8 Bold Predictions for College Football's Offseason
We have to wait how long until the next college football season begins?
The first games of 2015 are more than seven months away, leaving us with a lengthy offseason that can't go by quick enough. National signing day is coming up, followed by spring football, but those are only finger foods compared to the 12-course meal that the regular season represents.
Bits and pieces of news will pop up during the hiatus, and some of it will be surprising and provide an opportunity to discuss, debate and reminisce...and then return to anticipating. But maybe the offseason will be more exciting this year, with some completely unexpected developments, ones so sudden that no one could have predicted they would happen.
Unless they were trying to make some bold predictions about the college football offseason, as we've gone ahead and done.
Take a look at some potentially unbelievable college football news that could happen over the next few months, then check back when the 2015 season begins to see if we happened to hit the nail on the head once or twice.
Jim Harbaugh Flips at Least Three Major Recruits
1 of 8
Two of the most storied programs in college football find themselves far down in the recruiting rankings with less than two weeks remaining until national signing day, as 247Sports lists Florida as currently having the 89th-best class in the country and Michigan ranks 99th.
While Florida and new coach Jim McElwain appear to be putting all of their eggs into chasing after the best remaining uncommitted players in the country, Michigan looks like it's taking a more acrobatic route in hopes of flipping some major prospects.
Six of the nine players that 247Sports lists as making official visits to Ann Arbor this weekend have already pledged to other schools, including 4-star quarterback Zach Gentry. Gentry, from Albuquerque, has been committed to Texas since May.
On Thursday, Harbaugh and assistant Jedd Fisch were in Florida to check out Florida State quarterback commit Deondre Francois, according to Josh Newberg of 247Sports.
With the aggressive push that he and his staff are taking down the stretch, don't be surprised if several of the Wolverines' signees on Feb. 4 end up being ones who as of now were on the record as going elsewhere.
A Veteran Head Coach Resigns Before Spring Practice
2 of 8
The craziness that is the offseason coaching carousel in college football had its usual wild moments back in December, with the surprise moves by Oregon State's Mike Riley (to Nebraska) and Wisconsin's Gary Andersen (to fill Riley's spot with the Beavers) and various corresponding shifts.
It was relatively calm compared to past years, though on Thursday it picked back up when Central Michigan coach Dan Enos resigned to take Arkansas' offensive coordinator position.
Don't expect that to be the last head coach opening this offseason. Several of FBS' elder program leaders have either hinted at retirement or had rumors swirl about their longevity in the past year, with South Carolina's Steve Spurrier telling ESPN.com's Chris Low that he considered walking away after this past season's disappointing 7-6 performance.
Instead, the 69-year-old reaffirmed his commitment to the Gamecocks for several more years.
Virginia Tech's Frank Beamer missed most of the preparation for his team's bowl game because of throat surgery, and while he coached from the press box during the Military Bowl, the sideline duties were handled by son (and assistant) Shane Beamer. This prompted talk of how much longer Frank Beamer, who is 68 and has been in charge of the Hokies since 1987, would stick around.
Last summer rumors swirled that UCF's George O'Leary, 68, was close to stepping down, but instead he led the Knights to a 9-4 record and told the Orlando Sentinel's Shannon Owens-Green that "I've already said that I expect to coach next year unless you know something I don't know."
The number of coaches in their 60s or beyond is getting pretty large in FBS, and that includes one (Riley, who is 61) that just made a major move. Someone on the upper end of the coaching age spectrum will hang it up in the next few months, either because of health issues or a dwindling desire.
Two More Bowl Games Get Added
3 of 8
Enough with the talk about expanding the four-team playoff system that took so long to approve. Let's stick to easier things, like adding more bowl games.
The number was at 38 this past season, not including the championship game, and a 39th has already been approved for 2015. The Cure Bowl, to be held in Orlando and pit teams from the Sun Belt and American Athletic conferences, will be the third game held in the renovated Citrus Bowl (along with the Russell Athletic Bowl and its namesake contest).
A Los Angeles-based game, the Christmas Bowl, had hoped to be included this past year but didn't make the cut, and in June 2013 ESPN.com's Brett McMurphy reported that proposed games in Little Rock, Arkansas, as well as Dubai, Ireland and Toronto were in the works.
"No one wants to have teams left out as several conferences did and several conferences have had it historically happen every year so we’re trying to prevent that," AAC commissioner Mike Aresco told Matt Murschel of the Orlando Sentinel on Friday. "We have a great bowl lineup that we think is just going to get better and better next year as we add a couple of bowls to lineup and we may even add a few more."
Getting to 40 bowls (plus the national title game) is a nice round number, especially since last year saw 82 schools meet the six-win criteria to become eligible and thus six had to stay home. Besides the Cure Bowl, look for at least one more new one to get added.
If conferences are looking for suggestions on where to put one, we've got that covered.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
Playoff Selection Committee Has a Major Lineup Change
4 of 8
The initial 13-member selection committee for the College Football Playoff got pared down to 12 midway through its first season, when Archie Manning stepped down because of health reasons. Another member, former West Virginia athletic director Oliver Luck, has moved on after taking a job with the NCAA.
His position as representative for the Big 12 Conference still needs to be filled, with Baylor defensive coordinator Phil Bennett actively campaigning for former Texas A&M coach R.C. Slocum to take the spot.
