College Football Predictions: Power Ranking the Most Potent Offenses in 2011
Woody Hayes is rolling over in his grave.
College football has changed mightily since the "three yards and a cloud of dust" era. The only major change Hayes ever had to worry about was that newfangled shotgun.
Now there are pistols, wildcats, blurs, run 'n guns, run 'n shoots and air raids. It can get a little confusing.
Confusing as it is, it is just as exciting. Quarterbacks are throwing for 5,000 yards, offenses are scoring 40 points per game and the 2010 BCS National Championship Game featured 968 yards of offense.
In 2011, some fantastic offensive talents return to the game.
Boise State returns quarterback Kellen Moore and running back Doug Martin.
Oregon returns quarterback Darron Thomas and running back LaMichael James.
Arkansas returns its top three receivers. Stanford has Andrew Luck. Texas A&M boasts quarterback Ryan Tannehill and running back Cyrus Gray.
That's not even considering the attacks of the Bedlam Series participants, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State.
2011 is going to be a fantastically exciting season with big offensive numbers.
But who has the best offense? This isn't just about putting up yards; it's about points, balance and consistency.
TCU, Wisconsin, Auburn and Nevada—all top 10 scoring offenses a season ago—miss the cut due to the loss of several key players.
Here are the power rankings for the top 15 offenses in college football next season.
15. Central Florida Knights
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Central Florida was on the verge of having an elite offense in 2010, scoring 32.1 points per game and featuring a dangerous quarterback-running back duo.
Jeffrey Godfrey is a dual-threat quarterback that starred as a true freshman in Conference USA. Godfrey passed for 2,159 yards and rushed for 566.
He's complemented by running backs Ronnie Weaver and Latavius Murray. Weaver rushed for 890 yards as a junior, and Murray rushed for 637 yards as a sophomore.
Wide receiver is an area of concern as the top three pass catchers from 2010 all graduated. Still, Godfrey should be good enough in year two to keep the wheels turning for the Knights.
14. Stanford Cardinal
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Andrew Luck could be preparing for the NFL Draft, in which he was expected to be taken first overall. Instead, Luck threw everyone off by returning to Stanford for another year of college.
Although Jim Harbaugh decided to go pro and coach the San Francisco 49ers, offensive coordinator David Shaw was promoted. Luck and Shaw should make the transition seamlessly.
Stanford gets almost all of its skilled position players back.
Leading rusher Stepfan Taylor is looking for consecutive 1,000-yard seasons.
Wide receivers Doug Baldwin and Ryan Whalen are gone, but wideouts Griff Whalen and Chris Owusu combine with tight end Coby Fleener to make a dangerous receiving corps.
However, replacing three offensive lineman will be a difficult task.
13. East Carolina Pirates
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East Carolina has its work cut out for it to remain potent in 2011.
The team's three top rushers outside of quarterback Dominique Davis all graduated. The running game is looking to sophomore Michael Dobson to lead the way.
The passing game, however, should again be one of the nation's best. Davis, a Boston College transfer, was the nation's fourth-most prolific passer in 2010, nearly throwing for 4,000 yards.
In his senior season he will be another year more mature and another year more knowledgeable of the offense.
Dwayne Harris led the team with 101 receptions last season and is gone. But Lance Lewis, Michael Bowman and Andrew Bodenheimer are all back, having caught 89, 47 and 40 passes, respectively.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
12. Tulsa Golden Hurricane
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The Tulsa Golden Hurricane has been one of college football's most explosive teams under Todd Graham, with an offense installed by Gus Malzahn.
Malzahn is now at Auburn and Graham has moved on to coach Pittsburgh, but new head coach Bill Blankenship was an internal hire.
He'll be broken into the job nicely by senior quarterback G.J. Kinne. In two seasons as Tulsa's quarterback, Kinne has thrown for more than 6,300 yards and 53 touchdowns.
The offense has running backs and wide receivers, but they all are threats to run and catch the ball, making the offense that much more difficult to stop.
For example, Damaris Johnson—a senior in 2011—had 872 receiving yards and 560 rushing yards last season.
