Nation and future recruits his plans for the substantial rebuild underway in East Lansing. OFFENSE The Spartans welcome in Temple graduate transfer quarterback Anthony Russo. While the expectation is that he…

After inheriting a Rutgers program that was riding a 21-game losing streak in Big Ten play, Greg Schiano knew there would be low expectations in his return as the Scarlet Knights head coach. Rutgers was universally picked to finish last in the Big Ten in his first season but instead defied expectations with a road upset of Michigan State in its opener and wins at Purdue and at Maryland late in the year. While a 3–6 record might’ve been disappointing to most fan bases, it was viewed as a colossal feat in New Jersey. And it only heightened expectations for Schiano in his second act at Rutgers. OFFENSE In three of the previous four years, Rutgers finished last in the Big Ten in scoring. But under offensive coordinator Sean Gleeson’s…

P.J. Fleck’s first seven seasons as a head coach included steady ascents at two different schools — until 2020. After taking Western Michigan from 1–11 in 2013 to 13–1 in 2016 and Minnesota from 5–7 in 2017 to 11–2 in 2019, Fleck saw his 2020 team sidetracked in the delayed, shortened and interrupted COVID-19 season. The Gophers lost two games in overtime and won two one-possession games in regulation to finish 3–4. Two games were called off, and they opted out of a bowl game. Fleck believes that 2020’s challenges will be a springboard for this fall. “What they went through together, what they’ve overcome together, how they’ve failed together, how they’ve succeeded together,” Fleck says. “They’ve gone through it together, and we have a lot of guys that have…

The pandemic-shortened 2020 season for Purdue exposed familiar flaws on defense and special teams. At 19–25 in four seasons at Purdue, head coach Jeff Brohm faces a critical fifth season in 2021. Speedy receiver Rondale Moore declared for the NFL Draft, leaving the Boilermakers in search of a new dynamic playmaker. Purdue hasn’t been to a bowl in either of the last two years after making appearances at the end of Brohm’s first two seasons as coach. Brohm replaced defensive coordinators for the second straight offseason, bringing in Brad Lambert from Marshall to take over for Bob Diaco, whose defense surrendered 34 points or more in each of Purdue’s final three games last season. Purdue has gained depth and experience the last two seasons. With some potential impact transfers added…

2021 Unit Rankings Recruiting by School 1. Toledo 2. Central Michigan 3. Miami (Ohio) 4. Northern Illinois 5. Ball State 6. Eastern Michigan 7. Western Michigan 8. Buffalo 9. Ohio 10. Bowling Green 11. Kent State 12. Akron 2021 Bowl Projections Arizona Bowl: Buffalo vs. Nevada Bahamas Bowl: Ball State vs. FAU Camellia Bowl: Ohio vs. Appalachian State Famous Idaho Potato Bowl: West. Mich. vs. Fresno State Myrtle Beach Bowl: Kent State vs. Georgia State Quick Lane Bowl: Toledo vs. Minnesota MAC Coordinator Carousel Akron: Offense New: Bryan Gasser, Tommy Zagorski Old: Tommy Zagorski Bowling Green: Defense New: Eric Lewis Old: Brian VanGorder Central Michigan: Offense New: Kevin Barbay Old: Charlie Frye Miami (Ohio): Offense New: Eric Koehler Old: George Barnett, Eric Koehler Western Michigan: Offense New: Tim Lester Old:…