10 Early-Season 2015 College Football Games with National Title Implications
In its inaugural season, the College Football Playoff offered teams some wiggle room, but not much. In the initial four-team field, Florida State entered as the only unbeaten team. Alabama, Ohio State and Oregon all recovered from early-season defeats to thrive and make the playoff, but strong one-loss teams like Baylor and TCU were left on the outside looking in when the smoke cleared in early December.
What does it mean? Success matters, more than ever. Getting off to a strong start is crucial to a team’s national title hopes. You can shrug off an early-season loss, but it isn’t easy or guaranteed.
That makes September, and a strong slate of early games, as important as ever for determining which teams will charge toward the first College Football Playoff rankings and which will fall into also-ran status. Here’s a look at 10 early-season games that will have the biggest impact on the national title picture.
Sept. 3: TCU at Minnesota
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The first night of the 2015 regular season features several intriguing games, but this is the most interesting of them all. Last season, TCU was the nation’s most improved team, using a high-octane offense to go from 4-8 to 12-1. The Horned Frogs return 16 starters, led by Heisman Trophy candidate Trevone Boykin, who threw for 3,901 yards and 33 touchdowns a year ago and added 707 rushing yards.
Minnesota is coming off a solid eight-win season and Florida Citrus Bowl berth, but the Gophers must replace leading rusher David Cobb and versatile tight end Maxx Williams.
Still, this will be the Frogs’ biggest test of their nonconference schedule and a solid indicator to see if they’re ready for a title grind in 2015. TCF Bank Stadium should be full and fired up for their visit.
Sept. 5: Texas at Notre Dame
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Texas and Notre Dame don’t get together often. Two of college football’s all-time winningest programs have met only three times since 1971, with the Fighting Irish winning every one of them. So this season opener (the first of a home-and-home series) is a reason to sit up and take notice, even though the Irish and Longhorns were a combined 14-13 a year ago.
Notre Dame was one of the youngest and streakiest teams in the nation last fall, riding a six-game win streak and four-game losing streak in the regular season. But the Irish should be more mature in 2015 while returning 19 starters, although quarterback is a question mark between turnover-prone Everett Golson and Malik Zaire.
Charlie Strong’s first season in Austin was a disappointment as he installed his culture, dismissing multiple players from the squad and finishing 6-7. Quarterback Tyrone Swoopes will face a spring-practice challenge, and a highly rated recruiting class should provide a much-needed infusion of talent. The Longhorns will not be favored in this game, but it’s an interesting litmus test for the Irish. To get on track for the College Football Playoff, this is a must-win outing.
Sept. 5: Alabama vs. Wisconsin
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Nick Saban likes to start the season by challenging his Alabama team in a high-profile neutral-site game, and this game certainly qualifies. The Crimson Tide hoped to end their 2014 season at AT&T Stadium but were upended by another Big Ten team (Ohio State) in the Sugar Bowl following an SEC championship. Wisconsin finished the season with a win over ‘Bama’s SEC West rival Auburn after getting steamrolled in the Big Ten title game by the Buckeyes.
But both teams will start 2015 with new beginnings. Alabama will return only nine starters and has plenty of questions after losing quarterback Blake Sims to graduation and a pair of All-Americans in receiver Amari Cooper and safety Landon Collins (as well as top tailback T.J. Yeldon) to the NFL.
Wisconsin returns 12 starters, but this will be the debut of Paul Chryst, a former Badgers player and assistant who took over after Gary Andersen bolted for Oregon State. Chryst won’t have Melvin Gordon, the Heisman Trophy runner-up who left for the NFL after rushing for 2,587 yards.
Corey Clement should be a capable replacement, but much like a year ago against LSU, the Badgers will have a chance to play themselves into or out of the College Football Playoff picture immediately.
For Alabama, it’ll be an opportunity to prove it hasn’t lost a step after all the departures, but the Tide really can’t afford a slip-up either.
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Sept. 5: Auburn vs. Louisville
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Bobby Petrino, Auburn. Auburn, Bobby Petrino. Oh, you’ve already met? Great! Petrino is on his second tour of duty at Louisville, but he has a checkered past with Auburn, too. He spent one season as Auburn’s offensive coordinator in 2002 before becoming Louisville’s head coach, but he secretly interviewed with Auburn officials before they’d decided to fire former boss Tommy Tuberville just a year later.
The Georgia Dome, site of this neutral-site tilt with the Tigers, also holds significance for Petrino. He spent less than a season as the Atlanta Falcons’ head coach in 2007 before heading to Arkansas. Of course, those will be mere subplots when the Cardinals and Tigers face off. While Louisville has uncertainty at quarterback, it will look to make a move upward in the ACC Atlantic Division following a nine-win 2014 season.
Auburn took a step back in 2014 with an 8-5 record, but it’ll be fascinating to see how much new defensive coordinator Will Muschamp can improve a leaky defense, especially with talent like defensive ends Carl Lawson and Byron Cowart bolstering a struggling defensive line. The Tigers should be improved, even with new pieces like quarterback Jeremy Johnson and tailback Jovon Robinson on offense, but Louisville will be an excellent test to see if they have the mettle to make a playoff run.
Sept. 7: Ohio State at Virginia Tech
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In hindsight, the most inexplicable result of the 2014 season remains Virginia Tech’s 35-21 win at Ohio State. The Buckeyes shook off offensive uncertainly and didn’t lose the rest of the season en route to a national title. The Hokies were consistently inconsistent and played one of the season’s worst games, a double-overtime loss to a bad Wake Forest team that saw the game go into overtime scoreless. They squeaked into the Military Bowl 6-6 before beating Cincinnati to end the season on a high.
