Chris Gardner/Getty Images
There’s a reason college football is the greatest sport on the planet. It’s the people.
That distinction extends well beyond the players and coaches. The pageantry, led by passionate fans, are the coal that power this mighty engine.
That theme extends from campuses around the country to this very place on this very website. All season long, you and other B/R readers injected your own passion and insight through our weekly community stories.
Before we move any further, I must thank you for that.
As the offseason stretched out its legs and sets in, said community pieces are taking a much-deserved break. While this is not goodbye, it is farewell for now.
Before we leave, however, we are starting the hype train for next season. While your work and answers were the driving force behind these pieces during the season, we’re switching roles today.
Here is what I’m looking forward to most next season, which I am hopeful we will once again share together. See you on the other side.
Week 1 Out-of-Conference Excellence
Icon Sportswire/Getty Images
There is nothing like a meaningful out-of-conference football game to begin the year, and the 2022 season offers a buffet of delightful options to sink into.
Ohio State and Notre Dame will play. The better news is that this game will be played on a college campus—specifically Ohio Stadium in Columbus, Ohio. Given the performances of both teams last season, this should be quite a scene.
But it is not alone. Georgia and Oregon will meet, which should have plenty of storylines of its own. Former Georgia defensive coordinator Dan Lanning, who’s now the head coach of the Ducks, will play his former team in his first game with Oregon.
LSU will play Florida State in a game both head coaches absolutely need to win. While it’s only Brian Kelly’s first game with the Tigers, the pressure will be immense from the start. And Mike Norvell, who’s now in his third year with the Seminoles, needs a massive year to avoid the dreaded hot seat. Some might argue he’s already on it.
Elsewhere, Utah and Florida will meet. The Utes should enter the year with real playoff aspirations. The Gators, meanwhile, need to find something under new guidance.
And, last but not least, Cincinnati will travel to Arkansas. The Bearcats will attempt to deliver an encore after a College Football Playoff appearance. However, doing so with a rebuilt secondary and a new quarterback will not be easy. The Hogs are poised to be even better, and we will all be better for this game taking place.
I could go on, and eventually I will.
Just know that the Week 1 slate of games is loaded. Clear your schedules now.
New Faces in New Places
Icon Sportswire/Getty Images
The coaching carousel was a chaotic, unrelenting mess. I mean this is in the best possible way.
While things have calmed down (for now), the results of these wild few months will be on full display soon enough.
Sure, we’ll be served morsels along the way. Spring football and conference media days will provide glimpses into the new lives of many high-profile head coaches. But the real rollout will be in the fall, and we will have our work cut out to keep up.
Lincoln Riley feels like the headliner. Given USC’s struggles, his shocking arrival and the commitment of quarterback Caleb Williams, the hype and interest should be enormously high.
But as mentioned above, Kelly at LSU will be a fascinating coach to watch given the expectations he is likely to face every year. I’m also intrigued to see what Oklahoma looks like under Brent Venables. Given how offensive the approach has been, Venables’ defensive mindset will be a sizable culture shift.
Mario Cristobal in Miami is another one to keep close tabs on. The school is investing big in football, and the results could start to come in.
Marcus Freeman at Notre Dame and Billy Napier at Florida will be expected to win big immediately. Freeman seems more poised to do so, although we’ll see if that winds up being the case or not.
The business of football is making these decisions more meaningful. The contracts have gotten longer. The umbers have gotten bigger. The expectations have gotten larger.
These coaches, and others, will have little time to underwhelm. Let the games begin.
Well, soon-ish.
New Faces in New Places (Part 2)
Tom Pennington/Getty Images
Coaches aren’t the only change of interest.
Quarterbacks will also be a deafening theme of the upcoming season, and you have months to trace all of the movement that has already taken place and the moves still to come.
We already mentioned Williams’ transfer from Oklahoma to USC, which is the headliner given the player, program and coach. But that’s just the beginning of the movement.
Spencer Rattler (South Carolina), Jaxson Dart (Ole Miss), Quinn Ewers (Texas), Dillon Gabriel (Oklahoma), Kedon Slovis (Pittsburgh), Max Johnson (Texas A&M), Cameron Ward (Washington State), Casey Thompson (Nebraska) and others will be fascinating to watch next year in new homes.
Jayden Daniels, formerly of Arizona State, will also likely have a new team. As will JT Daniels, who has already spent time at USC and Georgia. These decisions, which are still to come, could dramatically alter a team’s outlook.
Given some of the talent changing places, it wouldn’t be shocking to see a few of these quarterbacks blossom into elite players. And for a coach like Scott Frost, who is in desperate need of a big season to keep his job, this addition offers up the possibility of immediate hope.
If this is a sign of offseason movement to come, it is poised to dramatically shake up the sport. For now, however, it sets the foundation for teams to wildly alter their short-term and long-term outlooks depending how good the fit winds up being.
Chaos
Aaron Doster/Associated Press
The most exciting part of the forthcoming college football season is the madness we cannot see.
We can (and will) attempt to tell you exactly what will happen next fall in the months ahead through predictions, rankings, betting advice and more.
The truth is, we have no idea. We say we do, and we certainly do our best to educate ourselves along the way, but we cannot possibly predict the weekly madness of the sport.
That is the beauty of college football. It’s watching Cincinnati crash the College Football Playoff. It’s watching Oregon head to Columbus to beat Ohio State. It’s watching Kenneth Walker III run through Michigan to single-handedly carry Michigan State’s breakout season.
These snapshots are merely that. They made up the DNA of the 2021 season, which was one of the more thrilling installments in recent memory. The only hope is that the 2022 season will come close to matching it.
We’ll soon see if that is possible. And while the offseason can feel long and unrelenting at times, it will move quickly.
The chaos is just around the corner. Here’s to embracing it soon enough.
For all the latest Sports News Click Here
For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News.
