7 Expectations for College Football in 2012

The 144th season of intercollegiate football will begin Thursday, Aug. 30, 2012. In between then and the 2013 BCS National Championship, memories will be made, records will be broken, and stars will be born.

College football fans expect some things to happen every year. The chances that some of these things will happen are slim to none, but the chances of others happening are much more realistic.

Today, we will look at some things that should happen this college football season. These things will not be something like, “Wisconsin's Montee Ball will get a rushing touchdown this season.” We could fill a whole book with almost guaranteed things like this.

Instead, this list will feature bold predictions within the realm of possibility.

Let’s take a look at seven of these things that we should expect to happen during the 2012 college football season.

Landry Jones Will Finish 2012 with 17,000 Career Passing Yards

Through the 2011 season, University of Oklahoma quarterback Landry Jones has 12,379 passing yards. Another 4,621 yards will get him to 17,000 for his career, which would put Jones in third place all time for career passing yardage, behind Case Keenum and Timmy Chang. Why should this happen?

Jones threw for 4,718 yards in 2010 and for 4,463 yards in 2011. With that said, he could realistically throw for 4,621 yards in 2012.

The Sooners will have all new wide receivers this season, as juniors Jaz Reynolds and Trey Franks lost their scholarships. Junior Kenny Stills is the only receiver on the roster that has caught a pass in an Oklahoma uniform.

Head coach Bob Stoops has found a way to replace Reynolds and Franks—at least quantitatively. The incoming Class of 2012 features a lot of skill at the position.

As long as Jones develops good enough chemistry with all of his targets, he should reach the 17,000-yard plateau.

Montee Ball Will Gain 2,000 Rushing Yards in 2012

Montee Ball enters 2012 as the best running back in the country. Ball finished 2011 as a Heisman Trophy and Doak Walker Award finalist after collecting 307 carries, 1,923 rushing yards and 33 rushing touchdowns for the University of Wisconsin Badgers.

Ball could rush for 2,000 yards this season under new offensive coordinator Matt Canada’s pro-style scheme. Canada came over from Northern Illinois University, and (via the Badgers' school site)...

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Last season, Canada directed one of the most explosive offenses in the country. Northern Illinois finished among the top 12 in the country in scoring offense, total offense and rushing offense. The Huskies joined Wisconsin as two of the five teams in the country to average at least 230.0 yards rushing and passing this season.

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Ball will get an overwhelming majority of the carries for the Badgers in 2012, and if Canada repeats his success he enjoyed in 2011, expect 2,000 rushing yards from Ball.

Former University of Maryland quarterback Danny O’Brien has transferred to Wisconsin, where he will likely be the starter in 2012. As O’Brien and the rest of the Badgers get acquainted with Canada’s playbook, expect a lot of Ball running the ball early and often.

USC Will Lose a Pac-12 Game to a Significantly Inferior Opponent

The University of Southern California Trojans always seem to lose a game every season that they should win handily.

The most famous such game in recent memory was the 2007 contest against the Stanford University Cardinal. The No. 2-ranked Trojans lost 24-23 to the Cardinal, a team that finished the season 4-8. Head coach Jim Harbaugh put Stanford football back on the map that Saturday.

Athlon Sports has ranked USC No. 1 in its preseason poll for 2012. With the Trojans eligible to play in bowl games again, the attention and expectations surrounding the program will rival that from the mid-2000s.

Expect USC to lose a Pac-12 game it should win by a few touchdowns. That game will be on Oct. 27, 2012, when the Trojans visit the University of Arizona Wildcats in Tucson.

Athlon Sports has ranked Arizona No. 43 in its preseason poll. New head coach Rich Rodriguez’s spread-option attack could leave defenses on their heels, even that of USC. The Wildcats’ defense will have its hands full with the Trojan passing attack, but maybe the unit will play the game of its life and shock everyone.

Alabama's Defense Will Not Experience a Big Drop-off from 2011

The University of Alabama Crimson Tide lost a lot of their 2011 defensive production to the NFL. Head coach Nick Saban is a defensive and recruiting genius, though, so his defense should rank amongst the national elite again in 2012.

Players like Nico Johnson, Robert Lester and DeMarcus Milliner will lead the Crimson Tide defense in 2012. They might not hold opponents to 8.2 points per game like in 2011, but expect many offenses to continue struggling when they play Saban’s squad..