But that won't be the last change to the committee. Look for at least one other spot to come vacant, most likely from among the members without a football or college athletics background, and that opening will lead to a firestorm of debate over who should be added.
Now that we've had one year of the new playoff format, and seen how much interest and debate was generated from the committee's rankings, interest in who would join such a committee figures to reach the level of naming a new Supreme Court Justice.
A Longtime Starter at Quarterback Loses His Job in Spring Ball
5 of 8
Position battles are among the hottest offseason topics, especially when it involves the quarterback. How Ohio State coach Urban Meyer is going to handle his "problem" of choosing between three elite passers—senior Braxton Miller, junior Cardale Jones and sophomore J.T. Barrett—will have enough interest that a reality show or documentary could be made out of the process.
Other intriguing (and closely followed) quarterback competitions will include those at Florida State and Oregon, where Heisman winners have moved on to the NFL.
But every year there are a few surprise contests, often because a hot new recruit has come in and impressed so much he ends up beating out an incumbent whose job figured to be quite safe when the previous season ended. A coaching change can also lead to the new staff wanting to go a different direction.
Expect that to happen to a notable quarterback from a power conference team, someone who has started full-time for at least a year but ends up dropping to No. 2 on the depth chart.
Potential candidates include Nebraska's Tommy Armstrong Jr., Stanford's Kevin Hogan, Pittsburgh's Chad Voytik, North Carolina's Marquise Williams and Utah's Travis Wilson.
The Big Ten Outshines the SEC at Media Days
6 of 8
First, the SEC lost its title mojo. Now the conference that lauded its record-tying seven bowl wins (while conveniently ignoring that its vaunted West Division went 2-5) will find itself coming up short in another area it's dominated for years: media days.
The congregation of players, coaches and media in one location—spread over four days, to maximize each team's exposure—just before preseason practices begin has been one of several ways the SEC has far surpassed other leagues in terms of press coverage. This year's SEC media days will once again be big, but it won't be the one that's most anticipated.
That will belong to the conference that the reigning national champions call home.
The Big Ten's media days only goes for two days, but it will still be heavily attended and closely followed. It will provide an opportunity for everyone who hasn't yet weighed in on Ohio State's quarterback situation—as well as for those who already have, likely multiple times—to inquire about the latest minuscule details that may or may not hint at who the Buckeyes will go with when the 2015 season starts.
Beyond that, the Big Ten's time in the media spotlight will allow the conference to remind those who wrote the league off after a poor nonconference showing in 2014 what ended up happening when all was said and done.
A Power Conference Team Gets Hit with an Academics-Related Postseason Ban
7 of 8
The Academic Progress Rate (APR) standards that the NCAA uses to determine how schools are balancing sports and studies kept Idaho's football team from being eligible for a bowl in 2014, while UNLV was initially banned before getting a reprieve after updated data boosted its APR score.
Oklahoma State came very close to getting a postseason ban, instead the Cowboys were hit with some restrictions in weekly practice time.
Considering how close some other FBS schools were to falling below the 930-point threshold, which triggers penalties, it wouldn't be a surprise to see a few more get banned for the 2015 season and have at least one come from a power conference. Arkansas, California, Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas Tech all had scores in the 930s, and several more were in the low 940s, based on data listed on the NCAA's website.
In addition to the APR system, the chance of seeing a school get banned from the postseason for other academic-related issues seems very possible. North Carolina's well-chronicled academic fraud scandal is one of 18 from Division I schools that the NCAA is currently investigating, according to Brad Wolverton of the Chronicle for Higher Learning.
Everett Golson and Braxton Miller Both Stay Put
8 of 8
It seemed like only a few years ago that, when it came to a high-profile college football player who was in jeopardy of losing his starting job, the questions were more directed toward if he would consider transferring to another program rather than when he would, and to which one.
But the graduate transfer rule that the NCAA has in place, which enables student-athletes who have completed their degree yet still have eligibility to switch schools without having to sit out, has created a sort of player free-agency system that ramps up each offseason with almost as much momentum as the coaching carousel.
Two quarterbacks, Ohio State's Braxton Miller and Notre Dame's Everett Golson, are the main attractions in this year's market. Miller, who has graduated, is recovering from shoulder surgery and faces a very stiff battle for playing time after missing the 2014 season and watching two of his former backups become stars, while Golson (who is set to finish his undergraduate work in the spring) lost his job down the stretch to rising passer Malik Zaire.
Both players have had their names bandied about as possible targets for several major programs, most of which have an immediate need for a quarterback and would probably prefer to have one with solid experience. Yet when the 2015 season begins in September, Golson and Miller will be on the sidelines for their current teams.
Zaire looked very good in Notre Dame's bowl win over LSU, but that doesn't mean he's a lock to win the full-time job. And while Miller will be hard-pressed to beat out two strong challengers for Ohio State's starting spot, not to mention have his surgically repaired shoulder allow for him to be his old self, his athleticism and skill set also makes him a viable candidate for a position change.
"Given his size (listed at 6'2", 215 pounds) Miller could play either running back, wide receiver or the hybrid H-Back position," Bleacher Report's Ben Axelrod wrote. "There are certainly worse ways for Miller to showcase his skills than as a playmaker in (coach Urban) Meyer's offense."
Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
