2008 Spring Football: Emerging Teams

It's never too early to start previewing the 2008 college football season.

With Beyond the Bleachers’ second installment of a five-part Spring Preview of the 2008 season, we start this week with an examination of potential sleepers in the Football Bowl Subdivision.  Although the majority of these programs lack recent success or national exposure, each team has built a nucleus of talented players which may allow them to elevate into one of their respective conference’s elite—or nation’s elite for that matter.  As spring practices come to a conclusion in the South, watch out for these programs to build momentum toward the fall…

Alabama Crimson Tide

Last year: 7-6 (4-4)
Key Games in 2008: Clemson @ Atlanta, GA (8/30), Georgia (9/27), at LSU (11/8), Auburn (11/29)

Nick Saban-coached programs seem to have one general trend:  They may struggle in the initial year as players he did not recruit adapt to his schemes, and by the second year they thrive.  While at LSU, Saban’s Tigers lost to UAB in his first year, but were SEC and Sugar Bowl Champions by the next.

2008 may promise similar success for the Crimson Tide.

After signing two of the most sought-after prospects in the country in 6’4” receiver Julio Jones and 6’7” 285 offensive lineman Tyler Love, Saban has added to the wealth of an already solid offense.

Led by senior co-captain Antoine Caldwell and Andre Smith, Alabama may boast the best offensive line in all of college football.  These potential All-Americans will serve the job of protecting John Parker Wilson and blocking for probable starting running back Terry Grant.

While Saban discussed several defensive miscues in the A-Day annual spring game on Monday, he will have plenty of depth and talent in the fall.  Justin Woodall, Rashad Johnson, and Javier Arenas make up a talented defensive backfield and former starting running back Jimmy Johns may emerge as a key player at linebacker.

Although the Crimson Tide have tough games against the cream of the crop on the ACC, Clemson, as well as Georgia, Tennessee, and LSU, Saban’s biggest goal of the season will be beating Auburn. 

Despite the Crimson Tide program’s historical success, Auburn has now beaten Alabama six times a row—including four times consecutively in Bryant-Denny Stadium.  Even if Alabama doesn’t win the SEC West, beating Auburn will go a long way in restoring the Crimson Tide program to prominence.

BYU Cougars

Last year: 11-2 (8-0)
Key Games in 2008: at Washington (9/6), UCLA (9/13), at TCU (10/16), at Utah (11/22)

The overwhelming success of the mid-major Hawai’i Warriors took national focus away from BYU—a team which started off 1-2 and quietly won 10 straight games.

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