There are a few teams that figure to be a little more centrally placed in the upcoming college football season’s chase for the national championship. One recognizable team has been around for awhile, but three hadn’t been part of the mix three seasons ago.
Alabama Crimson Tide
The team that failed to win its conference and division last year is still the team that everyone looks to in college football as a likely national title contender at the beginning of each season. Alabama just doesn’t rebuild anymore under head coach Nick Saban. The Crimson Tide are always reloading, and they will bring in the kind of recruiting class to prove it. Quarterback A.J. McCarron is gone, but one has to remember that both he and Greg McElroy stepped right into the starting job at Alabama and won national championships over the past five years. A new quarterback is not enough of a reason to discount this team’s chances. Not at all. Derrick Henry is going to be an extremely powerful running back for an Alabama team that is going to be very physical.
Florida State Seminoles
This team is likely to be a part of the title mix not just because quarterback Jameis Winston is going to be back under center, but also because the Seminoles are not likely to face a lot of competition in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Seminoles’ main rival, Clemson, has to go to Florida State this season. The other thing to note is that Clemson quarterback Tajh Boyd and receiver Sammy Watkins are off to the NFL, meaning that this is going to be a transitional year for the Tigers, one in which they probably won’t be as strong as they’ve been in previous years. This is an ACC in which Florida State should very easily be able to go unbeaten. That in itself will put the Noles in front of most teams.
Auburn Tigers
The Tigers were the breakout success story in college football last season. Their head coach, Gus Malzahn, immediately turned around the team without needing any time to warm up or test his coaching methods. Those methods promptly worked, as Auburn went from a team in the SEC West basement all the way to a conference championship and a very narrow loss to Florida State in the BCS National Championship Game. The Tigers’ success was built on the strength of a young offensive line coming together and executing Malzahn’s tempo-based run offense. That offensive line will still have a lot of people back for this season, so the Tigers should still be a factor. They’ll compete with Alabama and maybe LSU for the whole enchilada.
Michigan State Spartans
The team that often fell short in the Big Ten and had not made the Rose Bowl since the late 1980s was finally able to go to Pasadena after winning its conference championship. Michigan State clearly outplayed Stanford in the second half and captured a highly significant victory that should change the standing of this program in the eyes of a lot of college football fans and pundits. Michigan State was doubted because it lost to Notre Dame and played in a fairly weak Big Ten during the season, but taking care of Stanford answered a lot of questions about Michigan State. This is a team that seems to have turned the corner. It is probably a team that’s here to stay in college football, especially because it has become so good and so airtight on defense in an era when high-octane offenses are all the rage.