Now, Ohio State heads to Blacksburg with revenge on its mind. The Buckeyes don’t know if Cardale Jones, Braxton Miller or J.T. Barrett will start at quarterback, but they’ll bring in one of the nation’s most talented rosters.
Tim May of The Columbus Dispatch notes that picking a quarterback won't be easy for Urban Meyer and suggests it is beginning to weigh on him because "two people are going to have to watch."
"It’s all positive. … If you watch the three of them, they’re always talking. Like at practice (yesterday), I happened to turn around and Braxton and J.T. are talking about football. And Braxton walked up and hit Cardale a tap, ‘Nice job.’ I see that, and that’s not common. … Everything’s positive: talent, quality people, value to the program, investment in the program — check, check, check.
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Virginia Tech brings back much of a young offense, led by quarterback Michael Brewer, improving Isaiah Ford at receiver and talented tight end Bucky Hodges. Ohio State’s quarterback (whoever he is) shouldn’t be too intimidated by Lane Stadium, but this is a formidable test for OSU’s title defense regardless.
We’ll see what the Buckeyes are made of here. And though we can’t count them out with a loss, it’d be damaging to their title hopes regardless.
Sept. 12: Oregon at Michigan State
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Last season, one of the season’s best games took place in Week 2. A pair of top-10 teams squared off in Eugene, Oregon. Michigan State took a 27-18 lead into the third quarter, but Oregon gave Marcus Mariota a springboard for his Heisman Trophy campaign after scoring the game’s final 28 points for a 46-27 win.
This season’s rematch in East Lansing should be equally significant. Oregon has questions at quarterback following Mariota’s departure to the NFL and issues on the offensive line, but the program still returns 13 starters and should be a top-10 team to start the season.
The same goes for Michigan State, whose only two losses last season came to the Ducks and Ohio State. The Spartans return 12 starters but must find replacements for leading rusher Jeremy Langford and top receiver Tony Lippett. A year ago, the Spartans were on the outside of the College Football Playoff picture looking in following the loss to Oregon, and the winner of this game will receive a huge boost to its playoff stock.
Sept. 19: Georgia Tech at Notre Dame
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While Notre Dame’s scheduling alliance to the ACC ended interesting series like its rivalry with Michigan, it also spiced up the schedule with interesting matchups like Georgia Tech’s trip to Notre Dame.
The Yellow Jackets had a bounce-back season in 2014 with an 11-3 record, ACC Coastal Division title and Orange Bowl victory over Mississippi State. Tech returns 13 starters, including dynamic quarterback Justin Thomas, but must replace four of its top five rushers and its top two receivers from a year ago. That’s a problem for a team that likes to control the ball with an efficient option offense.
Tech hopes to take the next step toward playoff contention this season, but with tough games like this, Clemson and Georgia on its schedule, it won’t be easy. This will be the first legit test for Paul Johnson’s crew, and we’ll find out if the Rambling Wreck is a contender or a pretender.
Sept. 19: Auburn at LSU
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While the SEC West’s 2014 bowl performance was something to forget, it doesn’t change the division’s status as one of the nation’s overall toughest divisions. Every week matters: In 2014, every SEC West team made a bowl game. And Auburn vs. LSU is a traditional early-season indicator of strength.
While both teams finished 8-5 a year ago, both return plenty of talent on both sides of the ball. LSU boasts a deep wide receiver corps and a potential Heisman Trophy candidate in sophomore tailback Leonard Fournette. The Tigers will also be looking to avenge 2014’s 41-7 embarrassment in Auburn, but they’ll need a consistent quarterback to emerge between Brandon Harris and Anthony Jennings.
Both teams will have litmus tests entering the game (Louisville for Auburn and a trip to Mississippi State for LSU), but the winner of this game will be 2-0 in the SEC West and have an early edge in the nation’s best division.
Sept. 19: Ole Miss at Alabama
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A year ago, Ole Miss found its way onto the college football map with an upset of Alabama in Oxford. While the season didn’t end the way the Rebels wanted it to, they still finished 2014 with nine wins and a Peach Bowl berth, a sign that the arrow is pointing up under Hugh Freeze.
Ole Miss returns 17 starters, and while it must find a replacement for mercurial quarterback Bo Wallace, it will get back talented receiver Laquon Treadwell, who missed the second half of 2014 with a broken ankle.
Ole Miss has not won in Tuscaloosa since taking a 22-12 victory in 1988, but defeating the Tide in Bryant-Denny Stadium in its season opener would be a major statement and give the Rebels another huge push toward national relevance. Alabama will still be finding its way a bit in the season’s third week, but it’ll be a formidable opponent regardless.
Sept. 26: Southern California at Arizona State
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Steve Sarkisian’s first season at Southern California’s helm was a step forward as the Trojans continued to work their way back from NCAA probation, but a 9-4 record didn’t meet the program’s high standards. This fall, USC will return 15 starters from that team, led by quarterback Cody Kessler, who threw for 39 touchdowns against five interceptions a year ago.
The NFL draft departures of talented players like defensive end Leonard Williams, wideout Nelson Agholor and tailback Javorius Allen will hurt, but Sarkisian reeled in a star-studded recruiting class that will contribute early, and cornerback Adoree’ Jackson is poised to become the nation’s most versatile star.
Meanwhile, Arizona State is quietly improving under coach Todd Graham with back-to-back 10-win seasons. The Sun Devils defense must improve, but tailback D.J. Foster is one of the nation’s most dynamic backs.
Both teams will have big tests early on, as Arizona State opens the season in Houston against Texas A&M and USC faces Stanford Sept. 19. But if both teams enter this game 3-0, the winner will receive a big boost in the rankings and become a major player in the College Football Playoff chase.
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