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The top of the preseason Amway Coaches Poll will not teach anything new about the top programs in college football.
The Alabama Crimson Tide, Ohio State Buckeyes and Georgia Bulldogs are expected to be the top three teams in some order when the poll comes out Monday.
There are things to be learned from the poll, just not at the top, as the coaches from around the country will place some surprise teams in the top 10, top 15 and so on.
The Utah Utes and NC State Wolfpack are among the non-traditional contenders generating the most offseason buzz because of how many players they return.
In NC State’s case, it has a potential Heisman Trophy dark horse in quarterback Devin Leary and it has a legitimate path to the ACC Championship Game because of how average the conference is as a whole.
Utah could be the team that comes out of the Pac-12, but that may be dependent on how fast Lincoln Riley builds up the USC Trojans program.
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The Alabama Crimson Tide enter the 2022 college football season with the reigning Heisman Trophy winner at quarterback and the potential No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 NFL draft leading the defense.
Even by Alabama’s remarkably high standard, the 2022 season could have wild expectations because of Bryce Young and Will Anderson Jr.
Young should only get better off his Heisman-winning season, and he is working toward being one of the top quarterbacks chosen in the 2023 draft.
Anderson might have been the No. 1 overall pick in the 2022 draft if he was eligible to come out of college. The linebacker had 101 tackles and 17.5 sacks in his sophomore season and could be even more dangerous this fall.
The returns of Young and Anderson, plus the motivation from not winning the title last season, should keep Alabama atop the rankings for most of the season.
Alabama faces an early-season test against the Texas Longhorns, and while the road environment in Austin will be tough, the Crimson Tide still has the better talent on both sides of the ball.
If Alabama beats Texas, it could run into November with an undefeated record. Its toughest game in October is against the Texas A&M Aggies, but that is home at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
On paper, Alabama is a bit better than the Ohio State Buckeyes and Georgia Bulldogs, the two other preseason favorites for the national title.
Ohio State returns quarterback C.J. Stroud and wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, while Georgia has to replace most of its defense that produced eight NFL draft picks.
Ohio State and Georgia should be in the title mix all season, but Alabama is expected to be tagged with the No. 1 role before the season kicks off because of its returning talent.
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The ACC and Pac-12 appear to be the most open conferences in the power five.
The Pac-12 is waiting to see what the USC Trojans can do in Lincoln Riley’s first season and the Oregon Ducks also went through a coaching chance after Mario Cristobal departed for the Miami Hurricanes.
The Utah Utes sat at home and watched all the offseason chaos happen around them while working to get better. Utah returns a good amount of its defensive starters and it has a fifth-year junior at quarterback in Cameron Rising.
Quarterback was the biggest question for Utah’s offense in previous seasons and it has found some stability with Rising, who should help the Utes avoid an early-season slip-up.
NC State has had its quarterback situation figured out for the past few seasons with Devin Leary at the helm. Leary is being pegged by many experts to be a Heisman contender when November rolls around.
Leary is coming off a 3,500-yard, 35-touchdown season and he is expected to lead NC State to one of its best seasons in school history.
NC State gets a shot at the Clemson Tigers in October to assert its dominance in the ACC. The Wolfpack may be a Top 10 team by that point in the season because of how high they are expected to land in the preseason rankings.
Utah and NC State may not be part of the blue bloods of college football, but both are expected to have a say in their respective conference title races. That should lead to high rankings in the first Coaches Poll.
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