20 key offseason topics for 2020: No. 7. Which five college football teams have the potential be disappointments?
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20 for 2020 Offseason Topics
20. Best Teams To Not Make CFP
19: Teams That Will Rebound Big
18. Teams That Will Fall Back
17: Every Power 5 Team’s Letdown Game
16. Top 5 Instant Impact New Head Coaches
15. 2nd Year Coaches Who’ll Be Better
14. Power 5 Hot Seat Coach Rankings
13. Key Transfers You Forgot About
12. Five Big Power 5 Upset Alerts
11. Great Players About To Go Nuclear
10. Group of 5 Teams In New Year’s Six Chase
9. Power 5 Sleeper Teams
8. Most Interesting Quarterback Battles
Of course Miami was going to be a major player in the 2019 ACC Championship hunt.
Michigan State appeared to have everything in place for a huge season, Nebraska was going to rise up and rock, and Texas A&M was in for a breakthrough season …
Nope.
Every year, seemingly sure-thing good teams turn into stunning disappointments. Some teams fall off from the lofty expectations set after a big previous season, and some simply don’t play up to their respective talent levels.
Last year, we got it sort of right with Pitt and Texas, nailed it with Northwestern and whiffed hard on Oregon and Florida – although we did an about-face and pump up the Gators large as the offseason wore on.
Which Power Five teams will start the season with big expectations but should fall just short?
ACC: Florida State
It was supposed to take a little while for Willie Taggart to build the program back up. He got fewer than two years to give it a shot.
Enter Mike Norvell, who made Memphis a whole lot of fun with the flash, speed, and excitement missing from Florida State over the last few seasons.
However, what was the knock on Taggart when he took over? He hadn’t won anything big, and you and Novell have the same number of bowl wins on your resumés.
Norvell got Memphis over the American Athletic Conference title hump last year, and there’s no denying the excitement he brings to the Noles with his style, but his defenses at Memphis were iffy at best, he was 0-4 against UCF, and he failed to come up with a win over a Power Five program that finished with a winning record.
But you never, ever know when it comes to coaches – Norvell might just be the next Dabo or Saban.
For this year, though, he has to try implementing his new systems without the benefit of spring ball to get everything up and rolling. The Noles have to improve one of the nation’s worst pass defenses, the boatload of penalties have to slow down, and the offensive line that was a disaster when Jimbo Fisher left – and Taggart was never able to fix – is still a question mark until the practices finally kick in.
The schedule doesn’t bring a whole lot of help.
If everything goes off according to plan, facing an improved West Virginia to start things off isn’t easy, going to Boise State will be tough, and that’s just a part of the first three games.
The other problem is the rest of the ACC – most of it should be better.
NC State will be stronger, and that’s on the road. Louisville and Miami are dangerous road games, Clemson is more of a monster than ever, and closing out against Florida won’t be fun.
NEXT: Big Ten Potential Disappointment
Big Ten: Minnesota
Let’s use the same philosophy that put Northwestern in this spot last season.
It’s hard to get the same breaks twice.
Give 2019 Minnesota credit for coming through against a strong Penn State team, and there wasn’t anything fluky in the win over Auburn. However, it got to start the season against South Dakota State, Fresno State and Georgia Southern.
This year, the non-conference games are against Florida Atlantic, Tennessee Tech, and BYU. They should be able to win all three of those, but lose one, and the dynamic of the year changes.
Last season, the Gophers got to fatten up on Purdue, Illinois, Nebraska, Rutgers and Maryland in a slew of scrimmages to get ready for the big moment against Penn State. This time around, they have Iowa in Week 3, four road games in five weeks in October, and worst of all, the road games are rough.
They have to go to Wisconsin after playing at Maryland, and they get Illinois and Michigan State on the road in back-to-back weeks. Throw in the date at Nebraska, and the home game against Michigan, and forget about another 11-2 run.
Don’t expect the team to totally fall off the map – the fundamentals of PJ Fleck’s program are strong – but losing S Antoine Winfield and linebackers Carter Coughlin and Kamal Martin really, really hurts.
The offense as whole, though, should be terrific, and the defense gets back enough to be okay, but no one will overlook Minnesota anyone, and again, that schedule …
The boat won’t sink, but it’ll have to row upstream.
