20 for 2020 key college football offseason topics: No. 9. Every Power Five league’s sleeper team.
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Really? Last offseason you actually thought that Baylor was going to be a player in the College Football Playoff chase?
You thought Virginia could end up in the Orange Bowl, and Illinois actually had a shot at going bowling?
Okay … we had those last two in the 2019 version of this, but please cheerfully ignore just how off we were on everything else. (Arkansas … really?)
Of course the Alabamas, Oklahomas, Clemsons and Ohio States of the world are going to do what they do, but other Power Five fan bases want to have some fun, too.
It’s always fun when teams rise up and be a factor? Which Power Five programs could be this year’s Minnesota, Louisville or Tennessee?
ACC: NC State Wolfpack
It was a whole lot of ugly last season.
NC State had turned into a consistent rock under head coach Dave Doeren – going to five straight bowls and winning nine games two years in a row before 2019. But last year was supposed to be a bit of a rebuilding campaign.
That should’ve meant winning six games and fighting to get into a bowl, but instead, all of the wheels came off with a six-game losing streak to finish up the season against a relatively easy schedule.
Let’s try this again.
The schedule is still relatively easy.
There’s a trip to Clemson that’s as tough as it gets, and the regular season is bookended by road games at Louisville and North Carolina, but that’s about it.
Oh sure, Mississippi State is a tough non-conference game, but that’s at home. Outside of the trip to Death Valley, the two other road games in the middle ten are at Troy and Syracuse.
Fine, but is the team any better after having major quarterback issues, massive turnover problems, and with the defense not able to overcome the problems on the other side?
QB Matt McKay is transferring to Montana State, but there’s a great chance that almost all of the offensive two-deep depth chart will be back. The hope will be that last year was a big step back to potentially see a giant leap forward, and for the D to be far stronger with nine of the top 12 tacklers are expected to return.
– NC State Schedule & Analysis
NEXT: Big Ten Sleeper
Big Ten: Nebraska Cornhuskers
It’s hard for Nebraska to be a sleeper when everyone assumes it’s about to wake up.
To be extremely fair to third-year head coach Scott Frost, making Nebraska football a thing again was going to take a major overhaul. It wasn’t going to be as easy as flipping the switch and getting the speed, production, and wins like Frost was able to crank up at UCF.
And it’s still not there.
The great recruiting classes are still going to need another year or so to mature. The overall team speed is improving, but the ability to blast away on the lines still might not be there.
The defensive front is going to need a bit of an overhaul, but QB Adrian Martinez leads an offense loaded with veterans who should know what they’re doing.
This is when the O should start to kick in – but you’ve heard that before.
Again, the D should still take a little while, but as long as the other side is doing its part, getting into shootouts shouldn’t be much of an issue.
So why is Nebraska about to change everything around after two straight losing seasons under Frost?
Why could the Huskers be this year’s Minnesota? It’s the exact reason why 2019 Minnesota rose up …
The schedule was nice and easy on the way to a great early record.
Starting out against Purdue will be a fight, but that’s at home. Cincinnati is dangerous, but that’s in Lincoln, too.
Central Michigan, South Dakota State, at Northwestern, Illinois, and at Rutgers – they fill out the first seven games before going to Ohio State.
The finishing kick is a bear, but considering the returning experience, and the base of wins baked into the scheduling cake, don’t be shocked if Nebraska is going into the November 21st date at Wisconsin still deep in the hunt for the Big Ten West.
– Nebraska Schedule & Analysis
NEXT: Big 12 Sleeper
Big 12: West Virginia Mountaineers
Neal Brown went 4-8 in his first season as the head coach of Troy back in 2015. The 2016 Trojans went 10-3 in the first of three straight double-digit win seasons under his reign.
2019 West Virginia was supposed to need a whole lot of reworking, but even so, 5-7 wasn’t quite right. The program has been good enough to overcome personnel losses with enough plug-and-play talent to at least go bowling.
Before last season, the Mountaineers went to five straight bowls and only missed out one other time since 2001. But with two wins in the final three games, and a good fight out of the team despite not having the offensive pop to keep up in the high-powered Big 12, this is when things should start to turn.
