College Football Teams with Biggest Question Marks Heading into Offseason
Every college football team has some questions it hopes to answer before the 2016 season comes around, and there's plenty of time to get this done. For some teams, though, these puzzles aren't that simple to solve.
Not every team has the luxury of just plugging in backups for departed stars and expecting the same results, since most don't know for certain yet who the replacements will be. Other teams are dealing with staff changes and don't know how that will affect their success.
The questions vary from team to team, and there's at least one for every school in FBS. We're focusing on the ones whose question marks stand out more than others.
Florida
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Jim McElwain's first season with the Florida Gators was a rousing success. Florida had foundered during the final years of Will Muschamp's tenure, and that coach didn't leave his replacement much to work with, explaining why it was picked to finish fifth in the SEC East.
Then Florida went out and won the East, seemingly doing so with a lot of smoke and mirrors. It turned out the secret to that magic involved quarterback Will Grier, whose midseason drug suspension toppled the Gators offense and rendered it almost nonexistent.
A 10-1 start was followed by three straight losses. The team scored only 24 total points during the skid.
How will Florida fix the offense? Is Treon Harris really the best option at quarterback, or does the answer lie in either a transfer or a freshman? Former Alabama and Oregon State passer Luke Del Rio and ex-Purdue QB Austin Appleby are now on the roster, while Feleipe Franks flipped from LSU to Florida and enrolled early.
Florida also has to find a solid group to block for whoever is at quarterback, and it also has to replace its leading rusher and several key defenders. The offseason will be a busy one for the Gators.
Miami (Florida)
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The offseason coaching carousel wasn't as crazy as it's been in other years, though it did stand out for its swiftness in getting some positions filled (as well as being almost completely done before the offseason began). Miami was involved in a search for a head coach very early, having fired Al Golden after seven games, but it was in no rush to find his replacement.
Until the perfect guy came on the market.
Mark Richt, a former Hurricanes quarterback who was let go by Georgia after 15 years and 145 wins, was hired just days after he'd been sent packing. In making the move to the beach, Richt cited a desire to get back to being more "hands-on" and less of a CEO.
This motivation works great in theory, but will it translate to an actual change in approach?
Richt has talent to work with, most notably a quarterback (Brad Kaaya) who's better than any he'd had the last two seasons at Georgia. Most of Miami's starters will be back, too.
The questions for the 'Canes aren't related to the players as much as the coach, and whether Richt really does have a renewed drive or if he's fooling himself and others.
Michigan State
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Michigan State won 36 games the past three seasons, the product of a senior class that developed over time into one of the best in program history. It also featured key contributors who chose to return to school in 2015 rather than test the NFL waters. That resulted in a second Big Ten title in three years and a semifinal appearance.
And now they're all gone.
Including left tackle Jack Conklin, who turned pro, the Spartans lose 14 starters. That includes three-year starting quarterback Connor Cook, their top two receivers, three-fifths of the offensive line and more than half the defense.
And they play in one of the more top-heavy divisions in the country, the Big Ten's East.
"There may not be a team facing more questions in the coming year than coach Mark Dantonio's Spartans," Bleacher Report's Ben Axelrod wrote.
The talent and experience of MSU's replacements at all those spots is one issue, but even more so is whether this next batch will have the same drive and determination that the outgoing senior class showed. Can it maintain what has been established?
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
Notre Dame
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Notre Dame has starters to replace on both offense and defense, and there are some big shoes to fill. But identifying the successor to the likes of offensive tackle Ronnie Stanley or linebacker Jaylon Smith isn't as important as deciding between two guys who have already shown they can perform.
The Fighting Irish have themselves an Ohio State type of problem in that they return two established and talented quarterbacks, DeShone Kizer and Malik Zaire, for the 2016 season. Zaire won the starting job last spring, prompting Everett Golson to transfer, but then broke his ankle in the second game of the season.
That thrust Kizer, a redshirt freshman, into the spotlight...and he shined. So much so that either he or Zaire would be the perfect guy to run the Notre Dame offense next season.
But which one? And what about the other?
As we saw with Ohio State in 2015, having two great options doesn't mean much if you can't settle on one and stick with it. The Buckeyes offense was all over the place, and the constant questions about the quarterback position became a major distraction.
