College Football: Top 5 Teams To Watch Going into Spring Football

With the spring comes a lot of interesting story lines for College Football.

During the spring, unranked teams start to develop into championship teams and unheard of players start to develop into Heisman Trophy award winners, hence 2010 Auburn Tigers and their QB Cam Newton. 

The spring helps you solve questions such as; what teams have the potential to be BCS contenders, who will win certain position battles, and how new head coaches will adjust to their new teams, and if you watch closely the spring can give you a really good look at how your team will do in the upcoming season.  Here are the five most intriguing teams to look at throughout the spring.

UCF Knights

UCF is my BCS sleeper for the 2011 season.  UCF finished the 2010 season hot, winning 9 of their last 10 games.  Their quarterback Jeff Godfrey is coming off of a spectacular freshman season, and should continue building off of his success this spring.  It will be interesting to see how UCF will replace a couple key defensive players including; Conference-USA Defensive Player of the Year, Bruce Miller.  At this point, it looks like all UCF will have to do is get by BYU, SMU, and Boston College to get their first invitation to a BCS Bowl Game.

Best Case Scenario: 12-0 with a trip to a BCS Bowl Game

Worst Case Scenario: 10-2 with a Top 25 ranking

Florida State Seminoles

The Seminoles are coming off of a 10-4 season including in a win their bowl game against South Carolina.  Christian Ponder graduated, but EJ Manuel, FSU's backup last season, is a star in the making.  The Seminoles have a hard schedule that includes a non-conference game against potential pre-season #1 Oklahoma.  FSU has brought in a top ten recruiting class 3 of the last 4 years, including the #1 incoming recruiting class.  It will be interesting to see whether or not all of their high caliber recruits live up to the hype, because if they do you could see Florida State in the National Title game soon.

Best Case Scenario: 12-0 with a trip to the National Championship

Worst Case Scenario: 9-3 with a Top 25 ranking

SMU Mustangs

In his three years at SMU, June Jones has turned the program around.  The year before June Jones got to SMU the team was 1-11, in Jones' second year they were 8-5 and snapped a 25 year bowl drought.  SMU returns 18 starters, including Kyle Padron who passed for almost 4,000 yards and over 30 touchdowns in 2011.  Under June Jones the Mustangs have been known for their passing game, but this past year they developed a solid running game and averaged 5 yards per carry.  The pieces are set in place for the SMU Mustangs, but in order for them to reach a BCS Bowl Game they would have to shock the world and upset TCU, and also beat a solid Texas A&M team.  It will be interesting to see if June Jones can keep improving.

Best Case Scenario: 11-1 with a Top 15 ranking at the end of the season

Worst Case Scenario: 8-4 finishing unranked

Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Brian Kelly's first year at Notre Dame was not as great as some may have hoped, but the team ended the season on a four game win streak that included USC and a blowout win over Miami.  Notre Dame is returning 18 starters, and has 4 five star recruits coming in.  At this point, the no one really has any idea what kind of season the Fighting Irish will have.  It will all depends on how Dayne Crist, or whoever is at quarterback, plays.

Best Case Scenario: 11-1 with a BCS Bowl berth

Worst Case Scenario: 8-4

Michigan Wolverines

Michigan is another one of those teams that has a bunch of returning starters this season, they have 20.  Although they finished the season horribly on three straight blowout losses, there is still some optimism around the Michigan program.  They have a new head coach in Brady Hoke, and are clearly focusing on getting the defense back to an elite level. 

Michigan somehow took Greg Mattison from the Ravens to take the same position, Defensive Coordinator, at Michigan.  Michigan's defense was amongst the worst in the country but they return virtually everyone... Is that a good thing?  Yes, some of the reason Michigan's defense was so atrocious last year was because of a lack of talent, but I believe the sole reason for the Wolverine's struggles were due to inexperience. 

It appears as if Al Borges, the new offensive coordinator for the Wolverines, will implement some of Rich Rod's offense into his system to utilize Denard Robinson's skill set to its maximum potential.  With the Hoke regime in, I believe the Michigan Football Program is on the rise again.

Best Case Scenario: 9-3 with a Top 20 Ranking

Worst Case Scenario: 7-5 finishing unranked