Bold Predictions for College Football Fall Camp
The 2015 college football season is officially on countdown watch, as the opening games are only a month away. That means that training camp has either started or is right around the corner for all 128 FBS programs.
The weeks leading up to the start of the year are critical to every program because this is when the real work begins to sculpt a team into its current form. Spring practice and offseason workouts can only do so much compared to fall camp because the entire team is able to work together, and specifics related to offensive and defensive schemes are put into play.
It's also when open position battles get sorted out and when we get our first glimpse of what kind of impact most newcomers will be able to make.
After months of mostly talking, now we should have a steady stream of newsworthy items coming out of training camp. Here are some predictions of what could happen in the next month.
At Least Four Transfer Quarterbacks Win Starting Jobs
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The intrigue surrounding position battles is never bigger than at the quarterback spot. Most of the time this is because last year's starter has moved on and the competition is made up of unproven replacements. But thanks to the rise in transfers, many of these races involve some experienced candidates.
There are at least 10 open quarterback jobs that will involve a player who came from another Division I program, either as a graduate transfer who could play right away or someone who had to sit out a year per normal NCAA transfer rules.
All of them made this move for an opportunity to play at their new school, and several of them should end up starting their teams' 2015 openers.
Two transfers have already locked up their jobs: Florida grad transfer Jeff Driskel was named Louisiana Tech's starter in July, and ex-USC passer Max Wittek was picked to helm Hawaii's offense in June.
Iowa grad transfer Jake Rudock has a good shot to be new Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh's first quarterback, as Bleacher Report's Ben Axelrod tweeted after speaking with some Wolverines players at Big Ten media days, "the vibe I'm getting is the quarterback job is Jake Rudock's to lose."
Other notable transfers who could end up being starters include Vernon Adams (from FCS Eastern Washington to Oregon), Daxx Garman (from Oklahoma State to Maryland), Everett Golson (from Notre Dame to Florida State), Greyson Lambert (from Virginia to Georgia) and Baker Mayfield (from Texas Tech to Oklahoma).
Three Unheralded Freshmen Win High-Profile Starting Gigs
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There's no denying the importance of true freshmen in today's college game, as it's become an annual occurrence that blue-chip recruits go straight from high school graduation to being in the starting lineup. Most of these end up being players we've been hearing about for quite some time and who enrolled early and got to go through spring practice.
In case you've been living under a rock since the 2014 season ended, we're referring to the likes of UCLA quarterback Josh Rosen, Texas linebacker Malik Jefferson, Texas A&M wide receiver Christian Kirk and LSU cornerback Kevin Toliver II. All of them, as well plenty of other big-name prospects who arrived during the summer, figure to either be starting during Week 1 or at least seeing significant playing time.
But so, too, will a handful of relatively unknown freshmen, guys who were not 4- or 5-star recruits and didn't have their official visits and signing-day activity live-tweeted. These will be players like Arizona linebacker Scooby Wright, who was a 2-star prospect in the 2013 class who started 12 games that year and then last season led the nation in three defensive statistical categories and won a trio of major national awards.
We saw one of these off-the-radar newcomers emerge during spring ball in TCU linebacker Mike Freeze, whom 247Sports considered the 1,001st-best player in the 2015 class, but who was atop the Horned Frogs' depth chart after spring ball. Expect to see a few more of these guys win starting jobs during fall camp.
A Coach Who Won't Have His Job in 2016 Gets an Extension
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For college football coaches who are on the hot seat, the offseason probably feels even longer than it does for us fans. Heading into a make-or-break year, they know each and every move they make for the upcoming season could be the thing that saves their jobs or seals their fates.
As the season goes on, some coaches will end up either getting fired or resigning, usually because of poor performance. Others might end up announcing their retirement effective after the season. Then once the regular season is over, the real fun begins, with coaches leaving one job for another.
The preseason usually doesn't have that much activity on the employment front, other than the occasional contract extension. Many of those raises or additional years have been in the works for some time but aren't announced until now, for whatever reason. Such news will make it seem like that coach and his school are both happy with the current situation.
But if such an extension happens this month, don't be surprised if it involves a coach who gets fired, quits, retires or bolts for another gig between September and the start of the 2016 season.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
Ohio State's Quarterback Competition Shakes Up Heisman Odds
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Now that Braxton Miller has moved from quarterback to a wide receiver/H-back role at Ohio State, the most unique position battle in college football is now far more standard, with only two people duking it out to start for the defending national champions.
The competition is down to junior Cardale Jones and sophomore J.T. Barrett, who combined to start all 15 games last year after Miller hurt his shoulder and missed the season. Barrett started all 12 regular-season games before breaking his ankle, then Jones started the Big Ten title game and both playoff contests.
Miller's position move didn't cause much movement in the early Heisman odds, according to OddsShark.com, and while Urban Meyer has said he doesn't plan on naming his starter for the Sept. 7 opener at Virginia Tech prior to kickoff, that doesn't mean the reports out of Buckeyes training camp won't have an effect on those odds.
