There won’t be any college football games played for quite a while but that doesn’t mean we are going to stop talking about the sport we love. Each week we will bring you the top stories and we will also be discussing a variety of topics in our weekly roundtable. Agree, disagree or want to chime in to the conversation then let us know in the comments. If you want to pose a question for us to answer then e-mail it to us at collegefootballzealot at gmail.com or just drop it in the comments section. Now onto this weeks questions and opinions….
Which first year Head Coach is going to make the biggest positive impact on his team this year?
Brandon: I think that Brady Hoke will have the biggest positive impact on his team this year. Why? There is nowhere to go, but up. I know that they could, theoretically, have zero wins this year, but I doubt that is going to happen. There will be some obvious growing pains with a new scheme, but with the athletes they have I think the offense could be just as dangerous and there is nowhere to go but up with that defense so even a slight improvement will look like a lot.
J Martin: I’d go with Dana Holgorsen at West Virginia. I mean, he’s the head coach for real now, right? Bill Stewart still gets to go on the rubber chicken circuit and gladhand with boosters, but we know who’s really going to be calling the shots in Morgantown this season. Holgorsen is a fantastic offensive mind that deserves to be in the conversation with Gus Malzahn as the best in college football today. In one season, he took an Oklahoma State offense that had only one known quantity returning (and it wasn’t Justin Blackmon), and was projected to be so bad that the whole team was a nearly unanimous pick to finish near the bottom of their division, and he turned it into one of the most prolific units in the country, single-handedly powering the Cowboys into Big 12 title contention. Even with the loss of Noel Devine and Jock Sanders, there will be much more talent on hand for him to work with at WVU this season. Don’t be surprised if they’re shooting the lights out in 2011.
Kevin: It’s Al Golden at Miami. I wasn’t overwhelmed with his hire but sometimes all you need is a new voice in your program to wake it up. Miami is full of athlete’s and the ACC is ripe for the picking, especially the Coastal version of the ACC. Don’t be surprised if the Hurricanes are fighting it out with the Seminoles in December for the ACC Crown. But even if they aren’t it should be easy to improve on their 7-6 mark last year with the kind of talent they have on campus.
Ross: Jerry Kill, Minnesota. No, really. I think he’ll make the biggest difference to his team in terms of wins and losses. They won three games in 2010 and it’s not at all hard to envision them winning six or seven games in 2011 — and that will probably be a bigger W/L improvement than we see from the other new coaches. It’s much easier to get from three wins to seven wins than from seven wins to ten or eleven wins.
Both Clemson and Georgia finished the year at 6-7 and both have just signed Top 10 recruiting classes. Which team do you have the most faith in turning their program around this year?
Brandon: I think I would have the most faith in Georgia turning their program around simply because of the track record of Mark Richt in the past. I would rather put my faith in a coach who has had a bunch of good seasons than a coach that had one really good season, but had the program mired in mediocrity every season before that.
J Martin: Of the two, Georgia is probably in the best position to make a big turnaround in 2011. On offense, they’re settled at quarterback, and the arrival of Isaiah Crowell at running back should force Washaun Ealey to either work hard enough finally live up to his promise or get out of the way. On defense, you should see significant improvement in the 2nd year of Todd Grantham’s 3-4 scheme. They scored some key jumbo-sized defensive linemen in this recruiting class, which are crucial to making that defense work. Please note: All of this assumes Mark Richt can keep these guys out of jail between now and next season.
Kevin: Face Palm to J for his jail comment. I’m biased on this one so you know my answer it’s Georgia. At Clemson, underperforming isn’t just something they do for fun it’s something that they take pride in. In C.J. Spiller’s senior season they went to the Music City Bowl and with the Defensive Player of the Year they went 6-7. Clemson has to prove it to me before I give them any cred. Georgia looks poised to make a huge bounce back this year but they also have what is possibly the hardest opening two games of the season as they will play two top 15 teams in Boise State and South Carolina to start off.
Ross: Georgia. Clemson always teases big things and fails to deliver. Georgia’s struggled the last few years, but they’ve been very good in the not-too-distant past. The best Clemson has managed in the last decade is an 8-4 season a few years ago. The SEC East also looks pretty volatile in the near-term, whereas Clemson will have to deal with a Florida State program that seems to be re-establishing itself among the elites. And I’ll take Mark Richt over Dabo Swinney every day of the week and twice on Saturday.
We just released our Pre-Spring Top Ten. Which team not listed has the best chance to make a run at the National Championship?
Brandon: I am going to go a different direction with the answer for this question and say that no one outside that Top 10 will make a run at the National Championship. While I think that TCU could challenge for a BCS Buster spot, I think they can’t make a realistic run for a National Championship. I just truly think that those are the best ten teams in the country, and don’t see much challenge from outside those ten. I think there are teams that are weaker than others such as Texas A&M and Oklahoma State, but this is just the cream of the crop this year. Unlike basketball you can’t really bank on a freshman class putting you over the top, and a lot of teams are going to look good simply because of that.
J Martin: Wait for it…West Virginia. I like them for 3 main reasons: 1) The afformentioned Holgorsen. I truly believe their offense will be difficult to stop. It will be a transition year for the Mountaineer defense, but Holgorsen proved last year his offense is good enough to overcome poor defensive play. 2) Their out of conference schedule is very soft. The only real challenge will come against LSU, but that game is in Morgantown and comes in late September, by which time Holgorsen’s offense will be humming. The Tigers should get their best shot. 3) They play in the Big East. Enough said? It’s not exactly a murderer’s row when it’s at it’s best, and its looking exceptionally mediocre to me in 2011. Not a lot of huge in-conference challenges on the docket for the ‘Eers. I could easily see WVU going 11-1 in the regular season, with a shot at putting a run on 12-0 if they can get past LSU.
Kevin: I really like West Virginia too, mainly because of the fact that they play in the Big East. But they are already taken. I love South Carolina’s big two in Lattimore and Jeffrey but I just can’t pull the trigger on them. I’m going to go Big Ten and say Wisconsin. They are losing their QB and only returning 4 offensive starters according to Phil Steele but they will run the football down your face and that can make up for lack of QB experience until later on in the year. They only lost one regular season game last year (Michigan State) and they have that team at home this year. They play Nebraska at home in early October and catch Ohio State on the road in late October. They don’t have a tough schedule and don’t have to worry about Iowa this year. They play a two to three game schedule this year. The Badgers will also be strong on both lines of scrimmage and that’s where you win football games. Watch out for James White and Montee Ball. Wisconsin could surprise some folks.
Ross: Arkansas, mainly by virtue of being the best SEC team not already listed. They lose Mallett, but return a competent back-up — and a ton of other talent. If they can navigate the SEC West (no easy feat that, with Alabama and LSU lurking) and win the SEC, they’ll be a lock to play for the crystal football.
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