15 Biggest College Football Position Battles to Watch in 2015 Fall Camps
Preseason camps are officially underway at most schools. The 2015 football season is just around the corner, which means any remaining position battles need to be sorted out.
But not all position battles are created equal. Some are going to get far more attention than others, and frankly, some could be way more meaningful, despite what every coach will say.
Which preseason camp position battles fall under that category? Here we'll break down the top 15 competitions in the final weeks before the season.
Some battles are obvious, like Ohio State and Alabama's quarterback competitions. Others might fly a little under the radar but could have huge impacts on the season. Selections and rankings were based on clarity of the position battles, talent/experience among the players and importance of the outcome.
15. Auburn: Running Back
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Auburn has had a nice string of go-to running backs over the past several years. The Tigers' ability to plug and play was evident with guys like Cameron Artis-Payne, Tre Mason—both of whom led the SEC in rushing in 2014 and 2013, respectively—and even Michael Dyer.
Will Auburn have another bell-cow back in 2015, or will Jovon Robinson and Roc Thomas provide more of a 1A/1B type of attack? Even Peyton Barber, who saw limited carries as a freshman, will get into the discussion as well.
14. UCLA: Quarterback
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Head coach Jim Mora has said time and time again that he won't announce a starting quarterback before the Bruins' Week 1 game against Virginia. However, there's a strong, albeit unconfirmed, belief that true freshman early enrollee Josh Rosen is going to be the guy.
Rosen, by all accounts, impressed during the spring, but Mora has pumped the brakes on anointing him the starter.
"He hasn’t taken a snap at this level. So I don’t want to put too many expectations,” Mora said at Pac-12 Media Days (h/t Kevin McGuire, College Football Talk). “I’ll let others put expectations on them. I think if Josh reaches his potential every day, at the end of his time at UCLA we’ll look back and say he was a success.”
Rosen is competing with Jerry Neuheisel and Mike Fafaul for that starting job. There's a lot of upside to Rosen's game. The question is whether Mora feels ready to roll with him right away.
13. Georgia: Quarterback
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When you're the preseason SEC East favorite and you go into camp with both a quarterback competition and a grad-transfer quarterback, folks are going to take notice.
Greyson Lambert, the former Virginia signal-caller, joins Brice Ramsey and Faton Bauta in the Bulldogs quarterback competition. According to head coach Mark Richt, each quarterback will get an equal shot to prove himself.
Per David Paschall of the Times Free Press Richt said:
"We're going to rotate our three scholarship quarterbacks. One guy will be with the first unit, one guy with the second unit and one guy with the third unit, and we'll just keep rotating them around on a day-to-day basis until we think we need to stop. It could go all the way to the first game, or somewhere along the way we may drop it to a two-man race.
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Running back Nick Chubb is the cornerstone of the offense, but the addition of Lambert makes this competition that much more interesting.
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12. BYU: Running Back
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This is what we call a late addition.
On Thursday, BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall announced that running back Jamaal Williams had withdrawn from school for "personal reasons" and will redshirt the 2015 season. This is a huge blow to the Cougars rushing attack as Williams led the team in total yards on the ground in two of the last three years. Though quarterback Taysom Hill led BYU in rushing in 2013, Williams was second with 1,233 yards.
With the 2015 season just weeks away, where does BYU turn? Hill will be a rushing threat, but with a history of injuries, do his carries diminish?
Algernon Brown is the leading returning rusher, but he had just 324 yards and zero touchdowns in 2014. Adam Hine and Nate Carter should also see a massive increase in carries as well. Does any one emerge as the true No. 1 guy, or does Mendenhall go with a committee approach to complement Hill?
11. Michigan: Running Back
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Michigan's quarterback competition gets a lot of attention, and for good reason. New head coach Jim Harbaugh is a quarterbacks guy and has coached up the likes of Andrew Luck and Colin Kaepernick. However, the Wolverines running back situation is just as curious. Remember, Harbaugh's Stanford offenses were also known for bruising rushing attacks.
If quarterback play remains a liability, the running back spot could be asked to shoulder the load of the offense.
Derrick Green, USC-transfer Ty Isaac, De'Veon Smith and Drake Johnson will all compete for carries. Ideally, the Wolverines find their No. 1 back in preseason camp, but no one listed above has been able to consistently fill that role to date.
