After a “bad” season in Alabama’s standards, Kalen DeBoer is looking for improvement, and this is the team that could make it happen. The Crimson Tide retained a lot of talent on both sides of the ball, but most notably young star WR Ryan Williams. Williams, in his freshman year, came out of the gates hot with 865 yards and 8 TDs.
Heading into his 2nd season as the Head Coach for the Texas A&M Aggies, Mike Elko has his team looking great. A major part of that is the rise of star freshman QB Marcel Reed, who while split reps with another QB, still put up solid numbers. In 8 starts, Marcel Reed threw for 1,864 yards and 15 TDs while rushing for 543 yards and 7 TDs.
Lane Kiffin has been on a roll as the Ole Miss Rebels head coach, and he has slowly established himself as one of the best head coaches in college football. Their consistent dominance has paid off as they have signed seemingly everybody in the transfer portal. The Rebels have signed the 2nd best transfer class in all of college football.
Head Coach Brian Kelly and the LSU Tigers will return for the 2025 season with as much talent and hype as ever. That stout Tiger offense will be led by their talented QB Garrett Nussmeier. Nussmeier had a terrific season passing for 4,052 yards and 29 TDs adding 3 more TDs on the ground while leading LSU to a 9-4 season. However, Nussmeier won’t be by himself out there.
Jeff Lebby is starting his second year as the head coach, and he has had time to establish a culture and has been able to build the team he needs to compliment his coaching style. The quarterback room is also looking great with Blake Shapen, who missed most of last season due to injury, coming back healthier and more familiar with the Lebby offense.
Missouri has had solid recruiting over the past few years. Their recruiting gives them the chance to be a CFB playoff bust.
Texas A&M has a great recruiting program, as they are ranked 16th in our 3-year metric. Texas A&M also has a great NIL program that could land future players and recruits.
The outlook is good for the Miami Hurricanes in 2024. With a projected 12-0 record, this team is looking to step up their previously inconsistent offense and make a playoff run. Is Cam Ward the solution to Miami’s struggles on offense? It looks like it. There seemed to be great chemistry between Ward and the receiver corps in their recent spring practice.
Recruiting. Recruiting. Recruiting. The Gamecocks ranked at 18th in our 3-year recruiting matric despite a few subpar seasons in a row.
The Gamecocks have plenty of opportunities to play spoiler after playing one of the toughest schedules in the FBS last season. The 2022 team killed Tennessee’s dreams of making the playoff after an impressive season and then beat the Clemson Tigers, who were trying to sneak into the playoff as well.
The Razorbacks did a good job of keeping players happy. They retained last year’s leading tackler Jaheim Thomas. They also kept last year’s lead reception and yards leader Andrew Armstrong.
Armstrong is just the tip of the iceberg as the Razorbacks have a top 10 receiver room according to the Impact Ball Catcher Metric
Arkansas has done a great job recruiting in the last few seasons. In the uber competitive SEC, The Razorbacks have accrued the 20th best 3-year recruiting ranking.
There is no doubt that Florida has a difficult road ahead in 2024. They have arguably the toughest schedule in the conference and one of the toughest in the nation. In order to defy the odds, head coach Billy Napier has a lot of work to do. Hopefully when the transfer portal window opens in a few weeks, Florida can pick up some more talent. They sure do need it.
It’s all eyes on new quarterback Jackson Arnold in Norman as the Oklahoma Sooners prepare for their opening season in the SEC. Oklahoma had a solid 2023 run, but a lot has changed with this program since. Quarterback Dillon Gabriel has transferred, offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby has taken over as head coach at Mississippi State and defensive coordinator Jeff Roof has also left the program. Amid all these unanswered questions, we do know that this season will be tough. The SEC is not a conference that you can just show up and dominate in your first season.
Hugh Freeze’s first year on The Plains was quite disappointing. Is it time to run him out of Auburn? Not yet. Slight improvement can be expected this year. Coach Freeze has been putting in work over the off season retooling his staff and bringing in some legit recruits and transfers. Road games against Georgia, Missouri, Kentucky, and Alabama will prove difficult for the Tigers. A 9 win season for the first time in what feels like forever for Auburn fans is within reach. While Payton Thorne is likely to start at quarterback, Freeze has said that the competition for the spot is “wide open.” Auburn needs a strong leader on offense and there is a lot of doubt in Thorne’s ability to do that.
What’s to like:
The Tigers are in arguably the weakest of the Power 4 conferences.
Dabo Swinney is still your head coach and he has proven in the past that he knows what it takes to turn a program into champions.
Cade Klubnik will likely take another step as he has improved in each of the last 2 seasons at QB.
Last year’s leading rusher Phil Mafah decided to return for his senior season.
Your defense was uncharacteristically one of the best in the nation last year and has the potential to career that over.
If incoming transfer QB Riley Leonard comes back fully healthy, which he is expected to, he has the potential to be one of the best QBs in the country next season. He played extremely well in his time at Duke with less talent.
Coach Marcus has consistently improved as a coach in his 2 full seasons as head coach. After losing his first game as the interim coach, Freeman won 9 games for the Irish in 2022, followed by 10 wins in 2023.
Retained key players like TE Mitchell Evans, who was 1st in 2023 team receptions and 2nd in yards, WR Jordan Faiser, who was 4th in reception yards as a freshman, and S Xavier Watts, who led the team in INT last season.
Has one of the easiest schedules among playoff caliber teams, the Irish has 6 home games and 2 neutral site games, allowing them to only play 4 on the road this season.
Tennessee retained Josh Heupel, one of the top coaches in the country. His wide split, tempo, balanced offensive attack has been very successful in Knoxville during his tenure.
This will be the first year with former #1 QB in the country Nico Iamaleava under center. He has played well in his limited action with a TD every 22.5 attempts, a 62% completion percentage, and a career 135.5 QBR.
Tennessee also kept last year’s leading receiver Squirrel White as he returns for his junior season.
Utah comes into the Big 12 as one of the most talented teams in the conference. They lost Cam Rising in Week One last season and still managed to get 8 wins.
Coach Kyle Whittingham is among the top coaches in college football and has shown that he has no problem leading the Utes in a conference change as he did in 2011. That season Utah left the Mountain west to join the Pac-10, making it the Pac-12. That season the Utes won 7 regular season games and the Sun Bowl.
Penn State has been able to put together 5 10-win seasons over the last 8 years. While 10 wins is attainable this year, this team wants more. A 10-2 record just might be enough for them to contend for a Big Ten title and a shot at the College Football Playoff in 2024.
Expectations are high as Brian Kelly heads into his third year at LSU and the season opener against USC in Las Vegas will set the tone for their season. If they can beat USC, 9, maybe even 10 wins and a bowl appearance is well within reason. Kelly has done well getting homegrown talent as well as dipping into the transfer portal. It’s looking like LSU’s defense will be in much better shape heading into 2024 than last year.
College football in 2024 has changed and changed forever. From NIL, the transfer portal, roster churn, conference realignment and an expanded College Football Playoff; long gone are the days of the BCS and the old college football that we knew.
It’s a new era in college football and 2024 looks to be one of new brands, mixed with some blue bloods – lots of drama on and off the field and, oh yea – an expanded playoff.