Alabama has finished in the top seven in scoring defense every season since 2008. Nothing should change that trend in 2012.

'The Game' Will Become a True Rivalry Again

Sometimes the luster of rivalry games wears off when one team dominates the series over a long period of time. This is what has happened in the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry, as the Buckeyes have won nine of the last 11 contests.

Athlon Sports has ranked The Ohio State University and the University of Michigan Nos. 6 and 7, respectively, in its preseason poll. This means college football fans should expect the 2012 meeting in Columbus to once again carry a lot of significance in the Big Ten title race.

Michigan’s win in 2011 could have ended Ohio State’s recent dominance in this game, but now that both programs have their head coaches of the future in place, expect the rivalry to be a little more balanced from now on.

Brady Hoke took over at his alma mater in 2011. Under his watch, the Wolverines went 11-2, won the Allstate Sugar Bowl against Virginia Tech and earned the No. 12 ranking in the AP final poll.

Hoke has become one of college football’s best recruiters. Michigan had the seventh-best class in 2012, according to ESPNU, and so far in the 2013 cycle, the Wolverines hold the No. 1 spot. This means the program should compete amongst the national elite again for a long time.

Ohio State hired Urban Meyer to officially replace Jim Tressel this offseason. Meyer has won two national championships with the University of Florida, and he is also a top-flight recruiter. The Buckeyes have the seventh-best class of the 2013 cycle thus far, according to ESPNU.

Have we the next Woody Hayes and Bo Schembechler?

West Virginia and TCU Will Succeed in the Big 12

The Big 12 features two new schools this season: West Virginia University and Texas Christian University. Expect both to compete in the Big 12 immediately.

Dana Holgorsen, the head coach of West Virginia, knows the Big 12 well. Prior to joining the Mountaineers staff, he was the offensive coordinator at Oklahoma State University. While there (via the official West Virginia University football site)...

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[Holgorsen] was a finalist for the 2010 Broyles Award, given to the nation’s top assistant football coach, and also named the rivals.com Offensive Coordinator of the Year. The Cowboys led the nation in total offense during the regular season…OSU averaged 520.33 yards per game in total offense, including 345.9 passing yards and 44.23 points per game. Oklahoma State’s offense ranked No. 61 nationally in total offense in 2009, the year before Holgorsen arrived, and he took it to the No. 1 spot during the 2010 season.

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Holgorsen knows how to put up points against Big 12 defenses. He also has one of the best quarterback-receiver combinations in the country with Geno Smith, Tavon Austin and Stedman Bailey.

Athlon Sports has ranked West Virginia No. 12 in its preseason poll.

Whereas West Virginia left the Big East, TCU entered the Big East, but left before playing a game. The Big 12 makes much more sense for TCU, though, both competitively and geographically.

Since 2000, the Horned Frogs have finished the season ranked in the top 25 in nine times. Consequently, 2000 was the year Gary Patterson became the head coach (technically during the team's bowl game).

Quarterback Casey Pachall allowed TCU to move on from the Andy Dalton era painlessly. According to Athlon Sports, which has ranked TCU No. 22 in its preseason poll, “Casey Pachall’s first year as the starting quarterback could hardly have gone much better. He threw for a school-record 2,921 yards and completed a record 228 passes in his first year as the starter. The good news for the Horned Frogs is that Pachall is back with all his main weapons.”

TCU has been considered one of the top programs in college football for a few years now despite playing in the Mountain West Conference. This will allow the Horned Frogs to compete in the Big 12, especially with the recruiting boost the school should receive as a member of a BCS conference.

An SEC School Will Win the 2013 BCS National Championship Game

College football’s national champion has come from the SEC every season since 2006. Expect the winner of the 2013 BCS National Championship Game to be an SEC school once again.

Athlon Sports’ preseason poll has five SEC schools ranked in the top 13 and two in the top three (LSU at No. 2, Alabama at No. 3).

A much bolder prediction would be to pick who will represent the SEC for the national title. Will it be Alabama or LSU, which met in the 2012 BCS National Championship Game? What about the University of Georgia or the University of South Carolina, which Athlon Sports has ranked Nos. 8 and 10, respectively, in its preseason poll? Will both teams in the 2013 BCS National Championship Game come from the SEC?

Tune in to CBS on autumn Saturdays to see how the SEC unfolds in 2012. The expectation, though, is that the last team standing in the conference will be the team holding the Coaches' Trophy after the season ends.