10. Oklahoma: Quarterback
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If you think Texas Tech-transfer Baker Mayfield is automatically going to be the starting quarterback for Oklahoma this fall, head coach Bob Stoops would like you to reconsider that notion.
"I know it's popular for everyone to act like a certain guy has already got the job," Stoops said at Big 12 Media Days. "That couldn't be further from the truth. Trevor Knight and Baker Mayfield are in a tight battle, and Cody Thomas is right on their heels."
There might be an in-house lean one way or the other, but publicly, the quarterback competition will continue into preseason camp. Knight and Mayfield have the edge in starts, but Thomas is a big kid with a great arm and better-than-advertised athleticism. All three have shown great flashes, but the consistency hasn't been there.
Mayfield has experience in an Air Raid offense, which is what new coordinator Lincoln Riley brings to the Sooners. Knight was at Media Days, which shows how highly Stoops thinks of him as a leader.
Oklahoma has plenty of returning talent and could make a run at a Big 12 title. For that to happen, though, the quarterback situation has to be figured out. Big 12 history shows top-tier quarterback play is a must to win the conference.
9. Michigan State: Cornerback
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If there's a challenger to Ohio State in the Big Ten, it's Michigan State. The Spartans return quarterback Connor Cook and should have one of the more dominant defensive lines in the Big Ten, if not in all of college football. But that doesn't mean Sparty is without big question marks that must be answered.
To quote Mike Griffith of MLive.com, "No position group on the Michigan State football team enters the 2015 fall camp with more questions than the secondary." And, as Griffith also notes, Michigan State is coming off of a season in which it allowed 22 plays of 40 yards or more.
Yet, the whole secondary is basically being rebuilt. Specifically, cornerback is less settled. Demetrious Cox figures to be one of the starting corners, but what about the other? Darian Hicks and Arjen Colquhoun are competing for that starting spot. Hicks started 10 games at corner in 2014.
8. Florida State: Quarterback
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One of the most high-profile grad-transfer quarterbacks for 2015 was Everett Golson, who moved on from Notre Dame after 25 appearances in two seasons to Florida State. Golson will battle with current front-runner Sean Maguire, who started against Clemson a year ago and threw for 304 yards.
Maguire didn't look strong in the Seminoles spring game, but head coach Jimbo Fisher loved the way Maguire carried himself during spring. Golson has the edge in game experience, but Maguire has the advantage in experience with the playbook.
According to the Orlando Sentinel's Brendan Sonnone, the school's official most recent depth chart, which is obviously subject to change, had Maguire listed as the first-team quarterback with Golson listed as the third-team signal-caller. JJ Cosentino is listed as the backup but is not expected to be a front-runner in the competition.
7. Arizona State: Wide Receiver
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Everything you need to know about Arizona State's wide receiver spot is that its best player, D.J. Foster, is a former running back. That's not a shot at Foster, mind you. The senior is a heck of an athlete. Foster's bio boasts that he's the "only active Football Bowl Subdivision student-athlete to account for more than 2,000 career rushing yards and 1,500 career receiving yards."
But beyond Foster, the Sun Devils have serious question marks. Jaelen Strong is gone to the NFL, and Cameron Smith is done for the year with a knee injury.
That means the next leading returning receiver behind Foster is tight end Kody Kohl, who had 16 receptions and four touchdowns in 2014. Devin Lucien, formerly of UCLA, should provide a boost. Beyond those two, Gary Chambers, Fred Gammage, Ellis Jefferson and Terrell Chatman will all by vying for a starting spot.
6. Texas: Quarterback
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The latest report on Texas' quarterback situation, via Chris O'Connell of Alcalde, is that head coach Charlie Strong will play both Tyrone Swoopes and Jerrod Heard in Week 1 against Notre Dame. Which one will technically start remains to be seen, but all indications so far are that Swoopes is the No. 1 guy.
However, if Strong does plan to play both, the gap can't be that big between Swoopes and Heard, meaning the redshirt freshman could theoretically leapfrog Swoopes in preseason camp. This spring, Strong and quarterbacks coach Shawn Watson raved about the progress Heard made as a passer, according to HornSports.com's Matt Cotcher.
At Big 12 Media Days, Strong and senior running back Johnathan Gray agreed that the entire offense, not just the quarterbacks, had to step up in 2015. As such, the realistic expectations for whoever starts is that he's able to move the offense and limit mistakes/turnovers.
