Five Things to Look for this College Football Season

With college football set to kick off the 2019-2020 season, we once again hear about which four teams will make the playoffs and who got snubbed.  The Preseason Top 25 was released yesterday and from the looks of it, it looks somewhat accurate.  But anyway, what are the five things to look for this upcoming college football season?

1.  Will anyone dethrone Clemson or Alabama

This season will be the sixth season with the four-team playoff, and Alabama and Clemson have met in the championship three times and a lot of people think this season will make number four.  Look, these are obviously the two best teams in the country, but for the love of the sport we need someone new to step up.  A lot of people, including myself, think Georgia will finally take the step to beat Alabama and avenge that tough 2018 championship loss.  But its tough to judge and predict college football.  Georgia should have made the playoffs last year, but they had a bad loss to LSU and then lost the lead (again) to Alabama in the SEC Championship.  However, Jake Fromm will be entering his senior season and he’s due to lead Georgia to their long awaited championship.

2.  Can Justin Fields live up to the hype and bring Ohio State to the Playoff

A few years ago Justin Fields was the top rated QB prospect in the country and decided to play his college career at Georgia.  But what’s funny is that Jake Fromm was already the starting QB with two years left to play, and head coach Kirby Smart was never going to play Fields instead of Fromm.  So Fields transferred to Ohio State because why not.  There is a ton of hype around this kid, and the few games he played at Georgia he looked just average.  Fields has already won the starting job at OSU and the Buckeyes are currently ranked fifth in the preseason poll.

This ranking seems wrong.  OSU is under a new coach after Urban Meyer retired, Fields is going to be a first year starter, and they haven’t made any real noise since the 2016-2017 season.  Ohio State will make the playoffs if Fields can deliver them the quality wins they need.  If he can beat Michigan and Penn State the last two weeks of the season (going to be tough) and then win the Big-10 Championship game then OSU will get in.

3.  Is Notre Dame for real or was last year a fluke

Notre Dame is for real and I will not take this slander.  Ian Book is a stud and will show the country again why ND deserves a spot in the playoff.  I am a die hard ND fan and I was so happy yet so sad when they made the playoffs last year.  All season long I had to deal with the constant ridicule of “join a conference” and to that I say ND year in and year out play a top 10 toughest schedule.  And this year is nothing different.

Notre Dame will continue to play their rivals like USC, Navy, and Stanford.  These are all games that ND should win.  However the big games that us Irish fans need to watch for are at Georgia and at Michigan.  Notre Dame’s undefeated season could take a turn for the worst in week three when they travel to Georgia.  I honestly think this will be one of the best games in all of college football this season.  However, beating Georgia at home is tough but its doable.  I think ND will finish the season 11-1 with their sole loss to Georgia.  Michigan is and will always be the fakest team in college football.  Notre Dame will need some help if they do go 11-1.  The playoff committee is bias of ND, but like last year lets just win out so we can guarantee a spot.

4.  Jim Harbaugh will NOT be Michigan’s coach next season

Harbaugh will not return to Michigan if they don’t make the playoffs or even beat Ohio State this season.  Michigan plays the hardest schedule this season and all eyes will be on the fifth year coach to finally get it done.  I like Harbaugh, I really do.  I think he’s a cool dude who would be fun to have a beer with, but when you got hired you talked a ton of shit about how “Michigan is back,” “Michigan will beat Ohio State,” and “I’m going to bring championships back to Michigan.”  But, you haven’t lived up to anything.  Actually you haven’t even put up a game against Ohio State since you’ve been there.  Sooooooooo when are you going to finally beat them?  You have “your” QB in Shea Patterson (who is a bum, absolute scrub) and you blamed recent years on not having your guys.  Well now you do, you’re entering your fifth year at Michigan and you’re currently ranked seven in the preseason poll which is way too high for a team that hasn’t done anything in years.

5.  Will the Pac-12 be relevant this year

Short answer, no.  I don’t care about all this hype around Oregon and Justin Herbert.  Herbert is another QB that the media and “NFL Insiders” deem good, but he’s not.  I can’t tell you the last time someone said “Oregon’s gonna make a run this year!”  Just stop it.  I don’t understand how Oregon can be ranked 11 when they went 9-4 last year.  Like do people forget Herbert was Oregon’s QB last year??? or are we just going to pretend last year didn’t happen?  I don’t get how the committee can have five Pac-12 teams in the top 25 when all of them suck.  Between Oregon, Washington, Utah, Washington State, and Stanford none of these teams will win more than 10 games.  Only team that might is Utah because apparently they have an awesome defense.  But the other four won’t be relevant and no Pac-12 team will make the playoff.  So no, they won’t be relevant.

John McCormack (Uncle_Mac4)