NEXT: Big 12 Potential Disappointment
Big 12: Baylor
It was one of the feel-good stories of the 2019 season.
Baylor was expected to be decent coming off a 7-6 campaign and a bowl win, but 11-1 with a run to the Big 12 Championship game? Forgetting how the season closed out – the program was a tough second loss to Oklahoma away from going to the College Football Playoff, and as is, got to play in the Sugar Bowl.
It’s asking way too much out of new head coach Dave Aranda to match that.
The Bears lost six key parts who’ll either be drafted or will play a big role in NFL training camps, and eight starters have to be replaced on defense.
This is still a good enough team to go bowling, QB Charlie Brewer leads what should be another good offense, and the schedule isn’t all that awful.
If the Bears can get by Lane Kiffin’s Ole Miss team to start the season, and they can handle a dangerous Louisiana Tech, a 4-0 start is likely before having to go to Oklahoma – and there’s the issue.
At OU, at Texas, at Iowa State, at West Virginia. Throw in the improvement throughout the Big 12 – TCU, Kansas State, Texas Tech and West Virginia should all be better – and it’ll be next to impossible for BU to do that again.
NEXT: Pac-12 Potential Disappointment
Pac-12: USC
Schedule, schedule, schedule, schedule, schedule.
USC has the potential to put out a terrific team, and talent-wise, it should be the best in the Pac-12 South.
It has two great quarterback options in Kedon Slovis and JT Daniels, the receiving corps is loaded despite the loss of Michael Pittman, the running backs are deep, and the O line should be fine once the tables are settled.
12 of the top 13 and almost all of the top 25 tackles from last season are expected to return from a way-young defense, the coaching staff is settled and solid – despite what anyone might think of Clay Helton – and there’s a whole lot to like. But again …
Schedule, schedule, schedule, schedule, schedule.
UCLA – for example – missed both Oregon and Washington from the Pac-12 North. Utah misses the Ducks, Arizona State misses Washington, and everyone else in the South appears to have an easier slate.
USC? If all goes according to plan and hopes, have fun with Alabama to open up the season.
Road games at Stanford – who should be a whole lot better – Utah, Oregon, and up the road to UCLA are rough enough, but the Trojans also have to host Arizona State, Cal, Washington, and close out the regular season against Notre Dame.
Give USC a little bit of credit here – it’s going to win more than its share of those tough games – but for a program’s base that demands championships and national championship potential, the expectations will almost certainly fall short.
NEXT: SEC Potential Disappointment
SEC: Georgia
We couched this last year with Florida, and we’re going to do the same thing with Georgia by starting out with this …
It’s all relative.
No, 2020 Georgia isn’t going 8-4, or anything like that.
We predicted that Florida would be one of the top ten teams in college football before last year started – but would be a slight disappointment because it wouldn’t win the SEC East – and Georgia will begin this season in the top five, if not top three.
The Bulldog talent level isn’t a problem after years of phenomenal recruiting, but there’s still a whole lot of work to do with ten players showing off at the NFL Combine, and with at least 13 starters expected to be off the Sugar Bowl-winning team.
And that’s the problem everyone has to deal with – there’s no spring football to figure out all of the parts of the puzzle that have to fit.
Boo hoo – at least 120 other teams would kill for Georgia’s talent level – even this team is going to have to scramble a bit if everything gets going late this summer.
Can and will the Bulldogs get it all together for Virginia to start the season? Yeah, of course, but unlike last season, they have to play Alabama, and they have to go to Tuscaloosa to do it.
They miss LSU and Texas A&M from the West, but they have to face Auburn in their annual showdown and they get what should be improved Missouri, South Carolina and Kentucky teams on the road.
They’ll be more than good enough to win any and all of those games, but again, it’s all relative. Finishing anything other than in the top four of the final College Football Playoff rankings will be a disappointment.
Georgia is going to keep coming into seasons as one of the five or six teams with a realistic shot at winning the national title. However, have a misfire like last year’s loss to South Carolina, finally be on the wrong end of the Florida showdown, lose to Alabama, or even have another season like the last two with an 11-1 regular season and a loss in the SEC Championship, and the CFP dreams are gone with two losses.