It's a far cry from the days of Vince Young and Colt McCoy, but right now, it's what might win the Longhorns more than six games.
5. Oregon: Quarterback
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Oregon's quarterback competition got way more interesting this offseason when FCS star Vernon Adams Jr. announced he was playing his final season up a level with the Ducks. Though Adams wasn't a big-time recruit out of high school, he has obvious skill and athleticism and has played lights-out against FBS competition.
Most assumed that Adams would be the successor to Marcus Mariota while Jeff Lockie would maintain his title as a career backup.
The things is, Adams hasn't arrived on campus yet. He isn't scheduled to arrive, in fact, until Aug. 13, three days late to preseason camp, according to
4. Clemson: Defensive Tackle
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Thanks to quarterback Deshaun Watson, there are no questions about Clemson's offensive firepower heading into preseason camp. The Tigers defense, however, has so much star power to replace. Specifically, the defensive line lost all four starters.
The good news, however, is that there's a lot of talent ready to step in. Scott Pagano, D.J. Reader and Carlos Watkins are the three candidates vying for playing time at the defensive tackle position. Even 5-star freshman Christian Wilkins should be in a position to play some right away.
Reader is the veteran player in the group, and he'll be asked to bring along some of the younger players.
“He’s had over 800 snaps,” said Clemson offensive guard Eric Mac Lain to Brad Senkiw of OrangeandWhite.com. “He’s not a ‘returning starter,’ but he’s a guy that has dominated his entire career. As a defensive lineman, the percentage of tackles to plays, that is very high.”
Clemson had one of the top rushing defenses in all of college football last season. It'll be up to the new defensive tackles to make sure there's not much of a drop-off.
3. USC: Defensive Line
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USC doesn't have a ton of questions as it looks to fulfill playoff expectations in 2015. However, one of its few toss-ups is a big one: How will the defensive line evolve?
The Trojans were painfully thin up front on defense in the spring for myriad reasons, but largely due to injuries.
Delvon Simmons is likely bound to start at one of the defensive tackle spots and should be the unquestioned leader of the group. Guys like Kenny Bigelow and Greg Townsend Jr. will compete for playing time at the tackle and end spots.
Additionally, Rasheem Green and Noah Jefferson are a pair of touted freshmen who, because of depth concerns, will compete for playing time right away.
Losing defensive end Leonard Williams was a tough blow, but there's talent for the Trojans to pick up the slack. It's just a matter of who steps up.
2. Alabama: Quarterback
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What was once a five-man race in Alabama's quarterback competition is down to two competitors: Jake Coker and David Cornwell.
Coker, the Florida State transfer, is the front-runner to replace Blake Sims. However, Cornwell, a redshirt freshman, emerged as a legitimate contender exiting spring. While Coker could very well be named the starter for Week 1, the longer head coach Nick Saban holds out on naming that starter, the better it could be for Cornwell.
As
"A potential advantage for Cornwell is his youth. If Coker starts, the Tide will enter next season replacing their starting quarterback for a third straight year. Cornwell, [Cooper] Bateman or [Blake] Barnett could provide a long-term answer at the position.
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If Coker doesn't win the job, unfortunately, there will have been a lot of hype around him that ended up not coming to fruition.
1. Ohio State: Quarterback
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I mean, it's only been the most-covered position battle in all of college football. So, yeah, it's going to be covered here.
The major development is that Braxton Miller, once the unquestioned starter, has moved to wide receiver. That leaves J.T. Barrett, who took over for Miller last season, and Cardale Jones, who helped the Buckeyes win the 2015 national championship, to battle it out.
Barrett is an excellent passer who also happens to be a tremendous leader. He's not the most physically gifted player at his position, but he'll do a lot of things well for the offense. Jones is the raw specimen at 6'5" and 250 pounds. He has a gigantic arm and offers a bruising running style. Both quarterbacks are effective in their own way. The question for Jones is whether he's grown enough following his remarkable three-game run in last year's postseason. Barrett, after all, was the No. 2 guy last year.
"Cardale is much better [on leadership]," head coach Urban Meyer said at Big Ten Media Day (h/t "Two years ago I would have said it didn't exist. But he's got his own style of leadership. If you notice, people migrate to him."
Ben Kercheval is a lead writer for college football. All quotes cited unless obtained firsthand. All stats courtesy of CFBStats.com. All recruiting information courtesy of 247Sports.
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