11. South Carolina Gamecocks
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South Carolina boasts a top five talent at running back and wide receiver and a top 20 talent at quarterback. The Gamecocks are going to put up some big numbers in 2011.
It all comes down to whether quarterback Stephen Garcia takes a step forward or a step backward this offseason.
We all know Alshon Jeffrey is a premier talent at wide receiver. His size and strength give him an advantage in most situations. He racked up 1,517 receiving yards last season.
Sophomore running back Marcus Lattimore ground out nearly 1,200 yards rushing last season even after missing one regular season game and most of the Chick-Fil-A Bowl with injury.
Garcia must protect the ball and utilize the weapons around him to take the Gamecocks back to the SEC Championship game.
10. Southern Cal Trojans
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It's time for Matt Barkley to fulfill the prophesies of him being an elite quarterback in the nation. He's shown spurts of spectacular play but hasn't risen to the heights once expected of him.
That will change in 2011.
NCAA sanctions haven't slowed down USC's recruiting. Amongst arguably the nation's top recruiting class were wide receivers George Farmer, Victor Blackwell and Junior Pomee.
Farmer was the top-rated receiver in the country and rated the third best overall prospect by Rivals.com. Blackwell and Pomee were rated as top 25 wide receiver prospects.
Combine one or more of those threats with sophomore Robert Woods and the receiving corps should be potent.
Running back Marc Tyler returns after rushing for 913 yards last season, splitting carries with the graduated Allen Bradford.
USC won't reproduce its production of the Matt Leinart, Reggie Bush, Lendale White, Dwayne Jarrett and Steve Smith days, in which the Trojans boasted a 3,000-yard passer, two 1,000-yard rushers, one 1,000-yard receiver and a 900-yard receiver.
But they'll be good.
9. Michigan Wolverines
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Michigan could finally be back. And Brady Hoke may not have as much to do with it as Rich Rodriguez.
A quick look at the offensive roster and it appears as though Rodriguez may have been on the verge of a breakthrough.
Michigan's ultimate playmaker, quarterback Denard Robinson, is back. So are Vincent Smith and Michael Shaw, who rushed for more than 600 and 400 yards respectively.
Eight players caught at least 10 passes in 2010 for the Wolverines. All of them return. The offensive line only lost guard Stephen Schilling. This unit could explode in 2011.
Of course, Rodriguez could never get the defense figured out, hence the hiring of Hoke.
8. Houston Cougars
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If Conference USA does anything right, it's offense. With UCF, ECU, Tulsa and Houston all calling the conference home, defenses don't get much of a rest.
Houston was 11th in yardage and 13th in scoring last season. That was it's quarterback, freshman David Piland, passing for 2,641 yards.
He'll have competition for the starting job as Case Keenum returns with a sixth year of eligibility granted by the NCAA.
Keenum is a two-time 5,000-yard passer. He is currently fifth on the all-time career passing yards leader list, needing only 3,500 yards to take over the top spot.
He'll have two of the team's three best pass-catchers back along with it's two top rushers, Bryce Beall and Michael Hayes.
7. Hawai'i Warriors
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Hawai'i's Bryant Moniz was college football's lone 5,000-yard passer in 2010. He tossed 39 touchdowns to 15 interceptions.
But he's just about all that returns.
The only two ball-carriers to rush for more yards than Moniz's 102 have graduated.
Royce Pollard is the only player returning with more than 20 receptions last year. He caught 64 passes for 901 yards, each good for third best on the team.
In all, only three starters return to the offense.
But this is Hawai'i. They rack up offensive yardage like the sun rises. They'll plug in the pieces and let Moniz sling the ball around.
6. Texas A&M Aggies
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Cyrus Gray is ready to run all over the Big 12 again.
Despite a three-game slump that netted him just seven yards in the middle of last season, Gray rushed for more than 1,100 yards in 2010.
If he ever gets tired, his backup, Christine Michael, is ready to go after rushing for more than 600 yards himself.
But the Aggie offense hinges on quarterback Ryan Tannehill.
In his six starts as the Texas A&M trigger man, he averaged 243 yards passing and added the ability to run. He broke runs of 48 and 32 yards.