Barrett is currently at 9-to-1 and Jones 12-to-1, both trailing TCU quarterback Trevone Boykin (9-to-2) and Buckeyes running back Ezekiel Elliott (7-to-1). If either Barrett or Jones has a particularly good (or bad) practice sometime this month, look for their Vegas lines to move up or down with the news. And as a result, the odds of plenty of other top contenders will be adjusted.
President Obama, Should Notre Dame Have to Join a Conference?
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Last week marked the end of a period of the college football offseason often calling Talking Season, when all of the FBS conferences hold their media days by bringing together all of their schools' head coaches and a handful of players from those teams.
This is meant to provide reporters, TV sports anchors and radio hosts a chance to get sound bytes and info for feature stories, though quite often the topics discussed at these events veer far away from football.
It's why the SEC's four-day gathering in Hoover, Alabama, has as much discussion about coaches' footwear choices as their position battles and why Washington State's Mike Leach provided dating advice at the Pac-12 event in Burbank, California.
We also get some questions that are asked in an effort to push a narrative, such as the query posed to many coaches from a variety of leagues about whether independent Notre Dame should be required to be in a conference and potentially play 13 games in order to be eligible for the College Football Playoff.
Despite the CFP organizers telling ESPN there's no plan to force the Fighting Irish (or fellow indies Army and BYU) to join a league, coaches are still getting asked their opinion on this non-issue.
President Barack Obama is a big sports fan. Getting his picks for the NCAA men's basketball tournament each year is a big deal, so how long will it be before some enterprising reporter decides to have him weigh in on the Notre Dame topic during a press conference? Maybe he can see if Congress can reach across the aisle and put together some non-partisan legislation during his final year-plus in office.
A New Uniform Combo Will Make Twitter (Briefly) Explode
6 of 8Few things get #CollegeFootballTwitter all in a tizzy like new uniform buzz, even if it doesn't turn out to be true. Just the possibility that a team might be sporting a new look, an alternate jersey or even a slight tweak of a secondary logo makes the hot takes rain down like hellfire.
Such wardrobe discussions become even more intense when they occur toward the end of college football's interminably long offseason, which is why the rumor that several Nike-sponsored schools could be wearing alternate black jerseys at some point in 2015 caused such a reaction over the weekend.
First reported Saturday by Andrew Lind, a reporter with the Tidewater News in Virginia, images began to surface that teams such as Alabama, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oregon and Texas would be sporting new black jerseys at some point this fall. Some schools quickly denied this would happen, with Seth Emerson of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution getting confirmation from Georgia that the Bulldogs had no such plans to have a black uniform in 2015.
"Stand down, Georgia fans," Emerson tweeted Sunday.
Several schools have unveiled new uniform sets or alternates for 2015, including Arizona State, Miami (Florida) and Nebraska, but those announcements all came directly from the school or the apparel company. Other gear-related speculation is sure to surface this month, so don't be surprised if your timeline is suddenly overflowing with knee-jerk reactions to something that probably isn't real.
No Significant Contributors Suffer Season-Ending Injuries
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Of all of our fall camp predictions, this is the one we really wish comes true. Sadly, it's the one most likely to not come to fruition since injuries are an unwelcome, yet unavoidable, part of football.
Each preseason there are a few noteworthy players who tear a ligament or break a bone, and it causes them to miss most, if not all, of the season. This doesn't always spell doom for the player's team—imagine the trajectory of Ohio State's 2014 campaign had Braxton Miller not thrown out his shoulder in late August—but it almost always has an impact.
Coaches do whatever they can to prevent injury, and moves like the Big 12 Conference reducing the number of times teams can hit in practice during the season is a further step in that direction. But the sobering fact is that players will get hurt no matter what precautions are taken.
We're in no way wishing injury upon anyone, but we really don't want to see it happen to any of the game's star players.
Mike Riley Has in-N-out Delivered to Nebraska Camp
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Mike Riley has done a bang-up job to this point in winning over the Nebraska community, many of whom were skeptical that a 62-year-old coach with a .538 career win percentage was the right choice to replace Bo Pelini (who won more than 71 percent of his games).
Time will tell if his pro-style offense will work with a Cornhuskers program full of players trained in the spread attack or if that same loyal fanbase will be able to handle whatever growing pains come from this switch. But for now Riley is well-regarded by the community, as well as his players.
And he'll endear himself even more to the troops by tapping into an old tradition he had at OSU: Double-doubles with cheese from In-N-Out Burger.
The nearest franchise location is in Allen, Texas, more than 630 miles south of Lincoln. None of Nebraska's road games is anywhere close to an In-N-Out, so Riley wouldn't be able to have the team swing by one after a win like he did when the Beavers were victorious in Arizona, California or Utah.
Instead, look for Riley to further push his agenda by having a couple hundred burgers and several dozen orders of Animal Fries loaded onto a team plane and flown to Nebraska's practice facility some time this month.
Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