Start with the bad – there are just enough transfer losses to be annoying, including safety Jovanni Stewart – who only played in four games – leaving for Houston, and offensive guard Josh Sills taking off for Oklahoma State.
However, Brown and the Mountaineers did exactly what they were supposed to do last season – start the young guys.
It wasn’t pretty, and the overall production wasn’t there, but the youth movement and all the time given to underclassmen should payoff with almost everyone back on offense, and with at least eight starters expected to return on defense.
And then there’s the schedule.
The Mountaineers had to deal with Missouri, Texas, Iowa State, Oklahoma and Baylor in the first two months of last season, and it was a problem. This year, they start out – if the world is still spinning – against Florida State in Atlanta, but four of the next five games are against teams that didn’t go bowling last season, and the one that did – Kansas State – is a manageable home date.
The Oklahoma game is at home coming off a two-week break, and Baylor is a home game, too.
– West Virginia Schedule & Analysis
NEXT: Pac-12 Sleeper
Pac-12: UCLA Bruins
“No chance that Chip Kelly has two bad years in a row.”
That’s how we opened last year’s entry into who the Pac-12 Sleeper of 2019 was going to be.
Oops.
UCLA was sort of in the same boat as Nebraska when Scott Frost took over. Things weren’t totally miserable going into the 2018 season, but for there to be any chance of going from okay to amazing, it was going to take a massive overhaul. Frost has been trying to implement his systems and hoping the young players can mature in a hurry.
Kelly took a blowtorch to UCLA as he looked to mold the program in to what he wants and needs.
There have been just enough fantastic moments to give everyone glimpses of what could be coming, but 7-17 in two years isn’t what Bruin fans had signed up for.
UCLA is still very, very young, with 11 underclassmen among the 22 regular starters over the late part of last year, and now they should be ready to start doing more.
The NFL guys gone aren’t total killers – especially if Duke transfer Brittain Brown can help create a good running back rotation to make up for the loss of Joshua Kelley – with the talent expected to be there on both sides of the ball to go along with the experience.
The schedule? New Mexico, at Hawaii, at San Diego State to start. UCLA can’t take anything for granted, but that’s not awful.
Three of the first four Pac-12 games are against teams that didn’t go bowling last season, and best of all, there’s no Oregon or Washington from the North to face.
No chance Chip Kelly has three bad years in a row.
NEXT: SEC Sleeper
SEC: Texas A&M Aggies
Okay, Texas A&M and Jimbo Fisher – it’s time to get this thing going already.
Going 17-9 in two seasons is hardly miserable – especially compared to the start of the Scott Frost era at Nebraska and the Chip Kelly regime at UCLA – but the hope was for the head man with the national championship on the resumé to step in and turn the program into what LSU became last year.
That might be coming, and it’s never going to be an easy fight in a division with Alabama, Auburn, and the defending national champion – not to mention Ole Miss and Mississippi State with their improved coaching staffs – but there’s a whole lot to like about what’s ahead for the Aggies.
First, they don’t have the 2019 schedule.
Last year’s slate was unfair, with road games at Clemson, Georgia and LSU to go along with home dates against Alabama and Auburn. A&M beat all the mediocre to bad teams, and lost to the five good ones in an 8-5 season.
Again, that’s not awful, but A&M is supposed to be good enough to beat anyone.
This year, it has to go Alabama and Auburn, but instead of going to Clemson, it hosts Colorado.
Instead of playing Georgia on the road, it gets Vanderbilt.
Five of the first six games of the season are against teams that didn’t go bowling, and the sixth is against Mississippi State. Throw in the dates against South Carolina, Ole Miss and Vandy, and the Aggies play a whopping eight games against teams that couldn’t at least get a bowl invite.
The receiving corps needs a few new parts, and losing Braden Mann wasn’t just another punter, but almost everyone is back on the offensive line, the running backs are strong, and Kellen Mond is going into what seems like his 14th year as the starting quarterback. Oh yeah …
Almost every starter is back on the defense that held down Oklahoma State in the 24-21 Academy Sports + Outdoors Texas Bowl win.
Hoping there’s a season as planned, if Texas A&M doesn’t come up with something special this year, when?