"Feelings will be hurt, stress will be inflicted, and—as was the case with Ohio State's offense for a good chunk of the season—expectations may not be met," JJ Stankevitz of CSNChicago.com wrote.
Ohio State
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Speaking of Ohio State, the one place it doesn't have a question about heading into the offseason is at quarterback. J.T. Barrett will be back and no longer has to battle for a job that probably should have been his all along in 2015. This is great news for the Buckeyes, because everything else is a major crapshoot at this point.
An astounding nine juniors and redshirt sophomores have declared for the NFL draft, including single-season school rushing champion Ezekiel Elliott, star edge-rusher Joey Bosa and three-fourths of the starting secondary. That's on top of eight senior starters, who won 50 games the last four seasons, leaving behind very little in terms of significant playing experience.
But not a dearth of talent. Ohio State's overall depth, thanks to its amazing recruiting during Urban Meyer's tenure, means the cupboard is far from bare.
These aren't uncharted waters for Meyer and OSU. The 2013 team lost a ton of talent, and then the 2014 squad won the national title with mostly all-new starters. Can this next group do the same, or will the 2016 season be similar to what Florida State dealt with this past fall as it went through a pseudo-rebuilding year that still resulted in 10 wins and a New Year's Six bowl appearance?
Oregon
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Trying to replace a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback is no easy task, and Oregon must feel like it's attempting that for the second year in a row. So it goes when such a team has somehow failed to address such a key position in its recruiting.
The Ducks could be relying on a graduate transfer quarterback from the FCS ranks for the second year in a row, following up Vernon Adams Jr. with Montana State's Dakota Prukop. This worked out well in 2015, at least when Adams was healthy, but it's establishing a dangerous trend that could blow up in their face.
Adams didn't show up until the middle of preseason camp, while Prukop is already enrolled. But if he doesn't prove to be the answer, is there one on the roster? Signing Prukop is an indication that Jeff Lockie and the other quarterbacks Oregon recruited out of high school aren't up to the task, as we saw when Lockie filled in for Adams in the middle of 2015 (and during the disastrous second half of the Alamo Bowl).
And that's not the only significant question mark Oregon has for next season. There's also the issue of its defense, which has never been particularly great but loses a beast in end DeForest Buckner along with several linebackers. The Ducks are also in search of a defensive coordinator after head coach Mark Helfrich demoted Don Pellum.
Penn State
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Is there anyone left in Happy Valley?
We're only half-serious, but it's quite peculiar how many departures there have been from Penn State since the 2015 season ended with a 24-17 loss to Georgia in the TaxSlayer Bowl. Quarterback Christian Hackenberg's jump to the NFL draft was by far the least surprising of the exits, since he'd been long ago tabbed as an early departee, but the rest of those who have left weren't expected.
Coach James Franklin is almost starting over in terms of his staff but only partly by his doing. He fired his offensive coordinator after a second straight sluggish season moving the ball. Since then, the Nittany Lions' defensive coordinator and offensive line coach have departed for other jobs.
Both went to the SEC, where Franklin came from before taking the Penn State job.
And then there are the transfers. PSU is set to lose running back Akeel Lynch, wide receiver Geno Lewis, cornerback Daquan Worley, and linebackers Troy Reeder and Gary Wooten to other programs, with Reeder going to an FCS school (Delaware).
Is this a sign that Franklin has lost control of his program already? And if so, can he get it back during the offseason?
Texas A&M
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Only a few years removed from being considered one of the top offensive geniuses in college football, Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin heads into 2016 with plenty of uncertainty on that side of the ball.
Sumlin has lost three starting quarterbacks to transfer in the past year, including two in the span of only a few days back in December. This means the Aggies go into spring with Jake Hubenak and Oklahoma transfer Trevor Knight battling for the QB job instead of a pair of recent 247Sports 5-star signees in Kyle Allen and Kyler Murray, who are now at Houston and Oklahoma, respectively.
A&M has also changed its offensive coordinator, replacing Jake Spavital with UCLA's Noel Mazzone.
"But will the offense be more physical?" Bleacher Report's Barrett Sallee wrote. "Will they be as tough as Mazzone wants? Will they find quarterback consistency? At this point, we have to see it to believe it."
Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