The Aggies have to replace Matt Allen at center, but that's it. With a full offseason with Tannehill taking the starter's reps, Texas A&M has its highest Big 12 expectations in years.
5. Arkansas Razorbacks
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Sure, Ryan Mallett is off to the pros. But did you see Tyler Wilson play quarterback in relief of an injured Mallett against Auburn?
He passed for 332 yards and two touchdowns before the pressure of keeping up with the Tigers—who scored 65 points that day—caught up with him in the form of two interceptions.
He'll have the nation's best receiving corps to work with.
Joe Adams, Jarius Wright, Greg Childs and Cobi Hamilton—all of whom caught at least 32 passes in 2010—all return. Wilson will have options when he drops back to pass.
When Wilson is not passing, Knile Davis will be carrying to a likely 1,000-yard season. Davis rushed for more than 1,300 yards last season with 13 touchdowns.
SEC defenses had better buckle up. The Razorbacks could be better even with Mallett gone.
4. Oklahoma State Cowboys
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As soon as wide receiver Justin Blackmon decided to forgo the NFL for one more year and return to the Cowboys, Oklahoma State returned to top 10 talks. He's that good.
Blackmon had more than 1,700 receiving yards and scored 20 touchdowns last season.
His quarterback, Brandon Weeden, threw for more than 4,200 yards last season. He'll turn 28 mid-season in 2011. He's a graybeard quarterback in college terms.
The Cowboys will greatly miss the contributions of 1,500-yard rusher Kendall Hunter. Joseph Randle enters his sophomore season with plenty of pressure on the heels of a 452-yard season.
3. Boise State Broncos
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Everybody knows about Boise State quarterback Kellen Moore and his ridiculous 182.63 passer efficiency rating, his 35-6 touchdown-to-interception ratio and his 3,845 passing yards.
Everybody knows about Boise State's trick plays. They know about its fast starts and easy wins.
But lost in all of that is the fact that the Broncos actually run the ball. And they do it really well. Doug Martin rushed for 1,260 yards and 12 touchdowns last season.
Moore is entering his senior season, having put up three campaigns worthy of Heisman Trophy consideration. He loses wide receivers Titus Young and Austin Pettis, but Boise State has replaced pieces before.
Another year, another dominant Bronco offense.
2. Oklahoma Sooners
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Sooner Nation is looking at you, Roy Finch.
Finch is a sophomore running back tasked with filling the shoes of DeMarco Murray, who tallied more than 1,800 yards of offense in 2010.
If Finch can step up to the challenge after rushing for nearly 400 yards on 4.7 yards per carry last season, Oklahoma will be tough to slow down.
It all starts with Landry Jones, the quarterback who used to have the raddest mustache in the game. He still has one of the best arms, which he used to blaze more than 4,700 yards of passing.
Much of that went to Ryan Broyles, who surprisingly passed up a likely first-round selection in the NFL Draft to remain a Sooner. Broyles caught a national-best 131 passes for 1,622 yards and 14 touchdowns in 2010.
The only other offensive starter besides Murray gone from the 2010 Sooner squad is tackle Eric Mensik. This could get ugly for Big 12 defenses.
1. Oregon Ducks
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Just try to keep up. That's the challenge issued by Oregon and its blur offense.
Only two teams, Cal and Auburn, were able to last season. The Ducks lost to Auburn in the BCS National Championship Game and have their sights set on reaching another.
Quarterback Darron Thomas grew up in a hurry in the wake of Jeremiah Masoli being suspended for a season and then kicked off the team.
Thomas threw for more than 2,800 yards, 30 touchdowns and just nine interceptions as a sophomore. He also added nearly 500 yards on the ground.
LaMichael James is the true star of the offense. He's one of the fastest running backs in the country and had people chasing him all season long.
He led the nation with 1,731 rushing yards. Kenjon Barner is a blistering backup.
The Ducks will miss Jeff Maehl and D.J. Davis, the team's leading receivers from 2010, who have graduated. But Oregon has other players ready to step in.
After averaging a national-best 47 points and 530.7 yards per game, Oregon is gearing up for another incendiary offensive season.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
